Page 10 of Kill the Queens

Ace closed the space between them, standing on her tiptoes to pull his hands away from his face. Her grasp looked so much smaller compared to his large hands as she tried to hold his between hers.

“Hey,” she kept her voice low but stern, “We can go to your grandma’s. We can tell her. It’s going to be fine.”

“Okay.” He pulled his hands out of hers.

“Let’s give it till morning.”

Maybe by then, the Fae will have infected everyone with the Impelling,Sylik taunted.

“Morning? What if she can’t make it till morning?”

“What if we leave and run into the men who just destroyed the castle? We stay here. We regroup. We calm the fuck down.” What if they ran into the orange eyed man? What did he know? What would he do? Had he even been real?

Oh, now we’re questioning your sanity?Greshta laughed.We weren’t doing that when you were fighting for Shelby’s soul. How odd.

“If anything happens—”

“Nothing is going to happen.” Ace tried to sound confident but she knew deep down she couldn’t control that. Only the gods, these annoying chatty gods, could protect his grandma now.

“She’s only been on her own for about a billion years,” Ace started again with a small chuckle. “I’m sure she can survive the night without us.”

“She’s not that old,” Shelby muttered. “And if she heard you say that she would be very offended.”

Ace could already picture the old woman scowling. Maybe that’s where Shelby had gotten his ever-present frown from.

“But you know what I mean.”

Taking his time, Shelby made his way to the small pallet of blankets. Several of them were quite worn and one had about a thousand moth holes, but they were enough.

“How can we just sit here when what just happenedhappened?” He lifted a blanket up and examined it. “You sleep with this?”

“I just...we need a moment.” She snatched the blanketout of his hand and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Do you want to talk more about it?”

“You mean about me dying,” he snapped back.

“I mean exactly that.”

“No. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Talking will—”

“Help?” He stood straighter, pinning her with his gaze. “Talking will suddenly make me feel better about being run through with a sword. With walking through holy fire. Will it make this,” he gestured between the two of them “suddenly better?”

“That’s not what I—”

“I can’t forgive you, Ace. Not now. Maybe not ever. You should have let me die. Now...now I’m this.” He peeled back the layers of his tattered shirt. “I’m a monster.” His scar was brilliant and bright against his dark skin.

Ace’s mouth dropped open. There was the sting, a pinprick really, of tears at the back of her eyes. She didn’t want to cry. She was too exhausted to cry. But the feeling, the devastation, the hurt...it was all there building up inside of her.

Is that what he thought of her? Did Shelby think she was a monster?

Ace stayed silent. She pulled the blanket around herself tighter and walked to the other side of the room. This was going to be a long quiet night. When she looked back up at him from across the room, his brows had relaxed, his eyes softening.

“Ace...” he whispered.

“Don’t worry about it.” She turned to face the wall.

He was right. She was a monster. She didn’t deserve his forgiveness.