by Meg Xuemei X
The woman was of indeterminate age. Her thick brown hair sprinkled with strawberry blond pooled around her elegant shoulders. Her eyes were stars in the deep night sky, bright yet ancient, full of mystery and the dangerous unknown—and they gazed back at Lucienne intensely.
Pyon pointed his gun right at the woman. “A Sealers elder!” he warned. “She wears an elder’s ring.”
Lucienne finally breathed out in order to inhale. The woman was Jekaterina, her mother.
Redness came like the wind. Ashburn’s hands on her shoulders tightened. “Stay with me!” she heard him saying.
No, you’ll not take me, Lucienne hissed and then begged. Not now. But it still came. How could one fight the wind? As she put a hand in front of her, desperately and helplessly to fend it off, a pulse of energy poured into her, coursing in her, until the red wind passed through her. Through the reflection in Ashburn’s eyes, Lucienne saw the red rings in her eyes faded. He’d aided her with his power. He’d pushed back the assault of her insanity.
Lucienne stared into his eyes in amazement and gratitude. He reluctantly removed his hands from her shoulders as the danger passed. Lucienne turned to Jekaterina. There was a strange sadness and understanding in the woman’s eyes. Did her mother actually perceive what had just transpired between her and Ashburn?
“Hello, Lucienne,” Jekaterina said, her voice smooth like silk. She paid no attention to half-dozen guns pointed at her head.
“Jekaterina,” Lucienne breathed, “why are you here?”
“You should have informed me before bringing her here, boy,” Kian growled at Ashburn, but Lucienne knew how delighted he was that Ashburn had delivered him Jekaterina.
“Sorry.” Ashburn shrugged. “I don’t have a phone.”
“That’s not an excuse! You can—” Kian stopped himself. Lucienne knew he wouldn’t want to spill out Ashburn’s power in front of everyone—especially Jekaterina.
“Don’t give him grief, McQuillen,” Jekaterina said in her soft, enticing voice. “It was my arrangement. I do not come as an enemy. I come so you won’t throw yourself into a dungeon again to look for me. I come for my daughter.”
“Take her to the interrogation room,” Kian ordered.
“No,” Lucienne said, “bring her to the house.” She swept a gaze at Pyon and the guards. “She isn’t armed. There’s no need to point that many guns at her.”
A subtle smile touched Jekaterina’s lips.
“Siren, we don’t know—” Pyon said.
“This woman won’t harm me,” Lucienne said firmly. “Even if she tries, I can easily handle her. You can tag along, Director Pyon, if you aren’t sure.”
Kian led the group toward the grand hall’s side exit reserved for Lucienne. The guards escorted the Russian woman at the front. Lucienne was placed in the center of the rank and file, Ashburn in step with her.
Across the hall, a redhead sprang toward them.
The guards moved, ready to take her down, but Ashburn pushed forward. “Let her pass, please.”
Violet flung herself into Ashburn’s arms, and he embraced her.
“Ash!” Violet cried. “Ash, you knew I was here and you came for me!”
“It’s good to see you too, Violet,” Ashburn said. “I’m glad you settled down here.” He darted a glance in Lucienne’s direction, and she forced a smile.
Lucienne wasn’t smiling inside as she fought to snuff out her jealousy. Ash isn’t mine. She’d told that to everyone and showed Ash himself that they wouldn’t be together. Then why was she so possessive about him? I’m a horrible person. Yet she was pleased to see Ashburn pry himself from Violet’s clinging grasp.
“I need to take care of something first,” he told the redhead. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Now go ahead and watch the fireworks with your friend.”
“I don’t care about fireworks—” Violet protested.
Kian frowned at the teen drama and ordered the guards, “Let’s get moving!”
Bayrose stood several yards away from them, staring at Jekaterina, eyes wide and mouth agape. Lucienne bit back a forceful swear. She should have taken greater precautions not to expose Jekaterina like this, but she was a bit overwhelmed to see her estranged mother for the first time in her life.
Bayrose stepped toward the group, face paling, eyes flashing in fear and worry.
A guard blocked her, but Bayrose shoved him. The guard grabbed her arm. “You can’t pass, Miss Thorn.”
