by Dyan Chick
“How do you know?” I asked, my voice high pitched as panic seeped in. It wasn’t just the trials, it was the knowledge that someone beyond the candidates was trying to hurt us.
“What’s going on?” he asked, leaning closer to me.
I looked around the room. We were isolated in the corner we’d claimed and nobody seemed to be paying attention to us. I looked back at Cormac. “Someone outside of the trials, someone who isn’t a candidate is trying to kill me. Us. All of us.”
“What happened?” he asked.
Quickly, I explained about the water and the fireball. I told him about my meeting with Lilian.
“You’re going to have to be extra careful,” he said. “And I’m summoning the others. You’ll need extra eyes going into this.”
“You mean?” I started, afraid to finish the sentence. Afraid to hope that I’d have all my mates with me again.
“Yes, I’ll send for everyone.”
“Even…” I asked, letting the word linger.
“Even Tristan.” Cormac frowned. “You know how I feel about him. You know I don’t trust him.”
“I know. But you don’t have to trust him. You only need to trust me.”
He slid his hand to the back of my head, his fingers tangling into my hair as he pulled my face closer to him. “I trust you.”
I stood on my tiptoes as Cormac lowered his head, pressing his warm lips to mine. A rush of heat traveled through my veins, sending shivers down into my core. Cormac’s free hand found my lower back, pulling me closer to him as our kiss deepened.
His tongue teased mine and I moaned into his mouth. I could feel Cormac smiling against the kiss.
He pulled away and I dropped back to my feet, looking up at him with longing. How I wanted him in my bed. Now.
“I missed you,” he said.
“I missed you so much,” I said.
Suddenly, the music stopped. I turned toward the row of thrones to see the queen standing.
Conversation quieted as attention focused on the queen. She lifted her hands, signaling that she was going to speak. “Welcome to Queen’s Trial.”
Polite clapping sounded from the audience. I joined in, not sure what to expect.
“Tonight, we celebrate the candidates who will begin their first physical trial in the morning. Tonight, you dine and dance with your current queen and your future queen as one of the Fae here will be crowned in the coming weeks.”
She paused, and the crowd waited in silence.
“Tomorrow begins the battle. Tonight, we feast. May the best candidate win.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dinner had a far more celebratory mood than anything I’d been to at the palace so far. For the candidates, it was somber in its own way. It was our last chance to experience something fun before we embarked on the most dangerous and important experience of our lives. For the gathered nobles, it was simply another reason to party.
I’d been to several celebrations in Faerie now and I knew the Fae took feasts seriously. Course upon course of sugared fruit, roasted meat, chilled soups, and fresh baked bread seemed to arrive in an endless loop.
Finally, after I’d sampled a little bit of everything, the food was cleared away. Glasses of never-ending wine were replaced by tiny cordial glasses with a syrupy green liquid in them. A small plate with chocolates arranged in the shape of flowers were placed at each setting. The conversation continued at a buzz as everyone reached new levels of inebriation.
I stared at the green cordial, wondering if my head could handle any more alcohol this evening without losing my sense of reality.
“You’ve been quiet,” Cormac said.
“I’ve a lot on my mind,” I said.
“When you’re dismissed tonight, call for a maid to help you. Find out what you can,” he said.
“Aren’t you coming to my room tonight?” I asked.
“I can’t stay.” He pressed his lips together as if keeping himself from saying more.
“Why?” I asked. “Back home already?”
“That and,” he leaned closer, “my presence with you has drawn some unwelcome attention.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m afraid that I’m making the other candidates more upset with you,” he said.
“That’s not possible,” I said.
“It is,” he said.
“Because?” I took a sip of water.
“Because I was betrothed to one of them,” he said.
My eyes widened and I coughed, nearly chocking on the sip of water I’d taken. “And you never felt the need to tell me this before?”
“A marriage without a mating bond is rare,” he said. “But it is done for political reasons.”
“Go on,” I said.
“I will be the king in the Autumn Court, serving right below the Queen of Faerie.”
“I know,” I said. “I don’t know what this has to do with a marriage I was never told of.”
“I ended it before I met you, but there’s still some bad blood there,” he said.
“So, I’m not the cause?” I asked.
“No,” he said.
That eased my tension a little, but it was replaced with the heavy weight of guilt. Cormac was hurting and I was making this about me. “Please don’t do this to yourself.”
“Do what?” he asked.
“Don’t retreat from me. Don’t shut me out,” I said, already sensing his dark mood rolling in like a thunderstorm.
“I shouldn’t be here, I’m going to make things worse for you,” he said.
“No, that’s not possible. You make everything better. I don’t care what they think or how upset you make some other candidate. Lilian and Rose already hate me. It’s not like you being here will add to it.”
“You’re right,” he said. “Besides, you have a temporary truce, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “And I’m giving either of them the satisfaction of sending you away when I have such limited time with you. We don’t know how these trials will end.”
