Page 76 of A Courage of the Chosen

“The ones you bowed before in this very hall dishonored the memory of my family, by having you kneel at their feet with smiling faces while they stabbed you in the back.” There’s no mistaking the venom that coats her words, and only the connection that thrums between us tells me how deeply she feels her hatred for them, or how her need for vengeance is an insatiable thirst.

The Seelie of court exchange questioning looks amongst themselves, murmured conversations breaking out behind palms and half-open mouths.

“Raghnall was the one who murdered King Murdoch. He was the one who drove the rightful heir to the throne from her kingdom, so that she might survive to one day return and lead you. She never got the chance.”

“She was chained, and tortured, and forced to bleed over and over again, until her life was cut short by the one you called Prince.”

The room finally bubbles over and shouts of protest begin.

“How can this be?”

“Where are they?”

“She must be lying!”

“Prince Tavish would never!”

Accusing voices blend over the others in cries of disbelief and outrage, until I can no longer discern what it is they’re saying.

Elsie lets them, just as we discussed with the council earlier today. We knew it would be shocking to them, and it’s important their reactions aren’t stifled, but it’s teetering to a place we wanted to avoid.

The crowd starts to push forward, some of them even beginning to summon their own magic as they jostle together, advancing on the dais and demanding answers.

Guards posted at the edges of the room reach for their weapons as the crowd grows angrier.

A Seelie with shoulder-length sable hair is the first to break forward, hand searching for his sword. “This has to be a fabrication! Treason! We must seize her!”

His foot lands on the first step, eyes locked firmly on Elsie, and I’m already shifting to intercept him. If he so much as lays a finger on her, I’ll live up to the name that incites fear in so many. But I needn’t have bothered.

“ENOUGH!” Elsie’s power explodes in a tapestry of magic with her at the epicenter. Her might is reflected in the shock of the onlookers, and I don’t need to see Elsie’s face to know that her eyes will be clouded over with mist, fractured by brilliant streaks of white. Ethereal and terrifying at the same time.

The court stutters into silence as they shy away from Elsie and what ripples out from her presence. The man who dared approach falls back with his palms exposed in surrender. Guards march in, forming a line between the dais and the crowd.

I’m man enough to admit how much I want to throw her down on the floor and claim her in front of them all, so they know I belong to Elsie completely. And that she belongs to me.

“I am the last living Darrow. I tell you these truths, having proven them to the council, and having lived them. I watched Tavish slice my grandmother’s throat open, before using his corruption to stop her healing. I held Màiri’s hand as she took her final breath, and left this world knowing nothing but pain for the last two years of her life. There are others behind me that have seen what I tell you. Soldiers that witnessed Tavish use his magic to disappear into the void.”

Elsie’s magic seeps back into her slowly as her anger settles like a rattled snake. Coiled and ready to strike again should it need to. “You may not believe me, but you will hear me. As will the entirety of Elfayne. As we speak, this very message is being sent to the edges of this kingdom, and come morning, there won’t be a Seelie in this realm that hasn't heard my words.

“Brave men and women who knew the truth have fought in the shadows, under the cloak of Raghnall’s lies, to make sure this world didn’t fall to darkness. You have them, and only them, to thank for the fact that you’ve all remained alive for as long as you have.”

General Macleod catches my attention. This isn’t what we discussed she would say, and while his soldiers have done the best they can, they always arrived too late, or didn’t know how to fight this enemy effectively. It’s not their fault, but what Elsie says is true. He knows it too, and the look on his face is one of remorse.

“And at the head of them all stood a man whose name you’ve whispered in fear, through falsehood and deceit.”

It’s a weird feeling to have so many eyes on you at the same time. They press down on me, but I keep my focus locked on the woman three feet away. The bond between us opens wider than it ever has, my mind merged wholly with hers as, somewhere in my consciousness, I note that there’s a part of her she’s keeping guarded. A fact that’s lost in her majesty as she holds everyone’s attention again.

“We now fight as one, his rebellion merged with my armies, knowing the truth about our enemy after years of being one step behind them. War is upon us.”

She lets that settle. Lets her subjects come to terms with the fact that, while they’ve been under threat for a long time, the game is entirely different now.

“And I vow to you, as I did over my grandmother’s funeral pyre, that justice will be served. That for every life taken, for every family destroyed, for every home ruined, we will make them pay.

“I come before you today as someone who has lost and suffered at their hands. I come before you as your queen, ready to fight. But most importantly, I will stand with you as we face the unknown, and I will do everything in my power to see peace return to these lands.”

The world stops turning with Elsie’s final words.

My stomach dips as her determination seeps through the room, her conviction a lure that’s impossible to ignore. I’ve had years making speeches like this, drumming up the courage of the people that followed me as we charged into villages to save innocent Seelie. Being on the receiving end of one is an entirely different experience.