Fallen Queen (Lost Fae Book 2)

by May Dawson

  I didn’t want to hurt him, and I definitely couldn’t kill him. The Shadow Man hadn’t told me anything, but maybe my brother was still locked away in there. Maybe I could help him.

  He was still struggling against my grip, but his movements were slower, then a sudden wrenching as he went on the attack with one last desperate surge of adrenaline.

  “Go to sleep,” I muttered in his ear, wondering if Faer was awake deep inside, if he could hear me and knew I was fighting Herrick and not killing him. I hoped he was fighting too, inside. Was Herrick’s enchantment why he’d slowly turned so hateful against me? I had to figure out the timeline.

  Maybe my brother was always innocent. The thought made my heart ache for both of us and what we’d lost.

  His body suddenly went still. I started to relax my grip to lower him carefully onto the couch.

  And Herrick exploded out of my arms, finally rasping the word of his spell.

  It had been a trick.

  The vines exploded out of the wall, wrapped around me, and dragged me across the slick marble floor. I fell heavily as I fought, landed hard on my right hip, and was still struggling as they dragged me across the floor and slammed me into the cold marble wall.

  Faer smiled at me, the expression eerie.

  “You know your males are all coming to rescue you,” he said coldly. “Raile’s ship just docked. Tiron and Az are back in the Fae world, making their way to you. And Duncan is currently trying to start a revolt in the dungeon for the sake of his summer queen.”

  The mix of anxiety and affection for those men I felt was overwhelming, like something warm and suffocating all at once.

  “But I’m going to make sure the Alisa they find isn’t worth saving,” he said. His fingers fell on either side of my face, bruisingly tight.

  “Unlike your brother,” he told me, “you were always too strong for this. But not today, Alisa. You’re not too strong today.”

  I tried to fight him, but his fingers felt as if they were pressing through my skull, deep into my mind, planting there against my brain. I shut my eyes, trying to fight him off, enchanting me the same way he had Faer.

  He whispered and whispered into my ear, as if he’d never stop.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Raile

  The ship rocked softly on the rippling water; the vessel was tethered to the dock. The castle was brightly lit, and somewhere inside, Alisa was most likely in trouble, yet again.

  “Make sure the crew stays onboard, and take nothing from the summer court,” I warned the captain. “But… be polite about it.”

  He nodded, and his vision flickered to one side, as if he’d spied something on the dock. “It looks like you have a visitor, your majesty.”

  I turned to see purple hair and for a second my heart lifted; then I recognized Faer’s impatient gait. Alisa seemed as if she sauntered everywhere she went, her hips swinging in a way that was casually sexy, unless she was a dangerous blur. I found that version of her quite sexy too.

  “Oh, goodie,” I said. I nodded goodbye to the captain and headed down the gangplank to greet Faer.

  He stopped at the edge of the dock and raised his hand, and the guards behind him—a dozen of them—stopped and waited. He came alone the rest of the way. Someone was holding a grudge.

  “I’m sure my crew was quite hospitable to you after we parted ways last,” I said drily as the two of us neared each other. “I hope you plan to be hospitable to me now, Faer.”

  “You know I value our alliance, Raile,” he said. “And our friendship.”

  I’d started off friends with Faer, but I barely recognized the male he’d become over the past few years.

  “As do I,” I said.

  “Because you want to marry Alisa.” His tone was mocking. He’d never understood why I loved his sister, although he’d been better natured about it when we were younger.

  “Because you want her married off,” I reminded him, just as quickly.

  “Why did you run away with her?”

  “Why did I protect my future queen from being murdered by your magic?” I demanded. “For one thing, a dead bride isn’t any better than a hobgoblin.”

  He stared at me, then smirked. Perhaps he believed me that I had saved Alisa without being recruited to her side.

  “She beat the Shadow Man, by the way,” he said dryly.

  Pride sparked in my chest. I’d been afraid for her, but I’d also never expected anything else.

  “She does have her skills,” I said. “Death. Destruction. Dancing.”

  “She’ll be dancing at your wedding soon,” he promised me.

  “Oh?”

  “I hope you won her over in your time in the undersea.”

  I shrugged. I was not interested in discussing how well my courtship of Alisa had gone in the undersea.

  I’d thought slaying monsters with that girl was the key to her heart, but apparently she was more complicated than that. When she ran, I’d followed her at a distance; she’d probably brag about fighting off those sharks for years. Should I tell her I ordered them away, or let her have her fun?

  “Tell me more about our wedding,” I said.

  “She won’t resist you anymore,” he told me, sticking his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels. He couldn’t hide his satisfaction.

  That didn’t sound like the Alisa who had swum away from my palace so determinedly. The whispers that Herrick had enchanted Faer rose again into my mind. If Herrick had that kind of power, then Faer did too.

  “You enchanted her?” I asked.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, since apparently you have some protective urges,” Faer said, “but I did one better than a mere enchantment.”

  Something hard lodged in my chest, but I tilted my head to one side curiously. I’d resist the temptation to strangle Faer; the opportunity might present itself later. “Oh, that does sound promising. Tell me more.”

