by Leia Stone
“Don’t do this. The mecca is broken, but I can fix it. I can fix it and the fae will leave us alone.”
Roger just shook his head. “You took an oath.” Then he looked at Selene. “Aye.”
The people had spoken, and I was worse than a failed heir. I was a failed queen. Torine moved in front of me, sharp blade clutched in his right hand. “I must unbind the mecca to you and then tie it to Selene.”
I saw the special goblet in his other hand. Selene had planned this entire thing, and she clearly had the council’s approval. Calista stepped forward now, glaring at every wolf in the room.
“She’ll never be fully separated from the mecca. Only in death. Arianna will always be the true queen. Selene is just a diluted replacement. I hope you’re all happy with your choice. You may have doomed us all.”
Torine growled before slicing my wrist and pouring my blood into the mecca cup. I just stood there in shock, trying to figure out a way to salvage this. When the cup was nearly full, he stopped and knelt to Finn, holding the sword out.
Finn crouched low and gave a deep growl.
“Cut him and lose your head,” I warned.
Torine stood and backed up a few paces, handing the cup to Selene. “It’s good enough,” he said to her before he cut her wrist, allowing the blood to drain into the cup, mixing with mine.
The moment our blood touched I felt an awful invasion, a presence within my own body. Selene. As the cup drained, her presence washed away, but so did most of the mecca from within me. There was still a good amount there, but it was half what it used to be. Selene took a deep breath as the mecca power surged within her.
“Selene of the Purple Hearts pack, I now declare you queen of the wolf shifters.”
The council faced the new queen and shouted, “Long live the queen!”
Just like that I had been replaced.
“Arianna, I cast you out of the boroughs. You may never enter the mecca again.” Selene’s banishment cut right into my soul. She’d just barred me from my home, from the one place an heir could feel the mecca, the power.
Well, since I had nothing left to lose, I might as well go out chopping that damn snake into a thousand pieces. Calista must have known what I was thinking, because her hand clamped around my upper arm in a death grip.
“Good luck,” Calista told them all, and then with surprising strength yanked me backward down the hallway. My suitcase was at the base of the stairs, and I realized she’d brought it down with her before. She grabbed it and then we were moving, out of the mansion and through the open back door.
Once we were in the large open back yard, I turned to my advisor. “Why didn’t you let me kill her!” Fury was riding my body in waves. This couldn’t be happening. How was this happening?
Calista looked at Finn as if they’d shared some thought. “Because I want you to live,” she said shortly, before she took off stalking into the woods behind the estate.
I ran after her. “Where are we going?”
Calista shook her head, ignoring my question: “Arianna, I raised you like a daughter. Why didn’t you just tell me.”
She was talking about Kade. “Because I was trying to fight it,” I said, my voice filled with truth.
Calista paused so she could reach out and cup my face with one hand. “You can’t fight love, baby girl.”
My throat pinched at her term of endearment. She hadn’t called me that since I was eight years old. Then she straightened her shoulders and took off again, pounding through the forest.
“Cal, where are we going?” I asked again as I ran to catch up, Finn trotting beside us.
Calista looked back at me. “If King Kade really loves you, then he may take us in, because as of right now we’re homeless.”
We were making our way to Kade’s mansion, where he had kissed me in the garden. Life really knew how to come full circle.
Our journey across the Island was silent. I mourned for so much, but forced myself to deal with what I could. I needed Kade, whether I was queen or not, and this thing with the fae was not over. They had Violet, and I needed his help to get her back. Plus, we had to fix the imbalance. I still had a connection to the mecca. The council and Selene had made a mistake trying to rush this dethroning through under the noses of our people. A queen was about more than just a bit of blood in a cup, she was about the love of her people. It would take Selene time to prove herself, especially when she had usurped me in such a manner. Knowing her, she would try leak the video of Kade and me. The council would attempt to stop her though. The fact a queen could love a bear might just be enough to have some shifters questioning our ways. They would not want that. All it took was a little spark for a full-on fire to be fanned to life.
