Things had worked out in the end, I reminded myself. But as the darkness in my stomach growled, tearing through my soul in a moment of weakness, I was reminded of my brush with death, and how I’d been brought back. The beast inside would not be easy to tame. I’d felt it since I died, and with each passing day, it grew hungrier.
Glancing in the direction of Morgana−who was on the back of a brown horse−I closed my eyes for a moment.
Some of my people waved to the fae who’d fought beside us at the battle, and I was grateful that some of the prejudice which had divided us for so long had been bridged, but I could see in the eye-rolling and sneers on several guards that we still had a long way to go.
The obsidian towers of Lepidus Court faded into a whirl of white flurries as we rode away, leaving Blaise and his court behind, moving forward toward the unknown. My unknown. What was Magaelor like since Edgar? What was I returning to?
We galloped, the sound of hooves hitting the ice in their hundreds, followed us through the small, run-down villages. Whispers of the dead caught in the wind. Any remaining feral fae would have been chased from these buildings, by Blaise’s elite guards. They had taken to rounding them up and bringing them to the castle. To do who-knew-what.
We rode over a long, narrowing road, until we reached the battlefield. Scattered armor and pieces of weaponry greeted us, sticking out through the cover of snow that had coated any crimson.
Freshly dug mass graves were dark against the blanket of white, a stark reminder of what we’d lost. I pulled on the reins, and we all stopped. Jumping down from my horse, I thudded to my feet, and took a moment to whisper a silent prayer for the fallen. The thing inside of me−a darkness left behind by the ritual to bring me back−tugged at my thoughts, attempting to pull my attention inward, but when tears pricked my eyes, it relented.
My boots crunched over ice as I watched Adius and the other guards readied our most prestigious. We would carry them back to Magaelor for a proper burial. Their bodies, perfectly preserved, frozen in their armor, were wrapped in cloth. I could only see two from where I stood; a head guard was in one of them, another, Lady Arma, who’d insisted on fighting, leaving her young husband a widower. Edgar, however, had been buried in a traitor’s grave, unmarked, away from the rest of the dead. Still, I kept his burial place locked away in the back of my mind.
I wished we could have brought them all home, but too many were lost. None of us knew what awaited us beyond the mountains, none more so than me. “I’m queen.” I said aloud, as if it might somehow slip through my fingers again. “Queen of Magaelor.”
Cedric’s feet hit the snow. He held the reins of his white horse, looking over the wreckage which slowly was being covered with flakes. Soon enough, the only evidence of a battle would be the pain we all held, tucked away in our hearts.
Cedric’s cold fingers entwined with mine. “We made it.” He paused, teetering on the edge of words. “I must tell you something, Winter.” His golden eyes met mine, flecked with amber, contrasting the white wasteland around us. “I’m not sure I can stay once we return to Magaelor.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “You said you’d stay with me.”
“I did.”
“Then what changed?”
He gave me a knowing look and my stomach dipped.
“I’m not angry.” He said, unlinking our fingers.
He knew. I felt like I could vomit at any moment. Feign ignorance or admit the truth and be wrong? “Cedric…” I hesitated.
“You don’t love me. You’ve been distant since we arrived here, and I wondered if part of it had to do with Blaise…”
I blew out a tense breath. At least he didn’t know about the kiss. I parted my lips to speak, but my voice was swallowed by shame. I wanted Cedric with me, yet, when his lips were on mine, I thought of another. “I want to be different.” I said, with earnest.
“I know.”
Fae could tell when they were being lied to, so it was hardly a surprise. “How can you tell if someone is lying?” I asked, realizing I’d never ventured into that question before. “I mean, can you always tell?” I had lied to Blaise before, and he hadn’t noticed, or at least did an excellent job pretending otherwise.
“It’s not fool-proof. Sometimes, if our emotions are heightened, or we want to believe something different, then our senses can betray us, but usually it is a tingling, a knowing, like intuition. The words just feel wrong in our ears when they’re tainted with a lie.”
