Warrior King New Worlds (Crystal Kingdom #6) - Milly Taiden Page 0,26

all day?”

Lilah’s jaw clenched. That was it. She couldn’t stand it anymore. She breathed in deeply, expelling the fury inside her chest little by little.

“Valori,” Daphne said, “you cannot live like that. If the woman doesn’t want sex and the man makes her, that’s called rape, which is punished severely where we come from.”

Lilah had calmed enough to speak. “You have to put a stop to it. All of it. The cover-ups, the oppression, rape, and the boys in the mine. Oh my god. I forgot about them.” She took another breath. “Valori, women receive no respect here. The men are taking advantage of you in every way they can. It has to stop.”

Valori’s eyes widened. “It’s the king’s rule. How am I to go against the king? They will have me punished.”

Lilah thought about the circumstances. What would she suggest if her client wasn’t able to get away from the injustice? In the past, she had driven to a woman’s home to help her escape an abusive situation. It didn’t seem like a big deal until her car was shot at. But she got the abuser on a prior and domestic abuse charges, which put him away for a max of five years.

That’s what they needed, someone to help them get away. To escape. But where would they all stay? She turned to Zee with a smile.

“Ladies,” Lilah said, “let me introduce you to the alpha of the forest dwellers. They have a very lovely new home. Would you like to visit?”

Chapter Thirteen

Lilah paced outside the jail cell. While the guard they had tied up and gagged sat glowering at her from inside the bars.

“Stop staring at me like you want to chop my head off. We’re going on strike for your own good. You’ll thank me later.” The guard mumbled, and she was sure he said something along the lines of he wasn’t buying it. “Send someone to the forest dwellers’ village when the king wants to talk about changes that must be made before we come back.”

Valori hurried around the corner with a few sleepy-eyed boys who still had dust on their clothes. “This is everyone. Let’s go.”

Holding a torch, Ferra led the group down the tunnel from the holding room. Down, down, down. Lilah wondered if they were going down to the lava pits again. She looked around to make sure the young lady she met there was in the group. The girl was up in front with a few others following along.

Finally, they slowed as they came to a dead-end rock wall.

What the hell? All this way just to go back?

Ferra placed the torch in a holder then placed her hands side by side on the wall. As she pushed her hands to both sides, the wall split and slid to the side just like yanking open a set of curtains. Lilah couldn’t keep her jaw closed. Seeing it up close was fascinating. Though it was probably easy for them, it looked like a miracle, like Moses splitting the water of the Red Sea.

On the other side stood a grinning Xenos and Wren. Valori had snuck them out earlier to alert the village of their arrival. A few Gnoleon women were there also. When the first of the Citogen stepped out, brown fae and red fae stared at each other.

Was this the first time the two species had met? She hadn’t thought about how they would react to each other. Would their coloring define how they felt about each other?

Xenos pulled his sister Iridia, the leader of the Gnoleon, to his side and introduced her to Ferra. The significance of this meeting wasn’t lost on Lilah. These two were the next generation of leaders among their people. They would shape the future, and that forthcoming time would be based on what happened in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

God, Lilah hoped this was the right move. If not, she single-handedly doomed an entire female population to a living hell.

Ferra and Iridia motioned the group forward, and quietly, they disappeared into the forest on the trek to the village. The sun hadn’t topped the horizon yet, but the first rays had lit the sky. The air was crisp and invigorating. Energy and excitement rolled through her. The only thing that could’ve made it better was to have Ferrus with her.

She stopped in her tracks. That thought was unexpected. She searched her heart and realized it was true. The man wasn’t as bad as she had made