The Mad Queen (The Fae War Chronicles Book 5)

by Jocelyn Fox

  They sat silently for a moment.

  “You’re not gonna like this, but maybe the best thing is to see how it plays out,” said Duke. “I know you wanna report it all, I know you wanna give closure to those families. But I can’t see how that happens without you being in the crosshairs.”

  “Not knowing can rip people apart,” Ross said miserably. She knew from experience. Duke carefully put his arm around her. She rested her aching head on his shoulder.

  “I know you didn’t ask for this, babe,” he said softly. “And I know it feels like everything is kinda out of control. But believe it or not, we’re all here for you. We’re all on your side.”

  “I hate being helpless,” Ross whispered. Self-loathing tightened her stomach: all her years of training, all her experience, and she’d still been useless against Molly and Corsica. Why should she even try?

  “Look,” said Duke in a firmer voice. “You can sulk and feel sorry for yourself, or you can come out and help us.”

  “I’m not sulking,” she retorted, sitting up despite the sharp pain in her skull.

  “Sure seems like it,” Duke replied mercilessly. “Sitting in here by yourself with the lights off. Pretty sure that’s the definition of sulking.”

  Ross dried her face with the heel of one hand. “I was thinking. There’s a difference.”

  “Tell yourself whatever you want,” Duke said.

  She knew he was intentionally trying to provoke her, attempting to snap her out of the morass of despair and guilt that so often followed a traumatic experience. And damn him, it was working.

  “If you don’t wanna feel helpless, then come do something,” Duke said, pushing himself to his feet.

  “Fine,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “I will.”

  “Good,” he said, heading for the door.

  She followed him back into the kitchen, wincing as her eyes adjusted painfully to the brighter light. Tess and Luca sat at the kitchen table. Tess glanced over as they approached.

  “Welcome back,” Liam’s sister said. Ross couldn’t find any sarcasm or reproach in her words.

  “So, what’s the plan?” said Duke without preamble, taking the chair next to Luca.

  “Well, this plan really centers around us not doing much of anything at all, so I’d hesitate to call it that,” said Tess, leaning back in her chair.

  “Do you ever take that off?” Ross asked the younger woman, nodding at the hilt of the sword that was visible over Tess’s shoulder.

  “When I bathe and sometimes when I sleep,” she replied without missing a beat.

  “What d’you mean, not really doin’ much?” Duke asked, looking at Tess and then at Luca. The big ulfdrengr was the one to answer.

  “We’ve discussed the fact that the best course of action may be to allow Molly to travel through the Gate into Faeortalam.”

  “And you’re okay with that?” Duke turned to Tess.

  “I wouldn’t really say I’m okay with it. But I think it’s the best option out of a lot of really bad options,” she replied.

  Ross got the sense that Tess really wasn’t okay with the plan. The other woman clearly looked unhappy at the prospect, her green eyes heavy and her mouth pressed into a line.

  “What about your vengeance against the bone sorcerer?” Duke asked Luca.

  “If Molly does not kill him, then I will,” said the blonde giant. “Dead is dead.”

  “Okay. Very practical.” Duke nodded. “Where do we fit in?”

  “You don’t,” said Tess bluntly.

  Ross blinked and raised her eyebrows. That she hadn’t expected, and clearly Duke hadn’t either.

  “And why not?” he said.

  Tess sighed. “Duke, you’ve been through a lot. You fought alongside us at the Dark Keep, and before that you helped keep my brother alive when you were all attacked by Malravenar’s creatures.”

  “Only what any good teammate woulda done,” said Duke a bit stiffly.

  “And I’m truly grateful,” said Tess. “What I’m saying is that I think you’ve earned the chance to stay here in the mortal world with Ross. Let us handle this.”

  “Handle it by letting Molly go through into your world and wreck shop,” said Duke pointedly.

  “She wants revenge against Mab. We want to remove Mab from power. There’s a certain overlap there,” said Tess.

  “I’m just gonna say it. Sometimes the whole using evil to fight evil thing doesn’t really work out the way you think it’s gonna.” Duke shook his head.