“So it’s not as black and white as you know every single time?”
He nodded. “If I have learned anything this month, it’s that the world is filled with shades of gray. For example, us.” He squeezed my hands, bringing some semblance of warmth back to my fingers. “You and I are so different. I know you don’t love me, but I see something that can blossom under the right circumstances. What I feel for you, it’s confusing, and a little unnerving at times.”
I licked my chapped lips. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“No.”
My breath hitched. “I’ve been unfair to you.” I looked up into his eyes, a gaze which reminded me of sunshine. Seeing him in front of me, strong, tall, muscular, with laugh lines and honey-colored hair, made me smile. He’d been my fortress under all the recent dread, and I’d betrayed him. Blaise was a storm cloud over us, a constant ghost watching me, unrelenting in my memories where he remained, testing my resolve. I was glad to be free of Niferum and him, so I could do right by Cedric. “I need you with me.”
“I have to go back to my family.” He bit the inside of his cheek, disconcertion in his gaze. “I need to patch things up. You were busy winning back your kingdom and building an army, so I didn’t want to burden you before, but the correspondence with my mother and father have been filled with uncertainty. Xenos was angry after reports came back that it was me who’d aided your escape. They’d never have come after us before, but with Kiros on the throne now, he’s unpredictable, not to mention he already hated me.” I half-expected him to smirk, but there was nothing playful in his expression. “Kiros is dangerous. After what we did to him, he could come after my family. They don’t hold as much power as the solises.”
“Hardly any at all,” I mumbled under my breath, understanding his worry. Even if the fae were immortal, most were disorganized, preoccupied with their want for pleasure was their detriment. Ambition was not a trait they were known for, and that’s how sorcerers kept winning. Until Blaise. The first king to evoke any real change since Azrael, his dead father, first became king. “Kiros can’t kill your parents.”
“He can do other things. Close our borders, refuse trade, hurt those who are close to us.” He counted his fingers. “We have solises at court we shelter as if they were family. He could easily send assassins and cover his tracks. We protect many unicorns in our forests. Xenos’s lords and the royal family want them, for their healing properties. The forest borders our towns and theirs. It wouldn’t be hard for them to cross over and take what they want.”
“I know they want unicorns.” I shuddered at the memory of drinking one’s blood which was slipped into my food and tea, and the ground horn which was used in a paste to heal me physically from my time in the pits. “Kiros didn’t seem to want to hurt them.”
“He has to answer to his lords, and I promise you, they do.” His jaw clenched. “Not everything is down to him, just as when you return to court, you’ll need to appease the lords, no? Your priests, or whoever runs your places of worship”
My stomach churned. “I guess sometimes, but I’m the one in power.”
He didn’t argue. “I must return to help broker peace.”
“Surely your presence will only mean to aggravate him?” I pointed out, recalling the range of Kiros’s arrogance and ego. “He will want you punished for humiliating him.”
“I am certain he will be worse if I don’t return. It will be a strong show of disrespect by the light fae. It’s not easy for us. They call us equals
, but we are not. We have never been. If I don’t show to receive punishment for my actions, which will most likely be a slap on the wrist as he wouldn’t politically be allowed to really hurt me, then my family will pay. The other fae will pay.”
“I know you’re not equal to the solises, in their eyes.” I wrapped my arms around my torso, digging my hands into the fur lining the inside of my traveling cloak. Not a soul had bowed to Cedric when he strode the solis-populated towns in Berovia. “Us lunas are also often looked down upon because of our magic.”
“You know”—he shoved his hands in his pockets—“I have yet to see the breadth of your magic and culture. I assumed the worse before, but as we all know, it’s easy to be ignorant to things we do not know.”
“Then stay for a little while,” I pleaded. “I’m sure nothing will happen in a couple of weeks. My coronation will be held by the high priest of Magaelor. You’ll see the rituals performed, the depth our people’s loyalty and love, and how it is woven into our magic. It’s a part of us. I want to show you all the beauty many refuse to see of our land.”
