Page 106 of Fae Farewells

Freya raised her hand, causing him to cut his words short. “You are soldiers of the Winter, or you stand with Alania.”

“Alania?” the man gripping my shoulder asked.

“Queen Vex does not sit on the throne, and hasn’t for nearly two decades. We have proof of Alania’s treason,” Freya explained, her voice changing from sweet to tart in three words. “One last time, I will ask you where your allegiance lies. Are you soldiers of winter? Or will you follow Alania?”

My designated guard dropped to his knee swiftly, no thought behind his action. He knew who he wanted to serve, and it wasn’t the cunt upstairs.

I could tell he was a smart man.

“And the rest of you?” Ruby inquired, her brow raised as she tried to hold her attitude at bay.

Each of the winter guards kneeled before the two princesses. But we waited a minute, breaths held, thinking someone might try to change their mind.

Sarge, Levi, and Zyus stepped out of the void behind the princesses. Bored expressions rolled across their faces as their mate smiled at the guards.

“We recognize your service and loyalty on this day,” she praised. “Please stand and release these men.”

“We have two more options to give you,” Ruby added. “There are summer soldiers in the palace. If you wish to fight, follow us. If you do not, return to the winter palace with the rest of the staff. And be careful when you leave.”

Out of eight, only one spoke. The man kneeled once more, and I wondered what species he was. His skin was as plain as any human, a deep coffee brown but not the pastels of the pureblood fae I’d seen.

“As badly as I would like to fight for you, I humbly request leave. I haven’t seen my family for more than a few hours at a time since Princess Tilly was born. My son is now grown and—”

“Go,” Ruby urged him. “Had we known, we would have helped you escape this prison more often. The queen may have held the keys, but we knew how to tamper with the locks.”

He shook his head. “I did not want to owe—”

Freya wiped at the corner of her right eye. “That’s not a favor. That’s your freedom. We’re sorry for all that you’ve missed, though apologies will do little to bring that time back. Stay as long as you want. You will still have a job at the winter palace. When you’re ready.”

“With regular working hours and conditions,” Ruby agreed. “This era is over. We all deserve better than what we’ve received.”

The guard took his leave, walking deeper into the dungeon. As the rest of the winter soldiers began to shift on their feet, I popped the cuffs off my wrists, dropping the useless metal to the ground with a grin.

“We suspect the numbers to be around twenty-five elite soldiers,” Sarge told the unsettled guards. “Vaughn and his mate will deal with Alania.”

“We don’t have weapons other than our natural powers,” a greenish-blue man said. “Will that be enough to fight the summers?”

“Do you know where the weapons are?” Palmer asked.

“In the armory,” another regular looking white guy said. “Behind a ward spelled by a mage.”

Our mage shook his cuffs. “If you don’t mind?”

As the guards removed the guys’ restraints, Palmer had them describe the inside of the armory. He rolled his shoulders back just like our mate, closing his eyes as he rubbed his hands together. Then he twisted them, his palms still touching but his fingers facing two opposite directions.

Shelves landed beyond the slim footpaths around the black pit of doom.

Just… Loads of fucking shelves.

“You pulled the whole godsdamned room?” Briggs inquired, his voice a little higher than normal from his shock.

“I left the walls and wards.”

I whistled low. “That’s new, Mage.”

“On this scale? Yeah... But I’ve stolen shit before.”

Freya gaped at him as we chuckled. She didn’t strike me as the type to appreciate theft on this scale, but Trouble would have.