by Linsey Hall
Queen of the Fae
Dragon’s Gift: The Dark Fae Book 3
Linsey Hall
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Thank You!
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About Linsey
Copyright
1
The Thorn Wolf stared at me from his place in front of the fireplace, yellow eyes glowing.
“You doing all right, pal?” I stirred a droplet of blood into a potion that simmered in a small onyx bowl.
Bacon.
“Hmmmm. I can tell by your tone that you’re peeved.”
He harrumphed.
“I don’t think he’s all that keen on Wally,” Aeri said from her position on the other side of the table.
I eyed the little hellcat who had curled up on top of Burn’s thorny back. Wally was a creature of the underworld, a little black cat with smoking fur and fire for eyes. He was Aeri’s sidekick, and he was just as murderous as Burn when he felt like it.
But apparently, what he felt like now was using my wolf as a mattress.
And the wolf was not pleased.
Or at least, he was pretending to not be pleased. I thought he secretly liked Wally.
“Maybe you can bond by murdering demons together,” I said to him. “It works for me and Aeri.”
“And if all else fails, have a cocktail.” Aeri grinned at the two creatures, never letting up on the perfect rhythm with which she stirred the potion in front of her.
It’d been only a day since we’d fixed the massive crevasse that I’d blown into the earth in Magic’s Bend, and we were back at it in our workshop, brewing some potion bombs for the fight to come. My mother was after me, and she wasn’t going to be nice about it. I’d tried to use my new Unseelie power of premonition to see exactly what she was planning, but it wasn’t that easy to control.
Basically, I was still in the dark. And it was frustrating as hell.
“How are you coming?” I asked her.
“Almost done. We’ll be up to twenty acid bombs in no time.”
“Excellent.” It was nice to have a short break from the fighting. A very short break, given that I only had today. For our little potion-making party, I’d worn one of my usual black plunging gowns, and it felt good to be dressed like myself again. Not that my fight wear wasn’t me—it could be argued that it was even more my style—but I liked the break.
I eyed the clock. Just two hours to go.
“You’ve looked at that clock five times in the last ten minutes,” Aeri said. “That excited?”
“I’m not sure that excited is the word for it.” My heart fluttered, betraying my lie.
“Sure, sure. The hot Fae king is coming over, and you’re not even a little excited.”
“He’s coming over to help me hunt down my murderous mother because he is bent on getting vengeance for his dead brother.” I grimaced, fairly convinced that his quest for vengeance was the main reason he spent any time around me. Especially since I’d spent basically all my time lying to him about something or other. Usually something giant. “So yeah, not exactly a great start to a relationship.”
“No one said being fated mates is easy.”
“Truer words,” I muttered, setting down the obsidian blade with which I stirred my potion.
Despite our issues, the fated mate bond was hard to resist. We were like two trains hurtling toward each other. No brakes. The path was getting bumpy, but we weren’t slowing down.
At the hearth, Burn started to growl. The low rumble was a sound I only heard in battle. Wally lifted his head, too, flame eyes blinking. He hissed, back arching.
“What’s wrong, guys? Do you—”
A massive explosion from behind threw me forward, cutting off my words. I slammed into the table, the hard wooden edge gouging my stomach. The potion in the stone bowl soaked the front of my dress, burning slightly. Aeri was thrown back against the wall.
My heart thundered and pain flared in my stomach as I shoved myself upright, whirling around.
The entire side wall of our workshop had been blown away, revealing the back garden through a haze of rubble and smoke. A slender, unfamiliar figure approached through the mist. I darted right to get some cover, drawing my bow and arrow from the ether.
“Who the hell are you?” I raised my bow and fired, but the figure darted to the right, easily avoiding my shot.
Shit.
From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Aeri, groaning as she dragged herself to her feet.
Burn and Wally lunged forward, snarls erupting from their throats and fangs bared.
The figure threw out his hand, and a blast of wind slammed the two animals back into the wall.
Rage lit in my chest.
“You bastard.” I raised my bow to fire again, but the stranger was fast. He hurled something at me. It glinted red in the firelight as it flew, and I lunged left, narrowly avoiding the potion bomb. It smashed into the wall behind me, leaving a smoking red solution dripping down the paint.
I fired again, and he darted left so fast he avoided my arrow.
Shit.
Finally, he stepped through the smoke, his features becoming apparent.
Pale skin, sharp cheekbones, black eyes.
And wings.
Fae wings.
“Unseelie,” I hissed.
“So are you.” The grin he gave me bordered on evil. His magic reeked of sulfur and rot.
Aeri charged, swinging her mace in an arc overhead to get up the speed required for a kill. She loosened the chain to hit him from afar, but he ducked at the last minute, insanely fast.
Even faster than Aeri and me. We had enhanced speed, thanks to our Dragon Blood, and it was rare we met someone quicker.
My mother had sent someone equipped to take us out.
No way in hell I’d let that happen.
