In War, There Is Love

Arrangement

“This is a clear declaration of war!” Silas, King of the faeries shouted. “Me and my people will never accept such brutality.”

Demetrius did nothing but pierce him with his gaze, feeding on the signs of fear in the Faerie King’s eyes despite his fearless bravado. It was almost laughable. And Demetrius would laugh if the tension weren’t that papable inside the room.

“And what exactly are you going to do about it, Pixie?” he mocked. “Cry?”

“Demetrius!” It was Theodore, King of the angels, that interrupted him, and despite the urge to do the worst possible, Demetrius had to keep his calm. Somehow.

Not that he cared about being the villain of the Council. No one, including him, could deny that he was in fact what they all feared the most despite their titles, but it was Silas’ sudden act of being the victim that irritated him the most. Especially when he was further away from it.

Vampires and faeries had been enemies centuries before Demetrius was even born. It was in their nature, in their instincts, and they couldn’t learn to be anything different but that.

“Insulting each other isn’t the answer, gentlemen,” Julian, the Alpha King tried to ease the tension. Always the fair one. Demetrius felt the urge to laugh again. How had he ended up in this goddamned circus again? He was way better off by himself, yet he couldn’t deny he couldn’t afford to make an enemy out of all the leaders of the Council.

“Nor is killing each other’s ambassadors, am I wrong?” Silas spat, hatred obvious in his voice. “My people will never accept our ambassador dying. Especially his own father. They want revenge.”

“We have to think of a solution that’s best for everyone,” Agnes spoke, strangely for the first time in this meeting. And Demetrius didn’t like the expression on her face. He did not like it one bit.

“The best solution is for Demetrius to abdicate!”

This time Demetrius couldn’t hold the laughter in. It was humorless, scary by the way some of the Queen and even Kings cowered back on their seats.

“The best solution would be for you to be in your ambassador’s place.” Purposely he traced his fangs with his tongue. “Don’t tell me you didn’t like my gift, Silas. It was sent for you especially.”

“Demetrius, we aren’t going anywhere with this,” Theodore interrupted again. “You should stop provoking him.”

Demetrius’ brows furrowed. “Are you telling me what to do, Angel?”

Theodore didn’t avert his eyes. Perhaps he wasn’t scared, perhaps he was too proud to admit he was, it didn’t matter anyway.

“What was the solution?” One of the queens questioned Agnes. “Have you thought of something? We cannot have war, obviously.”

“Of course I have thought of it.” The old Queen’s attention turned solely on Demetrius’ and Silas’ direction. “The right solution to bringing peace, is—has always been, actually—a royal marrage,” she paused, “between King Demetrius and one of King Silas’ daughters.”

Surely Demetrius had heard it wrong? Right? She did not suggest for him to actually marry, and especially not a goddamn Faerie Princess.

Again, he laughed. It sounded even more dangerous than the other times, he was well aware of it.

But when no one joined him—strangely, because Agnes’ joke had been too funny—he sobered up again. “You’re all out of your minds if you think I’ll have a faerie,” he spat the word with disgust, “as my bloody wife.”

“I’ll never let one of my daughters marry him,” Silas’ nameless Queen snapped, hatred and worry written on her face at the mere idea of one of her many daughters being given to him as a sacrificial lamb. Because that was what she was going to be. Everyone inside this room already knew that.

“My wife is right,” Silas agreed, but there was a flicker of hesitation in his voice. He was thinking this. Actually thinking this.

Demetrius would lose his mind soon enough if this facade kept going.

“That is not going to happen. I have spent centuries alone and certainly I don’t want to change that fact by making a faerie my Queen.” It sounded ridiculous even to his own ears. A faerie. His wife. His Queen, his people’s Queen. They were going to tear her apart if Demetrius hadn’t already.

“This is not a solution,” King Victor spoke up. “Robert did that to my sister and we all know what happened.”

“What happened is that Robert created a Council again after many years of war,” Agnes said.

“After he had teared it apart himself by killing my father.” There was something like fury in Victor’s cold face that disappeared instantly. His father had been what the Council of Peace needed. Demetrius wished more kings would be like him, although Victor was something close to that.

“This is what I’m afraid of,” Theodore sighed. He didn’t look scared, mostly worried. “A war between the two kingdoms will bring all of us war. We’ll be forced to choose sides, and it’ll be a repetition of history we cannot afford again. If marriage is what will prevent war, then it has to happen.”

Demetrius was one second away from tearing them all apart and feeding on their blood. An image flicked into his mind. A mixture of different creatures’ blood would be something he would like to try, no doubt.

“We cannot allow an innocent girl to marry a...” Monster. That was what Victor’s Queen, Estelle—if Demetrius remembered the name right, and he did—was going to say.

He didn’t say anything because she wasn’t further from the truth.

“There has to be another way. King Silas has to control his lords better than that,” Alina, the newest Queen said, defiance in her voice. She was Demetrius’ ally, but it didn’t seem to really help him right now.

“It’s strange how your King allows you to speak on his behalf,” Anges provoked her, hatred like never before appearing in her bored eyes.

The Alpha King growled low on his throat. “My wife doesn’t need my permission to speak her mind, she is my equal.”