  “Molly chose to apprentice herself to the bone sorcerer,” said Tess heavily. “Corsica stole the river-stone with a fragment of Malravenar’s spirit from me when I went through the Gate last time. I think she used that to supercharge Molly’s abilities. Jump her ahead in the apprenticeship timeline.”

  “She wore a black stone at her throat,” Ross said in slow recognition. “And in Farin’s memory, down in the dungeon…Molly was definitely in charge. They had the bone sorcerer chained. Molly ran the ritual with Corsica’s help. Corsica didn’t like the fact that Molly brought Ramel back, but it was like…” Ross shook her head. “Molly was definitely in charge.”

  “She’s always had a certain strength of will.” Tess looked away unhappily and then cleared her throat.

  “So you’re tellin’ us you don’t want our help?” Duke said, circling back to their earlier statement.

  “It’s not that we don’t want your help,” Tess replied. “It’s that we’re giving you the opportunity to stay here. To be with Ross and to have a normal life.”

  “There’s a Gate to another world in our backyard,” Ross pointed out. “And he’s supposed to be dead, so I don’t really know your definition of normal, but that’s not mine.”

  Tess sighed and then smiled wryly. “Well, I tried.”

  “I’m not saying I want to be the first to dive through this Gate,” qualified Ross, in case anyone was getting any crazy ideas. “But what I am saying is that Duke and I are a part of this.” She swallowed as she felt that knowledge settle into place. Some of the uncertainty smoothed into resolve. She’d said it out loud, made it real.

  “You’ve accepted all this with admirable poise,” said Luca approvingly.

  Ross snorted. “I don’t really know your definition of poise, either.”

  Luca chuckled.

  “Back to the plan,” said Duke doggedly. “I feel like I’m beatin’ a dead horse here. But you’re sayin’ that the whole plan is to do nothing.”

  “We’re going to send messages to Titania and Vell,” replied Tess. “And I’m going to talk to Ramel once he wakes up. Our concern is minimizing collateral damage, but we can’t discount the fact that there’s probably a resistance already in Mab’s Court. The reports we’ve been getting are pretty horrendous.”

  “No surprise there,” muttered Duke. “Never really liked the frosty one. She always seemed a little close to the edge.”

  “Why hasn’t anyone done anything about these ‘horrendous reports?’” asked Ross. “If Mab is really such a terrible ruler, why hasn’t anyone taken action?”

  “For the same reason as there are terrible people in power in our world,” Tess said. “The Fae just finished fighting the greatest war in their history against Malravenar. There were a lot of casualties. That made it easier to sweep aside the early reports, I think.”

  Ross sat back in her chair. “Point taken.”

  Tess smiled humorlessly. “It wasn’t meant as a reprimand. I’m just saying that there are similarities between the mortal world and the Fae world, despite all the differences.”

  “Where does Vivian fit into all of this?” asked Ross. She remembered glancing into the rearview mirror and seeing Vivian throw those balls of exploding colored light. V most definitely didn’t lack purpose now, but Ross had the sinking feeling that her purpose probably involved traveling through the wormhole in the backyard.

  “My cousin the Paladin will be coming with us to the White City, that m
uch is certain,” said Tess.

  “Wait.” Ross held up a hand. “Cousin?”

  “Of a sort. According to Niall, Vivian has the blood of the last Bearer as well. If things had turned a bit differently, maybe she would have this sword on her back.” She tapped the hilt of the Sword, and Ross swore the emerald in the pommel winked at her.

  “V wants to go,” she said, nodding, though the thought of bright, precocious Vivian traveling into this other world made her chest tighten. Who was to say what awaited her friend on the other side? This was a world of danger and magic, something completely different from their world.

  “She’s a Paladin,” said Tess with a nod. “And the place of a Paladin is in the White City.” She glanced at Luca. “I think it’s a good sign for the future. I didn’t think I’d see the Paladins revived.”

  Luca shrugged with one shoulder. “It is a Sidhe legend, not one of the North. But the girl seems to have the aptitude for it.” He looked at Ross. “Oh, Kianryk brought back one of those wild hogs. Your hound seems to like it as well.”