Aeri swung her mace right for his head. The spikes of the metal ball scraped through his hair, and he hissed, black eyes flashing. He threw out his hand again and sent another blast of wind at her. It picked her up and threw her back against the wall. She hit hard, thudding, then slid to the ground.
I fired another arrow, adjusting my attack to assume he would dodge right. He did, and my flying arrow hit him in the shoulder so his arm hung limp. He howled and raised a potion bomb in his good hand, hurling it at me.
I dived right, narrowly avoiding the strike.
To my left, Aeri leapt up and threw a dagger at the Unseelie. He darted left, but it hit him in the side. He hissed, yanking out the steel blade as fast as he could and throwing another strong blast of wind at Aeri, who slammed back into the wall again, cracking the plaster.
Burn and Wally growled and lunged forward.
I threw out a hand. “Back, guys!”
Their fangs wouldn’t do enough damage to this guy. Not unless they could coat them with steel.
Hey, that’s a good idea.
“More steel,” I said to Aeri. The Fae were extra sensitive to it. Being half Fae protected me from the worst of the iron burn, but I still didn’t love it.
I raised my bow once more, calling on an arrow with a steel tip. As I fired, he threw a third potion bomb at me.
Instinct made me abandon my shot and dive out of the way of the potion bomb. He was so accurate this time that I heard it whiz
by my head.
All potion bombs were bad, but there was something about these that made me extra wary.
For one, he was only sending potions at me.
Did he know that I had a new Unseelie magic? I could absorb and return magical assaults. And though I hadn’t tested it, I sincerely doubted my skills worked with potions.
“You’re going to run out of those.” I shot upright and fired, my arrow nearly hitting his shoulder. He darted, and I fired again, using my Dragon Blood speed to my advantage.
Nailed it.
The arrow hit him in the other shoulder, and he howled.
I fired again, aiming for the bag hanging at his side. My arrow slammed into it, shattering the contents.
He growled, reaching for it.
“No more left, huh?”
Hatred flashed on his face, and he turned and ran.
Burn sprinted after him, unable to resist the chase. Quickly, I looked toward Aeri, who was dragging herself upright.
“Go.” Her eyes flashed.
I raced after the Unseelie. He was my only connection to my mother. Tarron and I planned to try to access the Unseelie Court through the Circle of Night again, but we sincerely doubted it was still open.
This could be my only lead.
I leapt over the rubble of the destroyed wall, sprinting past hundreds of broken bottles of ingredients. The loss made my stomach turn. Not only was this stuff expensive, some of it was incredibly hard to come by. This bastard had set us way back in our Blood Sorcery business. As I ran outside, I called upon my new Unseelie wings.
Burn stood in the yard, growling at the sky. I looked up, spotting the Unseelie overhead. His black wings looked ragged and worn, but they carried him swiftly away from my house.
I launched myself into the air, grateful for how much easier flying had become ever since I’d visited the Unseelie Court to complete the ritual that all Unseelie went through to unite the magic within them.
Wind tore at my dress and hair as I flew after the Unseelie. I chased him over the rooftops, the setting sun watching our progress. The view was totally different from up here, and I thanked fates that Magic’s Bend was an all supernatural city.
The damned Unseelie was fast, and far more practiced with his wings than I. He flew down into narrow alleys, cutting around corners and trying to elude me.
I pushed myself, wings aching and lungs burning. No way I’d lose this bastard now. It was early evening, right after work got out for most, and some of the streets were packed with people. The Unseelie cut close to their heads, flying low. Shouts and curses followed him.
Near Factory Row, he reached a park. There were no people I could spot, so I drew a dagger from the ether and hurled it at him. The blade sank into the corner of his wing, and he faltered, shrieking.
I put on a burst of speed and collided with him, taking him down through the trees. Branches dragged at my hair and dress as we fell, and I barely managed to force us to rotate so he hit the ground first.
He slammed into the grass with a grunt, and his elbow went into my stomach. The air whooshed out of me, and I temporarily lost my grip. He tried to scramble upward, but I lunged for him, pinning him down.
I called on a steel dagger from the ether. Ruthlessly, I pressed the dagger against his ribs, making sure that the point broke the skin.
He flinched and turned white. “She wants you,” he hissed. “She’ll stop at nothing.”
“Tell me where she is.”
He spat at me.
I ducked left, barely dodging. I dug the dagger deeper into his skin. “Tell me, or I’ll gut you.”
“You’ll do that anyway.”
I grinned viciously. “Normally, yes. But I quite like the idea of sending you back to my mother with a message. If you tell me where I can find her.”
“Never.”
“Fine, then.” I sliced my fingertip with my thumbnail, enjoying the slight bite of pain. “I’ll make you.”
I raised my bloody fingertip to his forehead, ready to swipe it against his skin and use my Dragon Blood magic to force him to tell me.
“Just go to her,” he said. “Or we’ll keep coming for you.”
