Page 53 of Renegade Kings

Fizzle grunted in agreement. “Walk with me,” he said, and then we fell into an uncomfortable silence as we turned away from the training ring and headed back into the palace.

I paid little attention to where we were heading. It wasn’t like I could ever get lost in this place. I knew every corner. It was how I’d been able to stay alive.

So, we walked. We walked and the silence between us started to become unbearable. This wasn’t how our relationship had ever been and I realised now that losing Fizzle would be a loss I’d never recover from. He was the last link I had to the people of my past. The only one who shared the memories of the ones we’d loved.

And then my stubbornness set in, and this became a challenge I didn’t want to lose. I felt sure he’d break first, but I’d known Fizzle long enough that I should have realised he wouldn’t.

As the silence stretched on, I fidgeted. My hands picked at a loose thread on my shirt without thought, and when I realised what I was doing, I also knew the feathery fucker next to me would be grinning in amusement.

Damnnit.

“I bonded with my mates,” I blurted out.

Wow, good one, Alyssa. Break the silence with the most awkward conversation you can think of. This wasn’t about to get excruciatingly painful or anything.

“I know. The entire palace knows. Even if you hadn’t set off a magical flare, you marked your mates for all to see,” Fizzle deadpanned, before adding, “Congratulations. It’s about time you did something right.”

To say I was shocked was an understatement. I hadn’t expected him to feel that way at all, not given the cautionary tales that circulated this realm against exactly that.

“Wait, what?”

“We may caution young faelings about bonding, but you’re not exactly a normal fae, Alyssa. The magical potential you have needs bonds if you have any chance of controlling it.”

I listened carefully to what he was saying and ran the words through my mind on a loop. I couldn’t help but think that it could have been what my father had been trying to say. Which made me realise something. “There’s more to this prophecy than you’re telling me.”

Fizzle didn’t reply at first, and I waited, knowing that he wasn’t trying to avoid answering, but that he was considering what to say. The problem with Fizzle was that you never knew if it was because he was about to avoid the question or if he really wanted to make sure he was about to tell you everything he knew.

Eventually he said, “I watched you come into this world and I had the privilege of being by your side as you grew into a fae I was truly proud of. And that’s not something I’d say to just anyone.” He gave me the side-eye and then continued on. “You don’t need the words of some prophecy to guide your actions. You have heart just like they do, and you also have the magic to back it up. Or at least you did. I’ve yet to see anything that impressive from you recently.”

Ahhh, this was the Fizzle I remembered from when I was a kid. Still, I wanted to fight him on this. I wanted to demand he tell me everything he knew, but then, what did it actually matter? I wouldn’t listen to it, anyway. Maybe he was right. Maybe not knowing was the best course of action. We didn’t need this hanging over us. It wasn’t like we were going to turn away from this fight.

“I seem to remember that you used to be better with people than this before?” I joked, buying myself some more time to figure out what I actually wanted to do about the situation we’d found ourselves in. After all, we’d come here to save Damon, and we still hadn’t done that. I wasn’t about to abandon these people, but I couldn’t abandon him either. Besides, if we could recover Damon, if we could figure out how Arik had him under his control, it could be the key to solving this whole thing.

I thought back to The Endless soldier I’d broken free with my magic. We should have tried to persuade him to stay with us. Perhaps Rhidian knew where he would have gone. He could be a useful ally to have in this fight. I could kick myself for letting him leave without considering this before.

“People could be trusted back then. Trusted not to betray you. Trusted to have the decency to stay alive when you needed them in your life.” He sounded so sad, and I hated that I was starting to count myself into the betrayal category.

“I should have come back earlier.”

Fizzle sighed. With a leap he took to the air, turned sharply and glided through a set of open double doors we’d been heading towards without me really realising it. When I stepped through to follow him, I wasn’t surprised by what I found. It was one of the smaller dining rooms which we’d used for small gatherings back when I was young. Or at least it had been. Now it looked to have been turned into some kind of war room and the table at the centre had been laid with a massive map of Nymeria.

Fizzle landed on the table, perching on the side with his tail wrapped around his feet. He looked at me curiously, as if trying to gauge my reaction to what I was seeing.

“I love what you’ve done with the place while I’ve been away,” I deadpanned, giving him nothing.

Fizzle rolled his eyes and then turned, striding into the middle of the map. “This is our best guess of where Arik has his forces stationed. You can see the extent of his numbers. He has most of the realm covered.”

I stood at the edge of the map, taking in as much as I could. I’d left Nymeria when I’d still been considered too young to be involved with much of the politics, and we weren’t exactly at war back then either. This wasn’t really something I had any experience with. But even I could see just how fucked we were. Arik had nearly every corner of the realm covered. In fact, he had soldiers stationed near every village, not to mention what looked like entire barracks in strategic places for the rest of the courts.

“Why hasn’t he occupied the Spring Court?” I asked. It seemed like a pretty obvious question to me.

“Because whilst it seems like his numbers are as endless as he likes to make them out to be, they aren’t. He doesn’t have the numbers to hold the positions he’s fighting to gain ground from and also occupy what should be abandoned territory. He’s more occupied with taking on the courts who are putting up a fight, than the ones who’ve already lost.”

“And the state of the Autumn Court?” I knew it was where Rhidian had in mind as the first target, but it just didn’t make sense to me.

“It fell a few months ago. There’s a decent amount of soldiers present making sure the villages are falling in line, gleaning who they can that has the potential for being indoctrinated into Arik’s forces.”

“And those people are sent to the training camp at the top of the Ice Falls?”