With a yell, Maili launched herself at Rika. “You are
For several moments, Rika and Maili exchanged blows. Rika’s punches landed more often than not, but Maili was quick on her feet. Rika was out of practice, but her blows were more forceful than most faeries’ strikes. The fight wasn’t truly well matched; Rika was steadily pummeling Maili, and when the other faery realized that, she grabbed Rika by the throat.
“Bad idea,” Sionnach muttered.
Rika took Maili’s legs out from under her. The rebellious faery stumbled and—needing her arms to keep her balance—released Rika’s throat.
Promptly, Rika delivered a punch to the stomach.
Maili fell to the ground, legs curled to the side. She attempted to get up, and Rika kicked her before glancing up at Sionnach and nodding.
He looked at the faeries who had been there with Maili. “Spread the word that there will be an assembly today.”
As the faeries were departing, Rika yanked Maili to her feet and told her, “This wasn’t what I wanted. I asked you to leave before this had to happen.”
Sionnach hopped down and applauded. He moved slowly, but he’d often moved at that pace, a heightened cautiousness that faeries often saw as his deliberateness. In that moment, Rika wondered how often it had simply been a ploy to hide injuries he’d sustained.
“Step two,” Rika said quietly.
Sionnach smiled and echoed, “Step two.”
They escorted Maili to a mining shack on the hill in the same abandoned mining town that Sionnach often called home. After they trussed her up, they left Maili inside the solitary mine cart that was stored in the shack, and closed the door. Then, they waited for the faeries to arrive for their first assembly with their new co- Alphas.
Once the crowd had begun to gather, Sionnach climbed gracefully to the top of a dilapidated porch roof and balanced along the fractured railing as if he were oblivious to all the faeries—except Rika. He looked only at her as the faeries started coming closer. Then, he held out one hand to her.
She walked closer to the building and looked up at him as he stood motionless on the battered wooden railing. “What are you doing?”
He crouched down and held out a second hand. “Helping you up.”
With far less grace than he had, she clambered up to stand beside him and took his hand in hers.
“Showmanship,” he whispered.
Once she was steady, he released her hand and then hopped up to a higher roof, deftly avoiding a gaping hole that looked like a mess of splinters and glass. Then, he looked back at her.
She didn’t hesitate as she reached both hands up this time, and with a relieved smile, he lifted her to stand beside him.
Letting go of one hand, they took another step—together—to stand on the roof.
On the ground behind them, faeries had assembled in silence.
“Rika will be beside me keeping order here,” Sionnach said by way of introduction. “As co-Alphas we will be happy to keep you safe, at cost to ourselves.”
“We will not forgive betrayals easily,” Rika glanced at Sionnach. “We would rather not have to have any betrayals, but if you do . . .”
She released Sionnach’s hand, and he hopped down with far more ease than they had ascended, looking animal-graceful, and ambled up the hill to the shack. It was once part of the aboveground mine structure, so there were tracks that began near the door. Sionnach pulled the mine cart out and shoved it onto the tracks. Then, he proceeded to push it down the hill and into the dusty street.
The assembled faeries looked alternately amused and curious, and Rika suspected that they were quite aware of which faery was being pushed into the crowd.
Once the cart was almost in their midst, Rika raised her voice and told the crowd, “I’ve sworn myself to the Winter Queen in order to keep the Summer King from meddling in our desert. Winter will keep him in check, so Sionnach and I can keep
Sionnach dumped Maili onto the dusty ground in the middle of the street. He untied her, but she still looked rather bruised and dirty.
“This doesn’t mean we will be gentle,” Sionnach said. “Rika is every bit as cruel as I am when our home is threatened.”
“Or more,” Rika added quietly.
“Perhaps.” Sionnach shrugged.
“For betraying your Alphas, Maili, we banish you from our desert until such time as you are judged worthy to return.” Rika lowered herself to the edge of the roof, sitting so that her feet were dangling, and then placed her hands on either side of her legs. Pushing off while simultaneously spinning around so as not to injure herself, she came to the ground. It was a bit showy, very gymnastic in the fluidity of it, far more so than Sionnach’s graceful dismount, but she figured that if she was going to co-rule the desert, she’d best start acting like it. With that in mind she crouched down and jerked Maili to her feet. “If I thought you could remain here—”
“As your dog?” Maili spat the words, her expression haughty. “No. There are other deserts and—”
“You’ll be going somewhere else.” Sionnach stepped closer to Rika. “You stabbed me. You brought the Summer King to our desert. You conspired to injure all of us.”
“I tried to take power from the weaker faeries, those not fit to hold dominion here.” Maili’s gaze darted to the faces of the faeries around them, seeking support.
The faeries weren’t responding. Some glared at her; some looked sorry for her. A few seemed gleeful.
“There is a correct way to take power: you challenge the Alpha. You do not conspire and endanger those the Alpha protects,” Sionnach reminded her and all there. “Challenges are fine; treachery is not.”
“You’ll be going to the court of the Winter Queen to serve your sentence.” Rika shuddered. “You’ll be surrounded by the cold. . . .”
Maili looked horrified for a split second, and then she launched herself at Rika.
Sionnach caught her before she could move very far, effectively stopping her forward momentum. It was an awful thing, the cold that she’d be facing, but she’d plotted to take away freedom from solitaries and had struck her Alpha. Her punishment had to be harsh.
Rika moved close enough that Maili could reach her.
Predictably, Maili swung; Rika blocked her punch.
“It’ll ache every day,” Rika whispered. “You’ll beg for it to stop.”
“You can’t . . .” Maili looked stricken, increasingly panicked.
“You broke mortals for sport after Sionnach told you to stop; you stabbed him; you offered me to Keenan . . . you offered them”—Rika gestured at the faeries in the street—“as pawns to him.”
Sionnach tightened his grip on Maili’s topknot. “Do any of you want to speak for her? Ask mercy? Offer yourself in her stead? Challenge us?”
The faeries shook their heads, and some said “no.”
One of the faeries who was Maili’s cohort previously asked, “What terms mercy?”
Rika gave Maili a pleading look, hoping to convey what she couldn’t in words without undercutting her own authority and Sionnach’s too. If Maili tried to adhere to the terms before her, she could end her punishment sooner; doing so only required humility and admission of wrongdoing. “Listen well to the Winter Queen,” Rika urged. “She has the power to set you free. Since she is my regent, I must listen to her decisions. If she decides you are suitably punished, you can come h—”
Maili’s snarl cut off Rika’s words.
At Sionnach’s gesture, several faeries stepped forward and took Maili.
“Take her to the edge of the desert,” he said. “Rika’s queen will have an escort waiting for her.”
And at that, Maili was led away.
Afterward, the faeries slowly broke off into small groups. Some talked; others simply left in silence. They’d
