Beauty's Cursed Sleep

by Mary E. Twomey

  A heavy set of boots tromped down the hallway, and when the door swung open, a man in all black stared down at the two with a bland expression on his face. “The queen wants to meet Electric.”

  Dustin rolled his eyes at the nickname that was far from his first choice. “Alright, Jared. He’s coming.”

  Without waiting for the prisoner to catch his breath, Jared and Dustin hoisted Cordray to his feet, leading him along as Cord stumbled down the dimly lit hallway toward his doom.

  25

  Queen of the Dead

  Cordray wasn’t sure what he expected Malaura to be like. The last photo he’d seen of her was nearly a decade old. Part of him wondered if she wasn’t half-myth at this point.

  Yet there she was, voluptuous with dark red lipstick painting overly thick lips. She looked at him almost maternally, but with a smile that didn’t touch her eyes. She looked to be in her late forties, but Cordray knew she was in her mid-sixties. Yet there were no wrinkles, no frown lines marring her porcelain skin, and her hair was pulled back into a tight bun that was tucked inside a smaller crown. Her angular cheekbones made her cheeks sink in, giving her whole face a narrow aesthetic. King Hubert had been captured in photographs with many a regal and imposing expression, but they all paled in comparison to his older sister’s presence that exuded pure wickedness.

  When he was brought in, she stood from what could only be described as a throne in the center of the long room that, even aboveground as they were, still felt cold, much like the concrete room below he’d been locked inside.

  “Hello, Cordray. How lovely to finally meet you.” Her voice was low and sultry when she spoke, and despite his fear, an errant thought passed through his mind that she would make a fantastic jazz singer.

  Cordray did his best to stand straight as Dustin and Jared released him. He wondered where on earth he was, but didn’t think information like that would be handed over to a flight risk. He didn’t respond to her greeting, but stood tall, a slight sneer on his face.

  Malaura waited for him to speak, but when he didn’t, her smile melted. “I’ve heard great things about you. Adam Fontaine called a doctor to get his burn marks looked at after your attack, and I must say, I was impressed when I read the report. Such raw talent. There’s a power and control to your electricity that most study years to achieve, but never do.” She paused, sizing up his sneer with appreciation. “You’re gifted, that’s for certain. What a waste, that you didn’t grow up with anyone to show you who you are.” She shook her head. “What I could’ve done with power like yours. And to think, the Chancellor wants to shut you up and shove your abilities in a closet to rot.”

  When Cordray still didn’t respond, Dustin pushed him forward. “The queen’s talking to you.”

  Malaura came down from her elevated chair and slowly circled Cordray, as if daring him to flinch from the intense scrutiny. She was tall – taller than him, even, by a handful of inches. She had long, pointy fingernails that were painted to match her cherry lips. “But I would never shut you away, as if your power is something to be ashamed of. If you were mine, I would parade you around for everyone to see.”

  Cordray fought the urge to roll his eyes, and tucked his hands behind his back, standing at attention to avoid fidgeting. He wanted to get back to Rory. If she was in her coma, then only he could wake her. He could picture Leah’s pinched expression, and the Chancellor’s tearful eyes as they looked down at their daughter. He could see Benjamin beating himself up, though everyone would swear there was nothing he could’ve done. Cordray even felt a pang of sadness for Prince Henry’s plight, knowing that for all of his jokes, he cared deeply for his few friends.

  Perhaps it was because he’d dealt with Remus more often through their time studying, but he saw his tutor’s face clearest of all – his head bent over Rory’s hospital bed, and a vacant expression on his face. He’d sacrificed five years off the tail end of his life to give Rory this chance. There was a commitment there that transcended most familial ties, probably because they worked together, went to family functions together, and studied side-by-side almost every evening.

  And of course, Cordray was stuck who knows where, talking about politics he couldn’t have cared less about. The only ability he cared about right then was the one that would enable him to wake Rory.

