Queen of Fire

by K. V. Adair

  “As fun as it’d be to dig through Eoin’s personal belongings, we should get going,” Feoras said.

  “Yeah. So, what do I do now?”

  He put his hands on my waist. I stiffened at the unexpected touch. He didn’t seem to notice as he pulled me carefully backward.

  When I was about ten feet from the door, he let go.

  “Let me take care of this, my queen.” There was a cockiness in his voice.

  He pressed his palms together, his eyes focused on the doorway. He collapsed first the ring fingers and then the middle fingers, leaving his pointer fingers and thumbs up, looking like a finger gun.

  He pulled his arms back sharply, like he was actually shooting a gun, and after what sounded like a pew from his lips, a ball of neon orange shot from his fingertips and into the doorway.

  It smashed into something, breaking into tiny pieces that floated to the ground. It reminded me of my brother’s dancers, and my heart hurt.

  What it had flown into remained visible, rippling in diagonal lines.

  “After you,” Feoras said.

  “No. I go alone.”

  “Like hell!”

  “Eoin really will punish you if he knew you helped me. And as much as I appreciate your confidence to protect you, we both know it’s misplaced. I have to go alone.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “You don’t have to. I’m your queen. You have to do what I say.”

  He mumbled something I couldn’t hear, but was pretty sure I understood anyway.

  I gestured to the still rippling portal. “Where does this come out?”

  “Depends.”

  “That’s not helpful.”

  “It can take you anywhere in the castle as well as out of the castle. Your will determines where you land.”

  “Well then I’m screwed.”

  “You control your magic; it doesn’t control you. Where are you planning to go? You’re not leaving the castle, are you?”

  I shook my head. “I’m going to go talk to who had both access and a pretty good motive to end the king’s life.”

  He looked at me expectantly. “That could be a lot of people. Specifically?”

  “Bryna.”

  He nodded, understanding. “Good luck with that.”

  I didn’t know where Bryna was in the castle, or if she was even still here. And I couldn’t really ask without raising suspicion.

  “Do you think you can point me in the right direction?”

  He hesitated, looking like he was regretting agreeing to help.

  “You want your library card or not, Feoras?”

  He sighed. “The Zephs stay in the northeast wing.”

  That was only mildly helpful. “Mind drawing me a map?”

  He snorted. “I don’t think a map will help you. See? You need me.”

  “Eoin—”

  Looking down at me, Feoras put his hands on my shoulder. “I said before Eoin isn’t dumb. He’ll know regardless it was me that showed you the portal.”

  “I can just lie and say Liam...” I trailed off.

  I wasn’t sure why I was fighting Feoras coming with me. I didn’t know where I was going, and he would. He would also be useful. And after the assassination attempt, someone watching my back was just smart.

  And yet, my gut was screaming to go alone. To be alone. That no one, absolutely no one, in this godawful place could be trusted.

  But I’m also not stupid, at least I liked to think I wasn’t. And traipsing around the castle with no idea where I was going with possible assassins around was stupid to do alone.

  Was probably stupid to do with an army.

  All I had was Feoras. I hoped I wasn’t making a horrible mistake.

  “Fine,” I said, moving toward the still swirling portal. “Lead the way.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Unlike the royal chambers, each room in the other four wings was numbered. Four because of four elemental nations. They didn’t mix well, apparently.

  We got a few stares as Feoras and I walked down the corridor. Everyone knew who I was; nobody wanted anything to do with me.

  I’d have been offended if it was personal, but any foreign Fae raised in the human world and suddenly promoted to high queen would be hated.

  At least that’s what I told myself.

  We reached room seventy-nine, but before I knocked, I turned to Feoras. “Stay out here.”

  He gave me a look. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  I sighed. “She won’t talk to me if you’re in there, too. I’ll tell her you are out here and if she tries to hurt me, everyone will know. I’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t like it, but as my queen commands.”

  I nodded then knocked. I kept my chin up and my face composed. Bryna didn’t like me on a normal day. Interrogating and accusing her of kingslaying would make her crankier.

  The door creaked open a couple of inches and then stopped.

  “What do you want?” she asked through the crack.

  “To chat. You’ve got time?”

  “Come back never,” she said, slamming the door.

  It wasn’t very effective. You couldn’t get a lot of momentum with only a few inches.

  I knocked again, refraining from pounding. There were eyes everywhere, and I had my dignity to protect.

  For ten minutes I rapped my knuckles against the wooden door. I had to alternate hands because they began to ache. Feoras was smart enough to keep his mouth shut about it.

  But I wasn’t going to back down. This was too important to run away from.

  “You’re just making this harder on yourself, Bryna,” I called through the closed door. “It’d take me a few seconds to summon the guard and have them break down this door. Neither of us want that.”

  My words had an effect. She slowly opened the door, half-way this time, and glared at me. It would have been more menacing if she didn’t look so pathetic.

  Her eyes were red and puffy, her hair so tangled the only fix would be to shave it off. Her clothes were wrinkled. She wore the same dress she had the night my brother had died.

