by S. M. Boyce
The men who had ambushed them kicked Victoria to her knees in front of what could only be Lochrose’s queen, and several other wizards did the same to the rest of her group. She narrowed her eyes in challenge to the woman above her, but they were now vastly outnumbered. If Fyrn had simply let her take care of those men in the tunnel…
Damn him.
The queen raised one slender hand and gestured toward Fyrn, who was already kneeling at the end of their line. He grimaced as if the gesture hurt him, and the queen’s eyes glowed white.
“Fyrn!” Victoria tensed and prepared to run to him, her instinct to protect her friends overriding her sense of self-preservation.
“Don’t,” he said through gritted teeth, face contorted in pain.
Victoria nearly ignored him. She wanted to tackle him out of view of this regal woman who had, with barely a moment’s hesitation, begun to hurt one of the most important people in her life.
But for his sake, she waited. She leaned forward, ready to sprint the moment he asked for help. She scanned the wizards guarding them, who all watched her warily.
Good. They should be afraid of her. If she had to, she would kill them all to keep her friends safe.
Though it felt like an eternity had passed while Victoria waited for Fyrn to ask for help, his expression slowly relaxed. He hunched over, chest heaving as he let out a long, slow sigh of relief.
The regal woman’s eyes returned to normal, and she let out a small hmm. “English. What an odd tongue.”
Victoria snapped her head to the queen, baffled. Only seconds ago the woman had been unable to speak to them.
The woman pointed to Victoria’s mentor. “You are Fyrn, disgraced wizard of the Order of the Silver Griffins, but a wizard nonetheless. You are one of us. You will not die here today.”
Victoria’s mouth dropped open, and she couldn’t help herself. “How is it you can speak our language?”
The queen bristled at the interruption, but her eyes scanned the rest of Victoria’s party and noted the general confusion. She nodded to Fyrn. “Along with many other details, I extracted the language from his mind. Lochrose is home to the most powerful witches and wizards on Earth, girl. You should not underestimate our ability. Not ever.”
Victoria resisted the impulse to shoot a worried look at Audrey. Obviously the queen hadn’t extracted everything, or there would have been an instant kill order on the Atlantean in their midst.
“Your Majesty—” Fyrn tried to interject.
“Silence.” The woman, apparently their queen, turned to Diesel. He knelt beside Fyrn, glaring at the balcony as though he could destroy it even without his staff. For a fleeting second, Victoria wondered if that were possible.
He shot a wary eye toward her just as the queen used her spell on him. He tensed, grimacing as information was unwillingly dragged out of him too.
This woman was stealing information from the heads of the two most powerful people Victoria knew. Worse, though, was the woman’s brazen cruelty. She hadn’t let them speak for themselves, but had ordered them dragged before her like criminals.
Victoria and Audrey were not wizards. They would not be welcomed, and she didn’t want to find out what they would do when they realized what she and Audrey were.
Nervous for Audrey’s sake, Victoria risked a peek at her oldest friend. Audrey knelt between Victoria and Diesel, next in line for the assault on her mind. If the queen learned what Audrey really was, it would be game over.
The queen smiled approvingly. “Diesel, master wizard of Fairhaven. It is an honor to have you, but you will understand that I won’t release you until I’ve learned who your companions are.”
Diesel cleared his throat. “Your Majesty, I—”
“Wait,” the woman said simply. She spoke with authority, as though her word and whims were law.
Hell, down here they probably were.
The queen turned her icy gaze on Audrey, and Victoria did the only thing she could think of.
“That’s enough!” she shouted, pushing herself to her feet.
Fyrn lowered his head in frustrated defeat, but Victoria didn’t care. If the queen found out Audrey was an Atlantean, there would be blood and a frantic frenzy of spells. There would be a battle, one Victoria wasn’t sure they would win. They were simply outnumbered.
Victoria wasn’t about to leave her friend’s life to chance, even if it shifted the entire city’s attention to her in a negative way.
If Victoria had to choose between her own life and her friend’s, she would always choose Audrey.
One of the wizards behind her grabbed her wrists, and she landed a vicious kick in his stomach. He doubled over and flew backward, hitting the paving and rolling a few feet. Her attention on the queen, Victoria summoned her sword to save the cruel woman from having to fact-check her identity.