  “What?” Ross said, the change in direction of the conversation too fast for her to follow.

  “We went hunting,” said Luca. “It did not take long, truthfully. There is more quarry than I expected here.”

  “That’s…good,” Ross managed. Then she groaned. “Mayhem’s going to be impossible if she stops eating her dog food because this wolf taught her to like fresh meat.”

  “She will just have to learn how to hunt,” said Luca.

  “She already knows how to hunt, just not for her own food,” muttered Ross. She sighed. “So. You’re going to send messages to the other queens to let them know that you’re going to set Molly loose on Mab. And we’re just going to sit here and let Molly through the Gate.”

  “And then we will follow her,” said Luca.

  “What’s to stop anything else from going through the Gate?” Ross said. “It’s a doorway, right? Is there a lock or something?”

  “Only those with Fae blood and those connected to our world will be able to sense it,” said Luca.

  “And Titania put certain wards on it. They won’t present any obstacle to Molly, if what you’ve been telling me is accurate,” added Tess. “There’s a guard on the Fae side.”

  “Great,” said Ross dryly. “Sounds like a great system.”

  “We’re open to suggestions,” said Tess without any sarcasm.

  Ross put up her hands. “I’m just a corpsman turned paramedic turned firefighter. I got nothin’ when it comes to magical doorways to other worlds.”

  Tess chuckled. “But you have common sense and a good understanding of how the world works. Those are less prevalent than you’d think.”

  “I’d agree with that,” said Ross. Her stomach rumbled audibly.

  “I’ll make some sandwiches,” Duke said, raising his eyebrows at Ross.

  “Wait, say that again?”

  “Yes, I’m makin’ sandwiches. In the kitchen,” he drawled.

  Ross and Tess chuckled. Luca looked between the women and Duke.

  “I do not understand why that is humorous,” the ulfdrengr said.

  “That’s because your people are very progressive when it comes to gender roles, my love,” said Tess with a fond smile.

  “Gender roles,” repeated Luca, narrowing his eyes.

  “Expectations for what men and women should do. In your culture, women were allowed to be warriors as well as mothers. Here, that’s seen differently,” Tess explained.

  Ross watched the interaction with interest. She hadn’t given much thought to the fact that these people had traditions and culture of their own. The idea fascinated her much more than she anticipated. It felt like the moment that she’d realized the people in the country where she’d been sent to fight a war had their own lives, weddings and births and deaths, happiness and joy and grief all juxtaposed onto the landscape that to her was just an arid, hostile backdrop to her duty.

  “So men are not expected to contribute to making meals?” Luca asked, raising one eyebrow.

  “Oh, in this house they are,” said Ross firmly.

  “And with enthusiasm!” called Duke from the kitchen.

  Ross smiled as Tess continued her explanation to Luca. The big warrior just looked more perplexed as she described typical attitudes toward women in the mortal world.

  “The world of your birth has progressed at about the same pace as the Unseelie Court,” he pronounced after a few more minutes.

  Tess smiled and shrugged. “I was happy to embrace the adventure.” She poked him in the arm. “And everything that came with it.”

  Ross glanced at Duke. The affection between Tess and Luca was so evident. She hoped that others saw that when they looked at her and Duke. She’d have to be careful not to shut him out. Sometimes she had to remind herself that she was still adjusting to his sudden return. It had only been a few weeks, after all.

  Tess looked out the window. “Not even five o’clock yet.” She sighed. “This is like jet lag.”

  “Best way is to just stay awake,” advised Duke as he brought a plate of sandwiches to the table.

  “I took a quick nap when you were all finishing up showering,” Tess confessed. “But I’m going to stay awake until tonight.”

  “Do we think Molly’s going to make her move tonight?” Duke asked.

  “Maybe Tyr could help with some of those runes to alert us if anyone crosses the perimeter,” Tess said, grabbing half a sandwich from the plate.

  “V said he wasn’t being very…communicative,” said Duke, sliding into his seat.

