AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The King greeted us with a wide smile, his perfect teeth glimmering in the light. “You are here. Come, come, join us. We have much to discuss.”
The bad feeling in my gut boiled over as Sariel pulled out a seat for me and took the one closest to me.
The King motioned to two older men on one side of the table. “These are our advisors, Hemlock and Foxglove. And the lovely lady is Oleander.”
Wonderful. Advisors named after some of the most common poisonous plants in the world.Thatwasn’t ominous.
“They are here as our witnesses,” the Queen said for the first time, and I could not stop the way my jaw unhinged at her voice’s soothing quality. It was even softer than her husband’s.
She was still as grotesque as she’d been on the throne, but there was something different about her in this setting, as though her fierceness had been stripped from her. She seemed almost… meek. Quiet. Shy.Human.
“Yes,” the King agreed. He plucked an apple from the spread laid out in front of us and began to peel it with a small, ornate knife. “Usually, we have newcomers sign agreements in their blood, as in that way, we’re ensured they’ll do as we agreed. A blood contract cannot be broken, unless the signee is dying or we absolve them.”
Sariel and I remained silent for the exact same reason. Everyone here had signed themselves away to the fae for one reason or another, in their own blood.
The Queen glared at the King. “Ignore him, he rarely has tact. How has your stay been?”
The King’s brows furrowed, but he kept quiet, rolling his eyes affectionately at her.
Surprise made me cock my head to the side. She’d just…apologizedfor the King’s bluntness. The Queen had just apologized to us.TheQueen.AQueen.
Sariel recovered before me. “They have surpassed our expectations,” he said, standing to bow. “We cannot thank you enough for letting us share your safe space.”
I mentally slapped myself out of my stupor. “We are indebted to you for not just taking us in but for taking in our friends as well. Especially considering our circumstances,” I added on. I glanced at Sariel to find him already looking at me. “We weren’t aware that open-minded people existed, and we realize now that that was shortsighted of us, as we’d been thinking within the rigid walls of America.”
“Well-said,” the Queen answered, her mouth forming some semblance of a smile as she looked between us. “America is… something, isn’t it? A melting point of madness: prejudice, lies, greed, propaganda, corruption.”
Her husband handed her a slice of apple that she took gingerly and slipped between her lips.
“It is,” Sariel agreed. “How they were able to hide your existence for so long is a mystery.”
The King laughed. “That is solely because it serves us as well,” he explained. “If we wanted Americans to know that their systems were outdated and the Upper Council would be their demise, we would have. But Americans are entitled and ungrateful, and we cannot be certain that they would not try to take over this space we have taken centuries to cultivate.”
He handed the Queen another slice.
“That brings us back to how you are going to repay us,” the Queen said. She ducked her head to chew on the slice of apple her husband handed her, and I observed the way Hemlock and Foxglove looked away.
My eyes narrowed. Oleander was staring off in the distance to where one woman was being rutted into by two men.
I cleared my throat, and her eyes snapped to me. There wasn’t an ounce of embarrassment in her at being caught.
“We’re open to being placed in any sector,” Sariel suggested. “I’m a jack of all trades.”
The King flashed him a smile. “We know all about you and your mate, Sariel. We know what you’re capable of, perhaps more than you have come to realize yourself. I feel that you two are not aware of how much you are limiting yourselves.”
A chill crept down my spine.
Why was I so damn afraid? I couldn’t understand it. The King and Queen seemed pleasant enough. Yes, it was really weird having their advisors here like silent sentries, and the sex in the background was not helping anything, but I wasn’t sure what the hell was freaking my wolf out so badly.
“Your Majesty—”
“Please,” she interrupted. “You can call me Blossom, and my husband Tarragon.”
My tongue felt like lead in my mouth as I formed the syllables in her name. “Blossom,” I slurred.
“Apologies. There is power in a fae’s name,” the King—Tarragonexplained. “Those are only a fraction of our entire names, but there is power in every syllable. You’ll grow accustomed to the sensation.”
“What do you mean, limiting ourselves?” Sariel asked for me.