We’ll be fine, Ari. You’re a queen. You don’t need a throne to prove that. And we will always have each other.
I dropped to my knees and buried my head in Finn’s soft fur. Breathing in deeply, I let his familiar warmth, his scent and power drag into my lungs, into my battered soul. I let him soothe me for just a moment, and in return I poured my love back into him.
Thank you, old friend. I couldn’t do any of this without you.
He licked up the side of my face, before gently nudging me to start walking again. Calista had paused too, and when I got to my feet she smiled at me. “We’re in bear territory now. Weird that I’m strangely relieved to be off wolf land.”
I shook my head. “I feel the same, but it’s always been that way with Kade. Wherever he was, I wanted to be. Even when I was fifteen. I’ve never been able to stop thinking about him.”
Calista grasped my hand. “I understand. All too well. We both spent our entire lives in the service of the crown and the council, letting protocol dictate everything we did. And this is how they repay you. They never even let you speak. They never even questioned that Selene and Sabina were working together, and in doing so actually allowed the fae access to our lands. Their cloaking was the perfect cover. What if it wasn’t a coincidence and those two are working with the fae? For all we know Selene is going to let them slaughter all who oppose them, and the rest would become slaves.”
I brushed my hand across my face. The headache had died off a little, but the loss of mecca had me off balance. “You’re right. This could be far worse than we imagined. I need to get to the royal home in Manhattan and open the portal to the Otherworld. I need Violet so we can rebalance the energy. That might be enough to make the fae stay in their world.”
“What happened to the Summer Court?” Calista asked as we started walking again. I picked up the suitcase this time. “Weren’t they supposed to be keeping the Winter Court at bay?”
I shrugged. “Violet communicated with Prince Caspien just before the festival started and he said he was in a good position then. I don’t know what happened after that to turn the tides.” I slammed my hand against a nearby tree. “It’s so frustrating. We were so close to ending this and Selene’s need for power has put us all the way back to the beginning. It’s even worse than it was before.”
Calista nodded. “Yes, things are definitely bleak. My damn tablet is back at the mansion.”
A burst of laughter shot from me. I’d barely ever seen my advisor without her tablet in her hands. We both stopped and stared at her empty hands, before we took a good look at ourselves. We were in our pajamas, dirt and leaves scattered about us, blood still on my advisor’s face.
We lost it then. I collapsed on Finn as the laughter shook through my tired, sore body.
“We look homeless,” Calista said between chuckles.
“We are homeless,” I spluttered out as tears ran down my cheeks.
It wasn’t funny. None of this was funny, but sometimes grief manifests in odd ways. And after we managed to pull ourselves together and cross the last of the Island to reach Kade’s mansion, I realized that I felt just a little better. I might have lost my crown, I might be a failed queen, but I had Calista and Kade. Together we would get Violet back. For the first time ever
I was not an heir or a queen. I was just Arianna of the red house. It was a scary thought, but an exciting one too.
Unlike when I sneaked into the bear king’s manor during the Summit trials, this time I used the front entrance. Calista, Finn, and I walked right up to the guards on the gate. The bears eyed me, but weren’t aggressive in their approach.
“Queen Arianna, we weren’t expecting you,” the slightly smaller guard – though still giant sized – said. He was eyeing my clothes, no doubt wondering why I was dressed in my PJ’s.
“I need to speak with King Kade. Is he here?”
Please be here.
The other one whipped out his phone and hit a few buttons before lifting it to his ear. He turned away, speaking low, but my shifter hearing picked up the affirmative from the other side. It was Gerald.
“Go right on into the house.” The guards stepped back and the huge gates opened for us.
