Chapter Text
Leila heard the sounds of popping and crackling before she smelled the gunpowder.
“We didn’t schedule fireworks…” she murmured, looking around for the noise. She and Skye had gone over the vendors, permits, displays, everything. There were no fireworks.
Something was off.
“Does anyone have eyes on the source?” she heard Chase ask as she scanned the crowd, looking for the responsible party. Rigel stood beside her, tense as he scanned the perimeter as well. She felt his nerves and squeezed his arm lightly, wondering what was going on.
“Leila!” he hissed by her ear suddenly, quickly stepping in front of her. She blinked as he shifted close to her and saw the pin on her collar brighten. A ward shimmered around her. That set her anxiety level from concerned to alarmed. If the ward had activated, something was definitively wrong.
“Rigel?” she asked low. He was obviously aware of something she wasn’t.
“1000 yards to the Southwest, lower tree line.” Rigel said out of nowhere. Leila turned her head in the stated direction, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it was he had seen, but before she could focus Rigel had taken her arm and was moving her quickly behind the Night Court tea booth. The jasmine aroma and scent of the blueberry scones mingled oddly with the smoke and gunpowder in the air. The fireworks were still sparkling and dazzling the crowd nearby.
She didn’t resist Rigel—something was wrong, and she trusted he was moving her to safety—but he offered no update to her as they moved. They walked quickly and quietly but the eyes of a few of the attending nobles had spotted her, and she was aware that they could not avoid scrutiny for long.
“Rigel.” She hissed when he shifted her out of sight behind the tent. Rigel cautiously peered around the tent at the tree line. Her voice called his attention back to her, and she looked up at him with her questioning eyes.
“Sniper.” He said quietly, and she felt the blood drain from her face. She had known this was a possibility—they had been preparing for it all week between the cars and Rigel’s charms—but the knowledge that someone had her in their crosshairs was still disconcerting.
Chase arrived moments after, his pistol drawn. “Security is en route.” He told them, racking his gun in preparation. Rigel nodded, but Leila looked between the two of them. The Night Court tent might block them from view, but it was just a tent. It offered no real protection and worse, all of the Night Court was spread out behind them. If the sniper decided to take a shot and hope for broke, people could be caught between them. Shooting at her was one thing, but if they accidentally killed a member of her court…
“We can’t stay here!” she hissed to Chase and Rigel. “What if they take shots at everyone, or people get caught in a crossfire?” She turned to look back at the fae in the park but her view was blocked by the booth behind her. She was smart enough not to look around the sides herself.
“They’re not here to kill your people, Leila, they’re here to kill you.” Rigel whispered to her. She listened to him, trying to calculate other places they could possibly go for cover. All of the booths were temporary. They were designed to be set up and taken down in a single day. They were too far from the trailers, and the limited chairs and topiaries would leave them out in the open and certainly wouldn’t stop a bullet.
Not to mention just walking from one location to the other would put her, Chase, and Rigel all at risk, much less the fae between them and their destination. She couldn’t risk anyone getting hit by a stray bullet should the sniper miss or worse, shoot her subjects to incite mass panic or to draw her out.
Precious seconds passed as she mentally ticked through her options. She felt Rigel lift her hand and her attention returned to him. She felt him slip something onto her finger and recognized the ring he had shown her earlier that week. She raised her eyebrows curiously as he maneuvered. This had been his “defensive artifact.” He had said it would protect him in event of the sniper. Why was he putting it on her hand?
“Celas”. She heard him say, and the ring bloomed with magic. A coolness settled along her skin, like a clear mountain stream gently enveloping her. Rigel crouched and pulled her down with him. Seeing sense in that movement, she followed, still getting used to the sensation from the ring.
She knew she must be in some measure of shock because it only hit her then that with the ring on her finger and the magic around her body could only mean that Rigel was now unprotected.
“What did you do?” she hissed at him again from where they were crouched. What was he doing giving her his protective warding? Did he have anything left?
“You’re transparent.” He told her, and she gaped. She held out her hand to check and was surprised that she could see clear through her fingers, hand, and forearm to the grass below. A thin white outline moved with her arm as she turned her palm forward and back, and the blades of grass beneath her bent oddly as if viewed through a prism. As she stilled the ground below became clearer. “Not quite invisible. They’ll see you if you move.” Rigel continued as she tested the effect.
“Stay here.”
What?
She looked up at the instruction and saw Rigel standing. He drew a dagger and muttered another spell.
“What are you doing, Rigel?”
If she’d been surprised at the transparency, she was floored at his next spell. A vision of herself shimmered into view as she felt the hairpin on her head activate. It vibrated lightly as the ghost before her took shape. The pin continued to buzz until a convincing but imperfect copy of herself stood before her. Rigel was concentrating particularly hard and she estimated the spell was not an easy one to maintain. It had to be difficult, considering the amount of detail he had woven into the image. It mimicked her hair, her nose, even her clothes today. Rigel reached out to take its hand.
