“Your future queen?” I asked in confusion.
Liri’s smile was as cold as his heart. “Hensley is to be my mate, and you have the honor of serving as her lady-in-waiting. Soon, I expect she will be with child. Our children will play and be tutored together. The eldest, anyway. I expect Hensley and I will have many children. My dear mother gave birth to eight of us, including two sets of twins, as you know.”
I could only stare at Liri in horror. I thought I would have felt relief if he ever managed to turn his attentions to another female, but my stomach bottomed out.
“You cannot force yourself on Hensley,” I said.
A menacing glare replaced Liri’s smiling eyes. “Force,” he said with a sneer. “You think a Fae king as beautiful as me would have to force a human to lay with him? No woman was ever so lucky as Hensley Allen from the mortal world. She will be queen of Dahlquist. Mate to the most cunning and gorgeous Fae in all of Faerie.”
If I weren’t so furious, I would have snorted at his overinflated ego.
“She will carry my child, my esteemed Elmray lineage. She will birth a son who will be heir to the throne. My sisters and brother will be forced to bow down before her. If you are a true friend of Hensley’s, then you will be happy for her.” Liri looked me up and down, pursing his lips. “You had your chance, Aerith.”
Ohh! That scoundrel! If he wanted Hensley and she wanted him back, then fine. Great, actually! Freaking Fae-tastic! But forcing me to stick around was plain cruel. I wanted to slice open his neck, but of course, he’d called on me in the wrong damn room. I doubted Hensley kept a dagger stashed beneath her mattress. I didn’t want to get near the wretched purple bed if she’d been making babies on it with Liri.
Good thing my stomach was already empty, or I might have spewed all over again.
“You still mean to imprison me in Dahlquist?” I demanded, stomping my foot.
Liri flashed me a smug smile. “Dahlquist isn’t your prison, Sister. It is your home.”
Queen Naesala made no appearance at dinner that night. Nor did Jhaeros.
Liri sat at the head of the table, Hensley on the opposite end in the chair Queen Naesala had occupied the night before. I felt as though I’d stepped into a nightmarish dreamscape. I did not bear the shock alone. The silence that fell over the table was as thick and haunting as fog over a cemetery.
Hensley had been transformed into a dark temptress. At least I hadn’t been forced to dress her, despite Liri’s threat to make me her lady-in-waiting. I almost hadn’t recognized my human companion when she first walked in with Liri, wearing a transparent black dress that clung to her supple curves. Silky midnight leaves and vines were all that covered her breasts and groin. Her unbound brown hair shone with copper and gold highlights, while a shimmery black tiara rested above her bangs. Dark liner rimmed her eyes, making them appear seductive and exotic.
Teryani and Ryo stared at Hensley like a pair of hungry wolves while Jastra and Sarfina stubbornly refused to look at her. Liri must have spoken to his siblings before dinner. I kept expecting an outburst, an insult—something—but they all kept quiet until Teryani ventured to say, “How very delectable.”
Liri’s thin brows jumped, and the corners of his lips lifted into a smirk. The scene was so very different from the morning before. Liri oozed smugness. He leaned back in his chair as though it were his throne and he’d won a great victory, an exquisite prize.
We ate in silence. Jastra and Sarfina barely touched the food on their plates. I chewed slowly and carefully, pretending I was back home in my cottage, enjoying a hearty stew with Mel as we came up with baby names together.
Course after course, Liri finished his plate—the only one present with a lusty appetite. I’d never seen him eat so much. The only thing he didn’t eat was the red velvet cake served last. He shot meaningful looks down the table at Hensley as though conveying that she was to be his dessert at the end of the meal.
“May I be excused?” Sarfina asked bitterly. It was the first time she’d spoken all evening.
Liri’s smile faded as though soured by his sister’s voice. He waved her away dismissively. With a pout, Sarfina scooted away from the table and walked out of the dining room.
“May I as well?” Jastra asked.
I looked at her in surprise. Was she really letting a human chase her off?