  She smelled, too.

  It had been almost two weeks since Liam had been killed, but the wound of it was visible to everyone from just the haunted look in her eyes.

  Any suspicion I had she was the one responsible fled. It could have been guilt destroying her, but I didn’t think it was.

  She looked the way I refused to let myself feel inside.

  “Can I come in?” I asked, keeping my voice soft.

  She hesitated, but eventually turned, pushing the door open the rest of the way before walking away.

  The room, admittedly fit for a queen, was destroyed. Curtains were torn, the bedding was flung everywhere, and all the light bulbs had been smashed, the shards laying on the carpet.

  It wasn’t completely dark, but I couldn’t find where the light was coming from.

  I still had no idea how the castle operated or how technology itself worked here. They seemed to be at the same level of technology as Earth, but with no visible evidence of how.

  Magic, dumbass.

  But magic couldn’t explain everything, could it? And how much bloody energy would it take to keep a place like this going?

  Questions no one wanted to answer.

  “I’d offer you a drink, but as you can see I’m not fit for guests.” She giggled, more pained than amused. “What do you want, Highness?”

  There was so much venom in the word, I needed an antidote.

  I refrained from retorting with a bitter much and gave her a small smile instead. “How well did you know my brother?”

  She’d loved him, I had no doubt about that, but whether it was at a distance or too close for comfort, I didn’t know. She’d implied one way, but that didn’t make it true.

  Bryna gave an indigent snort. “Well enough.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  She looked up at me under long, black las
hes. If she didn’t look so hateful, I would have thought her pretty. “Well enough to know about you.”

  It was bad enough that she’d probably been my brother’s mistress, but the implication that she was more than that, much more, didn’t sit well with me.

  “Everyone knows about me.”

  “Now, but it wasn’t always that way.”

  She sighed, closing her eyes and bringing her hands to her face. She looked like she was crying, but when she moved her hands and opened her eyes, they were dry.

  “Why would he trust you with that information when he didn’t trust anyone else?”

  “I thought he loved me.”

  I didn’t really know how to respond. I was no interrogator. I didn’t have many people skills and my intimidation skills were about as well developed as my charm.

  No one thought I was charming.

  “We were betrothed.” She paused. “For years. I thought…I…I believed him.”

  I sat next to her on the bed. She was two seconds from sobbing but I couldn’t bring myself to comfort her. I barely knew her and what I did know wasn’t positive.

  “I wanted him as soon as I saw him. How could I not?” She smiled, a mixture of pain and fondness in it. “What female could resist his power, his magnetism? I was doomed from the start.”

  I shifted, not entirely comfortable talking about the attractiveness of my brother.

  She didn’t notice, locked in her memory. “I knew he wouldn’t notice me. Why would he?” She gestured to herself.

  “I’m sure you clean up well,” I said, unable to hold my tongue.

  She looked at me expressionless and then back down at her folded hands. “My sisters, they turned heads. Many males courted them, but one of them would one day rule at Liam’s side. My father could not find anyone to court me. Eventually I would have been—I will be—shipped off to some unimportant noble to bear his brood until the day I jump out a window.”

  That was dramatic. Fitting for what I’ve seen of her so far. I didn’t want her life story, and I didn’t see how it was relevant, but pity kept me from voicing it.

  “When he came to choose one of us, I wasn’t even present. I hid among the crowd, watching him smile at each as they flirtatiously batted their eyelashes, pretending to be more demure than they were.

  “I hated them. I had thought I’d accepted my place beneath them, but I would have given anything for his smile to be thrown at me just once.”

  “It was just your sisters? Why them?”

  Her shoulders sagged. “He really didn’t teach you anything, did he? This I would have assumed he’d have made clear before bringing you here.”

  “What clear?”

  “Every high king takes a wife from one of the elemental nations. Your father married your mother, niece of the high prince of Earth Nation. Each generation chooses from a certain element. It rotates. So it’d be Earth, Air, Fire and then Ice.”

  “Air was next.”

  “Yes. He still had a choice from any female belonging to Air nation.”

  “Any? Even someone outside the royal family?”

  “Yes. Power is fluid in the nations. Had Liam chosen someone else, their family would have been elevated. The royal families are vicious about maintaining power.

  “My father had many daughters in the hopes at least one of them would catch Liam’s eye. Liam told me later he’d had no interest in a wife. Any female would do, and it was easier to give my father what he wanted than the headache of not.”

  “But he changed his mind? About a wife?”

  “I thought so. He said so.”

  “What was so special about you?”

  She flinched, and I cringed. I hadn’t meant for it to come out harsh.

  She seemed unaffected by my callousness. “Nothing.”

  “But he chose you. There must have been a reason.”

  She shrugged. “He didn’t make a choice right away. I think he enjoyed watching my father sweat a bit. They weren’t the best of friends or anything. My sisters were persistent. Each of them fawning over him, fighting to get his attention. Some males would have basked in it, but not Liam.”

  She smiled fondly, clearly remembering him.