“I’ll go to her on my terms.” Until I knew I could resist her mind control magic, I couldn’t go to her. With my power, it’d be like putting a nuclear bomb in her hands.
I raised my hand to swipe my fingertip across his forehead.
Before I could reach him, his hand shot up, and he smashed something against my arm. Glass shattered.
Potion bomb.
The thought registered in my mind in a flash. I reached up and tore the sleeve off my dress, yanking it down my arm before the potion could soak through to my skin.
Cool air drifted over a small patch on my arm.
Dread uncoiled within me as I looked down. A bit of red liquid stained my arm.
The Unseelie laughed, an unsettling sound.
Apparently, I hadn’t destroyed all of his bombs.
His hand swiped up, and he touched my arm, sending a bolt of energy into my mind. My magic twined with his as my vision began to go white. A buzzing started in my head, louder and louder.
I stiffened, losing my grip on the blade. Through the last of my clear vision, I spotted Aeri racing up to me. Cass, as well, coming from across the street where her shop was located.
“Go to her, or the flames will burn.” His words were the last thing I heard before the premonition sucked me in.
I collapsed to the ground beside the Unseelie. Panic flared in my chest as everything went white inside my mind, fluffy clouds surrounding me. Just like in my trials.
Except this had something to do with my mother and her minions. I could feel it.
Gasping, I spun in a circle, alive inside my mind.
I knew what to do.
I’d been practicing.
I drew in a deep breath to force away the panic and focused on the concept of truth.
She was sending me a message, and I needed to see it. Something tugged at me from the left, and I knew it was my mother.
This was a vision she was sending me. It had to be.
I ran toward her signature, my heart pounding.
As the mist cleared, flame took its place.
Horror threatened to swallow me whole.
I was gazing upon the Seelie Court and kingdom—there was no mistaking the ornate architecture and beautiful inhabitants.
Terrible flames raced down the street, chasing people from their homes as they devoured the buildings. The fire flickered orange, blue, and green. Magic sparkled at the tips of the flame.
It would destroy the entire kingdom and everyone in it.
Come to me. Somehow, her voice echoed in my mind. Come to me, and all of this can be stopped.
There was no way. I was a Dragon Blood—capable of making any magic in the world. The equivalence of a nuclear bomb. If my mother got ahold of my mind like she had the last time, she could do far worse than destroy the Seelie kingdom.
She could destroy the whole world.
At the edges of the blaze, my mother’s dark smoke crept along the ground. It was the same magic that had possessed my mind and body when I’d seen her last. It was the magic that kept her in control in the Unseelie realm. It had to be. She could possess anyone she got close enough to.
And she was doing it to the Seelie.
The ones who weren’t burning were turning toward her side.
She was a madwoman.
I could feel it in the air—her desire to destroy and possess. It was like we had some kind of horrible connection. She had failed to turn the Seelie to her side with the crystal obelisk, so she was going to burn the place to the ground and capture the minds of anyone lucky enough to survive.
Though lucky wasn’t necessarily the word I’d use if they ended up under her spell.
I had to stop her.
But how?
My head ached as I called upon a vision of a future where I could st
op her. A future where I could change all this.
Was it even possible?
The vision came easily—more easily than any vision I’d ever had.
And it sent me to my knees.
Again, I saw myself plunging a blade into Tarron’s chest.
I’d had this vision once before, so recently that it was still fresh in my mind. Me, weeping, while I killed Tarron.
I hadn’t told him.
I hadn’t wanted it to be true.
Yet here I was, seeing it again.
And this time, it was the solution to the horror that my mother planned for the entire Seelie kingdom. It was difficult to see the details, but there was no mistaking the blade that plunged into his flesh or the tears on my face. This was no trick of the light.
If I wanted to save the thousands of Seelie who were burning in front of my eyes, I would have to kill Tarron.
Their king. My fated mate.
2
“Mari! Wake up!” Aeri’s voice cut through the fog in my mind.
She shook me hard, rattling my brain as I sat up, blinking. My gaze moved to the dead Fae next to me. Someone had plunged a steel blade through the Unseelie’s chest. Black smoke curled up from the seeping wound.
Burn stood over the Fae, eying the bloody neck that he’d clearly just torn apart. Black blood dripped from his fangs, and his muzzle was pulled back in a growl.
The Fae’s hair smoked, charred to the skull. Wally, the fire-breathing hellcat who followed my sister around, had clearly done his own bit of damage. The little beast sat nearby, cleaning his inky black paws.
It was still dark out, and the cool night air blew my sweaty hair back from my forehead. Aeri sat over me, gripping my arms tight. Cass stood behind her, concern in her green eyes.
My gaze flashed up to Aeri. “Did you kill him?”
“No. He did it to himself when he saw us coming.” She gestured back to Cass. “Twisted the blade right in his own heart. Then Burn got excited and lunged. Wally followed.”