Hotbloods 5: Traitors

“Get Seraphina!” I yelled to Ronad, above the din of people screaming.

He nodded, weaving through the crowd toward the startled bride, who was trying to back away from the warring fiancés. Although her dress was beautiful, it definitely wasn’t practical. Already, the striking dragonflies had been caught up in the mess, most of them lying dead on the floor, crushed underfoot by the exiting stampede.

As Ronad and I rushed to help Seraphina, Sarrask and Kaido moved to protect Lorela, while their other brothers surged forward, trying to break up the fight. Navan and Aurelius were in a world of their own, slamming each other into the sides of the chapel. Aurelius might have looked weak, but he hadn’t come to the chapel unarmed. He’d retrieved two concealed knives, slashing at Navan with them each time they broke apart.

“This way,” I said to Seraphina, taking her hand and urging her toward a door nearby. It led into an annex full of chairs and tables, where the two of us crouched down to watch what was happening. Meanwhile, Ronad stood in front of the doorway, blocking it from the various objects flying around the place.

It seemed nothing could stop them from destroying each other, not even the combined force of the Idrax brothers. Aurelius appeared to have a circular device attached to his palm that gave him greater strength, enabling him to blast Navan across the full length of the room, but Navan wouldn’t give in. Each time he got knocked back, he just hurtled forward again, dodging the blast device and the twin blades, before being pushed back once more. I winced as his head smacked into one of the pillars, but he just shook it off and flew back at Aurelius, who was starting to tire. I could see it in the black pulse of his veins, visible beneath the gray surface of his skin.

Suddenly, Queen Gianne spiraled upward, spinning so fast that she became a blur. A gust of icy air tore through the chapel. Everyone froze, their collective gaze turning toward their queen. I couldn’t take my eyes off her either, her spinning body oddly hypnotic.

It didn’t affect the fighters, however, who continued in their savage brawl.

As Navan was thrown toward the far side of the chapel, Gianne snapped out her spinning arm and pulled him into the tornado she’d become, grasping him to her. Aurelius followed, trying to get at his nemesis, but the whirling dervish that was Gianne prevented him from getting his skeletal hands on Navan. Soon enough, she began to slow, letting her body turn fewer and fewer rotations until, at last, she came to a standstill.

Her arm was around Navan’s neck, the ceremonial marriage blade pressed to his jugular. He was trying to get away from her, but there was nothing he could do—she was too strong.

“If you do not stop this pathetic fight, I will kill you, Navan,” she spat. “And if you do not back off, I will see to it that you are punished, too!” she added, waving the knife at Aurelius. “You have embarrassed me, and you have embarrassed yourselves. Indeed, you have almost persuaded me that neither of you is worthy of marrying this girl!”

“The betrothal contract was nullified, Your Majesty!” Aurelius fired back. “Navan has no right to marry Seraphina. You cannot change what is written in black and white!”

“I am the queen!” she roared. “I can change whatever I like, and you would do well to remember that!”

Aurelius immediately morphed into the meek, obedient advisor. “I am sorry, Your Majesty. I just wish to have what I am owed. You promised her to me, and I know you never back out of a promise.”

He was doing it again, calling her out in front of an audience. Her nostrils flared.

“This contract has legitimately been nullified by a member of my appointed jury?” she asked tersely.

“You had not yet removed Jareth from your appointed jury when he signed this. As such, Your Majesty, it is a legally binding document that removes any claim Navan Idrax might have to Seraphina,” he replied, his tone smug.

Navan struggled against the queen’s grip. “How do you know my father hadn’t already been arrested when that thing was signed? There’s no date on it!”

“I can assure you it was signed prior to his arrest,” Aurelius countered.

“But how do we know?”

Queen Gianne looked to Aurelius. “Yes, Aurelius, how can you prove when it was signed?”

“It is a legally binding document, Your Majesty!” he protested, his face showing a flicker of panic. Navan had backed him into a corner he couldn’t get out of, unless he revealed himself to be Jareth’s co-conspirator. Or, at the very least, tar himself with the same brush.

“If you cannot give me proof of when it was signed, and Navan will not relinquish his claim to the betrothal, you leave me at something of a crossroads,” Gianne said, her tone threatening. “Who has the stronger claim? Perhaps I should just kill one of you and be done with it.”

“Kill him, Your Majesty!” Aurelius cried, while Navan said nothing.

“If you will not stand up for yourself, Navan, you leave me no choice,” Gianne whispered.

Seraphina shoved past me, staggering into the chapel. I tried to grasp at her, to pull her back, but she was already halfway out. “Nobody needs to die, Your Majesty!” she shouted up at where they hovered.

The queen looked down in surprise. “How so?”

“I will marry Aurelius, Your Majesty, as second in line to my hand in marriage,” she replied breathlessly. “If he says that betrothal contract between me and Navan is void, then I must obey. But I will not see blood spilled on my wedding day—that is reserved solely for husband and wife, to be collected in the Binding Font.”

Gianne smirked. “A woman saves the day. Isn’t that always the case, Seraphina?”

“I do not know, Your Majesty. I only know what I must do,” she said politely.

“Other women must really hate you. There is such a thing as too perfect, Seraphina,” Gianne chided. “And what do your parents say to this?”

Two cowering figures in the corner stood, their arms wrapped around each other. The woman, who looked remarkably like Seraphina herself, was trembling in the grasp of her husband, but she managed to raise her hand in assent. Seraphina’s father followed suit.

“You see, Your Majesty, they do not care whom I marry, so long as I am married today,” Seraphina remarked bitterly. I hadn’t believed their indifference until that moment.

“On that matter, at least, we are agreed!” Gianne snapped. She lowered herself down, releasing Navan a foot off the ground so he had to flounder with his damaged wing. He was still getting used to the artificial part, which didn’t always do what he wanted it to.

I hurried forward to Seraphina, grasping her hand and turning her around. “What are you doing? You don’t have to do this!”

Seraphina smiled, pulling me into an embrace. “Don’t worry about me, Riley. I will endure every hardship I must face. Now, go to your future husband. I should never have tried to steal this day from you. He should never be mine, not even if it stops a different union,” she whispered.

“Seraphina, please don’t do this to yourself!” I hissed desperately, but I could see she’d already made her decision. There was no way I was going to change her mind, not now that she’d resigned herself to Aurelius.

“Go to Navan,” she urged, shoving me gently in his direction.

I stumbled away, staggering into Navan’s arms, as Aurelius moved in. With a hungry look on his vile face, he grasped his new fiancée by the wrist and pulled her toward the Binding Font, where Gianne already stood, waiting to continue the ceremony. She picked up the ceremonial knife and handed it to Aurelius. Seraphina dutifully stretched her hands over the font basin, one facing up, one facing down.