by Ann Denton
The door behind us opened and Ryan stomped into the room. My half-giant had a hard time doing anything other than stomping, he was so huge and stacked with muscle. I gave him a weak grin in greeting. My eyes trailed over the armor he’d strapped over the formal wear he’d donned for the morning’s execution. He was ready to leave.
Ryan stood at attention, “Everything’s being loaded, Your Majesty. We’re ready, whenever you are.”
Connor went to close the door behind Ryan as Quinn hauled Abbas into a sitting position.
What are you doing? I thought at Quinn.
He needs to be locked back up while we figure this out, Quinn responded. And I don’t want him overhearing our plans. I’ll take him via the royal passageways to a secure room I have.
I nodded.
Ryan waited expectantly.
I nodded at Connor, who shut the door to the hallway. Then I told Ryan, “Actually, there’s been a complication.”
Ryan swore when I told him about the visit from Rasle.
“Shite! Well, I’m going to have to rearrange my forces. I’ll have to pull back the very men I just had suit up. They’re the best. I need them to protect you.”
“I haven’t decided if I’m staying—” I said.
Ryan shook his head. “Queen Isla’s always been a vulture. You don’t want to leave her alone here. She’ll take every scrap she can. You’re staying.”
I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes. “Excuse me, good knight, I must have misheard. It sounded like you were giving me orders.”
Ryan stepped into my personal space, completely unintimidated by the fact that I was his queen. He dragged his index finger slowly over my jaw and gently pushed my chin until my head was tilted back enough to meet his eyes. “Oh, I’ll make you stay. I’ll make you do many, many things.”
“Queen.” I tried to trump him.
It didn’t work. His finger trailed down my neck, sending shivers down my spine and making my toes curl. The finger started to dip below the collar of my dress. But he teased me, playing with just the edge. “I’m sorry. What was that? I couldn’t hear.”
“I said …”
He chuckled as he pinched a nipple through my dress and I lost my trail of thought again.
“Dammit!” I smacked his hand away and took a step back.
He went to the bell pull and yanked it. “I’ll get a messenger sent down to one of my marshals.”
I shook my head. I was angry. But not at him. I was angry at the situation. And anger was better than all the other shite emotions running through me. So, I ran with it. “Well, you wouldn’t be the first to tell me what to do this morning. Jorad doesn’t want me to leave either.” My ire might spare Ryan, but it left no quarter for Jorad or Queen Isla. Or for the villain who’d started all of this. My eyes flew to Abbas. Quinn had just slung the sorry sack of skin over his shoulders.
I clenched my teeth. I couldn’t wait for the moment I could smash in the scoundrel’s face.
Ryan’s tone grew gentle as he watched me scowl at Abbas. “We’ll find Avia. One of my scouts said he saw something in the sky to the south. He wasn’t sure what it was, it was too far away, but possibly the dragon.”
“The south?” I exchanged a confused look with Connor, who leaned against the wall near the door. “But, wouldn’t they take her into Cheryn? To the north?”
Ryan gave a shrug.
“Isla’s arriving on flying bears,” I added. “Could that be what they saw?”
“Rasle’s west. So, unlikely. And this thing was headed away, not toward the capital.”
I opened my mouth to ask more about what exactly Ryan’s scouts had seen, but before I could get out a word, the door swung open, nearly smacking Connor in the face.
“I figured it out!” Cerena limped in, carrying a giant leather-bound book. Her hair was a wild silver dandelion, a frizzed halo around her head. It didn’t look like my new castle mage had slept. Her black dress was covered in grime. She looked nearly as bad as Abbas, who’d been in the dungeons.
Cerena slammed the book on the table, startling Declan out of his calculations. A bluebird swooped into the room behind her and settled on a chair back. I hadn’t realized she’d had a familiar. Then again, I’d only ever visited her cottage briefly before.
Connor closed the door again and we all turned to face Cerena.
“He shouldn’t have been able to order that dragon to attack you!” she rasped.
