“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Merewen says. “You know the law. Once the accused has been found culpable, the judgment must be carried out.”
The force of his furor makes Slade practically shake. “If you touch her, I will rot every single one of you right here, right now.”
King Thold shifts on his feet, his snakes hissing with agitation. “Merewen, perhaps we should discuss this…”
“No,” he snaps, the blotches on his cheeks growing redder. “The judgment has been made. Do you want her to steal your power too?” he demands before his eyes whip toward the new Fifth King. “What about you? Would you like her to seduce you and then steal yours?”
Both men say nothing to that.
“She killed a king. We can’t stand by and do nothing,” Queen Isolte puts in. “She’s a tainted woman who needs to face her fate.”
Slade looks at them, body so still that it’s eerie. As if he even so much as blinks, he’s going to tear them apart. “Drop this barrier and let her out. Now. Or what I did today in this square will be nothing compared to what I do next.”
He grounds out the threat between bitten words so quiet that I have to strain to hear him.
“You can hide behind this shield for as long as your son can hold it, but I assure you, I will wait longer. The moment it drops, I will curdle your skin and wither your bones. I will decay you slowly, from the inside out, until you’re nothing but an agonized corpse left to fester in the sun. Then, I will destroy every last person in your kingdoms, and I will not rest until all of Orea crumbles out of existence.”
The other monarchs blanch.
Queen Isolte shakes her head in disbelief. “King Ravinger, we’re trying to help—”
“Drop the shield now. I’m not going to ask again.”
“But—”
“Drop it,” King Merewen says, cutting off his wife.
She looks shocked. “The ruling of the Conflux is holy.”
“Shut your mouth, woman,” he seethes before he turns to his son. “Drop the barrier, boy.”
But the boy doesn’t open his eyes. Doesn’t make a noise.
His father rounds on him with irritation. “Did you hear me? I said drop it!” The king goes to shake him, but as soon as his hand touches his shoulder, the boy crumples to the ground and starts to convulse.
“Hamus!” Queen Isolte scrambles to her son, falling to her knees beside him. She holds his cheeks, trying to stop his violent shaking, but it doesn’t help. She rounds on her husband. “This is your fault for pushing him to use so much magic!”
I sway.
Even though it’s nothing compared to the amounts of gold I’ve expelled before, this drain on my power is too continuous, too forced.
“Auren?”
It takes me several blinks before Slade can come back into focus. “I…”
Whatever he sees on my expression or hears in my choked off words makes the blood drain from his face. He whips his head back toward the others. “Get her the fuck out of there!”
“Merewen, get the barrier to drop, or he’s going to fucking kill us,” King Thold hisses as much as his snakes.
Queen Kaila looks torn between wanting to see me die and wanting to ensure she saves her own neck.
But the prince isn’t waking, his body keeps thrashing, the thread tangled between his hands. His father curses and rushes over, tries to snatch the thread away, making Isolte scream. But even that does nothing.
And I…I fall back.
My shoulders hit the poles, and I look down at the gold that’s now splashing around my chest, some of it reaching the puncture marks from the swords. Seeing them springs up the pain that surrounds me from all sides, my blood mixing with the rest.
“Slade…” My voice doesn’t come out as more than a whisper, but he hears me.
He always hears me, even when I don’t say a thing.
Expression full of animalistic fury, Slade rips out the sword from his belt, raises it up, and slams it down across the fabric. Even though it looks like it shouldn’t hold any hope against Slade’s sword, the threads absorb the blow, the sharp blade completely impotent, the barrier immune to the slash.
But he slashes at it again and again and again.
He throws his brute strength at it, trying to slam his body through it, trying to hack at it, trying to pour so much rot over the barrier that the noxious veins encompass so thoroughly that it nearly blocks my sight of him completely.
“Hold on, Auren! Hold on!”