“Let me go, you barbarian!” Bayrose kicked the guard in the calf—she’d never behaved like that since arriving in Sphinxes. “You can’t take away my mother!”
Mother? Lucienne felt cold air rushing toward her.
The guard stopped short and turned to look at Jekaterina, then at Lucienne. Bayrose took the chance to break free and spring toward Jekaterina. “Mom?” she asked. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here!”
Mom again? Lucienne narrowed her eyes.
“I came for your sister, Rose,” Jekaterina said. “She needs my care.”
“My sister?” Bayrose darted a perplexed glance from Jekaterina to Lucienne. “I have no sister.”
Lucienne stared back at Bayrose, her face a mask of stone.
“Not here,” Kian snarled, gesturing for the men to move.
The guards blocked Bayrose and drove back Violet. The girls screamed murder as they struggled to follow.
My mother, a power-hunger whore, bred a Siren and a Sealers elder.
An array of fireworks erupted into the sky, then brought down the red storm.
Ashburn rushed toward Lucienne, but he was too late. The storm hit her in the face before she could raise a hand to defend herself. “Kia—” She sent a warning toward Kian and Thaddeus, her voice whimpering in her throat.
“Don’t touch her!” she heard Ashburn’s warning. “I’m here now. I’ll take her home.” He held her in his arms protectively and possessively.
Lucienne blinked. Chaos swirled around her.
Ashburn lifted her as if she weighted nothing. He put her on Spike, then swung his leg over and rode behind her. “Ash!” she cheered. She liked his strong thighs against her legs. She twisted her torso to look up at him, inhaling his clean, masculine scent. “Let’s ride to the sunset!” she cried with excitement, only to realize it was night. “To the moon!” she amended it, stretching her hand toward the sky.
None of her guards stepped forward to stop her from flying away with Ashburn. They didn’t even protest. Last time she’d gone off with Ashburn, they’d acted like they were having a collective heart attack. Now they just kept quiet and looked grim. Even Kian didn’t try to be a buzz killer—his specialty. The men had learned not to get in her way. Super! A girl’s gotta have fun sometimes.
Spike flew her and Ash toward the open balcony.
“Ash! Wait!” Lucienne heard a girl cry out. She turned to see the redhead wriggling to break free of the guards. Ashburn, however, didn’t stop. He didn’t even look back at the pretty teen.
Lucienne flashed a triumphant grin at the girl. “Ash is mine,” she declared and wrapped her arms around his waist as he flew her out of the grand hall toward the sky.
Fireworks exploded like a thousand little stars.
“Ooo, fireworks!” she called.
Now the blossoms in the sky were beneath her. Lucienne looked down and caught sight of her white gown. Had she lost her mind? Why did she wear a boring white to such a grand party? It was an unforgivable neglect on Aida’s part. She shouldn’t rely on her nanny anymore. Aida was getting old and forgetful. She must immediately relieve Aida of her service. But where should Aida go? Lucienne felt pity for the aging nanny.
“Ash,” she called, “we need to go to my house first. I must change my outfit.”
“That’s where we’re going,” he said.
Ash was so considerate, so unlike the other one—Prince Vladimir? Now she thought of him … where was he? She hadn’t seen him for a while. They said that he’d gone to T
ibet. Was he going to be a monk? It might be good for him. That boy needed to have some discipline—the lustful looks he used to send her way often made her shiver. Maybe she shouldn’t be too hard on him. She could be delicious and irresistible. Of course, she couldn’t blame herself for that either. Lucienne smirked to herself.
Spike skimmed over a jungle of red leaves and landed on the rooftop of the mansion. Ashburn stepped off and offered her a hand, but she hopped off with the look of I’m-an-independent-girl.” His gray eyes didn’t move from her, but this time, Lucienne didn’t see his “hot for her” inside them but rather an ocean of sadness and resignation.
Lucienne didn’t like those negative emotions. They dragged her down. After she changed to her red gown, she’d cheer him up. She sprang toward the stairs. The bulletproof glass door slid aside, recognizing her heat signature.
“Are you coming, Ash?” She looked at him invitingly over her shoulder.
