“Need I remind you, our children are no longer being drafted into training at ten or forced to fight on the front lines at fifteen because of me?”
“Exactly! You are too soft! I volunteered to start training when I was nine. That’s what’s wrong with your generation. You don’t have any spine.”
“Yet,Icrushed the Vylians.”
“You waved the white,” Tanya sneers. “Fucking pathetic.”
Steering us back to the contents of the new law, I try my damnedest not to start the coup myself by killing everyone in here.
How can they not see that the royal family and the Court have no place in the new world? All we have known is war. It is time for our positions to be demolished so something better can rise.
My eyes drop to my wife.
Something like her.
Pure.
Happy.
Hopeful.
As if she can feel my need to look into her eyes and find the peace she gives me, my little queen cranes her neck back. Smiling at me, she says. “I have an idea.”
The conversation stops instantly. She might not yet be crowned, but they already see her as their queen.
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” she says.
“A queen can never interrupt,” Petre says.
“I’m sorry.” She hangs her head.
Reaching down, I lift her chin. “She means, my queen, that whenever you open your mouth, people must listen. Therefore, it is impossible for you to interrupt anyone.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Oh gods, do you know how much stuff I haven’t been able to say because a good brownie never interrupts?” She falters, and I would pay anything to know what’s caused the sudden tightness in her shoulders. But now is not the time.
“What was your idea?” I push.
“Oh, yes.” She nods, then looks up at me. “What if you get the people to vote on it?” She hesitates. “I mean, uh… If you want them to vote on everything else anyway, why not start with this? That way, we can know for certain it’s what the people want too.” She turns her head to look at the fairy women before her. “And the Court is um… It’s about uh, protecting Raza’s interests, so then you’ll know that too because the people are Raza. Right?” She twists her hands in her jumpsuit, looking way less confident than when she started, but all I want to do is haul her up in my arms and kiss her senseless.
“Yes,” I say with pride. “We’ll let them vote.”
Petre’s eyes fill with a smile as triumphant as mine. “So we shall. Then you will see they are utter fools.”
“You underestimate them.”
“Then let’s make a deal.” Magic hums in the air, causing the hairs on my neck and arms to rise. The power of a god or perhaps something else breathes life into the room. This won’t just be a deal like I made my wife yesterday morning. It will be a fairy promise.
“If the public votes to accept this new law, then the Court will not fight it any further. But if the people vote against it, then you will put this foolishness behind you once and for all. You will not push for abolishing the monarchy or the Court ever again.”
I hold her gaze with all the confidence of a gambler who knows the game is rigged. “We have a deal.”
The magic of the room snaps into each of us, wrapping around our souls and searing the promise into our skin. Arienna gasps, no doubt having never been part of a fairy promise before. We do not invoke them often.
“They shall vote in two weeks’ time,” I say with a smile.
