“River was killed three days ago when Bea tried to get him out of prison. The wall that she’d been pushing against gave way under her weight, and it fell upon him. However, it should be noted that he was never her mate and that he wasn’t the only one that killed Sal, Bea’s sister. Bea led her to her death as surely as I’m standing here.” CJ asked Bea if that was true. Since no one could lie to CJ, Bea gleefully said she’d helped River drown her. “She murdered two people. Plus, there was a babe that Sal was carrying when she met her death. Three deaths are now upon her shoulders.”
“You can’t count Sal’s death against me. You have already declared that River did it.” The laughter was much like nails down a chalkboard. CJ was the only one in the room that didn’t seem bothered by it. “And since I’m stating now that River’s death was wholly an accident, then you must believe me. I didn’t love him, but he was good to me. Not like you are.”
“Why did you have someone come to kill me last evening? Someone to break into my home and try to kill both myself and my mate while we were in bed? You should know that not only did this person confess he was being told to do this, but he also told me he’d rather die than have to go back to his boss and tell them he had failed. However, he didn’t give me a name. Just that it was a female.” That startled both Aurora and her when CJ spoke. Bea told her that she lied. “You know better than that. I cannot lie while in this room. Nor can you. Why did you send someone to kill us?”
“We were told if we were to kill the two of you that great riches would come our way. She told us that forever we’d be at her side. I deserve to be there when she rises up and takes over.” CJ laughed and told her that was never going to happen. “She is closer than you think and will get you.”
The snarl again was wet, and the splatter of it danced around the room until it hit the stone floor. Even as hard as it was, the acidy spit burnt deep holes into the stone and through it to the underground. If it had touched either of them or even something living, it would have eaten right through them until they were mutilated for life.
“The babe you carry will ruin it for all of us.” That was it, Melisandre thought to herself. CJ was with child. Her eyes told all that knew her that CJ was carrying a life within her. CJ asked her why she thought that was going to happen. “Because these two will give you more than anyone deserves. You were not even raised as a faerie, and here you stand with so much power now that it blinds me. No, you need to be dead, so my kind can go about their fun without you causing us any trouble.”
“You will wish for death.” Bea looked at Melisandre, then at Aurora. She begged not just for her life but those of her children as well. “They’re dead. I took care of them before coming here. Their short lives lay at your feet because you taught them your ways.”
The bodies of four trolls, all of them considered adults by anyone who saw them, were lain on the floor between CJ and Bea by CJ’s army. Bea’s screams were cut off when CJ simply snapped her fingers. Not only did the sound stop, but Bea’s mouth disappeared as well.
Melisandre could see that they’d not suffered at all but had been killed by a single stab to their heads. The spikes of iron were still within their skulls. She did wonder at the strength it would have taken to have put it through the skull of a troll. They had a skull thick enough, she knew, that very little could penetrate it—the reason they were so stupid. They had tiny brains in their head.
~*~
Don had never been asked to kill a troll before. If he was honest with himself, he’d thought they could only be killed by someone like Bancroft or the queens he was getting to know. He was being asked to do this because he was the second to Lord Bancroft. CJ had done her duty and found the guilty person. Now he was the one that would end her life after the trial.
Every time he said Lord Bancroft, even to himself, he had to stop himself from giggling. They were calling his childhood friend a lord. If only they knew him as he did. They’d rethink their position of calling him anything but a nutball.
The trial, or whatever this was, had been going on for several days now. He’d been told it would be short, and he’d finish her off for the crimes against her. But there had been so many other creatures to come forward to tell about the things that had been done to their kind by the troll that he was positive it was never going to end. Just today, there had been fifty-plus creatures that had said that Bea, her sons, or River had either killed a member of their family or had ruined their livelihood so that they were nearly dead themselves. Bancroft was in attendance as well, having only just found out that his own lands had been spoiled by the work of the trolls.
Did you know that when a troll is killed by a person such as myself, their history becomes written down and put in a library? I haven’t any idea why. That’s just what I was told. No one cares to
