Snake in the Grass (Fairy Tales of a Trailer Park Queen Book 3)

by Kimbra Swain

  I snapped back to Stephanie who stood before my supporters. “I’ve come to talk to you all about Grace and the things she’s been hiding from all of you.”

  “We know her. You have nothing to tell us that we don’t know about her,” Betty said.

  “Oh, Betty, she has you so fooled,” she purred. “Have none of you wondered what happened in the woods that night to Demetrius Lysander?”

  Lysander was my lawyer, and a servant to my father Oberon. He brutally killed two children. I hunted him down, turning his life over to my father at the end. My father obliterated him.

  “Lysander killed two human children,” Dylan snarled.

  “Oh, my sweet Dylan. So, enamored with her that you can’t even see the truth,” she said. “Lysander did kill two children, but instead of taking care of the murderer, she turned him over to her father. Oberon thanked her for turning Lysander over to him. Then he squashed him like a bug. His own servant.” She emphasized the word while locking her gaze on Levi. He’d stepped between Stephanie and Riley, watching the Seelie elf closely.

  She wore a blue lace overlay dress and tall black heels. She swirled around to the crowd watching them. They all watched her. “How many of us here have unsettled grievances with the almighty Oberon?”

  “I am not my father,” I spouted at her.

  “No, dear, you just have to be your father’s daughter,” she sneered. “Who is to say that one by one you won’t turn us over to him for our due retribution? I know if he could get his hands on me, he’d kill me.”

  Behind her Sergio shifted his weight, it was subtle, but I saw it. Stephanie did not concern me. He did.

  “I think you forgot I’m an exile too,” I replied.

  “Are you? Because I heard of a wild tale of fairy trafficking and how your bard whisked you off to the Otherworld where your father’s healers nursed you back to health. He also made your Bard, your Levi, the Royal Bard of the Unseelie. Are these rumors true? Can you pass into the Otherworld without consequence? Are you really an exile, Grace? In that form, you have to be honest,” she said.

  Clearly, she knew more than I thought she would. I knew that things that happened in fairy, never stayed in fairy. Very much the opposite of Vegas. However, she had spies in my father’s house. “I was kidnapped and poisoned. My father’s healers did heal me. And yes, my exile was lifted many years ago, but I chose to stay in this realm,” I replied. “I have nothing to hide.” As I looked around me, I started to see doubts in the faces of my supporters.

  “Isn’t it also true that Amanda Capps was working with Demetrius Lysander, but instead of punishing her as you did your own lawyer, you let her go without a reprimand? And now she is fucking the sheriff who staunchly supports your candidacy? Seems awfully convenient,” she said.

  “I do not have to explain myself to you, but I will to anyone else here that wants to know the reasons I made the choices that I did that night,” I replied. “Dylan was there. He can vouch for me.”

  “No, he can’t,” Stephanie said. “You’ve enthralled him.”

  “I have not. He can’t be enthralled,” I replied.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that completely true, Dylan?”

  He tensed next to me. “I am not enthralled, Stephanie. I love Grace.”

  “Are you sure you aren’t enthralled?” she pressed.

  “I am sure,” he said.

  “Prove it,” she smirked. “Because you once told me that the only being on this earth that could enthrall you would be a fairy queen. Were you lying? Your powers can be negated by royal fairy blood.”

  I didn’t look at him because she was twisting my words. I knew she had to be twisting his as well. He chuckled. “Actually Stephanie, I said that to you, because I already knew what I felt for Grace. It was irony, but I’m sure it escaped your self-centered vision. The joke was on you.”

  “Then prove it. Walk away and leave her here. If she is truly capable of being Queen, then she can do it without you,” Stephanie said.

  Before he spoke, I turned to him. He looked down at me questioning. “You stay and shut-up. I’ve got this. Keep an eye on the Greek with the staring problem,” He nodded to me. Maybe I did have him enthralled. I was sure he had me.

  “See! Look! He obeys,” she called to the crowd who looked on the situation.

  “Shut the fuck up,” I said. Dylan suppressed a laugh.

  She shot daggers at me. “Who do you think you are?”

  “I am the current Queen of the Exiles, and you will cease!” I said releasing power.