Horror dawned on her as she realized what he was going to do.
He was going to walk out with it—her—to draw the sniper.
“Rigel! You cannot be planning to—you just gave me your defensive artifact!” She whisper-shouted from behind the tea booth. She didn’t care if the staff heard her, this was madness. What was he, insane?
“We don’t have time, Leila!” Rigel interrupted her. “Stay with Chase. Put up a ward for the Court if you must. But stay down and stay here.”
Who was he to be giving her orders? She would not let him stumble out into a field, throw himself in front of a shooter, and hope he didn’t die.
I can’t lose him. A cold sick feeling gripped her so strongly she warred between wanting to freeze and vomit at the same time. The world spun around her as fear gripped her at the thought. He took a step, then two, moving away from her.
“Rigel!” She whisper-shouted to him again, rocketing to her feet. She stepped to follow him but almost instantly she felt a thick set of arms around her waist, pulling her back. Chase had darted forward and grabbed her. She pushed at his arms, squirming, trying to break free. Rigel was getting too far away, he was out in the open now. If she didn’t get to him soon he’d be alone, without even an artifact to defend him. He had no ring, no pin, no wards that she could see. Just the fake-Leila, which was designed to push him even further into trouble. There was no way the sniper would miss that.
“Please, Queen Leila. You have to calm down.” She heard Chase in her ear quietly as he gripped her tightly, refusing to budge. Her attempts to free herself were useless. Chase’s arms were like iron, and with his werewolf strength she could not escape.
She couldn’t get Chase’s arms off her, so she changed plans. If she could throw Rigel his ring, perhaps he could still take it with him. She had decent enough aim. He’d have something then, however small it was. He would find a way to use it. He had chosen the transparency ring for a reason, after all.
She lifted her hand and tugged on the ring, but it was stuck to her like glue. When it would not release, her eyes dropped to it. She pulled on it harder but the ring still would not give way. Her eyes flicked back and forth from the ring to Rigel’s still retreating form as she tried pushing, pulling, and twisting it off to no avail. She was about to try biting it but Chase’s massive hand grabbed her wrist, his other arm still around her waist.
“Stop it, Leila.” He cautioned her. “Rigel gave that to you for a reason. You have to calm down.”
“I am calm!” she said reflexively, though her mind was whirling. She couldn’t just stand by. She wanted to—had to—do something to help. The need to act burned in her as she instinctively tugged to free her hand from Chase’s grasp. “I can help—this is not my first fight. I can do this.”
Chase, in his wisdom and dedication, refused to budge despite Leila’s protestations. “Queen Leila, please,” he began, but she interrupted.
“He’s by himself, Chase!” Leila choked out the words as her eyes darted back to the stretch of field she could see. In the moments she had tried to release the ring, she had taken her eyes off of Rigel and had lost sight of him. Her vision flitted across the venue at the faces of the fae that edged into her field of view. None of them were Rigel. She chastised herself. Of course they weren’t Rigel. He wouldn’t walk out into the crowd with a vision of her. He’d know that would risk the others. He was blocked from her view by the tent, he had to be.
“Rigel will be fine.” Chase told her, still holding her by the waist. “He’s experienced and he’s trained for this, Leila. He knows what he’s doing.”
“He’s bringing a knife to a gun fight.” She told Chase venomously. She hadn’t learned much about Rigel’s history the past few days, but Indigo had told her he favored daggers over anything else. He often kept them in his bracers, they had said. He specialized before in close range killing, not fighting someone one thousand yards off. How was he even going to get to the shooter?
“He has a pistol too.”
“They have a sniper!”
“Leila!”
She couldn’t stomach the thought of just sitting by and her mind reeled. “I can ward him.” Leila said insistently. “And security. They’ll be shooting at them. I should be supporting them. I should-“
“You’ll make things worse, Leila.” Chase told her, and she was shocked into momentary silence. She turned to look up at Chase. Her Security Director tried to speak kindly but honestly to her as he listened to the radio in his ear and monitored the situation. “You don’t know how to fight a gunman, Leila, not like this.” He told her gently. “You’re a monarch, not a warrior. You’re not even at full strength today. If you show up with bullets flying, everyone will stop trying to take down the shooter and will start shifting into defensive mode for you. Is that what you want? Really?”
Her heart caught in her throat at the idea of it. No, that was not what she wanted. What the team needed to do right now was focus. She didn’t need them worrying about her walking into things, no matter how much she might want to help them.
“Also, the pin Rigel gave you? It’s a deflection charm. Easier to move bullets to the side than to stop them entirely. Do you want to risk having them redirected into somebody else?”
