Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Selene’s POV
I don’t remember leaving the cave, and I don’t remember climbing back up the rocky incline near the waterfall. I only remember running blindly through the trees without even bothering to shift, tearing through the overgrown branches and jagged brush until my lungs burned with every breath and my legs felt like they were going to give out beneath me. None of the pain mattered to be honest because every time I blinked, all I could see were those magnificent, severed wings lying abandoned in that pool of blood.
Violetta’s wings.
They had killed her, and the thought kept repeating in my head. I couldn’t silence it no matter what. The Fae council had probably found her in the mountains when they were leaving, they had tracked her down maybe using her magic before she could find safe shelter, and they had slaughtered her while I was sitting comfortably in my room doing nothing. I knew they were a brutal kind since I was young—always disguising how evil they could be with all the tales they spun about themselves. But I hadn’t known they’d just kill one of their own so easily and without remorse, especially after what she would have done for them as queen.
I should have gone after her the second the alarm bells started ringing at dawn, I should have known she would hide near the cavern since I knew she loved waterfalls, and I should have been there to stand between her and her executioners.
I finally stopped running near the edge of the woods and bent over, pressing my trembling hands against my knees as hot tears streamed down my face.
“Fuck,” I choked out, sobbing. I couldn’t believe that she had been gone so fast and so soon. I’d spent my night daydreaming about whether we would make up or not, wondering if she was thinking of me, deluding myself about a world in which we could be together without a care.
I wiped my wet cheeks angrily with the back of my sleeve, forcing my chin up as the grief hardened into a burning fury. No, I couldn’t stay here crying over what was already done. If the Fae had butchered their own queen and thought they could get away with it, I needed answers from the very people who ordered it, and I was going to get those answers even if I had to tear their court apart with my bare hands.
I didn’t go back to the packhouse to tell Lyra what I had found, because I knew exactly what she would say to me. She would tell me to wait for our scouts to gather more information, she would tell me that crossing into their lands alone was suicide, and she would probably lock me in the pack cells herself to keep me from doing something reckless.
So I turned my back on the unified pack lands and left.
The black market in the Shadowfang Pack was the only place I knew where a person could get access to an illegal portal into the Fae Realm without going through the official, heavily guarded gates or the sky portal. Thankfully, the black market hadn’t closed despite everything that happened with Alpha Olsen being a traitor to his own kind. I had arrived there after a day of hitching with carriages, and then paid the smuggler without haggling over the price and stepped straight through the shimmering distortion, the magical transit twisting my stomach violently, though I barely registered the nausea.
I stepped onto the streets of the Fae capital and headed straight toward the royal palace, keeping the hood of my cloak low until I reached the grand entrance. I didn’t care which noble saw me walking through their halls, and I didn’t care what the palace guards thought as I shoved past them, marching straight up the main corridor and pushing open the doors of the council chamber without announcing myself.
Every conversation in the hall stopped dead, the room falling silent as every head turned toward the door.
An old man looked up from the centre of the table, his eyes widening in shock as he recognized me. “Are you not Lady Selene? King Thorne brought you and Lyra here then, did he not?”
I ignored his greeting, my gaze immediately snapping toward the elevated dais at the front of the room, and my heart stopped dead in my chest.
Someone was sitting on the royal throne.
A man was resting in the seat that belonged to Violetta, and a sick wave of disgust rushed over me as he slowly stood up to face me. I recognized him as Evander, one of the council folks who had had a huge problem with Lyra and I being here.
“You?” I spat, taking an aggressive step forward.
He descended the steps, keeping his hands visible. “What are you doing here, Lady Selene?”
“You ordered Violetta killed?” I demanded. “And actually went through with it despite everything she has done for your kind?”
The entire room went dead silent, the councilors shifting uncomfortably in their seats as Evander exchanged a quick, uncertain glance with a lady of the council. I was not sure I remembered her name or the names of the others as I had not been here long enough.
“She has not been executed for treason as she is missing,” Evander said evenly.
I stared at him, my fists clenching so hard that my fingernails bit into my palms. “No. Do not lie to my face.”
“She disappeared yesterday after the court discovered what she truly was,” he continued, trying to sound reasonable. “I assume you know that she fled our custody. We sent our men to your pack—”
“I know what happened,” I interrupted through gritted teeth.
“Then you know she fled to avoid trial,” he replied. “That is what we believe, and we have sent search parties to locate her.”
I shook my head violently, stepping right up to the edge of the council table. “Why did you kill her? Does it hurt your ego so much that a woman is queen?”
Every single councilor in the chamber froze, staring at me in utter disbelief, and Evander’s brow furrowed in genuine confusion.
“We didn’t kill her,” he stated firmly. “We are still looking for her.”
“You didn’t?” I challenged, my voice rising in anger.
“No, we did not,” he repeated, shaking his head. “Our guards lost her trail the moment she leaped from her balcony. No sign of her magic… she is powerful so she must have suppressed it.”
“Then explain this to me,” I said, spitting at him. “I found her wings. Cut off from the fucking bone.”