  She blinked as the wave rolled over her. I watched the magic in with my sight, but it rolled past her. An evil grin crossed her face. “Tisk, tisk. I think maybe you aren’t the queen after all,” she smiled.

  “You will listen. I can’t do this without Dylan, and I won’t. I can’t do this without the people standing behind me, and I won’t. This isn’t about me, Stephanie. It’s certainly not about you. Who am I without them? There is no Queen without her people,” I replied.

  “There is if you are married to a King,” she smirked, flashing her hand at me. I’d seen her diamond engagement ring, but this time, tucked under it a solid row of diamonds. It flashed brilliantly. I turned my attention back to Krykos who moved slowly toward her. With each of his steps, the cold darkness I sensed moved closer to me. He was Unseelie, but there was only one King. My father. When he touched her outstretched hand, she sank to her knees in supplication. Kyffin Merrick hit his knees as well.

  “Gloriana, you were always such a waste of beauty. You could have been Queen of the Otherworld, but your basic desires for human flesh outweighed your sense of family, and you were ousted from the realm. Your father’s heart grows weak to even allow you to re-enter that realm. Of all of us, you are the least worthy,” his voice shook inside of me.

  Levi made a move toward us, but I threw up my hand. I felt this man’s power. He would squash Levi. My bard stopped, but snarled at the power I’d used to still him. Dylan’s warm hand rested on my back, as Krykos continued to speak.

  “You would think after hundreds of years of fucking humans, you would crave something worthy of your love, instead of this wretched excuse for a man. He’s not even human. He’s a fucking animal,” he prodded Dylan, who did not flinch or move.

  “Not only that, but you are the mother, and I used the term loosely, of a human child. Where is the cold, heartless daughter of Oberon worthy of his crown?” he asked.

  “You can make remarks against my bard, my fiancé and my father, but when you brought my child into this, you crossed a line. Buckle up, Buttercup, you just flipped my bitch switch,” I said pulling the power that had been fed to me from the Otherworld. The square froze over causing my supporters to scurry away from what was to be a massive fight. Pushing the power out of me and forward to Krykos, a flash of arctic wind blew the kneeling Stephanie and Merrick over on their sides. However, my opponent was unmoved.

  “No, dear, like this,” he said making the same motion I had, but instead of wind. He pressed a full wall of ice toward Dylan and me. Dylan’s hand flashed before me in a burst of flames that melted through the block before it reached us. While we held our defense, Krykos pushed another block of ice to us. This one moved faster knocking us both off our feet. Dylan jumped to his feet engulfed in flame. Krykos snapped his finger turning him to a block of ice. “You know how to do that one, right?”

  “He is mine, and I am his,” I claimed Dylan formally on the spot. If Krykos harmed him, as a fairy, he would have to face the punishment of my father and the council. I wasn’t sure of his ties to the Unseelie Court, but it was glaringly apparent that he was extremely powerful.

  “I should destroy him anyway. I do miss Oberon. If I blast Serafino into a billion pieces of ice, do you think your father would care? Trust me, he wouldn’t,” he laughed.

  “No, I will give you anything. Don’t harm Dylan,” I said as I faced the reality that I might have to choose between my
own freedom and Dylan’s life.

  “Oh, but he will return. He is a phoenix after all. Right?” he smiled. I remembered what Dylan told me. Only the power of a royal fairy could destroy him. I knew he was talking about me, but for some reason it never occurred to me that another royal fairy would do it. Krykos was a relative. I could feel his darkness coursing through my veins. “Ah, you know I can kill him. Permanently.”

  My heart dropped. “Grace,” Levi said behind Krykos. “Don’t.”

  Levi knew me. He knew that I would give anything, including my life, to save Dylan. Krykos snapped again freezing Levi. “See. Two for one,” the bastard laughed. Kyffin and Stephanie laughed too.

  “What do you want?” I stammered, as I shook my hands, releasing the power. Nothing I held could go against him.

  He circled around me. My skin erupted in disdain and hatred for him. His power pulsed around me. “You feel the call home. You feel what you truly are inside. Oh, Gloriana, you’ve forgotten the hateful, snide, sexy little wench you used to be. You’ve replaced it with a simpering, weak woman. It’s very sad to see one of my own blood so lost. Let me remind you of what you are.”