Liri nodded, not bothering to look directly at his most devoted sibling. “Take Ryo with you. He’s stared at my fiancée long enough for one night.” After they’d gone, Liri looked from me to Teryani. “The two of you may leave as well.”
I hadn’t taken three steps from the table when a footman burst into the room, wheezing. “My king! The queen! She’s”—he gasped for breath—“dead.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Aerith
Blood stained the cream-and-gold embroidered bedspread. Queen Naesala’s cold body, clad in a black lace sheath, was reflected in dozens of mirrors, her stony expression staring out into the guest room in Cirrus’s old wing of the castle.
A deep cut ran across her neck like a ruby choker.
The queen’s guards made no movement, as though awaiting orders from their new master.
Liri stood beside the bed, looking down with cold indifference. “So the bitch is dead,” he said, sounding annoyed by the interruption.
In that moment, I felt certain he hadn’t been the one to order her death.
I stood quietly behind the gathering. Teryani and I had followed Liri, Galather, and Folas from the dining room to the queen’s chamber. I hadn’t noticed Hensley get up from her seat and imagined her waiting obediently for her king to return and instruct her next move. Liri had finally found a more willing doll to dress up, instruct—mold to his every desire.
Right then, I didn’t care.
Jhaeros paced the opposite side of the bed, wild-eyed, wringing his fingers. Half the buttons on his collared shirt were unbuttoned and his thick brown hair mussed up. If the queen weren’t already dead, I’d want to kill her myself.
“She warned me this would happen. She told me you were all out to get her,” Jhaeros ranted to no one in particular.
“And how do we know it wasn’t you who slit my aunt’s precious throat?” Liri asked coldly.
The queen lay dead, and yet Jhaeros remained locked in the enchantment. I glared at Teryani, who was watching Jhaeros closely. She was the puppetmaster controlling her pet, but there was nothing I could do at the moment besides beseech Sky Mother not to allow Jhaeros to take the blame for the queen’s death and meet a similar fate. Obviously it hadn’t been by his hand, not when he was still besotted with the nasty Fae queen.
As though to confirm my bitter thoughts, Jhaeros gave a cry of outrage. “I worshipped the ground my queen walked on. She was my sun. My star. My moon. My life holds no light without her. No joy. No spark.”
Liri rolled his eyes and huffed in disgust. “Someone get this elf out of here before my ears bleed.”
“I will not leave my queen!” Jhaeros bellowed.
“Well, she left you,” Liri said cruelly. He turned to Teryani and grinned. “Congratulations, Sister, the kingdom of Ravensburg is yours. As such, I trust you are capable of cleaning up this mess?” He raised a brow.
“You are making Teryani queen of Ravensburg?” I demanded. Did she think to inherit Jhaeros along with the kingdom? I couldn’t figure out what she wanted with him. She’d never appeared interested in tormenting me in the past. I’d always believed her to be above such petty vendettas.
Liri turned to me and smiled coldly. “I would not give a kingdom away so easily, not even to my twin sister. After Cirrus died, my dear old aunt amended her will, making Teryani her heir.”
Teryani turned her attention to the guards. “You will take my aunt’s body to Ravensburg and prepare her for burial. A memorial will be held at the Ravensburg palace in three days’ time. I expect all her subjects to attend, along with my own dear family.”
Liri huffed. “Yo
u can hardly expect me to attend.”
“Will you deny the request of your sister, a queen?” Teryani challenged.
“I shall attend,” Liri acceded. “The whole family shall.”
“Good,” Teryani said with a nod. “Jhaeros, go with the guards and see to it that arrangements are made.”
He folded his arms and shot her a foul look, one I’d seen on Jhaeros’s face before. It seemed almost as though he were coming out of a trance.
“And when can I expect your majesty’s arrival?” he asked gruffly.
“After I’ve made my own arrangements,” she answered.
They stared one another down. Jhaeros was the first to look away, his eyes slipping toward me. Seeing this, Teryani coughed, regaining his attention. “She will be given a proper memorial,” Teryani said firmly.
