House of Shadows (Royal Houses 2)

“You’ll be okay back here?” Clover asked. “Hadrian said that he’d meet me.”

Kerrigan nodded. “Go see him. Tell him I miss him.”

“Will do,” she said and then darted after a blue-haired Fae who looked out of place in a sea of humans and half-Fae.

Dozan stepped up to her side. It wouldn’t do for the king of the Wastes to be seen in that crowd either. His involvement would have to be as secretive as Kerrigan’s but for more nefarious reasons. He stopped when he was just off of her shoulder. He towered over her a full head, and she could practically feel him breathing into her ear.

“You did this,” he said gently. Not his normal accusatory tone.

“Did what?”

“This.” He gestured to the swelling crowd of people from their vantage point. “It wasn’t the RFA people that managed to get this many people here. It wasn’t the message of equality and unity that Thea has been spouting for over a decade. It wasn’t even that they’d killed the only witness they had that could get them to the Red Masks. It was you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You proved to them that they could win.” He brushed a red curl into her cloak. She shivered at the touch. “You’re a symbol.”

“I’m just a person.”

His gaze caught on hers. “You’ve never been just anything.”

Thea raised her hands to the sky. “Today, we speak for those who have long been cast in the shadow, who have no voice, who have no hope. Today, I bring you hope!”

The crowd roared with approval. Their voices raised to the skies, chanting for the end of this oppression. Wanting what the Fae already had—equal rights, a place in the government, a way out from under the boot of the Society.

The same thing that Kerrigan had always wanted when she was pushed aside. When she was called a leatha in a dark alley and abused for her half-Fae heritage and abandoned at the foot of the mountain for the state of her ears, the human side of her blood. For all of those times that people had told her no and the one time she’d looked back at them and demanded her place in front of the entire world. People were here because of that moment when she’d told the Society that she belonged and they’d agreed with her.

Hope swelled in her chest. An unfamiliar feeling that flickered to life, tentative and unsure. For the first time, she saw what the world was capable of if they all looked at those who oppressed them and demanded their due—freedom.

19

The Assassin

ISA

Isa crossed her arms and leaned against the pillar in the back of the courtyard. The woman with the shaved head had been yammering on equality for an eternity at this point, and she couldn’t process any more of this propaganda. Humans and half-Fae were treated poorly. Sure. But they were beneath Fae. So, why was that a surprise to anyone?

If she didn’t have to be here, she would have avoided it all together. But no, Daddy’s orders.

“And when we finally had a witness, when we finally had the leader of the Red Masks in jail, they allowed someone to murder him.”

Boos rose from the crowd. Isa smirked at the depth of her dirty work.

“Basem Nix died inside the mountain, which means our enemy lurks within those hallowed walls. If we don’t fight for what is right, they will never listen!”

Isa tuned the leader back out. She wasn’t wrong. There were Red Masks in the mountain, but they had no hope of stopping the movement. So quaint.

At least something interesting had come out of being here. She’d noticed Kerrigan’s friends amid the crowd. The little blue-haired Fae and the human indentured to Dozan Rook. She had no idea what the former was doing here. He was a full-blooded Fae. He’d been selected into Galanthea tribe by a former tournament competitor. What more could he want? Obviously, growing up with Kerrigan and befriending this loch addict had addled his brain.

There were a handful of other Fae in attendance but mostly humans and half-Fae. She’d never understand what they were doing here. But then again, she’d grown up with Father.

“Thank you for your time, and I’ll see you next week!” the woman at the front said, projecting her voice with some kind of magic. She was only half-Fae but had enough magic to do that. It was almost impressive.

But that was Isa’s cue. She’d done her job. Now, it was time to get out of there.

She slipped back through the garden and out onto the alleyway that led toward the Square. Most of the humans were heading west toward the Dregs, but Isa cut east toward the Row. Not everything in the Row was the enormous, aristocratic mansions, the age-old plots of land passed down generation to generation. Deeper in this part of town were rows of townhouses, each a different bright color to match the layout of the streets. Moneyed Fae, who hadn’t had families living here since the dawn of time, could still afford the townhomes and were welcome by the Fae Home Association that governed who could and couldn’t purchase in the district.