  “What. Do. You. Want?”

  “All in good time, my dear,” he said, tracing his cold fingers up my arm.

  “If you are going to fucking touch me, then I’ll say just get on with it. Kill them both,” I said, knowing he still had a game to play, and he wasn’t ready to kill Levi and Dylan, yet.

  “So impulsive. You do remember, don’t you? The nights in the realm. Masked parties. I should say masked orgies. Oh, how I miss it so? Your young tight ass wearing next to nothing. Such beauty as the realm had ever seen. The only daughter of the King. Dragging fairy men into the hallways, closets and side rooms to fuck their brains out. You turned more than one fairy man into mush. I’m surprised you haven’t done it to poor Levi over there. But that wasn’t enough for you, human men were putty in your capable hands. Giving them the ecstasy that they could never get from another human, leaving them wanting for the entirety of their pathetic lives. You were a bad little fairy. I loved it. You were perfect in every way, but now, you’ve forgotten that wonderful time in your life.”

  “I was wrong. I deserved to be banished. If you are looking for that fairy, she is gone,” I said defiantly.

  “Actually, if you want me to let Dylan Riggs and Levi Rearden live, you will bow before me. Declare that I am the rightful King of the Otherworld, and become the vixen I know you to truly be,” his tall form leaned over me, leering down my shirt. As he reached out to grab one of my breasts, I ducked to the side and raised my leg to knee his nuts, because even as a last resort, it is a sure thing. However, he was faster than me, dodging my leg by swatting it to the side. I spun away from him. He pressed up behind me grabbing my throat. Squeezing slightly, he twirled me around to look at the fairies hiding behind bushes and cars. The people of Shady Grove. My people. I couldn’t protect them from this. He spoke in my ear. A chill raced down my spine. “Look at them. If you do as I say, you will have the power to protect them as you promised. I swear it. You will own them all.” The ground shook with the oath.

  “No, my Father’s throne is not mine to give. Who the hell do you think you are?” I asked.

  He spun me around to face him, pulling my body to his very aroused self. “Oh, Gloriana, how could you forget me? Well, I was wearing a mask the night that I tried to take you for myself. You pushed me away, but I got a glimpse of that glorious body. It’s a shame you’ve marked it as you have,” he said as he clamped down on my wrist over my tattoo. The power I had stored in it straight from the Otherworld, flowed into him freely. I could not stop it. He tilted his head back, moaning in pleasure. As he pressed his hips into me, my body responded, but my will was strong. I tried pulling away as far as I could with his hand around my neck.

  “Stop,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “No, you will be my servant, just as the Bard is yours. I will feel you whenever I want!” he growled.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?” I growled back with all the effort that I had left.

  A silent whoosh swept over the square. Snowflakes dangled in the air. The surrounding fairies did not move. I saw Riley MacKenzie blink, so the people surrounding us were completely aware of what was going on. I only knew of one person who could stop time in this realm. Oberon, King of the Unseelie Court.

  He stood to the side of us. His silver tunic stretched to his knees covering charcoal pants. Black boots covered his calves to his knees. An antlered crown crusted with diamonds sat on his head, flashing brilliantly in the winter light. His cold blue eyes stared at the man who had me.

  “He’s my brother, Brockon,” my father’s steady voice said. “Release her, little badger.” It wasn’t a request, because Krykos flinched at the order, but he did not let me go.

  “Hello, brother. I hoped you would visit us,” Krykos said. I’d remembered tales of my Uncle Brock who was the biggest debaucher in the entire kingdom which wouldn’t be so horrible if he didn’t put his hands all over my father’s concubines. Father didn’t take kindly to it. “You must see that now I have pieces of your power, that you foolishly fed to her. You cannot make me do as you wish.” He squeezed harder on my neck. I coughed, straining at the pressure.

  “Release her, now. Do not make me destroy you,” Oberon said.

  “No. You will give me your crown for her life. My Queen and I will waltz into the Otherworld and return it to its glory,” he sneered at my father.

  “Daddy, don’t,” I choked out.

  “What Queen do you speak of?” Oberon asked his brother.

