Yew Queen Trilogy

by Eve A Hunt

  It was an impossible thing, of course.

  I had never come to grips, so to speak, with my mother’s death. I could forget the pain for a time here and there when I was busy or happy. But it never left, and I never fully comprehended the fact that she was gone. She still seemed so alive in my memory. Her smile. The light on her face through the kitchen window. Her laugh. No, Lucus wouldn’t get over this. But he could maybe, hopefully, find some strength to live on, to fight on.

  Among the sunrise-gilded trees in the castle’s courtyard, Kaippa stood over the bodies of Sebastian, Corliss, Baccio, and Aurelio. The wounds were horrible. The dragon’s clawed wing had ripped Corliss’s chest open, the creature’s flames had blackened Baccio’s and Aurelio’s otherwise smooth skin, and Sebastian’s left side was crushed like he had no bones left there at all. I wanted to ask why the beast’s flames were so much more deadly than basic fire. I longed for an explanation of why Sebastian and Corliss hadn’t been faster or at least as fast as the demon dragon. But I didn’t want to bother Lucus with questions. I knew what I needed to know. The demon had demolished our semi-immortal force with no more than erratic attacks and defenses. Everything about the demon—its speed, claws, and fire—was far more deadly than we could’ve guessed.

  How could we possibly defeat it now with only Lucus, Kaippa, Hekla, and me?

  Lucus released my hand and knelt by his brothers’ heads. A lock of hair had fallen over Aurelio’s half-scorched face, and Lucus pushed the hair aside, his chest moving in one quick, wrenching sob. With slow and reverent movements, Lucus tore a square of material from Aurelio’s shirt and Baccio’s jacket. He gripped the fabric in white-knuckled hands as he kissed them each on the forehead, his wings spreading behind him and catching the light of the rising sun. Tucking the fabrics into his belt beside the wool from his youngest brother Francesco’s clothing, Lucus stood.

  “I’m so sorry.” My whispered words were loud in the misty cold of the morning.

  Lucus’s eyes shuttered for a moment, then he nodded. “Thank you for your condolences, my queen.”

  I’d known him long enough to realize the formality in his tone helped him to speak instead of breaking down into tears.

  “May we say something about the fallen?” Hekla stepped forward, her gaze on Aurelio.

  Kaippa was oddly silent. I expected him to say something offensive, but so far, he had held back. If he so much as grinned, I was going to end him.

  “Please.” Lucus dropped back, his wings brushing a pine tree’s trunk and lower branches.

  Hekla knelt at Aurelio’s feet. “Aurelio was the kindest of us.”

  She was right. I remembered him helping at the bakery, how he spoke to everyone with respect and gave old folks a hand getting in and out of the door. The only time I’d been frightened of Aurelio was when he’d lost control and fed on my aura. But starvation due to the long-standing curse cast by my own ancestor was the cause. I couldn’t blame him for becoming a monster in his desperation. No, I blamed Mage Duke Sforza.

  “I’ll miss you, new friend,” Hekla said at last before rising. She went to each body and mentioned their strengths. Corliss’s bravery for living through her mother’s abuse. Sebastian’s devotion to his son. Baccio’s courage in admitting he had been a traitor and his efforts to fix the relationship between him and his brothers.

  When she was through, Hekla threw her arms around Lucus’s neck and squeezed him. Lucus set his cheek on the top of her head and returned the hug, saying something I couldn’t catch.

  I wished I could offer comfort, but my mind was fuzzy. I worried that anything I said would sound stiff or awkward. Hekla was so much better at feelings. She came up beside me and stood close enough that I could feel her warmth through my filthy clothing.

  Lucus looked at the pink sky, the Adam’s apple in his throat bobbing. “My brothers, I will miss you. I speak your names to seal your fate, to ask the earth to welcome your bones. Baccio, Irunta Katu, Dark Forest, I will miss your darkness, the shadow that reminded me to seek the sun. May you bond with the earth and grow as it does, eternal and green with life.” Fae magic shimmered from Lucus’s palms and fingertips like emerald smoke. Wildly leafy vines slid from the small forest’s floor, enveloped Baccio’s body, then dragged him underground.