“I will stay for your coronation.” He sighed, but half-smirked, letting me know it was okay. “Then I must return to my family. For a short time, at the least. I have to build bridges. They’re my parents, my sisters and brothers. I abandoned them once, for you, to do the right thing, but now I need to do right by them.”
“I understand.” I smiled, casting my eyes down to my snow-covered boots. At least he would be there for the coronation. A small victory. “Does this mean we’re okay?”
“That depends…”
I curled my lips behind my teeth.
“We are good.” He chuckled.
“You make me happy.” I said in all seriousness. It’s why I was afraid of him leaving to Berovia, because we were fragile now, and if he left, then I was scared he wouldn’t return to me. “I have to make this work.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Have to?”
“Want to.” I corrected.
“Majesty.” Adius called from over the winds. “We must ride before night falls.”
“Yes.” The guards had finished their prayers for the dead. Many of the stragglers, who’d not returned home with the rest of my people after the battle, had stopped just to take in the landscape where the battle had been fought, a slice of history frozen in time, captured in our memories, before returning. It was quiet, save for the distant howl of a wolf or anumi. “We will leave now, Adius. The path through mountains will be safe, save for the wolves and anumi, which I pray we don’t encounter. Blaise had all glamours lowered.”
A sharp nod from Adius finalized the conversation.
Four hours later, we passed over the threshold into my kingdom. I breathed in the pine-pinched, bitterly cold air and let out a soft sigh. Looking over the fir trees which inked into the distance, set against a canvas of gray, with small paths running between the sea of trees, I smiled. We were home. Back in Magaelor. I was happy, and disconcertingly, the darkness which had latched itself to me purred as we moved south, to Ash Court.
THE COURT OF SECRETS
Book Three
By Rebecca L. Garcia
ONE
We rode into Imperia. It was the main city in Magaelor, the kingdom I’d inherited to rule. Cedric, my boyfriend, and Adius, my head guard, accompanied me inside the carriage.
Cotton-candy-shaped clouds covered the slate-gray sky. Sunlight arrowed through gaps in the clouds, illuminating storefronts and cobbled streets. Winding roads ran into the heart of the city. The carriage jerked when we turned a tight corner. I let out a long, shaky exhale as home neared. It was my first day back in the kingdom since leaving Niferum, the fae’s kingdom in the north.
Pain pinched through me, and I earned a look from Cedric. I squeezed my eyes shut. Passing it off as heartburn, I turned my gaze to the curtain-covered window.
Being brought back from the dead was killing me. The darkness that had been residing inside me since I was pulled back from the other side tightened around my core. It was waiting for a crack in my thoughts so it could rip through. I was keeping it at bay, but I didn’t know how long I could hold it off. I wanted to talk to the one person who could help me: Morgana. She hadn’t said much to me since we left Niferum.
She’d performed sacrificial magic, which was not governed by the elements. Unlike the solises—who used the four elements, fire, water, air, and earth—us lunas used spirit, the most powerful element, allowing us to access our ancestors’ energy. The spirit realm fueled the energy we harnessed, so we called it ancestral magic. Magic was the only thing that differentiated solises and lunas. Both were sorcerers, our names only given to tell us apart. The solises lived in Berovia, the largest kingdom in our world, and the lunas lived in Magaelor. My kingdom was small, but it was filled with soul and hardworking people.
Morgana, my mentor and friend, took a great risk bringing me back from death. It was a form of necromancy, and we had both been restless since. I should have died in the battle between my cousin and me for the crown. He had perished, but I’d returned to reclaim my rightful throne.
Yet again, fate had other plans.
Cedric’s full lips curved upward at the corners, a half smile where his eyes didn’t wrinkle. I knew it well. He looked cautious but wanted to put me at ease. He was too good for me, a truth I recognized time and time again. For some reason, he remained by my side. It was my first day in the kingdom as queen ever since Blaise killed my cousin in the battle.
