Shadow Hunter (Court of Life and Death Book 2)

warned them at least a hundred times to be silent around prisoners, but their incessant chatter had become one of the few things to keep me sane. If I was right, and I knew I was, one of the older prison guards and a younger recruit were on watch. The young ones couldn’t help but gossip.
“To be honest, I can’t either. Out of everyone…”
“I thought he was a Seelie?” the Private questioned.
“He is.”
“Really? You’d think only an Unseelie would be capable of something like-”
“Oi, the fuck!” The older guard exploded, throwing his hushed we’re-technically-whispering-so-we-don’t-get-in-trouble voice out the window. “Don’t you go spouting that bullshit around me! Your Queen was an Unseelie, and so is my wife.”
“I-I’m sorry!” The young guard’s voice cracked as he spoke. I held back a laugh. “Y-you know, Unseelie are just more…” His voice faded, and I could only imagine that his superior was shooting him a look that could kill. I would have paid to see it.
“That’s all rumors, idiot. The difference is red and green apples. We’re all the same.”
“… But one of them is sour.”
“Shut the fuck up!”
I barely managed to stifle a laugh. Normally, I’d be admonishing them for speaking like this in front of a prisoner, and I planned to punish them thoroughly once my position was restored, but I loved the distraction as it was.
Actually, both of them had a point, but it came with age. The distinction between Seelie and Unseelie was much more prevalent among the younger fae. Seelie could be troublesome or tricky, but that depended on the individual; when their intentions were underhanded, they were veiled under layers of smoke and mirrors, and they relied on appearing perfectly trustworthy. On the other hand, young Unseelie had more of a proclivity for bending the rules, finding loopholes, and causing more chaos than was necessary and doing so right before your very eyes. They didn’t feel the need to disguise their intentions because they thrived on being perceived as intimidating or a threat. As they got older, most of those inclinations would fade somewhere around five hundred years. Amongst those who were older, there were just as many troublesome Seelie as Unseelie, so the more senior fae often forgot that there was a distinction at that young age. Of course, for some Unseelie, like Minerva, those inclinations never faded.
“… someone said it was Death’s mistress…”
I perked up a bit more. Were they talking about Myrcedes?
“I heard that too,” the older guard grunted. “It’s garbage.”
“I don’t know… my sister has a friend that lives in the Underworld. She says it’s common knowledge there. This human, or I guess she’s a reaper, showed up a couple of months ago, and the Kings-”
“You really believe the Unseelie Queen was reduced to ash by a human reaper? A new one at that?”
“No,” the younger guard sighed. “I don’t believe it. It worries me that so many people in the Underworld are saying it, though.”
I chuckled to myself. I almost wanted to interrupt and tell them exactly what had happened… but this was too entertaining, and I didn’t want to trump up another treason charge.
“What else have you heard?”
“Well… some people suspect it was the Ogre Lord,” the young man said. “You know, he was angry that she rejected his marriage proposal. Someone even said they heard the General was in ogre territory just last week. He could’ve been in on it.”
“You think there was a possibility an ogre snuck into the damn castle and squashed the Queen so hard she turned to ash and disappeared without being seen?”
“Well, maybe-”
“How tall you think ogres are, kid?” the older soldier practically laughed.
“I… I know they’re big, but-”
“Big? Son, the shortest ogre I’ve ever seen was at least fifteen feet tall. He couldn’t fit in that room to squash her in the first place!”
“I’m just telling you what I’ve heard!” The young fae sounded petulant. I took a deep breath to keep from laughing. The last thing I wanted was for this hilarious conversation to end. “Maybe none of it’s true. Maybe it was a setup-”
“Stop it right there. You never met the Queen in person, right? She’d never do nothing like that. Let people think she was weak enough to be killed? The woman was maniacal. She wanted to show she was powerful, not vulnerable.”
“Well… well, what do you think happened then?” the young man pouted.
“I think it was them Kings,” the older one tried to whisper. Whispering in a small space with stone walls where sound bounced? I rolled my eyes in disappointment. “You know they were here. But the Lieutenant says that’s confidential, no one outside the army is to know that information.”
“I know… but… do you think it’s okay that I told my sister?”
“You what?” the older guard practically yelled. “You were given direct instructions to keep something confidential by order of the highest-ranking member of the Queen’s Army, and you tell your fucking sister?”
“It’s just my sister!” the younger guard’s voice cracked, and I had to bite down on the meat and hold my breath to keep from howling with laughter. “She won’t tell anyone, I promise! Don’t tell the Lieutenant, please!”
“Oh, you want me to keep a secret, that’s rich!”
“It was an accident. It won’t happen again!”
“Better not,” the older guard huffed. “You’re on thin ice, Private.”
I could practically hear the tension in the air between the two of them and forced myself not to laugh. I could picture the young guard cowering with his crossbow, waiting for a chance to impress his superior officer. If I leaned over on the bed, I could just barely see the disgruntled face of the older Soldier, and at that, I did laugh.
“Hey! Quiet in there!” the Private squeaked with more aggression than was necessary, barely masking a crack in his voice.
“My apologies.” I took a deep breath to try to find some composure. Spending time in this cell wasn’t preferable, but thanks to these idiots, it could have been a lot