“I won’t risk my children. Not in her keep. I won’t put you through that. I love you too damn much.”
“Release him, Viola,” Cassandra said. “He cannot disobey you.”
“Can a Queen kill another Queen?” Viola glared at Cassandra over Sergei’s shoulder.
“It is death to kill a Queen,” Justice said.
“Only if you’re caught,” Viola said. “I can’t choose between you and my son. Sergei, do as you will.”
Sergei nodded but when he went to fly off, Viola clutched his arm. “Do. As. You. Will.”
Justice inhaled sharply.
“As my Queen commands,” Sergei responded.
Justice opened his mouth to say something, but Amaranthe blasted him senseless with a mental attack and his head cracked back.
Sergei kissed Viola one last time. She felt the desperation and the slight bit of hope. He had to understand what she wanted him to do. She ached when he pulled back and left her. Would she ever see him again?
Viola watched them fly off until they were dots in the sky.
“She’ll kill him,” Justice said. “She won’t risk having him put on trial at the Conclave. These new Queens could topple the old.”
Viola didn’t say anything, just flew home to the farm.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Viola shifted immediately and got on the phone to the embassy. But Reed confirmed everything Justice had said. Justice, who had scared her alpacas into a frenzy, was making calls of his own. Pretty soon the entire elder council was circling the farm.
“You’re terrifying them,” she told the tremendous beings that shook the earth when they landed. Niall was the only familiar face. The five other members were ugly, scarred Celtics. They stared at her like she was a sideshow freak, until she went back into dragon form. Then they bowed to her.
“You.” Viola pointed to a blue dragon with enormous horns.
“Yes, my Queen.”
“Fly to Cassandra and offer to serve her in exchange for Sergei.”
The blue looked around. “She doesn’t have to accept my service, but I will do as the Queens command.”
Less than an hour later, she felt a tear in the weave. Viola steeled herself against the power vacuum that hammered into her. She refused to look. She knew what she would see staring back at her. It took another day before the blue dragon came back, unable to find Cassandra.
“Keep looking,” Viola said, and picked up her knitting.
The next day the blue returned and Sergei was with him.
“Sergei,” she breathed and launched into the air.
He hugged her and they tumbled around the sky kissing each other.
“Are you all right?” she asked, refusing to let him go.
“I am, but I’m afraid Cassandra is dead.”
Viola went to say something, but he crushed his mouth on hers until they landed. She needed him more than air, more than the need to know what happened. Her mate was back and nothing would separate them again.
“I will accept that,” Kira whispered in their ears.
“My keep is mine again,” Amaranthe said.
“What is this we hear?” Niall boomed out. Viola shrank back from his immense presence. She regretted shifting to human, but she wanted to hold Sergei in her arms.
“It is with great sadness, All Knowing,” Sergei bowed his head in reverence, “that I must tell you Cassandra is dead.”
“Who killed her? And were you her Protector at the time?”
Viola felt ice chill her all over. She had forgotten that part.
“She was killed by the Cult of Humanity. But I was not her Protector. She had asked for me, merely to prove a point to Viola. She had flown on ahead, and when they attacked, I was too late to save her. I stopped them before they could take her body to perform the ritual.”
That was one hell of a lie. Viola was impressed. She tried to keep her face clear of any emotion.
“Did you purify the scene with fire?” One of the elders, a red Celtic asked.
“I did.”
“Viola, is what he says true?” Niall turned his golden stare on her.
Not really.
Viola closed her eyes and waved her hands around. She didn’t gaze into the weave, but she could still feel a pair of eyes looking at her from the beyond. The gaping hole she sensed was stitching itself back up. Soon Cassandra would be absorbed in the weave, now that the Cult’s spell that had trapped the Queens was destroyed.
“Yes, and Kira says that justice is done. Cassandra killed her all those years ago.”
The elders frowned and talked among themselves. Only Justice glared at her. She waited for him to call her out on their lies. To name Sergei as the murderer. But he didn’t. Still, she felt judged and accepted the guilt. While she didn’t directly command Sergei to kill Cassandra, she knew what he would do if given the opportunity. She told him to do as he willed. He really wanted to kill Cassandra.
Did that make her as bad as Cassandra? Not yet, but a part of her felt she made a turn that she could never return from. Viola could live with that, if it kept Sergei by her side and her eggs safe.
The End
Epilogue
One year later
Viola was ready to knock on the door to her parents’ house when the door was flung open.
“Where are my grandbabies?” Her mother cooed, plucking the two little dragons out of Sergei’s arms.
“Francine, let them come through the door first,” her father said and opened the door wider to welcome them in.
But her mother had already left them on the doorstep while she brought little Ivan and Tatiana up to Viola’s old room. A room that was now redecorated into a dragon nursery.
“You know, for someone who hates dragons so much, she’s definitely come around.” Viola peered up the stairs, listening to the sound of her mother singing a lullaby.
“She still hasn’t warmed up to me,” Sergei said.
“That’s because she still hasn’t forgiven you for whapping her upside the head with your tail in the maternity ward.” Viola followed her father into the kitchen and sat down.
Sebastian was making a turkey dinner, for no other reason than it was Sunday and she was coming to visit. It hadn’t been all roses and candy for her mother and Viola these last few months. But it was nice to get to a point where there weren’t any more accusations and general nastiness going on—thanks to the transformative power of grandchildren.
“Did she ever sing to me like that?” Viola asked.
Sebastian took a great interest in basting the bird. “I’m sure she did,” he hedged.
“I didn’t think so.” Viola’s head reared back as a vision suddenly over took her.
Help me.
Another Queen was in danger. But Viola had her own team now, and with the help of Kira, Amaranthe, and Justice, this Queen, like all the others, was as good as rescued.