Jhaeros glared at her one last time before turning to the guards and ordering them into action. He sounded like his old self when he was annoyed, not bothering to mask his impatience—the same way he’d spoken to Lady Dashwood that long time ago in Pinemist.
“What should we do with this?” one of the guards asked, lifting a dagger with a bloodied blade from the nightstand.
It had been set there as callously as the queen had been killed.
“I will keep it for my collection,” Liri said. He looked at Galather, who walked toward the guard. As the queen’s guard grabbed the top end of the covers, presumably to wipe the blade, Liri snapped, “No! Leave the blood.”
The guard froze. Galather reached him and snatched the dagger from his hand.
“Is that truly necessary?” Teryani asked.
“That is the blade that killed a queen,” Liri answered. “It should be kept intact to mark the occasion.” At Teryani’s careless shrug, Liri grinned. “Or perhaps you want it? You earned it, after all.”
Teryani lifted her delicate chin. “Despite what you may think, Brother, this isn’t my doing.”
“No?” Liri asked, raising a brow.
But her word was good enough for the guards, who faced their new queen and bowed their heads. The Fae could not lie; therefore, she’d exonerated herself with her statement.
Then who had killed the queen?
I looked at Jhaeros, who told the nearest guard to wrap the expired queen in the blanket; it was ruined anyway. I couldn’t decipher if his disgust was for the dead queen—that he’d somehow been playacting or recently released from an enchantment—or whether he was angry at Liri and Teryani for their lack of feelings toward their aunt’s death.
“You two, take her body to the courtyard and arrange a cart to transport her back to Ravensburg,” Jhaeros said, pointing a finger at one guard and then another. “Tell no one what has happened. The announcement is Queen Teryani’s to make. I will follow behind in a carriage shortly.”
The two guards nodded then finished rolling up Queen Naesala in the blanket until she was fully covered and obscured from view. One guard took her head, the other her feet. Folas opened the door for them to pass.
The third guard took a step forward, smacking his fist against his chest. “Shall I stay with you, my queen?” he asked Teryani.
The ghost of a smile appeared over her lips. “I am perfectly safe in my king brother’s castle. Go down to the courtyard and arrange a carriage for Jhaeros. You will await him there and return with him to Ravensburg. I will send him down momentarily,” she added.
The guard bowed and left the room.
“Ah,” Liri said with a smirk, as though he’d figured something out. His eyes shown with love and admiration as he took in his twin. “Not your doing. Someone else’s. Someone in need of a royal reward.”
The way he said the last two words made my nostrils flare.
For all I knew, Jhaeros had already been forced to bed one queen. I would not walk away and allow him to bed another, especially not my sister-in-law. And finally, I had a weapon.
I lunged at Galather. Everyone had forgotten me, which gave me a temporary advantage. I knocked into the big lug’s side and tore the dagger from his hands. I jabbed it in front of me as though it were a sword and backed up toward Jhaeros.
“Aerith, what in the seven hells are you doing?” Liri asked, sounding more amused than alarmed. It made me want to puncture his lung. He wouldn’t chuckle if he was too busy wheezing.
“This elf was stolen from his home,” I said, my voice shaking. I couldn’t see Jhaeros’s expression since he was now behind me. I had to keep my eyes on the terrible twins. “I won’t stand idly by and allow you to manipulate my brethren from the elven realms.”
“I assure you he came quite willingly,” Teryani said calmly.
“Lie!” I bellowed.
She pursed her lips, taking me in with liquid blue eyes. “You know I cannot lie.”
“I did come willingly.”
My heart squeezed when I heard Jhaeros’s voice.
No. I didn’t believe him. I couldn’t. This wasn’t my Jhaeros. He must be someone else glamoured to look like him. That was a cruel specialty of my sisters-in-law. Who was this imposter? Maybe I’d worried for nothing and right now the real Jhaeros was back in Pinemist at home with his blind butler and deaf cook, pining for me. I bet Lady Dashwood stopped by daily to offer her comfort.
“That settles it,” Liri announced. His eyes narrowed in impatience. He kept glancing at the door. “Now return the dagger to Galather.”