“Yes, we do,” he said. “They end with you as queen.”
I was silent for a few minutes, my attention back on the green liquid. Making a quick decision, I grabbed the cordial and threw it back in one drink. Then, I set the empty glass back down. “Let’s hope you’re right.”
“I’m always right, haven’t you learned that about me yet?” he said with a grin.
I smiled. “I’m starting to.”
Cormac lifted his own cordial glass and threw it back. He slammed it down on the table. “If I’m sticking around with you tonight, we’re going to have some fun.”
He stood and held out his hand. “May I have this dance?”
I looked around. While we’d been busy talking, most of the table had emptied and the Fae had moved toward the now crowded dance floor.
Taking Cormac’s offered hand, I walked with him toward the music. My steps felt uneven and the room was fuzzier than it should be. That last drink had pushed me a little outside my comfortable range, making it harder to focus on what was going on around us.
The worry I had about drinking too much didn’t last long. Cormac’s steady hands guided me through the dance steps and I forgot about Queen’s Trial for a little while.
Laughing and breathless, I spun around the room, always with Cormac’s hands in mine. This was what I was fighting for. More dances with my prince. More happy times.
Suddenly, the music stopped, and a guard bumped into me, knocking me off balance. Cormac caught me and we both turned to see where the guard was heading. More guards pushed through the crowds amid screams and grunts as Fae were knocked down.
The party was in complete disarray. Someone ran into me and I lost hold of Cormac. He was swept away with the movement of the crowd. I fought forward, following the direction the guards were traveling.
After a few jabs in the ribs from fleeing Fae, I found the cause of the commotion. A small crowd had gathered, but everyone e
lse had fled in the opposite direction.
The queen was on the ground in front of her throne. All of her consorts were restrained by guards.
I raced to the front, pushing my way through the onlookers. “What happened?”
Lilian, Rose, and Malin were standing at the front of the gathered group. One of the guards was talking to them.
“What happened?” I asked again as I approached.
The guard who was speaking to the other candidates turned his gaze on me. “Where were you?”
“Dancing,” I said. “Please, tell me what’s going on.”
“Someone poisoned the queen,” Malin said.
“You passed her the cup,” the guard said, pointing to Lilian. “What did you put in it?”
“Nothing. She asked me to get her wine. I handed her mine since I hadn’t had a sip yet,” Lilian said.
The guard’s brow furrowed.
I didn’t wait to hear more. Someone had tried to poison Lilian and instead, the queen had taken the fall. I raced up the steps to the dais where the queen was on the ground in front of her throne.
“Stop!” A guard called as he grabbed my arm.
“Let her go,” Cormac’s voice came from behind. “She’s a healer. Let her see the queen.”
The guard hesitated.
“Let her go. By order of the Autumn Prince,” he said.
The guard let go of my arm.
I didn’t realize Cormac had that much power but now wasn’t the time to question the reasons for his authority. I ran to the queen’s side and dropped to my knees next to her.
Another Fae was kneeling on her other side. A male I didn’t recognize.
“I’ve tried all I know, but she’s fading,” he said.
“You’re a healer?” I asked.
“He’s the queen’s healer,” Cormac answered. He’d followed me and knelt down next to me.
“I am,” the male said. “In three hundred years, I’ve never seen a poison like this.”
“Try,” Cormac said. “Let her try.”
“Please save her,” one consort said.
I looked up at the fair-haired male. There were tears sliding down his cheeks. This was her mate. If it were Cormac here on the ground, I’d be beside myself in grief and I would try everything I knew to help him.
The queen was not only the ruler of Faerie, she was my mother. She’d risked so much to keep me alive. Now it was time for me to repay her.
With a deep breath, I set my hands over her chest, then closed my eyes. I had no idea what I was doing. When I’d used healing magic in the past it had been accidental. An act of desperation to save Ethan’s life. This time, I had to save my mother’s life.
I knew magic was based on intuition. I knew I possessed the power to heal, to bring forth new life; I wasn’t sure how to tap into it.
“Find your source,” Cormac said.
I nodded once, then focused on finding the point where my magic formed inside me. It came faster this time, rippling through me in a crescendo until I felt it pulsing within me. It wanted to burst free like the light I created without effort.
Doing everything I could to channel the magic for healing, for finding life and sustaining it, I sent it out of me.
An explosion of white light filled the room, blinding me. It was charged magic, carrying with it the scent of the air after a lightning strike. It scared me and part of me wanted to pull back but most of my intuition was screaming for me to push more.
I lowered my hands until I felt them touch the queen’s chest. With a scream, I channeled everything I had into her, forbidding her to die. She had to live. She had to expel the poison that was in her and wake.
My head spun and my eyelids grew heavy, but I fought against fatigue. I knew I was using more magic than I’d ever used before. It coursed through me as if coming from a source beyond me. Taking deep breaths, I ignored my racing heart and pushed on.