  Kaippa’s eyes widened, and he glanced at Hekla, who had her fingers pressed against her lips.

  “Aurelio,” Lucus continued, “Tanka Maram, Golden Forest, I will miss…” He bowed his head and fisted his hands.

  The shards of my heart pricked my chest, and I went to him. I kissed his shoulder and put a hand on his lower back. I didn’t know what to say, so I kept quiet.

  He inhaled and raised his chin. “Tanka Maram, Golden Forest, I will miss your light, the innocence of youth that never quite left you, the wonder you reminded me to seek and to honor. May you bond with the earth and grow as it does, eternal and green with life.”

  As his magic called up vines that encircled Aurelio’s body, drawing him into the ground, Lucus turned away. Under my hand, his arm shook.

  “I was lucky to know him,” I whispered. I hoped with everything in me that it was okay to say that.

  Lucus took a quick breath, then turned to place a kiss on my forehead. “He was lucky to know you.” I felt his sad smile against my skin. “I don’t know Corliss’s true name. She needs to go home to be buried.”

  I pulled away. “Back to Arleigh’s court?”

  “It’s no longer hers. Perhaps she has living kin there who know her name and can honor her properly.”

  I thought about the dark unicorn. Corliss is dead, I said to him in my mind. Is there anyone there who knows her true name and can bury her?

  The unicorn’s voice sang through me. Yes. Send her. I will see it done. Be warned. The Mage Duke has taken over the entirety of this magicked region. I retreated into the wood, Corliss’s kin with me. The Duke is strong. And he will come for you and for your mate soon.

  I swallowed. “Thank you. For everything.” Looking up at Lucus, I told him what the unicorn had said. “I’ll portal Corliss home, to the edge of the wood.”

  Kaippa and Lucus lifted the unseelie’s body and moved it a few feet away from Sebastian’s. I lifted power from the earth, from the Bow, then released a storm of pale purple that clouded around Corliss’s form until she was gone.

  “May you have peace,” Lucus said, his gaze on the place where Corliss’s body had disappeared.

  Since Sebastian was the mage who’d trained me, I felt an odd sense of responsibility to say something. “Sebastian, the Binder, was an amazing mage and even better father. He survived a horror and showed nothing but love for his son.” I sucked at this. I wished I knew the right words…

  Hekla leaned close. “That’s right, Coren. So true.”

  Lucus bent and ripped a piece of Sebastian’s shirt. He held it out to Hekla. “For the boy. To remember.”

  My throat swelled, and tears blurred my view of him handing the cloth to Hekla.

  Lucus buried Sebastian in the same manner as his brothers but without the sendoff phrases that seemed only fit for fae.

  We stood in silence around the small forest that had become a burial ground. Birds sang in the morning air, their joy a sharp contrast to the mood among us.

  “I’m going to check on Oliver.” Hekla gave me a sad smile. “Want to come along, Kaippa?”

  Though Kaippa had saved both Hekla’s life and Oliver’s, I still didn’t think it was a great idea to have him around.

  “Calm down, Coren.” Kaippa sauntered past. “I’m on my best behavior.”

  Ignoring him, I went to Lucus, took my fated mate’s warm hand, then led him to his bedroom, deep within the castle where he might find some quiet for mourning. We didn’t have long, the unicorn had said as much, but Lucus could take a few hours surely.

  Hopefully.

  15 Hekla

  Hekla walked beside Kaippa down the firelit corridor toward the room where they’d s
ettled Oliver. “I can’t believe they’re all gone," she said. “It’s just us four now.”

  “And young Oliver,” Kaippa said.

  Tears seared Hekla’s eyes as she touched the heavy wood grain of the door to Oliver’s room. She couldn’t go in like this, weeping. She had to be strong for the boy.

  Kaippa rubbed her back. “I don’t think it’ll hurt Oliver to see you mourn his father. He will mourn too. It’s a natural thing, Hekla.”

  Hekla pushed inside, partly to get away from Kaippa’s touch. Too much of her wanted to lean into him like she had when she’d turned into a fox and nearly been run down by a truck. But the vampire couldn’t be trusted. He was a killer, and he’d hurt Titus.