  “I’m sure you know the lovely Raine, daughter of Rhiannon, Queen of the Seelie Fairies,” he said as Stephanie stood obediently behind him. The bravado she wore on her sleeves I now knew to be a construct of Brock’s vanity. A reflection of himself that he cast on her. Raine bowed deeply to my father. I knew now that the Queen of the Seelie didn’t dispose of Stephanie, because like me, she was family. Her child. My father couldn’t do to it to me. Neither could Rhiannon.

  Oberon looked at her through the eyes of a lustful man. I saw my father admire her curves. “She is lovely, and I remember her naked body quite well. I found her in my bed once. She tried to seduce me to prove to her mother how worthy she was as an heir. Raine, you were banished for those actions, correct?” Father asked her. Two royal daughters banished for basically the same thing. Fairy daughters were worse than a preacher’s daughters.

  Could this get any more fucked up? Yep. “You had her banished! You demanded it like she was an intruder in a foreign land. A spy sent by the Seelie Court to ensnare you. She wasn’t. She was a woman trying to prove her worth to her mother. She is just like Grace!” Brock screamed at Oberon, tightening his grip on my neck.

  “Those things were true. She was a spy, an intruder, and mostly a whore. Things didn’t change when she came to this realm. She’s fucked everything with a dick,” Oberon laughed, as he walked through the stilled square. When his body touched the fallen snow, it attached to him, then fell to the ground leaving a void wherever he walked. His eyes intently watched Brock, waiting for his moment to strike.

  “So, has Gloriana,” Brock spat back at him. He was right. I couldn’t deny what I used to be. Things were different now, but that didn’t matter to Brock. He just wanted my father to relinquish his crown.

  “In that, you are wrong, little brother. Gloriana is a Queen in her own right. You stand in her land. You may have taken my power from her, but you can never take the power that these people have given to her. I am proud to call her my daughter,” Oberon said.

  I knew it to be true. The power I felt at the meetings wasn’t so much Gloriana, but the power of the people who trusted me to act on their behalf. Taking the hint, I reached for power, but not from the Otherworld. I found it in Shady Grove, and its people. The Diner, Hot Tin Roof, the Druid’s grove, Dylan’s home and my trailer. The people swirled through my
mind. Well, butter my biscuit, the power I found under my command was stronger than anything my father had funneled to me. It was time for some gravy.

  “Put me down,” I ordered. His grip released me against his will. I stared into his eyes as I snapped both fingers. Dylan and Levi gasped for air as the ice around them melted into puddles. Brock reached for me again, but shrank back when my glamour popped into place. Gloriana wasn’t Queen of Shady Grove. Grace was. I narrowed my gaze at him. “Leave this place and take your whore with you. Never step foot in this town again. How dare you threaten my people!” My voice was steady, but forceful.

  “Gloriana, we should talk about this. We could be a team. We could rule here and in the Otherworld. Return it all to the glory of the Unseelie. Don’t you remember what the Sanhedrin have done to you? You ran from them. Now you keep one as a friend? You are flirting with danger, and it will ruin you. Please, Gloriana, come with me,” he said reaching out to me.

  Flashing my hands out before me, a cold force pressed toward him much like his ice wall on us, but unseen. He stumbled and fell to the ground, surprised at the power. It flowed over him like a crushing wave.

  “My name is not Gloriana. It’s Grace. Get the fuck out of my town before I squash you into little fairy bits,” I growled.

  Gathering himself off the ground, he straightened his coat and his shoulders. Stephanie stood to take his arm, but he pulled it from her. She bowed her head to him as a servant. He spun on his heel. Stephanie and Kyffin skulked away, but he stood immobile with his back to me. He was only a pace away. I saw the flash of fear on Dylan’s face, but before I could react, he spun lunging toward me with a gleaming gray knife. It plunged into my stomach as I tried to dart away from him. Immediately, I felt the effects of the cold iron coursing through my veins.

  Dylan rose up, as ball of flames barreling at Krykos who laughed. Touching the tree beside him, he slipped into Otherworld as I sank to my knees. I looked to where Stephanie and Kyffin once stood, but they were both gone too. I stared at the knife in my gut. Dylan’s arms engulfed me in warmth before I hit the ground.