  Malaura moved behind him and brushed her fingers along the small of his back, causing him to stiffen. “Do you know what my Pulse is?”

  Cordray said nothing, deriving pleasure from her frustration at not being able to draw him out.

  She leaned in over his shoulder from behind, as if revealing a secret, but everyone in the magical world knew her confession. Her lips tickled the shell of his ear, and he tried to suppress a shudder. “I can absorb others’ Pulses and make them my own. It doesn’t last forever, mind you, but it’s enough to make me the key that can unlock many opportunities for the Lethals who have been so carelessly cast aside.” She moved to his left and ran her hand over Cord’s chest, practically purring as she touched him how she pleased without permission or apology. “You’re on the pill, though, so I can’t tap into you yet. Pity.” Then her tone turned sharp in Jared’s direction. “Take him back to the holding room until the pill wears off.”

  Cordray began to panic at being locked away, so he opened his mouth. “I don’t belong here. No matter what you want, your politics have nothing to do with me.”

  Malaura stiffened and held her hand up in Jared’s direction to stop him. “Nothing to do with you? Don’t you understand what they want to do with all of us? The moment you ask them for the pill, they’ve registered you in their system. They want to strip us of our magic.” Her nostrils flared as her temper climbed.

  Instead of biting back or caving, Cordray kept his voice low. “You’ve got to know that attacking the Chancellor’s daughter isn’t the way to convince legislature that we’re okay left unchecked. It’s the stunt you and your people pulled that’ll push everyone closer to the edge.”

  “If we don’t fight back, they’ll do as they please. Right now the pill is optional, but it’s a swoop of a pen away from being mandatory if my insufferable brother wills it. Can you imagine? From the time children are old enough to demonstrate magic, they’d have it quickly stripped from them! They won’t be given the chance to prove they can be trusted. The choice will be made for them.” She moved to stand in front of him and motioned to his form. “Imagine if your father hadn’t spun that story about your mommy dying because of faulty wiring in the house.”

  Cordray’s spine stiffened, his heart clenching in his chest at the secret that plagued him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Her fingernails traced up and down his arm, as if it thrilled her to be near someone so deadly. “Do you think you’re the first child whose parents tried to hush away problems with lies? Had you been found out, it could’ve been jailtime for you for the rest of your days, not to mention a mandatory pill that’s given to every Lethal in lockup. And yet, look at how well you turned out. You found a way to self-regulate with your gloves. You’re why we need to be given the choice.”

  “And you’re why we won’t be given one,” Cord argued. “It’s your attacks that set us all back.”

  Malaura lowered her chin in a slow seethe. “You’re a Lethal, Cordray. No matter who you’re sleeping with, you’re one of us, not them. The Chancellor isn’t coming for you. In fact, he’ll be glad to be rid of you. Having a Lethal so taken with his daughter?” She let out a slow chortle. “I would send you back just to watch him explain that humiliation to the people. The precious daughter who lived for so long on borrowed time, one touch away from being electrocuted for the remainder of her days.”

  “I would never hurt Rory. The Chancellor gave me that pill to help us both.”

  Her upper lip curled in distaste. “People say I’m evil because I welcome in the cast-outs, but it’s my brother who’s the tyrant, doling out that pill. He’s forcing scared and confuse
d victims of fate to lessen themselves so the world can feel bigger in his tiny mind.”

  Cordray had never met the king, but recognized a decent headline spin when he heard it. “So you poisoned the Chancellor’s daughter, abducted me against my will, but yet you stand here, preaching all about the power of choice?” Cordray couldn’t hold back his eyeroll any longer. “You’re an idiot.”

  Fire flared in Malaura’s eyes. She stomped over to Jared and palmed his face with an anger that made Cordray wish he hadn’t opted for the flippant insult. Jared’s arms flailed out, but he didn’t push her away. Instead, he moved with her as she stalked over to Cord, her free hand darting out so she could grab his arm.