  Oliver stirred on the bed as Hekla sat beside him.

  “We’re back now. Do you want to see your father’s grave or keep resting? Whatever you want to do is fine.”

  Oliver pushed further into his pillow, his muffled cries dragging nails over Hekla’s heart.

  Kaippa turned the other side of the bed down. “Rest here with him. I’ll stand outside to keep watch.”

  He looked sincere, but he was a vampire.

  “You can trust me to do this, Hekla.”

  “Can I?”

  “I will show you.” Kaippa left the room, shutting the door. A bump on the oak said he’d leaned against the entrance.

  He really was going to watch over them in case the demon wyvern returned. Hekla’s body felt like it was coated in syrup, sticky and heavy. She wanted to yell at Kaippa and order him to shove off, but her eyes wouldn’t stay open. Sighing, she gave in, tucked herself into bed beside little Oliver, and was asleep with Kaippa’s concerned eyes in her thoughts before she’d taken three breaths.

  16 Coren

  In Lucus’s bedroom, it was summer again, the air thick with the scent of blooming flowers, tree pollen, and warmed black earth. Under the massive oak that spread its luminous, green leaves, Lucus sat on the side of his bed. His modern clothing was such a contrast to his looks and this amazing room. The ruby-hued velvet duvet he crushed with his fisted hands was dusted with light from the candelabra and the window set high in the wall.

  He hadn’t said a word since laying his brothers to rest. We were both still covered in dirt, our knuckles caked in dried blood, and our clothes torn and stinking from the demon’s breath.

  This all sucked so damn hard.

  I got on my knees in front of Lucus and slid his boots and socks off.

  “Coren.” My name sounded like a plea.

  “You need to get cleaned up. This is basic maintenance, and I don’t mind it. Not today.”

  He didn’t fight me as I pulled his tee shirt off. He’d already shucked his jacket, and his scent increased, loosening my muscles. Grime stained the corded muscles in his neck and the curves and tip of his fae ears. He had dirt in his hair and along one side of his horns.

  In his bathroom, I stripped down to my bra and undies and used a towel to clean the blood off my arm and face. That’s when I realized Lucus had healed me at some point, maybe when he’d held my hand on our way to the burial. I wasn’t sure.

  In the sink, I upended a wide vase of ferns that had been on the window ledge. I filled the container with warm water and found a thick washcloth on a set of shelves in the corner. I returned to Lucus, vase and cloth in hand.

  Carefully, like he might disappear if I moved too quickly, I dragged the damp washcloth over Lucus’s beautiful, sharp cheekbones and the column of his throat. I didn’t react when tears leaked from his eyes in silence. I just wiped them away, then began washing his hands—palms, fingers, thumbs.

  “Stand.” I took his hands and helped him to obey even though he was a million times stronger than me. Because right now, he wasn’t.

  I undid his jeans, tugged them off as he sat again, then eased him back to lie on the bed. He spread his wing against the other side of the mattress and nodded, not making eye contact but clearly inviting me to lie down beside him.

  We slept until the window showed full dark, his breath stirring my hair and my hand on his stomach. At some point during the night, Lucus began to kiss my fingers, one by one.

  “Thank you, my mate.” His words drifted through my chaotic dreams until I blinked myself awake. “Thank you. Thank you.”

  I rolled to my side and kissed the corner of his lips. He tasted salty, like tears. I thought he’d go back to sleep, but he turned and pressed his mouth on mine. With quick movements only a fae could accomplish, he was on top of me, cradling my face with his hands, his wings spread above us like a canopy. He placed soft kisses on my nose, my chin, my temples, forehead. Then he brushed my throat with his lips.

  “I need you, Coren.” The longing in his voice told me what he wanted. For us to be connected in every way two creatures can. Emotionally. Physically. Spiritually.

  He undid my bra, and his lips raged over my nipples, then across my ribs, making me shudder with need and heating my body to a melting point. I tugged at my undies, but they wouldn’t come down because of how pinned he had me.

  “May I?” he asked roughly, the whites of his eyes still red from grief.

  I nodded, unable to speak, my body throbbing with the need to feel him inside me, to be joined with him completely, like no one else could join with him.