Calista let out a huff of air and I swiveled to see her better, my eyebrows raised. A smirk of sorts crossed her lips. “It’s kind of ironic that our people threw us out without a goodbye, banished us to never return, and here we are, welcomed into the bear’s territory. Never thought I’d see the day.”
I was about to answer when I caught sight of Kade. We were only halfway down the long drive, but he was clearly waiting on his huge porch, one arm resting against the wall. My body moved by instinct then. I dropped the suitcase and barreled down the path at a million miles an hour. I’d never been less dignified, less queen-like in my life, running toward him like my life depended on it.
Concern creased his features and he started moving toward me. As I ran I had to keep reminding myself not to touch him, not to throw myself into his warmth and comfort. The last thing I needed was his people to dethrone him too. Not before we sorted out this mecca and fae problem.
The distance closed and I could feel the energy that was always between us. I’d always thought the mecca was what made that pulse of energy so strong, but I’d just lost a lot of mecca and the connection was as strong as ever. A few feet from him I forced myself to stop. My heart was beating fast, breath coming out in short puffs – it wasn’t the run which had me winded, it was Kade.
He didn’t stop though, he scooped me into his arms and wrapped me up so tight that some of the leaking of my fissured heart seemed to ease. “Your people will see,” I murmured into his chest. I was trying to find the strength to push him away, but instead my hands were tangled in his shirt, pulling him closer.
“Let them see. I already told my council this morning, and they have broken away to debate it. Last I heard, half of the council was in favor of us joining together. We defeated the fae together last night, and this division between our boroughs and packs is making us weaker.” His lips brushed mine and everything was okay in that moment. As he pulled back he said: “Who better to join our worlds than the king and queen.”
My eyes welled up then, the reality of what had happened hitting me hard. Kade’s expression hardened as he took in my distraught features and my pajamas. He glanced behind me, where I knew Calista and Finn were waiting with my suitcase.
“What happened, Ari?” he asked as he turned back, still holding me close but allowing some distance so he could see my face. “What did those bastards on your council do?”
Chapter Twelve
A silver lining is sometimes black.
“I will kill them,” Kade said for the fiftieth time, his voice a bear rumble by now. We were inside his house and I’d just finished telling him everything that went down after the battle. He was one annoyed bear.
“They never healed you! They just left you in that room while they plotted against you? After you saved everyone and almost killed yourself in the process. If Nix and Finn hadn’t intervened and used their connection to the mecca, it would have destroyed everyone. Once you lost control of it, it would have ripped through everyone in its path.”
I hadn’t known that. Information to consider next time I decided to jump in the car with no brakes.
Kade wasn’t done trying to kill the council yet. “I trusted them,” he said, his hands clenched. “I left you with your people to heal only after they assured me you would receive the best care. With Violet gone, I knew you were limited on magic born, but I didn’t want to make things hard for you by insisting you come to my home.”
Calista spoke up: “I never left her side, but I did think it was odd that no magic born was sent to us. Luckily, Ari healed quickly. Her natural shifter abilities and connection to the mecca helped immensely.”
Kade finally sat beside me on the huge white couch; his body was like a rock, hard and unyielding. We were in that front sitting room with the huge windows and gauzy white curtains. It felt like a lifetime ago I’d climbed the cliff and made my way to try and steal his mecca necklace, a lifetime ago he had kissed me and sealed both of our fates. He reached for me, his hand brushing up my arms to cup my face. He did this a lot, and it was kind of perfect.
“What do you want to do now, Ari? You have the bear shifters on your side. We are forever grateful to you for saving us last night.”
See, perfect. “We have to save Violet, and we have to fix the mecca. If we don’t, the fae will keep coming until we’re all destroyed.”
Calista cleared her throat. “Except that we are banished from Manhattan, which is the only place you can open a portal into the Otherworld.”
Dammit, Calista was right.
“We’ll fight our way in, Selene can’t stop me,” Kade said, his lazy confidence back in full force.
