JUNE ZEILRAN knows one thing: he is destined to live a quiet life in the servant's quarters as a half-blood in a territory of fairies. When the Imperial High Queen offers him a job he cannot refuse, he is thrown into a world of secrets and murder t...
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2408, Crescin 13, Briss
The halls of the Academy bustled with activity. June pursed his lips into a thin line, gripping the straps of his satchel slung across his body. There's no reason for everyone to be agitated this morning considering the yearly fest was still months away. He elbowed his way past students crowding in the message boards, muttering among themselves. Disbelief and fear were the emotions coloring their tones the most.
June cast his eyes to the floor, studying the different kinds of boots and buckled shoes flitting in and out of his periphery. Which of these would make it to places far, far away from here? Which would be permanently stuck in Carcalet? He shook his head. This was something he shouldn't be thinking about. Let them live their lives. He'd live his. Except his life was dictated for him as soon as he opened his eyes to the world.
"There you are!" Skalis squeezed past two tall fairies wearing uniforms lined with green. They must have been third trenchers or people taking up specialization studies. She stopped in front of him, bracing her knees as she caught her breath. "Have you heard the news?"
June raised an eyebrow. "What news?"
Skalis met his eyes, then. "There's an assassin targeting the nobles in Lanteglos," she said. June wished she hadn't. "My family's been worried."
He looked back at the message boards. The students finally finished looking at it and began to disperse in a thousand different directions, having grown tired of the news. There, he saw the exact clippings from today's prints. Assassin Targeting The Seelie Court: Coincidence Or Fact?, the headlines read in bold, capital letters. It might have been in the Keijula script but June has been reading tomes in it since he could.
His gut twinged. He foresaw this happening the moment he killed Riyo Konsor. That man simply wouldn't die off quietly. The advisor was sure to send ripples with his passing. He wasn't a high-ranking fairy in the court for no reason. What's more, there was nothing to fault the man for, not even a forgotten receipt at a random tavern in Nanvera. Riyo Konsor was someone who would rather die than break the rules of the territory.
So why did he dream of becoming the head of the Court with Aima Mogros?
That's the fairy in him, maybe. June wasn't going to fault the man for that. He did say he wanted it but hadn't acted on the impulse. All he did was look for something he shouldn't have and the public weren't going to be told of that reason.
Naturally, most of them would assume there was someone picking the nobles apart like fruit on a tree with Riyo Konsor's assassination. It's something June had warned the High Queen about. She didn't listen. Now, she has to figure out how to best clean this whole fiasco out.
And June was sure as hell he wasn't going to think about it anymore. If the High Queen wanted to use him for further assignments, she'd find ways to protect him. And if she failed, perhaps that's the freedom the gods destined for June, however unfair that might sound.
