Page 39 of Renegade Queen

“You’re going to do nothing?” Dean shouted at the inn.

The bartender looked down in shame, but no one else would meet our eyes as they gripped their drinks tighter, waiting for the whole thing to end.

Well, fuck that.

I darted across the room, wrenching open the inn door and taking in the scene outside. Soldiers in gleaming golden armour were dragging a woman and her two children towards a jailer’s cart as they thrashed in their grip, screaming for them to let them go.

A single line of blood ran from the woman’s eyebrow where it had been split open, but still, she fought to try and reach her children.

My hand was moving to the hilt of my sword as I watched in horror as a man ran from a nearby doorway, reaching out for the nearest child. Their fingertips brushed as the sword of the nearest soldier plunged into his chest, and he crumpled to the ground dead.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. The soldier barely broke his stride as he cut down a father trying to save his children. He just stepped over his body and continued on his way, the woman hanging limp in his grip as she stared in horror at her husband’s body.

I sucked in a lungful of air, ready to draw the soldier’s attention. If I could distract them, I could reach the kids before they got them in the cart. But before I could do anything, a body crashed into me from the side, and a hand wrapped tightly around my mouth as we fell to the floor together.

My eyes widened as I saw one of the inn patrons gently close the door and peer through the window to ensure we’d gone unnoticed before he sagged against it in relief.

I thrashed in the grip of whoever had tackled me, throwing my head back and slamming it into their face. Their grip loosened just enough for me to start to turn, until I felt a blanket of air magic slam into me, forcing me to the ground.

There would be no escape from this without revealing who I truly was. But I didn’t care. I wouldn’t lie here and let them take those people to god knew where. Fizzle darted across the ground as I prepared to let my magic flow, but he wasn’t coming to my rescue. He pressed his face into the crook of my neck, and I knew what he was doing.

Now wasn’t the time to make a move. If there was any possible way to stop what was happening, Fizzle would have done it. Running out there and getting myself killed wasn’t going to help anyone. We needed information, and we needed a plan.

“Dying in the dirt at his side won’t save them,” a voice whispered in my ear, and I realised then that it was the bartender who had tackled me to the ground.

He didn’t loosen his grip on me as we lay there, listening to the screams of the children as they were thrown into the cart.

I felt every single one of them as they clawed at my heart, and the tears fell from my eyes unbidden.

These were my people, and I’d abandoned them. They’d waited for me to return. They held onto the hope that I would come back and save them.

And I didn’t.

It was my job to fight for them, and when they needed me the most, I’d been smuggled away and actually believed that it would be better for them if I didn’t come back.

I couldn’t decide what was worse. That I was a coward or a fool.

I was so deep in my pity party that I didn’t realise the screaming outside had faded away until the bartender started to cautiously release me from his arms. My eyes swept the room, and I saw the guys restrained by most of the other fae. I doubted they’d have succeeded for this long if not for the wind magic that currently blanketed the inn.

“You can let us up now, Fizzle,” I mumbled.

I knew he’d done it to save us, but it still stung that he didn’t believe in me enough to fight for those people outside. It was a bitter pill to swallow, realising that your friends didn’t have enough faith in you.

A snarl ripped through the air as the blanket of wind magic withdrew. Fizzle was stronger than I remembered, and I hoped he hadn’t put everything he had into that because he was about to have four pissed-off shifters to contend with.

Chapter 19

Ryder

The inn cleared out in seconds, which was a good thing since Dean and Tank practically vibrated with rage. Maddox seemed to contain it better, but I hadn’t failed to notice the deadly claws that now shaped the ends of his fingers. He didn’t seem to have noticed it yet. If anything, he seemed distracted by something he was trying to understand. If I had to guess, it was the lion inside him trying to break free.

I didn’t know what to do. But I knew we needed to break through the tension in the room right now. Because I couldn’t deal with losing anyone else, and this was seconds away from turning into a bloodbath.

“You need to calm them down,” I told Alyssa, grabbing her arms and hoping she had some way of getting control of this situation. I was out of ideas, not that I’d had any, to begin with.

I wasn’t the sensible one in our group. This wasn’t my job, damn it. A dick joke wouldn’t be enough right now, which were words I’d never have thought I’d believe up until now.

Her hands came to my cheeks, and she took a deep breath, raising her eyebrows to indicate I should mimic her. I did without question; slowly blowing it out at the same time as she did.