Things were far from settled. My grip on the dagger tightened. “I want you to send my sister and Devdan back home.”
Liri’s head jerked in my direction. “You are no longer in a position to negotiate.”
As though I ever was.
Teryani took a step forward. “We shall discuss it after our aunt’s funeral,” she said in a soothing voice. “I don’t see what purpose the two young elves can serve in Dahlquist now that Aerith is no longer your primary concern.”
Liri considered his sister a moment before nodding. “It will be discussed after the funeral.” He nodded at Galather, who came forward and snatched the dagger from my fingers, which had turned to noodles.
Without another word, Liri marched out, his twin guards on his heels. Their footsteps faded away from the corridor, leaving me alone with the Jhaeros look-alike and the new queen.
Jhaeros—or whoever he was—folded his arms across his chest and faced Teryani with a glower.
“Close the door,” she said. When he didn’t move, she added, “Please,” with a genuine smile of delight—the kind a mother might give to a stubborn child she couldn’t help doting on.
With a low grumble, Jhaeros unfolded his arms, walked swiftly to the door, and closed the three of us inside the chamber of death.
Teryani looked from the now empty bed to Jhaeros and grinned. “Well done,” she said in a pleased tone. “You upheld your end of our bargain. We don’t have long, so I suggest you make haste with your ‘royal reward.’” She stretched one lean arm in my direction.
My jaw hung open in confusion as Jhaeros swept up to me and gathered me into his arms, hugging me tightly against him. “Are you okay?” he asked, fury and concern in his voice.
“Jhaeros?” I asked, still uncertain.
He broke the hug to hold me in front of him, inspecting me from head to foot, wrinkles creasing his eyes the harder he looked. When his gaze settled on my belly, his eyes softened. “Is it true you’re pregnant?” He slid a gentle hand over my stomach, and I wanted to bask in his warmth.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, tears of relief filling my eyes.
“We made a deal,” Teryani said. Somehow her soft voice magnified in the eerie aftermath of Queen Naesala’s death. “If Jhaeros managed to kill my aunt, making me queen of Ravensburg, then I would see to it that the two of you were reunited and returned to Pinemist.”
Hope bloomed like spring flowers throughout my body. Home. Could it be possible? A way out of Faerie? A powerful ally?
I turned to Jhaeros. “But how did you get close to Queen
Naesala so quickly?”
“Oh, easy,” Teryani answered for him. “I told my aunt the truth, part of it, anyway, that I’d happened upon your lover in the elven realms and that if she wanted to torment you, this was her chance.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “She hated me enough to betroth herself to a stranger?”
“Oh, yes,” Teryani replied in a tone I found a little too peppy. “She still blames you for Cirrus’s death. I mean, it kinda was your fault. He married you to protect him and you failed.”
“Thanks,” I said grumpily.
Teryani shrugged. “To be fair, he would probably still be alive if he hadn’t tried to poison Liri. Cirrus never was very smart. Anyway, I pretended to conspire with my aunt, telling her I could enchant your beloved to shift his affections to her. Luckily, your elf here put on a convincing show and came through on our bargain.”
Jhaeros had risked everything for me.
I threw my arms around his neck, kissing him all over his face. His lips were not enough. “I love you,” I breathed. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
“There is no one in this realm or the next whom I could love more than you, Aerith,” Jhaeros said, his eyes filling with burning heat. He pulled me against him, caressing my back. “My heart wasn’t truly beating until you made it so.”
“I’ll give you two a moment,” Teryani said with a secretive smile.
Her footsteps were so light I didn’t hear her leave until the door opened and closed. I pulled back enough to stare into Jhaeros’s loving brown eyes. “You were really playacting this whole time?”
He grimaced, eyes squeezing closed for a moment. “It nearly killed me, especially when you were sick at breakfast. I had to pretend that Queen Naesala was really you and that you were the queen, but my imagination isn’t powerful enough. So I kept reminding myself what was at stake. I had to free you at any cost. I nearly lost my mind when I found out it wasn’t only your life in jeopardy but our unborn child’s.” Jhaeros’s grip on me tightened.
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