  It was the first time I’d seen a pleasant expression on her face. She was no beauty like Niamh, but I was starting to see what my brother might have seen in her.

  “He’d escaped and hid, only it was where I usually did so. He didn’t realize who I was or who I belonged to. He’d asked if it were okay for him to share my hiding spot. And then he’d smiled and I was driven mute.

  “Me being speechless must have made him feel comfortable because he began to talk. Not about himself. Liam had never been full of himself or anything. But about the realm. And his worries.

  “I don’t know what finally gave me the courage to respond, and I don’t even remember what I said, too long ago, but I do remember his face. There was a bit of awe and surprise, but mostly approval.

  “He made excuses to keep from having to make a decision among my sisters. He avoided them, and instead came back to our spot. For days he would lay his troubles on my shoulders, and for days I would give him my thoughts.

  “I had wanted him from the very beginning, but in the fortnight we talked, I fell in love with him. I didn’t care about his crown. I didn’t care about the power or even of being queen. I just wanted to stay at his side.”

  A shadow crossed Byrna’s face. “It was Eoin who found us. He’d urged Liam to make a choice so they could return home and deal with more important matters than who would bear the heir.”

  “Lovely,” I muttered.

  Bryna’s eyes focused on me and she looked at me like she’d forgotten I was even here. Then she smiled. “Eoin. Always practical.”

  She returned to her story. “Liam announced he’d made his decision and my father gathered us together, even me. I admit, I fantasized about him seeing me, smiling that damn smile, and confess his love. I was a foolish child.”

  “But he did choose you, didn’t he? You said you were betrothed.”

  “He did. And it was exactly as I’d dreamed. For once, and only once, it was me my sisters were envious of.”

  “Then how were you a fool? You were right.”

  “I’d asked why he chose me once, years after our official betrothal. I hadn’t had the courage to ask before. Why would he choose me, the ugliest out of them all, to be his wife? Deep down I’d hoped he’d call me beautiful. How could he see them when I was standing there?

  “But as I said, I was a foolish child. He’d gone to my father’s home to bring home a wife, any wife. it didn’t matter who. He’d have chosen the first night if he hadn’t met me.”

  Her story sounded straight out of a fairy tale. It was romantic even. But I already knew how the story ended, and it wasn’t a happily ever after.

  “He’d met an equal that night. Someone who could rule at his side as a partner. His burden was heavy, Morgan, and he hated it. He chose me to share that burden.”

  “He respected you. Isn’t that better than lust?”

  “Perhaps. I believed so. And our relationship was far from passionless. I was in his bed more often than I wasn’t.”

  I cleared my throat. That wasn’t an image I wanted in my head.

  “He didn’t even tell me he’d broken our betrothal before bringing her here. He was gone for less than a week. I saw the way he looked at her. How could I not? Never, not even once, had he looked at me like that. I don’t know if he’d genuinely been entranced or if Innis had a hand in it.”

  “How would Innis have been involved?”

  “Innis and Liam grew up together. Their fathers were best friends. Their fathers died together in the same battle. Liam saw Innis as a brother, as family. He had no other family.”

  She looked up abruptly, realizing what she’d just said. But she didn’t backtrack or reassure me in any way.

  “It broke my heart how easily I was replaced. But nothing hurt
more than knowing he still trusted me, still needed me, but didn’t care enough about me to spare me the humiliation of being disposed.

  “I’d begged to go home. As much as I hated it there, it was preferable to the stares and whispers. I was the biggest joke of the palace. But he refused to give me respite.” She could no longer contain the tears she’d been holding back. “He acted as if nothing had changed between us. He still sought my council. Still confided in me. Still wanted me in his bed. I couldn’t refuse. I loved him, even if he didn’t love me.”

  The longer I spent with Bryna, the more disgusted I felt. Not at her. It was hard to find out the one person you idealized above all was no different from the other narcissistic assholes I’d known.

  Intellectually I knew people were different with different people. That he could have been the best big brother to me and a manipulative user to others. But those who had no problems hurting others, even when those others were snooty, obnoxious twits, they weren’t really a good person.

  A rotten core still made the entire apple non-consumable.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat, fighting to think of the right words, any words, to soothe the brokenness.

  “You said yourself, he had no interest in a wife. You don’t know why he chose Niamh over you. It doesn’t mean he didn’t love you.”

  I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince her or myself.

  She scoffed. “You don’t break a pact generations old lightly. He made an enemy of my father for disposing me. And Innis was already his ally. He gained nothing by marrying Niamh instead. If he had loved me truly, he would have chosen me. And not sent the realm into chaos.”

  “And here I thought I was to blame for that,” I said, trying to lighten the gloom.

  “You weren’t supposed to come here. When he’d asked fourteen years ago if he should bring you to court, I told him no.”

  All sympathy I had for her vanished. “Why would you do that? Do you any idea of—”

  “The hell you went through? Yeah. I do.”

  The ramifications of her words hit me like a mallet to the head. “He knew? He knew and left me there?”