Free Almost Everything by Tate Hallaway Page B

if it was this strange loveless confarreatio thing. I mean, I’d never thought we’d make good on our betrothal by actually walking down some aisle, but I liked him. If he married Captain Creepy, he’d leave. I might never see him again.
    Weirdly, Eliaswould probably be okay with it. He’d be part of a kingdom again, back in service, with a purpose and all that. Plus, he’d probably get regular “meals” again.
    “What do you guys do about the hunt?” I asked abruptly.
    “The witch queen sacrifices herself every generation. Isn’t that how it’s always done?”
    “What, you mean, she goes voluntarily?”
    “How else would you do it? It’s an honorable tradition, going back thousands of years.”
    “Sure, before the secret war, but—still?”
    “Yes, still. Always.” Luis seemed very baffled by this string of questions and my reaction. For the first time since I met him, I heard the barest trace of a Southern accent in his voice. “What else would you do? Draw lots? A queen has a duty to keep the peace.”
    His certainty surprised me. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around this scenario. I’d made up all sorts of reasons why covens might decide to give up one of their own, but give up their queen? And, if they sacrificed once a generation, they must run out of queens pretty quickly. Unless they waited for the queen to produce an heir before killing her—but that was just too sad and horrible to even consider.
    The whole thing seemed opposite of human nature. If you have power, you fight to keep it, right? I couldn’t imagine being so certain of my duty to my people that I’d be willing to die for it. It seemed antiquated, more like King Arthur than Machiavelli. And from what I’d seen of my fellow witches, their tables were anything but round. We always seemed on the verge of some war or another either with the vampires or ourselves. “So you’re all still friendly with witches?”
    “My father is a witch,” he said, then gave a guilty little shrug before adding, “as you already guessed.”
    “But he’s not the King of Witches,” I said.
    “Good Heavens, no! Whoever heard of such a thing? A witch king! A man couldn’t rule witches. Anyway, how could there be peace if I had to lose a parent to the hunt?”
    Yeah, how,indeed. I was beginning to think my dad’s people were the only ones without some kind of hunt plan in place. “Okay, one more time, with feeling,” I muttered, through sips of mocha. “I’m having trouble really understanding this, so let me see if I’ve got it. In the Southern Region, the witch queen ritually sacrifices herself to the vampire hunt.”
    I was getting tired of standing, so I sat down on the cool concrete of the steps. Luis sat down next to me, and, when I looked at him to make sure I’d understood correctly, he nodded in agreement.
    “But why?” I continued. “I mean, why would she do that? Aren’t vampires and witches enemies where you come from?”
    He put a hand on his chest. “Do you think I would exist if they were?”
    “I do,” I said, exasperated. “I exist. And my mom is the Queen of Witches, and my dad is the vampire king.”
    “Oh, that’s not good,” Luis said. “What will you do when it’s time for the hunt?”
    “Stop it, is what I did,” I said grimly.
    “You stopped the hunt? That’s impossible. There is no stopping the hunt, only postponing it.”
    “Yeah, I’mkind of getting that,” I said with a sigh.
    “Your mother will have to pick a substitute,” he said pragmatically. “But she will have to choose carefully. Everyone eventually resents a lottery, but unless someone volunteers, it may be the only way.”
    I glared at him over the rim of my cup. “I’m actually looking for a way where nobody has to die.”
    “And how do you expect to manage that miracle?”
    “Magic?”
    He didn’t look very impressed. “Let me know how that goes.”
    Damn. I’d been really hoping he’d tell me all about some