“I’m coming,” he said, a twirl of unfamiliar emotion flitting across his face. “I won’t leave you again.”
She flashed him a feral smile. “Guess I’ll have to live with that.” After she had her red dress, she’d show him what good fun she could be, and he’d never let her go.
They were in luck that no one was in the mansion. It had been too crowded lately. Good thing she and Ash had ditched the guards at the castle.
Lucienne entered her bedroom and headed straight for her wardrobe without closing the door. She didn’t mind Ash seeing her undressing, but blushed at the naughty thought of him watching her.
Ashburn stopped at the door. “I’ll be in the kitchen. I’m going to brew coffee.”
“At this hour?” she asked, peeking at him through her thick lashes.
“I’m trying to stay awake.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Do I bore you?”
“No,” he said, “you can never bore me even if you try, but I haven’t slept much lately.”
She regarded him. He had faint bluish circles under the hollow of his eyes. He was telling her the truth, but he also hid something from her. An amused light danced in her eyes as she saw through what it was. He was worried he couldn’t resist the temptation if she revealed her nude body to him.
“Why didn’t you sleep?”
“I had many things on my mind.”
“Was I on your mind too?” she asked in a honeyed, throaty voice.
“All the time.”
That was nice. He hadn’t enough sleep because he was thinking of her. All the time! She’d let him go now to make coffee. Once she changed into her red gown, she’d reward him beyond his wildest dream. “Don’t be too long,” she purred.
The wardrobe door slid open at her approach. Inside the closet was a huge collection of dresses, sweaters, pants, and jackets, all in different shades of red.
What should she wear? Her gaze fell on a gown with a low neckline that would show half of her breasts. Ash seemed nervous around her this time. It was best to let him get used to her first, so she should avoid being provocative. Shrugging off her white gown, Lucienne selected a simple red tank top. It outlined her shape. She was just a non-threatening teenage girl now.
She found a mini skirt to go with the top. Before she put it on, she heard voices. It must be Ash. He just couldn’t stay away from her. She put aside the skirt with a smirk. She wanted to see his expression when he saw her in her cherry-colored panties. The tank top covered half of it, which made her look more suggestively sexy.
She waited, but didn’t see Ash coming. The voices came from the open library. Was Ash talking to someone? Who dared stall him? Annoyed, Lucienne pricked her ears to hear more. Even since she had all the elements of Forbidden Glory, she had super hearing.
“It poses a plight for you to have a mad queen while you’re forming a nation.” It was the voice of the Russian woman—her mother, who vanished for seventeen years, only to pop up unannounced and uninvited.
But who was the mad queen Jekaterina had referred to?
“How did you know we were going to make Lucienne Lam the queen?” Pyon demanded. “You were locked in Abaddon 5. Who is your informant in Sphinxes?”
Fury leapt from Lucienne. They were calling her a mad queen now? No wonder she often spied grief in her guards’ eyes, and tonight in Ash’s. She’d heard the rumors and laughed at them, but it was no laughing matter now. Something ran deep. She needed to get to the bottom of this conspiracy.
She quieted her racing heart and listened on. In her anger, she’d skipped a few exchanges of the conspirators’ words.
“I don’t need informants. I knew about her insanity before it happened. It was written on the last scroll an eon ago.”
The library sank into awful silence as if everyone was trying to digest the significance of what Jekaterina had revealed. Or perhaps they were trying to tell if the woman had lied.
Of course it was a lie!
“Where’s the scroll?” Kian asked.
“I’ll share it only with Lucienne,” Jekaterina said. “I need to see her now.”
“She isn’t in any condition to receive a visitor,” said Kian.
“I’m not a visitor,” the woman said. “I’m her mother. I need to see her in that condition so I can decide how to help her.”
Her deranged condition, she meant? Lucienne narrowed her eyes to slits. How dare they slander her! Then a cold shiver spiked up her spine. She’d just found out their scheme by pure luck. They must be the ones who had planted the rumors. They meant to lock her up in an asylum and take Sphinxes from her. Was Kian in this thick plot too? Her heart contracted at the notion. What about Ash? He hadn’t returned. Was he with them? A sheen of cold sweat trickled down her back.
