Mendax
“Commander, repeat that one more time. This time though, remember that as your dead father would attest, I am not the type of Fae that finds humor in incompetence,” I ground out, certain there was no way I had heard the head of my shadow guards correctly.
“The human bludgeoned the forest bog and has escaped the dungeon. The shadow guards haven’t seen her leave the castle’s gates. We believe she is still inside the castle.” The stoic man tried to present himself as calm, but I could hear the tremble in his voice, the sour scent of his fear.
He was terrified, as he should be. No one was comfortable in the presence of a Smoke Slayer, especially one with no conscience or feelings. He and I both knew that of all the evil that resided in this court—my court—I was the last monster he should disappoint. Unlike the other heathens, I wasn’t uncomfortable with my darkness. I reveled in it. I commanded it. Others’ lives or feelings meant nothing to me. Friends or family, it didn’t matter to me.
Nothing mattered to me.
I could feel nothing.
I’d sooner kill my mother than relinquish the power I held over others and the fear I brought them. Why? Because I could. What did anything matter? The only time I ever felt anything was as I watched another suffer in the pain I caused them. I enjoyed that. I could almost imagine what it would be like to feel those same feelings toward something else.
“You are telling me that the assassin, the very same weak assassin sent by the humans to kill your ruler, now wanders about my castle?” I said incredulously as I watched his hand tremble.
He quickly moved his arms behind his back to hide the sheer terror, as if afraid I would feed off it. I wasn’t in the least bit afraid of the human girl, but I wouldn’t deny my intrigue. Her tiny mouth begged and pleaded, filled with nothing but helplessness every time I had seen her. There was no way she could have taken down a forest bog by herself, let alone one that had tasted her fear. Someone had helped her.
“Yes, sir, the shadow guards are searching the castle now. The only problem is—”
“What is the only problem, Commander?” I cut the stiff, grey-haired commander off.
I had quickly grown impatient, and the overwhelming need to watch something bleed increased with every syllable he uttered.
“Your moth—the queen—is having a dinner party in the ballroom, my lord. The guards are, uh, having a hard time searching that floor,” he mumbled, looking at the wall behind me.
“So they are afraid of dear old mumsie, is that what you’re telling me, Commander? Leave that floor to me.” I chuckled at the thought.
If anyone rivaled my bad temper and vengeance, it was my mother, the Unseelie queen. Reluctantly, she had remained queen after my father died, though she no longer bothered with any courtly tasks or decisions. No, that was left to me. Though she threatens that if I don’t marry soon and become king so she can be finished with her reign, she will bond me to another of her choosing. She would too.
I’m certain the only thing that has stopped her thus far is simply that she despises every spineless female here. If she bonds me to another, they get half of my powers, and she’d sooner feed herself to a pit of zombified humans than share our powers with anyone else, even though it’s the only way I can ascend the throne. She loathes humans quite possibly more than anyone. Anyone except me.
I stood, and my leathers let out a few small creaks as I stretched to my full height. I mostly did it to remind the man in front of me how much smaller he was than me, how much weaker. I ought to kill him for letting her escape, but I won’t. He expects it, and there is no fun in doing what people expect. Maybe I will kill his wife as penance.
“Who left her cell unlocked? Send them to the blood forest,” I said as I pushed in the chair to my desk.
My blood had already begun to thrum with the excitement of hunting the girl.
“No one, sir. She severed a bone from the forest bog and somehow fashioned a key out of it. It was still in the lock when we arrived.”
My boots stilled as I turned to face the armored commander. Intrigue tingled at the base of my skull.
“And how exactly did she kill the bog?”
Ice flowed through my veins. If he says—
“A brick, Your Highness. It had been chiseled out from the library wall. She beat him with it until he was unrecognizable,” the man said, sounding slightly impressed.
It must have been a full-on massacre for him to sound like that.
“Call off the shadow guards, Commander. They are no longer needed,” I said, towering over the large Fae. “Our little whore had help, and I know exactly where he takes her.”
“But sir—”
It was too late. I was already out the door of my war room and headed for the fourth floor.
Interesting creature, this girl. Assassin or not, she was very intriguing. Disgusting and deserving of only death, but intriguing nonetheless.