  With his teeth, he ripped the side of my undies, then tossed them to the floor. He met my gaze, his green eyes blazing, fierce. If I hadn’t known exactly who he was to me, I’d have been afraid. But I wasn’t. This deadly alpha fae was my mate and he would never, ever hurt me. He would use his power to show me pleasure, to show his love and need for me.

  Lucus drove into me with no hesitation and simultaneously pulled at my aura, feeding from my energy. I gasped at the glorious feeling of fullness and reveled in the warmth of him flush against me, hot and virile. Shivers ran down my back as the light of his fae magic unspooled from his chest and suffused me with a sense of power. I rocked my hips, wanting more. More of everything. For him to take more. For him to give more. More. He drew away, then thrust forward again and again, his cock relentlessly, shamelessly riding across the perfect places inside me even as he drew energy from me before turning it into a new magic to return to my body. I was drunk with it, elated, fully blissed. My fingers dug into his back, and I opened my mouth to taste his skin, kissing his chest, salt on my tongue. The scent of pine resin thickened the air, and I could almost taste the sunlight on the sap in the forest where he’d lived so long ago. It was heady, intoxicating, primal.

  He set his forehead on mine, his body pausing. “I love you, Coren. Tell me what you want.”

  “This. This is what I want.”

  He withdrew and began to kiss his way down my body, past my navel. His tongue flicked over me, and I gripped his horns, pulses of pure delight flashing through my middle.

  “I want you inside me,” I whispered. “Now.”

  Raising his head, he set his gaze on me like I was prey. Moving too quickly for me to see, he was on top of me again. He drove into me, and I called out as wave after wave of intense pleasure crashed over me. The view of his wings and the room went hazy, and it was only us two in the world. Bonded. I knew he’d never leave me and that I would never leave him. We were as one.

  We collapsed into another deep sleep, breathing at the same pace.

  I had one thought as dreams took me: If only this could last forever.

  17 Coren

  When I woke, Lucus had left a note on his pillow.

  I am in the courtyard. Join me if you wish.

  I cleaned up in his bathroom, untangling my hair and washing the important bits. I wished I had clean clothing. If I went home, I’d have to see the place where they’d all died. I couldn’t do it. Not yet. I went to grab my dirty clothes and instead found a fresh v-neck tee, a black mini skirt, and even a pair of thick socks for my boots. I had no idea how Lucus had managed to get these things, but I loved him all the more for the sweet gesture. I wished I’d have done
the same for him. After donning my muddy boots and my slightly roughed-up leather jacket, I made my way toward the courtyard.

  Near the trees, Hekla and Kaippa stood on either side of Oliver. They were tossing an orange ball, and though Oliver’s hair was mussed from sleep and his eyes puffy from crying, he was smiling a little. Kids were so damned resilient. Adults really underestimated them.

  Lucus whispered over his brothers’ graves. An element of resolution hung on his shoulders, and I was glad to see it.

  We had a demon to fight.

  He rose and joined me. “Did you notice how the demon reacted to Hekla’s bite?”

  I blinked. “No. I couldn’t see well in the dark.”

  Hekla set the ball down and lifted Oliver, who was rubbing sleepy eyes. “Me either,” she said.

  Kaippa crossed his arms. He’d rolled his loose button-down shirt up past his elbows, and I did not miss Hekla’s wayward gaze at the muscles in his forearms.

  “The bite blackened immediately,” Kaippa said.

  Lucus nodded. “And that’s without a spell.”

  I waved a hand. “Hold on. I missed a step.”

  “As a fae, I think I can use Hekla’s blood to cast a specific spell that would perhaps not kill the demon, but certainly deter it.”

  “Deter. Like he would steer clear of that spell?” I asked.

  “Yes. We could confuse him with the shifter-blooded spell, and perhaps then you could shoot your arrow and hit his head straight on.”

  Hekla tucked Oliver’s hair behind his ear. “How much of my blood would you need?” She was trying not to look nervous, but her fear showed up in the way her eyes crinkled at the corners.

  “Lucus?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Lucus said. “But we’re certainly not risking your life for this strategy. We can try as little as a pinprick and see where it gets us?”