“Never open your heart, especially to those closest and dearest to you. They’re the ones who will bleed you dry if you let your guard down for half a heartbeat.” Her grandfather, the former Siren, had never been so right.
“You abandoned her at her birth,” Kian scorned. “Now all of a sudden you show up, and we should just trust your good intentions toward Lucienne, Elder Jekaterina? Or is it Elder Samantha?”
Lucienne couldn’t argue with Kian. That was the first thing he’d said so far that made sense.
“All I’ve done is make sure Lucienne is where she is,” said Jekaterina.
“Where she is?” Kian spat. “She’s tormented by madness right now.”
Not that again! Rage clouded Lucienne’s vision. Why was her chief so hell bent on branding her a mental health risk?
“I needed to make sure she became the Siren she was born to be,” Jekaterina said. “Her insanity is but a setback.”
Lucienne sneered. She knew their strategy: they must defame her before taking her down. “The Sealers must destroy your legitimacy first before they kill you,” the Czech prince had once told her. But why would her people work with the Sealers? Had her people forgotten how the Sealers were founded? The secret society’s sole purpose was to put her inside a coffin and seal it!
Lucienne pulled off her tank top. She needed to look queenly—not a mad monarch, but a reasonable, formidable leader ready to confront traitors and schemers. In her red gown, she moved out of the bedroom in a blur, descended the spiral stairs, and stormed into the open library.
Everyone stopped short, obviously not expecting her sudden appearance. Lucienne let a cold smile linger on her lips. She knew she looked fabulous from their stunned looks. They named her the mad queen, but she was giving them the Red Queen.
The men’s awed expressions shifted to sorrow seconds later, as if her classic, regal appearance only made everything worse. A chilly realization hit her. They really thought she was a lunatic. She wheeled around to Kian, peeking into his sapphire eyes. Though they warmed at the sight of her, they couldn’t hide tremendous sadness and exhaustion.
Oh, God, Kian thinks I’m mad, as well. Lucienne drew a cold breath. Who had turned her people against her? Her hard gaze fixed on the woman in the center. Jekaterina! The Se
alers elder had first named her the mad queen. Her own mother had come to finish the job that her biological father, Jimmy Lam, had failed to do—destroy her.
How could her men not see through this?
It took a moment, but Lucienne put the pieces together.
Jekaterina wasn’t just an unmatchable beauty with a mesmerizing voice, she had powers. Lucienne could sense the elder’s supernatural abilities loud and clear. Her people had fallen under the spell of her mother.
First things first, she must expose the elder’s lies before her warriors.
Jekaterina gazed back at Lucienne. Emotions swirled in her rich brown eyes. But they were all lies.
“You want to see me in this condition, Jekaterina?” Lucienne asked. “I’m here now. Go on. Keep telling them I’m a maniac. Don’t let me stop you from poisoning my men’s minds.”
Everyone inhaled sharply. Kian’s eyes went wild with alarm.
“When are you planning to lock up the mad queen?” Lucienne surveyed her men. “Picked out a specific date yet?”
They averted their eyes. No one could hold her glare that spat fire. Instead, they turned to Kian. Lucienne nodded. Right. The ringleader of the coup. It was sad. So sad. Her chief had all the power one could ask for in Sphinxes. Yet he wanted more.
“Lucia, you got it all wrong,” Kian said.
“Do I?” Lucienne asked. “Wrong again? Wrong about you?” She pushed back the tears prickling her eyelids. “I trusted you with my soul, Kian McQuillen,” her voice croaked. “I was so blind that I couldn’t see that power corrupting you.”
Something immediately broke in Kian’s eyes. “You can always trust me,” he said. “You know I’d give you my life in a heartbeat.”
“I’m not sure anymore,” Lucienne said. “Aren’t you all gathering here in my house to stage a coup? You’re about to chain me in the dungeon. You’ll make a mental case out of me. Aren’t you already making my guards the orderlies? You do not plan to let me see sunlight again. Ever heard of the man in the iron mask? L'Homme au Masque de Fer. Are you going to make a mask for me too?”
The men looked appalled and horrified.