I placed a hand on his chest. “Whoa there. I’m hoping to convince my people that a side by side existence with the bears is possible. That’s going to be a touch harder if you attack them.”
He grumbled, and I could see that he just wanted Selene’s head on a stick, but acting on our base emotions would get us nowhere.
Calista raised her hand as if she was in school. “I have an idea…”
We stared at her, waiting for her to speak, but despite her hand-in-the-air-enthusiasm, she now seemed to be wrestling with some internal emotions.
“King Kade, do you swear to never harm Baladar based on the knowledge I am about to share?”
Kade’s eyebrows furrowed as he assessed Calista. “Why?”
Calista set her best poker face. “Do you swear it?”
Just what the hell was my advisor up to?
Kade cleared his throat before saying, “I do. Now why?”
Calista exhaled slowly. “Because Baladar set up a vortex somewhere in Staten Island that leads right to his Manhattan loft.”
“What?” Kade and I both cursed as we leapt to our feet. My wolf was rising inside, fighting my control. A hidden vortex, that was … impossible … illegal … dangerous.
Calista spoke over our ire: “If we can find the vortex, we can travel to Baladar’s, and then sneak into the castle undetected.” Her words were all rushed together, trying to defuse us.
Lucky for her it was a good plan. Selene would have the regular vortex discs crawling with guards now that I was banished. Sabina hadn’t magically banished me, and I don’t think it was possible really. I was still somewhat a queen, with mecca flowing through my veins, so if Kade and I could get into that crystal room we could open a portal and jump through … then find Violet.
“Where is the hidden vortex?” Kade looked livid that this had been going on under his nose.
Calista shrugged. “I don’t know. I only heard of its existence. It’s how your people get into his club.”
Kade stood and reached out a hand to me. I grasped on without hesitation. “Where are we going?” I asked as he led me through the mansion and out onto the front steps.
“To speak to someone who I think will know where it is,” he replied as Calista and Finn followed after us.
Once we reached the porch, Kade called to one of his guards. “Is Trixie on shift?”
The guard nodded. “She’s on post at the wat
er’s edge.”
Kade nodded and walked over to a golf cart. We all got in and Kade took off driving the cart out the front gate and down a steep side hill toward the shoreline, until the lapping waves came into sight.
“I’ve beefed up security all over after the attack,” he said as he maneuvered around the natural terrain.
I wasn’t surprised. If I had still been queen today, like I should have been, my first order would have been investigating the attack and making sure our lands were secure. Well, as secure as they could be. After seeing those two magic born just open a portal into our world like it was nothing, I knew without any doubt that nowhere was safe.
As we made our way through the dense bushes and out onto the sand, I took a moment to breathe in the salty air. Yes, my life sucked right now, and my best friend was missing, but I had always been soothed by the ocean. Violet had loved the ocean too; it calmed her energy.
Goddamn the fae.
“Why do you think they took Violet?”
The question burst from me in a short, angry eruption. I’d been so focused on the fact that my best friend was in enemy hands that I hadn’t actually stopped long enough to question why. Calista and Kade were both quiet for a brief moment, neither of them answering until the cart came to a halt.
My advisor worried at her lip. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. The attack was odd. The Summer Court was supposed to be keeping the dark fae at bay, and yet they managed to attack in the hundreds.”
Kade interrupted her: “I’m not sure it was dark fae. They definitely weren’t from the golden court, but the energy was different from the one who ambushed us on Staten Island. I’m not sure they are all from the same court.”
Great! What was going on? How many of the courts were we fighting against now?
“So why do you think they took Violet?” Calista turned to Kade, nailing him with her famous glare. Her computer mind wanted to know everything.
Kade flicked his gaze across to me briefly, before throwing my advisor a mix of grin and grimace. “I think they want Ari. She has an unnatural affinity for the mecca. She can do what no queen has before, and she’s closely related to the Red Queen. We know this all started with the Red Queen, and somehow it’s not over yet.”