  “She’s bound by magic to marry,” he said. “This time, the only one she’ll hurt if she tries to escape her vows is herself.”

  The implication that Alisa had hurt me with her hobgoblin trick rankled.

  “I don’t care if she tries to escape,” I snapped, and to cover my irritation, I added, “because she won’t evade me again.”

  Faer had the look of someone holding back his thoughts—after all, I’d lost control Alisa just earlier that night—but all he said was, “She won’t. And if she does, she’ll die.”

  “I see,” I said.

  There might be a way to find what poisonous spell he’d used on her, and to reverse it.

  Or maybe I should just save her yet again.

  Maybe I should marry the girl.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Alisa

  It wasn’t Faer’s voice I heard anymore; it was Herrick’s voice whispering commands. I didn’t remember my father, but that cruel, smooth voice had to be his. His words clouded my head, and I stumbled, trying to fight them off. Trying to regain control.

  But my body kept carrying me toward the ship that bobbed at the edge of the sea.

  Raile was still up on the deck, although the gangplank was down, and he was giving orders to one of his men. Raile’s handsome face was grave, and his man nodded, resting his hand lightly on the hilt of his sword—as if they might go to war today.

  I frowned, wanting to know what Raile was up to.

  Then he saw me, and his face changed—brightening, his eyes widening—before he headed down the gangplank.

  “You’re all right,” he said. “I worried about you.”

  “You’re not angry?” I asked. Maybe he could be an ally—but when I thought about that, Herrick’s fingers twisted in my brain, and the world went fuzzy. I couldn’t seem to think through anything.

  I’d spent my life being clever and quick, and now the world felt foggy as I fumbled through it.

  “No,” he said. “No, I understand what you felt you had to do. Is Duncan all right?”
/>
  I nodded.

  “And the Shadow Man?”

  “Defeated,” I said.

  “You are truly amazing,” he said, his lips turning up at the edges. “It worked? Releasing him from the spell?”

  “It worked,” I said, which was an understatement.

  Convince Raile you love him. You want to marry him…and only him.

  “Thank you for all your help in the library. Without your help, I never could have defeated the Shadow Man,” I said. It was true—just not the whole truth. Those fingers seemed to brush against my brain, but they held back—for now.

  “Can we talk?” I asked. “We didn’t leave things very well.”

  “No,” he agreed.

  The two of us headed into the gardens. I looked around, hating that this was where we ended up. Statues stood all around us.

  “I’m surprised you still choose to come to the garden,” he said.

  “You were right. I’m part of the summer court. There’s no escaping who we are.”

  He glanced at me strangely, and the fingers twisted in my brain, my vision going black around the edges. But the way he looked at me as if he knew something was wrong raised a spring of hope in my chest.

  “I never thought I’d heard those words from your lips,” he said, his lips quirking with his usual Raile smirk.

  Lord, if he kept smirking, he was going to make it impossible to act besotted.

  “You’re making it very hard to apologize to you,” I said lightly.

  He shook his head. “No, Alisa. I’m the one who owes you an apology. I wanted to protect you, I wanted to wait until we had the perfect plan. But you wanted to do the right thing. And clearly it worked out.”

  “Clearly,” I said drily.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Nothing? No impact? I said I’m sorry.”

  “You actually didn’t say you were sorry.”

  He frowned as if he were replaying his words. “Well, I meant it, anyway.”

  “You’re not very good at groveling.”

  His brows arched. “Are you going to grovel? You snuck out of my palace in the middle of the night like a thief.”

  “I thought you said it was my palace.”

  “It is yours. Because I gave it to you.”

  “You’re not very good at presents or apologies, Raile.”

  “Well, before you, I never bothered much with either.” His jaw stiffened, then relaxed, as if he’d just softened. “But I am a good king for my people. And I’ll try to be what you need from me as well. Two hundred years hadn’t worn down my sharp edges, but…I’m trying.”

  “I know,” I said. I actually did believe that; it just didn’t change that things between us had been broken before they ever began. I wished things were different; being close to Raile like this made my heart pound. It felt as if something about me remembered something about him.

  “And that’s why I want to marry you,” I said.

  He frowned down at me. “Is this some trick?”

  “No.” Then I repeated the words that Duncan said I told him the night I broke his heart. “I’m twenty-five. It’s time for me to start growing up.”

  “Doesn’t sound like you,” he said. “I thought you’d never grow up.”

  “I tried not to,” I said. I gave him that same easy, playful smile that I had used to camouflage all my feelings before, but from the stories the guys had told me, and from my diary entries, I knew now that I’d loved to play games—and I’d thought I’d always win.

  Duncan was right when I’d said I’d thought I was always the smartest person in the room.

  Right now, I had to hope these guys were quick enough to keep up with me—when I wasn’t myself at all.

  “What changed?”

  “Duncan and Az deserve better than me,” I said. I tucked my hand around his arm, pulling his corded forearm against me as we strolled through the garden together. “But you and I, Raile… we just might deserve each other.”