Theodore threw his head back and sighed again. “This is a mess. And it’s all your fault, Demetrius.”

It was. But Demetrius would rather die than admit that. And unfortunately for everyone else, he couldn’t be killed.

Anthony had been right too. Killing the damned ambassador hadn’t been a wise decision, no matter how much he had enjoyed it at the moment. It was not that Demetrius ever made decisions that he regretted later. He just hadn’t thought of things escalating this far, to him having to marry so he could keep peace in his lands.

He had wanted war with faeries for years, but he couldn’t have it before taking the territories in the south that should have belonged to him all along.

It seemed like Silas and his wife had spoken to each other in hushed voices all along, because suddenly her voice rose. “As I said, I will never offer him one of my daughters. They’re too precious for a deal like this, and they’re waiting for their mates. If Demetrius doesn’t want us to declare war, he’ll have to settle for... Silas’ daughter.”

Silence fell in the room. The tension was so thick it could be cut off with a knife.

“A bastard daughter.” It was not a question, it was a statement. “You’re telling me you cannot even offer me a princess, Silas?”

Silas gulped. He seemed shaken, hesitant, worried, but not enough to stop his daughter, who had been born from an affair of him with another woman, from being sacrificed just so his lords wouldn’t doubt his reign.

A coward.

“Maya is a Princess by blood, although not by title.”

Maya. So this was her name. Demetrius couldn’t find a face for the name on his head and he was sure he had never seen her. If he had, he would have remembered her. He had a scary memory for faces, although not for names.

“So you’re offering me your bastard daughter so you’ll not be forced to declare war on me.” Demetrius enjoyed the way Silas shook in silent anger and yet did nothing to take back his words. “You’re aware of what I’ll do to her, right?”

“You’ll not kill her if you want this arrangement to last, Demetrius.”

“Oh, no I won’t.” He laughed. “But death isn’t the worst that can happen to her.”

“Demetrius!” Silas shouted, but everyone else was silent. They all knew there was nothing they could do to stop him, magic or not.

Demetrius faked a merciful expression. “If you care about your daughter one bit, Silas, you’ll find another way to prevent war. Or she will pay for sins her father has committed.”

Silas averted his eyes away.

“That’s what I thought. Hiding behind a female is what suits you best.”

There was nothing left to say, so Demetrius stood up, and made his way to the door without as much as a goodbye.

“And Silas? Two weeks from now I want your daughter in my palace. No wedding ceremony of any sort,” he ordered, a wicked grin found its way on his face. “Of course if she hasn’t killed herself first. She would do herself a favor. But just so you know, I don’t want anyone else in her place. I want my promised wife, and if she isn’t there in two weeks, believe me, there will be war.”

With that, he closed the door and signed for his brother who was waiting for him outside.

“What happened, Demetri? You look like you want to torture someone.” Anthony knew him too well.

“My future wife, perhaps.”

His brother stopped abruptly, looking at him like he had grown two other heads. But before he could say any word, King Victor and King Julian walked towards them, with their Queens by their side.

“This is a disaster,” Julian spoke first, and for the first time they agreed.

“It shouldn’t have come to that,” Victor said with a nod.

“It shouldn’t have. But you as my goddamned allies did nothing to stand by me.”

He wasn’t sure if that could have solved anything, yet it didn’t mean he had liked it.

“You made your own grave by killing the ambassador. What were you thinking?”

Julian wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist and shielded her from Demetrius when he heard the tone of her voice.

If little Alina thought her dear husband could save her from his wrath, she was surely mistaken.

Demetrius couldn’t even comprehend these males’ protectiveness towards their wives. As if there weren’t many other females to f**k out there.

If there were people that would ever have his protection, they were his brother and his sister.

“Don’t forget that you still owe me your f*****g life, Victor.” His voice was low, but it had the same effect nevertheless. Not that it seemed to scare the elf. He was like a damn statue. “And you,” Demetrius turned to the Alpha King, “Agnes was right when she said you have to control your wife before she says something that she cannot take back.”

Alina huffed, anger in her face, but Julian shielded her from the threat that Demetrius obviously was, with his body even more.

It was funny.

Allowing yourself to have such weakness in front of creatures that could be your enemies was f*****g stupid. Foolish.

“Like you’ll control yours,” Estelle hissed between her teeth. She was obviously more scared of him than the witch, she could barely hold eye contact with him, probably because of her soft nature, but the Elven King took one step in Demetrius’ direction. One step that showed he would go to war with Demetrius for his wife.

Pathetic.

“Get your eyes off her, Demetrius.”

Few had dared to threaten him in his face. Even fewer had survived it. Although killing the Elf King, his biggest alley in the Council hadn’t been in Demetrius’ plans.

Plans could change.

“Was that a threat, Victor?”

“Demetri.” Anthony placed his palm on his arm. The voice of reason, of course.

“Next time I want your alliance to me to serve for something. Otherwise, I’m cutting the ties, and that won’t be beneficial for either of us,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Demetrius?” Alina called behind his back. She looked scared, but not scared enough to stop talking. “Can you not not hurt her?”

Demetrius chuckled, and he noticed goosebumps on her brown skin. “Oh, but where is the fun in that?”