My eyes automatically went to Abbas. Quinn had stopped walking toward the spelled passageway the second Cerena had smashed through the door. Abbas drooped limply over my knight’s shoulder. The chain on the prisoner’s neck trailed onto the floor.
“I’ve checked that damn parchment and that damn spell six times,” Cerena said. I could tell she was about to start a rant, but a cough interrupted her, and her shoulders shook as she covered her mouth. Connor got her a glass of water, which she downed, before clearing her throat and continuing, “Sorry. That engagement document was done right. That betrayal spell works. I tested it.”
I didn’t ask how. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. The spell made those who betrayed Evaness explode. I kept my eyes on her face and off her dress, suddenly suspicious of the grime on it.
Declan took a step forward, head tilted in interest, notebook in his hand forgotten. “Well, if the spell wasn’t faulty, how did Abbas get around it?”
Cerena’s eyes gleamed. She pointed a gnarled finger at the man Quinn carried. “That isn’t Abbas.”
Chapter Two
My mind was a shipwreck. Cerena’s words were monster waves. They smashed apart everything I’d thought I’d known. I couldn’t breathe. I lost all sense of direction. I felt dizzy. I staggered backward a step. Ryan was there in an instant. He caught me before I could fall, wrapping his thick arms securely around me. He noticed my cuts and used his pink healing magic to seal the wounds caused by my peace magic.
I hardly noticed what he did. I was still stuck on what Cerena had said. “What?” my voice was breathless as I looked at my mage.
“He signed that engagement document with the name Abbas,” Cerena said. “The document binds the names of those who sign. The loophole? It assumes you sign your own name.” She smacked her book open to a marked page and pointed at the spell. “There! See?”
Declan stepped closer and bent to examine the spell.
Cerena continued speaking to the rest of us. “That clever shite. He bound Abbas to you. But not himself. It’s the only way he could have gotten around my spell work. Abbas couldn’t betray you. Can’t betray you, wherever the hell he is. Whoever this interloper is … could.”
I turned in Ryan’s arms to stare at Abbas as Quinn set him back on the floor and strode over to the rest of us. I stared at the prince’s body and literally repeated Cerena’s words in my head. The sneaking parasite passed out on my floor wasn’t Abbas. I pulled away from Ryan and walked toward the body on the floor. I crouched down next to him. I grabbed a hank of his jet-black hair and pulled, lifting his head off the ground. I studied his full lips. His thick brows. His beard, which stuck out at all angles.
My mind whirled: If he’s not Abbas, who the sarding hell is he?
What she says … it’s impossible, Quinn thought-projected to the group, to those of us who wore his magic beads and could hear his voice inside our heads.
We all cringed, except for Cerena. When Quinn projected his thoughts to multiple people, it was horribly loud. And it echoed.
I saw his thoughts. His people’s thoughts. No one thought about deception. No one pictured him as anything other than Abbas. I saw him talking to the rebels as Abbas, arranging for the dragon—
“Okay,” Connor held up his hand to stop Quinn. He waited a moment, so our ears could recover before he spoke. “I agree that it seems odd. But you have to admit, the way he was able to shuffle his thoughts and emotions, that’s not natural. I’ve never seen anyone pull off something like that.”
Quinn gave a brisk nod.
/> “He wouldn’t be able to wear a disguise potion and come through the front gate,” Ryan pondered. “So, if it’s not Abbas, how’d he get through the gate?”
I turned where I crouched and met Cerena’s eyes. She held my gaze, unfazed even as every single one of my knights turned his attention on her.
She lifted her head as she spoke, “The gate accounts for human magic. But no hedge witch and no mage has enough magic to fully counter … non-human magics.”
My heart dropped. My hands flew back from Abbas, as if he’d burnt me.
“Meaning?” Connor asked Cerena, not quite sure of her implications.
“Whatever he is … whoever he is … he’s not human.”
I stared down at the body below me. Whatever hid under the shell that was Abbas, it was cruel; it was evil. It had schemed and taken my sister.
A knife flayed me at that thought.
The words slipped out of my lips soft and breathy, “So … we don’t even know who has Avia.”