“Uh, Dad, we’ve got to go,” Viola said, gathering Sergei up with a look. “Is it okay if we leave the twins here for a few hours?”
“Your mother will be thrilled,” he said. “Do you need any help?”
“Nah,” Viola said, clasping Sergei’s hand. “We’ve got this.”
The End
Famous Queens
BEFORE THE EVENTS IN The Queen's Wings there were only five female dragons left in the world. They are referred to as The Old Queens and held the following territories.
Cassandra -Ireland, Scotland, & Wales
Lerisse - France, Italy, India, & Africa
Esmeralda - North & South America
Choyo - Saudia Arabia, Indonesia, Japan
Hui Zhong - Russia & China
After the events in The Queen's Wings, hundreds of Queens who were suppressed from shifting into dragons at puberty were released.
Carolyn: chose consort Reed (The Queen's Wings) - temporary territory Connecticut, USA
Arianna: chose consort Jack - temporary territory New York, USA
Viola: c
hose consort Sergei (The Queen's Flight) - temporary territory Greenland with Vermont land rights.
Mei Hua: chose human protector Joachim, Head of the Order of Dragon Slayers - Italy
Bianca: chose consort Byron (The Queen's Mystery) - temporary territory Rhode Island, USA
After the events in The Queen's Flight, half the emerging Queens are missing and others are being hosted by the elder Queens until the Queen's Conclave next year. Here are the found Queens and their locations.
Dierdre chose consort Fontaine (The Queen's Plight) - temporary territory Washington DC & Virginia, USA
Margery chose consort Remy (aka Champ) (The Queen's Dance) - temporary territory New Jersey, USA with Vermont land rights.
Queens who were hosted by Cassandra: Idira, Nalia, Marisol, Adanna, Eva, Zoe, Sofia, Rika, Xiaoling, Miriam.
The unattached studs:
Casimiro - A famous Latin singer, this dragon shaman can seduce human women through his magic. He is Carolyn's protector, much to Reed's disgust.
Niall - The Great Wyrm of Yale spends most of his time in his research and hasn't a preference to play the Queen game—for himself anyway. He's very interested in seeing his sons, Reed, Byron and Fontaine, happily settled.
Rathin - Indian prince, Rathin has a fine museum and spends his time collecting artifacts and finances archeological digs.
Other books by Jamie K. Schmidt:
If you liked this book, you may want to try...
Club Inferno Series (erotic contemporary romance)
USA Today Best Seller: Heat
Longing
Fever
The Emerging Queens Series
(high heat paranormal romance)
The Queen’s Mystery – FREE on most e-book retailers!
The Queen's Wings
The Queen's Flight
The Queen's Dance
The Truth & Lies Series (erotic New Adult romance)
Truth Kills
Truth Reveals
Truth Thrills coming 2018
Truth Decides coming 2018
The Hawaii Heat series
(high heat contemporary romance)
USA Today Best Seller: Life's a Beach
Beach Happens
Beach My Life
Beauty and the Beach
The Sentinels of Babylon series
(high heat contemporary romance)
Necessary Evil
Sentinel's Kiss
Warden's Woman - coming 2018
Ryder's Dream - coming 2018
Stand-alone novels (high heat contemporary romance)
2018 Rita® Finalist in Erotic Romance: Stud
Hard Cover
Spice - Book Three in the Fate Series - Co-written with Jenna Jameson
Stand-alone novels & novellas
Trinity (erotic ménage paranormal romance)
Midnight Lady, A Bad Girls book (high heat fantasy romance)
Naked Truth (romantic suspense)
Santa Genie (erotic paranormal romance) - coming December 3, 2018
Samurai’s Heart (erotic paranormal romance)
A Casual Christmas (contemporary romance) – coming December 10, 2018
Anthologies & Collections
Graveyard Shift (High heat paranormal romance)
Flash Magic (No heat at all speculative fiction stories
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Did you love The Queen's Flight? Then you should read Midnight Lady by Jamie K. Schmidt!
Maggie Flannery failed at being a pirate and then ran away from her arranged marriage with a prince. Her mother, the infamous Black Belle, disowned her.So now Maggie serves up sangria to tourists by day, and smugglers by night from her bar in Cozumel. She hooked up with a nefarious airship captain, Quick Donner, for some wild sex and adventures, but lately, it's been more quickies and take-out tostadas.When her ex-fiancé blows into town and tells her he has decided to run away from his scheming mother and join an airship crew, Maggie leaves her bar, her boyfriend, and the prince's bodyguards behind to find a mother who might blow her out of the sky as soon as she gets in range.
Read more at Jamie K. Schmidt’s site.
Also by Jamie K. Schmidt
Hawaii Heat
Beach Happens
Beach My Life
The Emerging Queens
The Queen's Flight
The Queen's Mystery
The Truth & Lies Series
Truth Kills
Truth Reveals
Standalone
Trinity
Flash Magic
Samurai's Heart
Watch for more at Jamie K. Schmidt’s site.
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author, Jamie K. Schmidt, writes erotic contemporary love stories and paranormal romances. Her steamy, romantic comedy, Life’s a Beach, reached #65 on USA Today, #2 on Barnes & Noble and #9 on Amazon and iBooks. Her Club Inferno series from Random House’s Loveswept line has hit both the Amazon and Barnes & Noble top one hundred lists. The first book in the series, Heat, put her on the USA Today bestseller list for the first time, and is a #1 Amazon bestseller. Her dragon paranormal romance series has been called “fun and quirky” and “endearing.” Partnered with New York Times bestselling author and former porn actress, Jenna Jameson, Jamie’s hardcover debut, SPICE, continues Jenna’s FATE trilogy.
Read more at Jamie K. Schmidt’s site.
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