I pulled back the red curtains covering us from the crowds eager to see into the royal carriage. We grumbled over cobbles, pulling up a hill. Looming against the red-orange horizon was a castle of gray stone—Ash Court, my home.
I gazed at the swelling crowd in front of a set of market stalls, lining the sides of a wide street. Many waved, craning their necks to get a look at their new queen.
Cedric was busy looking out the window across from mine, gazing at the kingdom. “It looks nicer than I thought it would,” he said in earnest. “If not a little eerie.”
“It’s different.” I placed my hands on my lap and fumbled my fingers. “It’s unlike anywhere else in the world.” I looked at the slate-roofed homes stacked together and the pointed arches on our temples, then moved my gaze to the ornate designs on the buildings. I’d missed the city more than I knew. Before I had gone to Berovia—even before I’d been forced to live on the island of Inferis with my mother—I had fallen in love with Magaelor, especially Imperia, the city where my castle stood. The biggest attraction in our modest kingdom was the vast evergreen forest in the distance, Ash Forest. Various sections were the burial grounds of our ancestors. Beyond the trees, carved out areas held the crypts of kings before me. The only area off limits was a good thirty-minute walk from the castle.
Only the high priest, monarch, and the priests or priestesses could go to worship the elders and ancestors. There, a river flowed, and it ran between the land of the living and dead. It was said to be where one could communicate with their spirit guide, a spirit from the other side to watch over them. Apparently, every luna got one, but they couldn’t see them. As queen, I would finally be allowed to go. The prospect of meeting my guide made being home all the more exciting.
I recalled when I’d run from Ash Court to Niferum, to escape my tyrannical father, what felt like years ago. I’d gone into the northernmost part of the forest and never felt anything so surreal in my life. Walking under the dappled light of the fir trees, touching the ash-gray bark and feeling the pulse of magic entwined with the roots and ground, had been a sensation I couldn’t quite explain.
Gripping my fingers around my staff, I felt the familiar flicker of magic shoot upward, a reminder I was safe.
We lurched forward, and the crowd dispersed, but a few stragglers remained. One man captured my attention. His sharp gaze was focused on me. He stood on the edge of the road, over the stone bridge. His lips unfurled into a sadistic smile. He looked behind him, where thre
e men stood with their arms crossed. All of them watched me pass, anger spilling into their hardened expressions. Dirt marked their features. They appeared as normal labor workers. I assumed they were angry at me for killing their treasonist former king, my cousin Edgar, or replacing their beloved former king, Amos, whom no one knew had died at my hand. If they did, I’d have already been executed for treason. It was by far the most dangerous secret on my lips, of which I had many.
Blaise had technically killed Edgar, but everyone knew it was on my orders. The battle had been fought for that reason. Neither of us could survive while the other ruled, not peacefully. There would always be those loyal to either side, wanting us to be replaced. There could be no argument of succession.
I looked at Adius, who had insisted on joining us on the journey home when we were picked up at the border for security reasons. “We have a lot of work to do.” I let out a weighted sigh, pulling the curtain over my window. I shuddered into the plush, red seat. “We must unite the people. Edgar taking the crown, unrightfully, has caused a division that may take years to heal.”
Adius nodded, then ran his hand through his brown hair, which was disheveled from when he’d taken off his helmet. “They need to see strong leadership, which you will offer them. Chaos has tired this kingdom for the longest time. Edgar brought instability, and your father… he brought war and battles.”
“So far.” I sighed. “I have brought them only death.”
“It was needed to take back your throne, and now you have it. You can give your people what they need.”
My stomach flipped when he said “your people.” Hearing it out loud made it real. “I’m going to do the best I can,” I said in promise.
“Naturally.”
Adius always had been matter-of-fact. I expected nothing less when talking to him, which was why I had made him my head of security. He would always tell me his honest opinion, no ruffles or lace, and sometimes I needed to hear the truth. Many would rather tell a queen what she wanted to hear.
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