  “I’d like to talk to her more about that,” said Tess, chewing contemplatively. “It sounds like the bond between the queens and their Three, which is a blood bond, but I’m wondering if that happens to every person that the Exiled took blood from, or if there are additional parameters…”

  Ross finished her sandwich and reached for another. She felt a little better, sitting out here at the table instead of in the gloom of her bedroom. Just like Tess didn’t like the idea of using Molly as a weapon, she didn’t particularly like the idea of letting the investigation into the disappearance of Corsica’s two victims just play out on its own. She’d take their advice, she decided. She couldn’t do any good in defending the people of her city against these invisible dangers if she was locked in a padded cell somewhere. It was like having a higher clearance and access to more knowledge than some of the other units around her. She’d do her best to make sure innocent people didn’t get hurt, and in the meantime, she’d try not to let her own guilt consume her.

  Chapter 48

  Calliea stared at the tapestry depicting the wolf and drew back her shoulders. She was one of the High Queen’s Three. She wouldn’t let herself be intimidated by facing whatever was on the other side of that tapestry in the Queen’s chambers, even if her mind was supplying images of Merrick and Guinna happily reacquainting themselves while Andraste slumbered…

  “Stop,” she muttered. “Just go in. You’re being ridiculous.”

  She’d spent much of the day at the paddocks, taking Kyrim for a flight and discussing the new riding ring with Trillian. The one-eyed Valkyrie was fast becoming one of Calliea’s most trusted warriors. Niamh had appeared as she’d finished grooming Kyrim, and Calliea had been pleased to see that the battle hadn’t caused any setback for Niamh’s progress. That was one bright spot amidst this new chaos.

  She took a deep breath and touched the tapestry with her taebramh, one hand touching her coiled whip at her hip for reassurance as the wolf shook itself, regarded her with one gimlet eye and then opened the passage into the Queen’s chambers.

  Merrick’s chuckle greeted her, intertwined with Guinna’s melodious laughter. She scanned the chamber and quickly found them sitting by the hearth, their postures relaxed and familiar. Merrick sat with his back toward her, so she could only see Guinna’s expression, her pretty face alight with interest and her eyes flashing as she leaned cl
oser to Merrick, speaking in a voice pitched low and meant for only his ears. Her words must have been quite amusing, because Merrick shook his dark head and chuckled again.

  Calliea stood frozen by the entrance, feeling like an intruder and battling the hissing viper of jealousy that slithered up her spine. Who did this woman think she was, to speak to Merrick so intimately?

  They knew each other before he ever knew you, whispered her jealousy with a flicking tongue. Old flames are easy to reignite.

  The longer she stood by the entrance, unnoticed, the more she felt rooted to the spot, feeling both guilty at not announcing her presence and validated as she watched Merrick and Guinna continue their murmured conversation, leaning toward one another. Perhaps her suspicions were not so badly placed after all.

  “Lady Valkyrie,” said Sayre, emerging from the Queen’s bedchamber where she assumed Andraste still slept.

  “Guard Sayre,” she replied with a small, polite smile. She tried not to notice Merrick’s jump or the delicate flush that crept up Guinna’s neck as the Unseelie woman sat back in her chair in a more proper position.

  The Unseelie fighter pushed his hair out of his eyes. “I suppose I’m not a Guard anymore, since I chose to go with you.”

  “Well, it was either that or die,” she replied with half a grin.

  “True,” he admitted, “though there are some who would say that death is preferable to treason.”

  “You said that yourself at first,” pointed out Calliea. She found that she liked the young Unseelie Guard, probably because he reminded her of when she was young and hoping to make a name for herself. It didn’t hurt that he’d shown admirable courage on his first flight with the Valkyrie, sliding off Kyrim’s back to let Trillian catch him on her nimble mare Faline. He’d also handled the Valkyrie’s merry, mischievous teasing with good humor.

  “Yes,” replied Sayre, “and then I realized you were right when you told me not to die for a mad queen.”

  “It is not treason to want to live free from fear,” said Guinna quietly from beside the fire.