She swallowed as the knowledge punched her in the gut. It was an effective charm for her safety but it would not help the others. She could not risk her team. She ran through her mental calculations again.
“Get me my staff, Chase.” She said quietly.
“Leila-“
“I need to ward the Court!” she told him, insistently. Chase paused and listened. “If there is active fire going on, Chase, we can’t risk a stray bullet making it this way. We have to protect the venue.”
“Do you have the strength for that, Queen Leila?” he asked her seriously. She had been exhausted for days. Her inner circle knew that. Her head had been aching constantly since the attack several days ago. She was not at her best.
And…as Leila looked up into Chase’s eyes she could hear her heart thudding. Chase’s sensitive ears would certainly have picked up on it, but he probably chalked it up to the ongoing chaos. He didn’t know that the Paragon had cautioned her explicitly not to overtax her magic or her body, or that the only thing protecting her from whatever curse had been cast on her were her flimsy internal wards. She had been able to power them ambiently, though it came at some cost, but a ward of this size would be exhausting. Draining.
It could possibly kill her.
But her people needed her. If Rigel couldn’t act thinking she was in peril, she could do nothing knowing innocent people were standing behind her, ignorantly in harm’s way because of her. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened. The risk to the security team was bad enough.
The risk to Rigel made it hard to breathe.
She wanted to get to know him better.
She looked up at Chase and nodded. It was a risk she would have to take.
Chase spoke into his headpiece and moments later someone appeared with her staff, the heavy weight of the crescent moon difficult to bear for so many reasons today. She took hold of it in her hand, felt its power, and turned to the field beside her. It was challenging to place the ward without being able to see where she wanted it to lay, but she had no choice. She took a breath, looked up to the sky, and set it.
It was an even harder task than she had expected. Her magic was slower to react than usual and felt bound up inside her. She had to pull it away from where it had nested protectively within her, lifting it gently, layer by layer, trying carefully not to pull it so brashly that it fractured completely. She felt sweat bead on her brow as she completed the delicate work, like shifting extra panes from a stained-glass window.
Whether from recognizing her power or being able to track the line of security, Linus, Indigo, and Skye made their way over to the tent where she and Chase were hidden. Chase was no longer clinging to her desperately to keep her from running. Leila’s ward floated in front of the fae and stayed, a clear pane of protection built to catch anything that tried to enter. It took all of Leila’s focus to keep it going, and her limbs grew shaky from the effort. Linus arrived and set a soundproofing ward around them.
Her father saw her and paled.
“Leila.” He whispered to her, as Chase brought the others up to speed. “Leila, what are you doing? Stop this.” He encouraged her, reaching up to take her hand.
Leila shook her head. “Can’t.” she told him through her teeth. Her headache was worsening now.
“Leila, you can’t overexert yourself. We don’t know what will happen–“
“I know that!” she snapped at him and shook her head as a particularly sharp pain bit into her. She would have stumbled but for her sheer force of will. Linus kept his distance for the moment, unsure if he had been the cause of her distress.
“…security is taking fire.” Chase told Skye and Indigo. Leila’s ears perked up and she turned to listen. Linus caught the comment as well and turned to Chase. He touched his earpiece and nodded. He stood rigidly as he took the report. “King Rigel is on site.” He told them.
The cold feeling in her gut deepened. She had known he had gone off to danger, but knowing he was in the middle of bullets flying was even worse. She could hear the sounds of gunfire across the field, the fireworks no longer going. There was no mistaking what was going on and the fae around them began to whisper in concern.
She turned to the sound, trying to spy him in case she could ward him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Even if she could somehow see him from this distance, and even if she was somehow able to manage that level of magic with the ward she already had going, it was going to be futile. She only knew how to make stationary wards. He would never be able to do anything with that if he had to keep moving. She could do nothing but trust in him. Everyone said he was so deadly for a reason, right?
Leila grit her teeth and leaned into her spell to keep from crying. The pain in her head and the pain in her heart were too much. She was stretched thin, and between them something was going to have to break. Because she couldn’t, because the court needed her, she chose an impossible option three: she poured more power into her ward, trying to reassure her Court.
The noise in the field increased but thank the heavens, the Night Court tea booth staff still did not give away their location. Linus, however, paled further as he watched her. He pulled out his dice and started whispering himself, bolstering Leila’s ward. The extra strength from her father, interlacing with the massive ward she had made, eased her burden. Her shoulders relaxed slightly as her magic was given space to recede, no longer having to shore up the ward alone.
The world went quiet then. Too quiet. There were no more sounds across the field, and no comments from the advisors beside her. “Chase?” her worried voice called. She needed to know how he was doing.
“He’s engaging the shooter, Leila.” Chase said promptly, knowing what she was looking for.