  Cordray made to shake her loose, but before he could, a current rushed through that stopped him in his tracks. He’d never experienced a heart attack before, but he imagined this might be what it felt like. Pain seized his chest in a way that scared him. He cried out in shock, wondering if this would be how he died. His left arm began to grow heavy as Malaura’s look of determination mutated to a sneer. “Do you think you can speak to me however you wish? Do you understand who I am? I decide who lives and who dies. I don’t wait for the law to be fair. I break what needs to be broken, and I won’t have you insulting me while I fight for all of us!”

  When she released him, Cordray fell to his knees, clutching his chest as he willed his heartrate to hold steady. He glanced up at Jared, who remained expressionless at being so thoroughly used.

  Malaura reached down and cupped Cordray’s chin. “Do you have anything to say to me?”

  There were so many things Cordray wanted to say, but he knew none of them would be all that helpful. “You’ll be Queen of the Dead if you solve your problems like that.” Then he gathered enough gumption and spat in her face, making it clear that no matter what she wanted, he wouldn’t comply.

  26

  A Beastly Kiss

  “It’s the beeping,” Leah commented. “It’s making all of us crazy. Benjamin, when was the last time you ate anything?”

  Benjamin tilted his head at Leah, mildly amused at her mothering. He’d lived with the family for twenty-five years, and she’d never stopped treating him like he was her son, even though they weren’t too far off from each other in age. “The last time I ate was the last time you did.” His hands were tented in front of his lips, his shoes up on the edge of the hospital bed, and his elbows resting on his thighs. “I didn’t think she’d still be here four months after the attack.”

  “She’s breathing on her own,” Leah said for the sixth time that morning. “That’s promising.”

  “Promising that Remus’ counter-curse held up, sure, but no one’s been able to find Cordray yet. I feel like I should be out there with them, searching.”

  Leah shook her head. “It’s best you’re here. You’re her guard, and you’re the only person I trust to watch her for us.”

  Benjamin let out a disgruntled “pfft”. “You shouldn’t trust me. She got attacked on my watch. I shouldn’t have taken her to Cord’s cabin. We should’ve gone anywhere else. Stefan’s idea of holing up in the palace would’ve been better.”

  “Then King Hubert would also have been in danger.”

  “We should’ve left a day earlier.”

  Leah placed her hand on Benjamin’s. “Enough. We all knew this was coming. There’s nothing you could’ve done.” Leah stood over her daughter’s bedside and fluffed the pillows, taking care not to ruffle the comatose girl’s hair. “She looks like she’s sleeping.” Leah ran her fingers down Rory’s cheek, tearing up yet again. “My beauty. I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.”

  Benjamin put his feet on the ground and frowned at Leah. “Don’t you start with that again. You’re going to get all emotional, and I’m telling you, I can’t take it today. I’m barely holding it together.”

  Leah paid him no mind, lost in her memories. “She was perfect. I know every mother says that, but it was true about Aurora. Not a thing I would’ve changed, not even the sleepless nights.” Tears fell down her cheeks in a steady stream, as they did every day around this time. “I would give anything for her to keep me awake now! Did I tell her I loved her enough?”

  Benjamin couldn’t tame his smirk. “Only every day, several times a day. Rory knows, Leah. She’s still in there, remember. The nurse said we should talk to her as if she’s in the room, so she’ll remember to come back to us if her body gives her that option.”

  “But she won’t come back until Cordray wakes her, and we can’t find him!”

  Benjamin shushed her gently, and rose from his chair to take her hand. He stayed by Leah’s side until she calmed down, assuring her as often as she could hear it that somehow Rory would be alright.

  He didn’t leave the hospital when Leah’s guard came to pick her up and take her home. She had political duties to attend to, but Benjamin did not. So he remained by Rory’s side, sleeping there every night, even when the nurses tried to kick him out. Leah’s guard could Pulse Compliance into people, so he did what he needed to get Benjamin permission to stay by Rory’s side.