  “I don’t actually plan for you to be miserable in the undersea,” he reminded me. “I just spun a fanciful tale of your long-term unhappiness because it delighted your brother so much. And what can I say? I’m a people pleaser.”

  I sighed. “You are making this impossible.”

  “I thought you enjoyed our banter.”

  I certainly wasn’t up for it right now; the fuzziness in my brain made it impossible to be as glib as I should be.

  I searched for something true that would drive away the doubt in his eyes. “I know I said that our past was too dark and twisted for the two of us to find a happy ending. But maybe I was too jaded. You and I were friends before too—we helped each other.”

  “I’ve never stopped wanting to be your friend,” he said. Then added, “Well, maybe that first week after the hobgoblin incident. I was pretty livid.”

  “Let’s forget the hobgoblin.”

  “You can only say that because you’ve never shared an engagement kiss with something that lives off rotted fish.”

  Seal the deal, Herrick murmured in my ear. Maybe you can’t convince him that you love him… yet… but you could convince him that you might grow to. You can convince him that you’re pathetic and miserable and alone…you dove into Azrael’s bed when you felt that way before, why not Raile’s?

  My father was truly the worst at a pep talk.

  “I wish I could go back to the mortal world,” I admitted. “But the truth is, I don’t belong there either. I hate being here. I used to love Faer, but he hates me. I’ve ruined everything—I’ve always had a gift for that. Azrael, Duncan, Tiron… I’ll just hurt them. Again.”

  Because Herrick was leaving me no choice.

  “You’re never been afraid of that before, “he said.

  “I’d rather live the rest of my life in the undersea than keep disappointing people that I care about,” I said. “You certainly know all my faults and don’t seem to mind them.”

  “You seem very reasonable today,” he said, tilting his head to study mine. “Did you have a good night’s rest?”

  If I couldn’t escape marrying Raile, I was pretty sure I was going to murder the condescending bastard in his sleep.

  “Lovely,” I said.

  I slept quite well, yes. Conked out on the marble floor while Herrick plotted.

  And now I couldn’t tell Raile about any of Herrick’s plots. To my surprise, I realized I wanted to.

  “You kissed me goodbye the other night in the palace,” he said. He stepped close to me, but didn’t touch me; he seemed to carry the cool, refreshing scent of a deep sea breeze with him, and it eased some of the heat in my pounding head.

  “Do you think I could ever make things up to you, Alisa? I don’t think I have it in me to grovel. Any more than you do.” His lips tilted up mockingly. “But maybe I could make up for ever going along with Herrick’s plan. For entertaining the thought—even for a moment—of marrying you against your will?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I… I’m willing to marry you now, Raile. To start over. As long as we leave for the undersea and I know Azrael, Duncan and Tiron are safe.”

  If Raile wanted the three of them to be safe, then Herrick would play along. He genuinely wanted that alliance with the sea court; he seemed afraid of our enemies to the north.

  “I don’t need you to marry me, Alisa,” he said. “Not yet. I just need a second chance.”

  No. Holy hell—at the worst possible moment, Raile was being too nice.

  “I need a second chance too, Raile.” I caught his hand between us, squeezed it gently. “Let’s find one together.”

  He leaned forward slightly, and I raised my chin, inviting him in. I drew him a little closer, and his hands slid around my hips. Raile’s fingers still felt hot as brands whenever he touched me; I’d have expected him to be cold as the sea, but then, he was always unpredictable.

  When Raile kissed me, the world went fuzzy again, but this time I couldn’t blame Herrick.

  “Please, Rai
le,” I whispered. “Take me away.”

  “All right, Princess,” he said. “We’ll have our wedding, finally.”

  Despair clutched my chest. I was saying what Raile had always wanted to hear—of course he would believe me. How many of us can second-guess when someone tells us exactly what we’ve always wanted to hear?

  A door flew open, out into the courtyard.

  Duncan strode out at the head of half the Fae knights. A familiar green-haired knight was behind him, and I caught a glimpse of her before I looked back at Duncan, unable to tear my eyes away from him. His gaze took in Raile and me, and the expression on his face—the hurt before he shuttered—was something I knew I would never forget.

  “At your service, my queen,” he said icily.

  “Duncan,” I started to say, and the fingers twisted in my brain. My throat closed up, and I could barely breathe; the dark words that I could say to him, that Herrick wanted me to say, pressed on me. If I tried to explain, the magic would just make me break him all over again.

  I felt someone watching me and looked up to see Faer’s slender figure, watching from the balcony. He raised his hand in a wave.

  I turned to Duncan and said flatly, “I’m marrying Raile. Everything will be fine.”

  Duncan just stared at me, his jaw setting. Emotion flickered through those icy blue eyes, as if he was trying ot decide what to do, and one hand went to the pommel of his sword, but there was no one here to fight.

  “What do need from me?” he asked, and my heart fractured in two.

  God, he was trying so hard to trust me, even though I could see it was a struggle, especially when he’d just found me kissing Raile.

  “Make sure my wedding goes off,” I said.

  The green-haired knight came to his side, worry written across her face.

  But Duncan just said, “You heard the princess.”

  Chapter Fifty-Five