“What does that mean, Chase?” she said impatiently. She was so frustrated. She wanted desperately to be there, to help him in some way. Instead, all she could do here was throw up a ward to support their people. It didn’t seem fair.
“I don’t know, Leila.” He told her. “They’re too busy to give me another report. I don’t want to distract them.”
Leila growled where she stood and felt Linus’s hand on her shoulder. Her head dropped. The pressure was almost unbearable. Her heart spasmed and she leaned into his side. More gunfire erupted across the field after the uncanny silence and her heart raced. What was going on?
“Leila, you need to drop the ward.” Linus told her quietly. Skye, Indigo, and Chase looked on. They didn’t know why Linus had suggested it, but they could tell something else was going on.
“Not yet.” Leila said, stubbornly. “Not until we know it’s safe.” She gritted out. If nothing else, the demands of the ward helped keep her mind off her terror for Rigel. How long had he been gone?
It felt like ages before Chase had another update. “He’s down.” Chase said to the group, his hand moving to his earpiece.
Leila’s heart stilled and she felt her magic flicker as her mouth went dry.
“The shooter is down.” Chase clarified into the headset.
Relief washed through her. Oh, thank stars.
With the announcement, she let her arms drop and her magic recede. The ward shimmered out of place almost instantly, and Leila sagged against Linus, who caught her quickly. Indigo and Skye rushed to her side, but Leila got her feet under her fast enough. She waved a hand to show she was all right.
She swallowed. “Where is he, Chase?” she asked, her voice shaky along with her body. She was positively exhausted now, and her headache had increased tenfold from the brief but demanding ward exercise. Indigo handed her a bottle of water which she took and greedily drank before accepting a small granola bar as well. It wouldn’t be enough, but it was better than nothing.
“Questioning the prisoner.” Chase told her, turning back to her. Chase was significantly less tense now. “They have him in anti-magic handcuffs. Rigel is asking who sent him and other clarifying information. I’m sure he’ll be back shortly, when he’s done.” He updated her.
Leila tore open the granola bar and took a bite, angling her Night Court staff so that it rested in the crook of her arm. Until he was back, she was not about to let it go.
“I presume all the shooter’s weapons have been confiscated?” Leila asked Chase, the tiredness creeping into her voice.
“Yes, Queen Leila.” He assured her. She nodded.
Her relief at the situation quickly faded into irritation at what Rigel had done. For all his lectures about keeping her safe he’d been incredibly irresponsible with his own safety. She didn’t care if he was an accomplished assassin. Being good with a knife didn’t matter if you got shot.
And what had he been thinking? It was entirely possible she could have gone with him. She could have stayed hidden somewhere safely and warded the whole team. If he’d told her sooner she could have layered her wards to keep them both safe during his approach. She could have done any number of things in support of them instead of sitting by and waiting for someone to save her. She’d give Chase a pass—in the heat of the moment she could understand why her Security Director would prioritize her even over her objections—but they were definitely going to work on this.
In fact, now that the crisis was over, her mind kept prompting her with countless alternatives instead of hiding behind a tent and sending Rigel off with a fake her to intentionally draw fire. By the time Chase updated her that the shooter was dead and Rigel was on his way back, she was practically livid with rage at the level of danger he’d so casually jumped into.
Was that the kind of person he thought she was? Did he honestly think this was what she wanted? Was this some desperate attempt to prove himself to her? What on earth was he going to do if things had gone wrong? Why did they have a security team if he was going to be running off like this anyway?
Linus still supported her with an arm on her back as she handed the now empty granola wrapper to Indigo. If her irritation did anything, it gave her the strength to stand up straighter while she thought about how exactly she was going to yell at him for this. Part of her recognized her mood was likely impacted by her exhaustion but she selfishly pushed that notion away. Even if that were the case, she’d be well within her rights to chew his ear off about this and then some. He could have been hurt. He could have been killed. She could have lost him before she remembered him. This time, it wasn’t fine. It wasn’t anywhere close to fine. It was as far from fine as it could possibly be.
As her advisors discussed what had happened around her, Chase perked up and pointed at something in the distance. Finally, Rigel’s form appeared beyond Linus’s pink ward. Her shoulders relaxed at the sight of him, her tension releasing as her own eyes confirmed that he was truly okay.
But no, that wouldn’t do. He was not getting out of this that easily. She grumbled to herself about his unnecessary, risky idiocy once again and turned her eyes on him, practically blazing.
Whether it was because he was unbothered or could hardly see her given her still transparent form, Rigel did not react. That also irritated her. He wasn’t even sorry about what he’d just put her through.
Oh, she was going to chew him out, all right. Their romance may have been brief for her, but she refused to live without him now, not after the last few days. No, she and her ridiculously overprotective hubby were certainly, unquestionably, and definitely going talk about this. She wasn’t anywhere near done with him.