“No. And we don’t know who it is that’s working against Evaness,” Cerena said.
My stomach crumpled.
Declan cut off my panic attack with logic. “All those servants were from Cheryn. How could that have worked? It has to be them.”
Cerena shook her head. “Elven chains could do the trick, too. I haven’t looked into all the fae weapons, but djinn wishes are also pretty expansive. Mermaids can manipulate memory. There are a lot of magical possibilities. Just non-human ones.”
“Sard!” I slammed my fist into the table, scaring Cerena’s bluebird, which fluttered over to a nearby curtain rod, to peer at me from a safer distance.
Screw queenly. I was furious. I wanted answers.
I walked over to Abbas. I bent and smacked him hard across the face. “Wake up!”
He merely groaned. I’d hit him with too much peace earlier. His eyelids only fluttered when I punched him.
Whoa, Dove! Slow down. You don’t want it to be too hard for him to talk when he wakes. Quinn grabbed my hand as I reared back for another blow. Body shots, darling. Stick to body shots.
I love you, I thought as I started pummeling.
Jorad walked in as I smashed Abbas in the ribs.
“Torturing prisoners in our main rooms now, are we?” he asked dryly. “Should I have the room redecorated in shackles for you, Your Majesty?”
I whirled on Jorad, that smug shite. “Where are all the servants that came with Abbas?”
“As of right now, they are packing to leave. They had been detained for questioning, but it was determined they knew nothing of—”
“Put them back in their wing. Lock them in. Guards on all entrances, exits, windows.”
“We have a royal entourage about to arrive and those rooms are needed.”
“Open another wing!”
Jorad’s eyes shut and his face contorted in anger. “We don’t have time—”
“Then move the people from Cheryn to the unopened wing. Or the dungeon.”
“Do you intend to go to war with the sultan?” Jorad sniped.
I sat back next to Abbas prone body. I stared at the prince, at the monster without a name. I was at a loss. I didn’t know what to do.
Declan crouched beside me and offered me a hand. He pulled me to my feet. “Quinn could always send one of his people with them, have them take someone’s place with a disguise spell. Dig around to see if their stories change once they’re outside the palace.”
I nodded.
Done, Dove. I’m going to go find my guy now. Don’t kill Abbas without me.
I wouldn’t deprive you.
Good.
Ryan muttered, “If Isla’s coming on flying bears, she’ll be here soon, and I need to rearrange my troops. I’ll still send out a search party. But it’s going to be smaller. We’ll need numbers here.”
I agreed.
Ryan left. Cerena followed, taking her book, her message delivered.
Connor turned to me and gave a tiny smile. “I need to go with Jorad. I’ll need to make announcements to the nobles in residence, prepare the heralds, write a speech to welcome Isla.”
He and Jorad shut the door behind them; they left Declan and I staring down at Abbas.
“Well, I suppose we can’t just leave the shitepile there,” Declan kissed the top of my head before releasing my hand. “I’ll grab a few guards in the hallway to go lock him up.”
Declan left, and I pulled out a chair and sank into it. I had no idea what I was going to do. No idea how to save my sister. No idea who was after me. I was lost.
I covered my face with my hands, leaning on the table. I tried to tamp down on the anger I felt at myself.
I was so sarding screwed.
A bird shrilled and I saw Cerena’s bluebird swoop past me. She must have forgotten it—
A hand closed over my ankle and yanked. I tipped backward in the chair. My head smacked the wooden chair back and then the ground so quickly I didn’t even have time to scream. Black flecks filled my vision and I was dazed. When my eyes cleared, I saw that Abbas leaned over me. The whites of his eyes glowed as he stared down at me. He covered my mouth with one hand. His other hand wrapped around my neck.
I pushed frantically against him, but he was too strong. He flexed his fingers, cutting off my airflow. My kicks slowed and my hands clawed at him. Cerena’s bluebird divebombed Abbas.
He didn’t react. Not to the bird’s attacks or mine. Not even when I drew blood.
Instead, he pressed his body into mine, using his strength to pin me down and keep me immobile.
