began slowly, and his eyes turned to angry slits as he studied me.
“Yes, but should you die, the world will turn into ashes. Can you live with that? Could you accept that knowing you would be at fault?”
“I’d be dead, so that is a moot point, isn’t it? The world is already a place of nightmares. Witches have created slaughterhouses of those who are just trying to survive. Hecate had no business decreeing herself, the Goddess of the Nine Realms. She shouldn’t have forced the creatures to bow to a goddess who was selfish, unhinged on her best day, and a monster on her worst.”
“You understand that speaking as such is considered treason against the goddess, correct?” he countered, eyes sparkling with mirth. “You do, and yet you don’t fear her, which is troubling.”
“Speaking the truth shouldn’t be considered treason. Are you saying that I am wrong? Correct me if I am, but you’re here because Hecate placed a curse on your people to ensure you never rose again to live among the Nine Realms. You didn’t bend a knee to the Queen of Witches when demanded you do so, even though you were the king of your realm. You and the others didn’t choose this fate, nor was it justified, Taren, King of Gargoyles.”
“You know of me?” he asked, smiling as if he found me amusing.
“I made it my business to know who was wronged throughout the history of the Nine Realms by my people. Gargoyles intrigued me greatly. I knew that you were their king, and that Hecate slaughtered those following you. Those who hid in the shadows are still there, or at least those who weren’t full-blooded and died of the curse Hecate unleashed upon them and their unborn children. I knew that she cursed you and that it was not right. By taking the magic you were forced to hold, I can free you and your people. I am undoing the wrongs my bloodline has inflicted on others, or I will die trying. Go big or go home, right? I have no home, so I’m going big. Show me what will happen if I fail or stray from the path created for me.”
Taren’s hands lifted, and his wings wrapped around me once more, clasping my face in his hands as he lowered his forehead against mine.
The world spun around us, changing to darkness before we reappeared in a world of burning embers. Ashes rained down from the sky as blackened ruins covered the meadow. Fields were covered in skeletal remains, and in the distance above the rolling fields stood a castle, built from skulls.
I moved toward it, but Taren grabbed me, pulling me up against him, placing his finger across his lip. His lips brushed my neck as he turned us to follow the knights in armor the color of raven wings with the emblem of a skull, and twin ravens beside it.
Armed knights moved beside us and stopped, tossing more witches to their knees before dismounting close to where they’d fallen. My heart thundered in my chest, and I tried to step closer to the witches, only to realize they couldn’t see us. Arms wrapped around my chest, and Taren forced me to watch as the knights withdrew their swords.
“I didn’t use magic!” the witch cried, and I tried to break free, but Taren’s hand slid over my mouth as he pulled me backward, hard, holding me against his body as fear rippled through me. “I didn’t, please! I didn’t cast, nor did she. We’ve followed the high queen’s rules!”
The high queen?
Horse hooves over rotted bones sounded, forcing me to turn and gaze in the direction of the noise. A woman dressed in a black gown and armor molded to her petite form, dismounted. She reached for the sword on her horse’s pack. She moved toward the witches; her face covered by the onyx-colored visor of her armor. The sword swung without warning, and without cause, and tears burned my eyes. She lifted her mask, turning to stare at the knights as the color drained from my face, and my eyes slid to the knights.
“Place their corpses on the wall and collect the heads,” I stated, exhaling as I wiped my blade off on the woman’s dress. “Place their heads inside the palace as a warning to those who oppose me.”
What the actual fuck? Was I fucking evil? How?
The world spun around me again, and I gasped as my chest tightened. When it finally stopped