Chapter 62

Chapter 62

T here were screams from the onlookers as Queen Edelin's head fell from her body, but Fey barely paid any attention to them. The stone that held her in place crumbled, falling away and freeing her.

Her eyes still on the Queen's limp form, Joy fell forward to her knees and threw her head back to scream.

The sound was like nothing Fey had ever heard before. It was full of rage and fury. Full of pain and loss. Full of love, and hate, and everything in between. Every emotion that had been crushing Joy, that had been drowning her. Fey thought they might all break from it, break under the weight of Joy's pain.

Then Alice was there, running down the dais and dropping to kneel at Joy's side. Wrapping her arms around Joy, she held her tight against her chest.

"I'm here," she whispered to Joy. "You're okay, now, love. It's all over, and I'm here and I love you. I love you, Joy."

Joy sobbed in Alice's arms, rocking back and forth as Alice whispered and soothed her.

Fey got shakily to her feet, clutching the wound at her side.

"Go to the Temples and get the High Priestesses," Fey said to the guards who were still standing frozen in the doorway. A few looked up to blink at her, stunned. They were in shock, she realized, too rattled to move.

" Get the fucking Priestesses! " Fey snarled at them, moving as though to draw her blades. That did it. Fear replaced shock on their faces, and several guards took off running down the hall. A few servants took off after them, and Fey wondered if they were on their way to the temples as well. Or, if they were just running, as far and as fast as they could to get away.

The remaining nobles and servants were in a very poor state. Someone had been sick, and the throne room was filled with the sour stench of it. A few of them were openly crying.

A noble woman Fey didn't recognize was looking at her.

"What did she mean?" the woman asked her, her face ashen. "About poisoning us? What did the Queen mean by that?"

But Fey only shook her head and didn't answer. She didn't have the strength to go through it again. She was done. She'd given enough tonight.

Sana was the first of the High Priestesses to arrive, flanked by guards, and she paled visibly as she looked around at the carnage in the throne room.

"The Queen," Sana whispered in shock, her eyes locked on Edelin's decapitated head.

"The Queen was found guilty of treason," Fey announced, loud enough for the crowd of people gathered to hear. She was tired. She was so, so tired. And though she was fairly sure she wasn't bleeding to death it would be a very good idea for her to have someone stitch up her side as soon as possible. Just in case.

Sana said nothing. Just stared. Finally, she unfastened the shawl that draped over her shoulders, the crisp blue of the Water Coven, and used it to cover the Queen's fallen form.

It felt too much like reverence, like an act of respect, and Fey heard the snarl escape her lips before she even registered the anger that roared to life inside of her. Sana glanced at her but didn't flinch away or shrink back from her.

"They don't need to see this, Fey," Sana explained, motioning to the hallway. More were coming now, the other High Priestesses but also members of their coven. Others from the palace, too, and the hallway was beginning to fill with faces. Faces full of fear, faces unused to the violence, the horror that this night had brought. "They don't need to see her body."

Fey reined in her anger as best she could and nodded.

The other High Priestesses approached. Someone swore when they saw the body—Leandra, Fey thought.

"What do we do now?" Sana asked, looking at Fey.

Fey laughed, but there was no humor in it. They were looking to her, all four High Priestesses, for guidance.

"That's your problem, now. Not mine. Not anymore," Fey said. Blood was still seeping from her wound and through her fingers, but not as much. That, at least, felt like a good sign. "The city is yours, Sana. Just leave me and my family the fuck out of it."

She turned her back on them. Her sisters needed her, and nothing was going to keep her from their side.

The next few hours were a flurry of activity.

Sana had done what Fey had asked. Immediately when Fey had left the Water Temple earlier that evening, she had called the other High Priestesses to the Water Temple, explaining the situation to them. She gave each of them a portion of the antidotes Alice had left for her.

The antidotes Fey had delivered.

As expected, the temples had been full that night, as hundreds of Witches had flocked to them to celebrate the blood moon. But rather than their usual services, the High Priestesses had instead delivered what Alice had called the most powerful weapon of all.

The truth.

They were the ones to break the news of the Queen's betrayal, and they would be remembered as the city's saviors. Tearfully, after drinking the antidote herself, Sana had explained what Queen Edelin had done to them, what she had made her Temple Priestesses do. She asked her congregation if any of them had been given an elixir during their Awakening, if any had ingested the poison to steal their powers.

They had. More of them than even Alice had expected. Hundreds of them.

It is one thing to hear the truth, to hear of your monarch's betrayal. It is another thing entirely to see it . To know the victims of it.

When the first Witch had drunk the antidote, when she had felt her new powers flooding her and burst from her in a raging whirlwind of Air, the temple had erupted in shock. And then in rage.

It had taken everything Sana had to prevent a riot in her Temple. The other Temples were not so lucky.

The Fire temple had reacted the worst, and the rage from the congregation had burned much of their own Temple to the ground. The High Priestess Leandra herself had been given Allium at her Awakening and had taken the antidote in front of her entire congregation. She had dedicated her entire life to her Power over Fire, only to find she could wield Water and Air as well. Her rage had caught amongst her temple members. They shared her fury, her anger, and their power had been too much for them all to hold back.

They reacted with violence, taking to the streets to vent their rage, as their Temple burned.

The news spread like wildfire through the city, through the Witches. And with it, came the anger. They had been betrayed; they had been hobbled in power by the very system in place to protect them.

Had the other Factions not been told to keep inside, not been warned about the violence that might sweep the city, it is safe to say there would have been far more casualties. But the Shifters had listened to their Faction elders and had barricaded themselves in their homes. The Demons had gone to ground, none willing to risk their own lives by getting between the Witches and the object of their rage.

Even the Vampires, receiving word from their King, had stayed hidden that night. Rumor had it his own son had brought him the news of what was to come, setting aside their renowned dislike of one another to ensure the safety of their Faction, together.

And so it was that when the Witches took to the streets, there were few civilians from the other Factions caught in the path of their destruction.

The Goddess Temple in the Eternal City fell at the same time the eclipse apexed. Enraged, Witches had stormed the Temple looking for vengeance, looking for answers. Their fury erupted at what they found there. Allium, just as they'd been told. Shelves and shelves of it.

Some of the White Priestesses fled. Some of them died, casualties of the rage that flowed through the city. A few were apprehended. And of those, enough talked. Enough shared their secrets and crimes, to fuel that rage even more.

Cassandra, the Queen's sister, slit her own throat rather than answer for her crimes. Fey could only hope the Goddess was waiting for her in the afterlife, ready to dole out her own sort of justice.

Sana and the other High Priestesses fought to regain order in the city after the initial violence began to die out. They held open forums that lasted hours, listening to the rage and fear of the people of the Eternal City. They talked until their voices broke, strained from overuse. The rage of the city quelled to a simmer, but it wasn't appeased. And everyone was ready to erupt.

But Fey no longer cared.

Let the city burn, she thought. Let it all burn down.

She helped Joy carry Alice back to a safe house in the city, her body bruised and battered from her battle with the Queen. All three of them were exhausted and filthy. After a quick shower, and after Joy had stitched and bandaged her side, they crawled into bed together and slept.

The realm might fall apart. The Factions might destroy themselves and each other. The Witches might lose the power they held for the last three hundred years.

But Fey found she no longer cared. Two of her sisters had survived the night. And for her that was enough. Let someone else hold the city, let someone else keep the peace.

Fey was tired, and all she wanted to do was rest.