  When Benjamin was alone with her, he uncoiled a fistful of her hair from under her head and checked the door to make sure it was shut. He’d hated braiding her hair when she’d been a child, but she’d loved wearing her long black locks in two braids on either side of her head.

  “There you go, talking me into things you know I don’t want to do,” he chided the sleeping woman, as if it had been her idea for him to twist her hair in the hospital room. “If anyone asks, I’m telling them the nurses braided your hair.”

  When he finished, he sat back and pulled his book off the nightstand, opening it to read aloud to her. “I know you don’t like my Westerns, but it’s my turn to pick. You made me sit through Goldilocks and the Three Bears so many times, I had the book memorized. This is a drop in the bucket, kiddo.” He flipped to the page he’d left off at the night before. “I’m hoping that you’ll hate it so much that you’ll sit straight up and tell me off for making you sit through the longest story of your life.”

  He sniggered at what he inserted in his mind to be her internal groan, but stiffened when the door opened. “Adam? What are you doing here?”

  Adam’s beastly face made him less likely to travel in the daylight, but it had been four months since Rory had fallen asleep, and he hadn’t been by. Oh, he’d sent flowers and food for the mourners, but he hadn’t stopped over to see the only woman who’d remained in his life. He scowled at Benjamin. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here. It’s after visiting hours.”

  Benjamin stood, but didn’t extend his hand, knowing Adam wouldn’t take it. “That’s the thing about being her guard. I get to bend all sorts of rules.”

  “Get out. I need a minute with her.”

  Benjamin tilted his head at Adam. “You want to try asking that again, Son? Convince me why I should leave her alone with you.”

  “I’m her friend, and I need a minute with her.”

  Benjamin looked at Adam appraisingly. “A friend, eh? I’ve seen her friends show up here. I’ve seen her family. I’ve seen every single one of her employees come to pay their respects. But I haven’t seen you come by yet. I have no idea why you’re here now.”

  Adam snarled and threw his arms out to the sides after he set his leather satchel on the floor. “You want to watch, so I can give you a show? Do you really think I’ll allow that?”

  “A show? What are you talking about?”

  “The curse! She asked me to… And Henry said he already tried, but it didn’t take. I know it has to be Cordray, and I know we’re not in love, obviously. But she made me promise I’d try to wake her.”

  Benjamin folded his arms over his chest. “So four months later, you finally got around to it? You are without a doubt, the most selfish man I know.”

  “I told you to get out. I can’t imagine you being so obtuse as to need to hear instructions twice.”

  It wasn’t Ad
am’s surly nature that gave Benjamin the urge to stretch his legs out in the hallway, but the fact that he was willing to try anything to rouse his charge at this point. “If you’re Rory’s true love, I’ll pucker up and kiss you myself.”

  Adam snarled at Benjamin and shoved him out into the hallway, shutting himself in the room with the only woman who loved him enough to stick around.

  He ran his hands through his hair four times, silently asking himself again what exactly he was doing here. He closed his eyes, and then opened them to glare at Rory, who still lay motionless in her bed. He’d paid someone to deliver flowers and secretly install a tiny security camera in the room so he could keep an eye on her remotely, but Benjamin had been right. Four months wasn’t exactly punctual for a first in-person visit. He’d been hoping Cordray would show up, but as the weeks ticked by, he began to lose hope that the man who’d electrocuted him was still alive.

  Though he’d watched Rory on the camera, she was thinner in person. She’d always been a waif, but four months of intravenous nourishment had left her a hop, skip and a jump away from positively boney. She’d always been a little pale, but there was no hint of color to her cheeks anymore.

  “This is stupid,” Adam lectured her with a scowl. “You know this won’t work. But of course, here I am, suckered into following your orders, like I’m some servant you can ring up for whatever favor you like.” He paced the room, nervous that he was in this position, and that no one had been able to wake her.