Abbas spoke and his voice had an odd, metallic echo to it. He didn’t sound human. “Originally, I wanted to take your kingdom.” He leaned closer, a crazed smile on his face. “Now, I’m going to take everything from you.” The fingers that had been gagging me started to move. He dragged his hand over the edge of my crown, which was tangled in my dark brown locks. Then his fingers trailed over my cheek and down my neck.
I couldn’t suppress the chill that crept down my spine.
The hand that choked me let up slightly. I gasped, gulping air as quickly as I could.
I heard footsteps. Declan and the guards were almost back. I just needed to make it a few more seconds. I didn’t want him to realize they were coming. I didn’t want him to try to get away. I struggled to make as much noise as possible, trying to punch Abbas in the face, kicking my feet against the floor, squealing against his fingers as they clenched once more around my neck.
Abbas merely laughed and ran his nose along my neck, like a lover might. “Just wait, Bloss. I have so much in store for you. The most beautiful nightmare.”
His face seemed to shimmer before my eyes. His mouth morphed and stretched until he had a sharp row of dagger-like teeth. And then he sank his teeth into my neck, biting down so hard I screamed.
Chapter Three
I woke up in my chamber, stripped to my chemise, laying on top of my covers. I was desperately thirsty. But at least my neck didn’t hurt. I ran a finger over the healed skin.
Declan was perched at my side on the bed. Connor was just behind him. Quinn and Ryan stood on the other side of the bed, watching over me. When I coughed, Connor handed me a tumbler of water, which I gulped down.
“Are you…” he trailed off, worried.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t baby me. Just tell me that asswipe’s been beaten within an inch of his life and healed so I can beat him myself.”
Declan grinned at me. “Of course, Peace,” he used his nickname for me, “Ryan and Quinn both beat him.”
I winked at my knights across the bed and Ryan lifted his chin.
Declan grabbed my hand, “You know, I really love the irony of your power.”
I smiled at him. “Me, too. Now help me to my feet.”
Declan helped me up. Because attitude or not, magical healing or not, an attack still had some physical aftermath. I had to shake off tremors from the adrenaline. I was still slightly light-headed f
rom the blood loss. But I stared at myself in the looking glass and didn’t see a hint of a scar.
“Your work?” I asked Ryan.
He nodded. “The healer and I worked together.”
Ryan and the other guys followed me into my dressing room. “I’m nearly out of time to get ready, aren’t I?” I asked.
“Take whatever time you need to recover, Bloss Boss,” Connor said. “I’ll delay Isla if we need to.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to look weak during our first meeting.”
Connor reached for my hand. He felt my pulse. “You sure?”
“I’m fine,” I told him.
Declan spoke up. “Abbas shape-shifted. His face when I came in—”
“That proves Cerena right, doesn’t it?” I said. “The real Abbas can’t shape-shift, can he?”
Declan shook his head. “No. The real one’s supposedly got superhuman speed. And the three wishes all half djinn get. But that’s it. I believe Cerena. My question is … I didn’t recognize what he was. Did you?”
I ran a hand self-consciously over my neck. The healer had removed the scar, but a phantom pain sent my pulse racing. “We’ll make him tell us.”
We certainly will, Quinn came up and pulled my hand away from my neck and kissed me gently there.
Connor came to my right side and stroked my arm. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
I gave him a small smile and grabbed his hands, pulling them around me. I needed a hug. I needed more than a hug. I wanted to be wrapped up in reassurances and soft crooning like an infant. But I didn’t have time for any more comfort than the hug. So, I simply latched onto Connor and let him drain a little of my fear. “Thanks.”
Declan paced in front of me. “Abbas is an impostor. He’s capable of shape shifting. Controlling a dragon. Which now we can’t even be sure is his brother. We made that assumption thinking we were fighting Abbas. But whoever he is … he’s unstable enough or desperate enough to attack you in your own palace …”
I raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Does your pacing mean you know who he is?”
Declan bit his lip. “No. It means I’m worried about Avia. Desperation isn’t good.”