Sweat beaded on my forehead and rolled down my cheek. I blinked hard against the weight pressing in all around me. My arms felt like they were made of lead and my head was so heavy.
Unable to fight it anymore, I let go of the magic and collapsed in a heap. I felt someone pull me off the queen and then everything went black.
Chapter Fourteen
The room was too bright and my head throbbed. I blinked, allowing myself to adjust to the light while everything flooded back to me.
I sat up, too quickly, ignoring the room spinning around me. “Where’s the queen?”
Someone had to be here. Someone who knew. “Cormac? Nani?”
“They’re resting. They were with you all night,” Lilian said as she walked toward me, scowling.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“You tried to kill me,” she said. “You think I’d wait until the games to get even?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“The wine. That was meant for me. The only one who has a death wish for me is you. Unless you think Malin did it, but I think you and I both know she’s not the murdering type.”
“I didn’t do anything to hurt you.”
“You’re sneaky with your words. Of course, you didn’t hurt me, you failed.” She glared at me, her hands on her hips.
“I promise, I didn’t try to harm you,” I said. “I didn’t try to kill you. Why don’t you believe me?”
“Because humans lie. Maybe they taught you how,” she said.
“Why are we having this conversation again?” I asked. “You and I agreed to a truce.”
“What truce?”
My brow furrowed. “You don’t remember? Our meeting in the empty room below mine. You trying to kill me with a sword.”
She lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “If I wanted to kill you with a sword, you’d be dead.”
That was probably true. How had I been able to dodge those attacks so easily? Unless the point wasn’t to kill me, but to scare me. “You didn’t meet with me after the fireball?”
“What fireball?” she asked. “You must have hit your head.”
“Nobody tried to kill you the day that Malin and I almost drowned?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
She sat down on the edge of the bed, letting her guard down for the first time. “Tell me everything.”
“Someone tried to kill Malin and I when we were practicing. Flooded the lower levels. I thought it was you. Then, someone met with me privately, someone wearing your face, and they told me that an attempt had been made on your life. I thought Rose was seriously injured.”
“None of that happened,” Lilian said.
“Seems so,” I said. “I was set up.”
“And someone was pretending to be me,” she said.
I could almost see the chill running through her. “I’ve seen magic like it before. Tiana pretended to be Cormac. She was very believable.”
Lilian pursed her lips and turned away from me as if considering what I’d said.
“How’s the queen?” I asked.
“She’ll live.” Lilian turned back to me. “I think the poison was meant for me, though. And if you didn’t do it, the assassin is someone here in the palace. Someone who has the ability to shift into others.”
I swallowed against a lump in my throat. This was even worse than I initially thought. “That’s why I agreed to a truce. Because our attacker is trying to pit us against one another and as much as I don’t want you to win the trials, I don’t want it determined by someone else.”
“Agree,” she said. “Rose will never believe me.”
“I thought you two were close?” I asked.
“We’re only teaming up against you. Once you’re gone, neither of us would hesitate to take the other out,” she said.
“You don’t think she’s behind this?” I asked.
“I doubt it, but I don’t think we can trust anyone,” she said.
“How do I know you’re you?” I asked, my stomach twisting into knots. We’d had an entir
e conversation like this once before. How was I supposed to know if this was the real Lilian?
“Because the real me used to be engaged to one of your mates and nobody aside from our families know. It’s shameful for a partner to call off a wedding. Winning the trials is my only way to earn back my place of honor in my family,” she said.
My eyes widened. “It was you?”
She frowned. “So, he did tell you. Sort of.”
“I didn’t ask for a name,” I said. “It happened before we met.”
“Until he met you, I thought there was still hope for the two of us. When I found out he met a mate, I knew there was no chance. Don’t think I won’t take you down in the trails if I have a chance to win,” she said.
“I’m not going down easy,” I said. “But I won’t take you out like a coward, sneaking around outside the trials.”
“Like you, I want to win fair and square. I can’t say the same for Rose and whoever our attacker is,” she said.
“Do you think Rose could have flooded the training rooms?” I asked.
“Maybe,” Lilian said. “She’s more powerful than she lets on and she’s got a connection with nature that I’ll never have.”
“I saw her using fire. Can she also control water?” I asked. “Or maybe she knows how to shift into others?”
“Not sure. All I know is that you should watch your back,” she said.
“You too.” She stood and started walking toward the door.
We didn’t reach any kind of formal understanding, but I knew Lilian wasn’t my enemy. At least not in the way Rose might be. “Lilian?”
She paused, hand on the doorknob. “Yes?”
“Did you love him?” I asked.
“Maybe,” she said. “But I’m not his mate so none of that matters.”
“It does,” I said. “And I’m sorry.”
She opened the door and left the room.
I sat in silence wondering what my next steps should be. I knew the trials were to begin today and wasn’t sure if they’d been delayed. I didn’t know what kind of shape the queen was in or how I’d managed to call on so much magic while healing her. Too many thoughts swirled in my head.