Everyone in the city gasped, but seconds later there was only silence. The wizards who had been poised to grab her stepped back in fear as realization set in.
The queen gasped, one slender hand over her lips as she studied the sword. “A Rhazdon host.”
Surprisingly, the words came out more amazed than frightened. Her dark eyes narrowed as she studied Victoria. It was the look of an inquisitive and curious mind, as though she could dissect Victoria where she stood.
Victoria didn’t want to give her the chance to try.
“We have done nothing to you,” she snapped. “We are trying to help you, and you have the audacity to not only kidnap us but infiltrate our minds and force us to our knees like criminals? What kind of a pathetic excuse for a ruler are you?”
“Victoria,” Fyrn hissed.
“Enough, Fyrn,” she snapped. “You might put up with her bullshit, but I won’t.”
The queen tapped a dainty finger on her chin. “You said you were here to help us. What makes you think we need it?”
Okay, Victoria had to be honest with herself—she was making it up at this point. She had written more than one English essay analyzing some classic book or another, but most of her time in English class was spent writing horseshit she knew would get her an A.
She could do this. Probably.
After all, she had a few key pieces of evidence on her side to back up her theory that the witches and wizards of Lochrose not only needed help, but needed it desperately. Since that was all she had to go on, she would run with it.
“We’re here to slay the sphinx that has trapped you underground,” Victoria said.
A murmur erupted through the onlookers, and the queen eyed them with annoyance. Good. Apparently Victoria’s hunch had been correct—they were indeed trapped here. That monster wasn’t their pet, and it had likely munched on more than a few of their own citizens.
The queen lifted one hand, her elegant cloak sliding up her thin arm as she did so. “You are a Rhazdon host. The only person you help is yourself.”
Victoria’s shoulders drooped a bit, and she stared at Fyrn. “Why is it that everyone believes I’m completely evil? I’m starting to get offended.”
Her mentor nodded once toward the queen, and she got his message. Focus on our main problem.
Victoria eyed the woman, but her neck was starting to hurt from craning to see the balcony. “We’re here to help you. You can accept it, or let us go on our way. I take it we’re the first outsiders to enter your home in a long time—maybe ever. Do you really want to kill us?”
“Possibly,” the queen said softly.
“I promise you don’t.” Victoria tightened her grip on the blade, ready to switch to the shield if she needed to protect herself and her friends. This was the moment of truth. Either they were going to be allowed a private audience with this woman, or a volley of spells and attacks would rain on them.
Even though Victoria didn’t want to admit it, the ball was fully in the queen’s court. With nothing to do but wait, Victoria kept her gaze locked on the regal woman who eyed her disdainfully from the balcony. Whatever happened next depend
ed on the queen’s next words.
At an almost imperceptible gesture from the woman, the glowing ropes around Fyrn, and Diesel fell to the ground. Her friends stood warily, the wizards rubbing their wrists as they eyed the monarch on the balcony.
“Join me,” the queen said, and disappeared once more into the palace. Beneath the overhang, a set of hidden double doors swung open.
Apparently still afraid, the wizards who had captured Victoria’s group stood back and gestured toward the door, allowing them to enter on their own.
Victoria helped Audrey stand, but the Atlantean looked about ready to keel over from exhaustion. Holding a shift this long must have been excruciating, especially with the fatigue that had set in after leaving the charmed tunnels.
Audrey simply nodded her head in thanks and hobbled through the door, leaning on Diesel as she entered. Free of the threat of immediate death, he shot a grateful smile at Victoria.
She, however, couldn’t celebrate yet. They weren’t out of trouble until they left this damned city.
Fyrn walked beside Victoria as they entered the massive double doors. “Never undermine me again, Victoria. You could have gotten us killed. You could have—”
“You could have told us the plan,” she snarled under her breath, finally putting it all together. “You stopped there on purpose in the tunnels, didn’t you? You knew they would find us, but you didn’t tell me. We could have been prepared. Instead you let us get captured, and you nearly let them know what Audrey is.”
Fyrn’s face shifted into an expression she had rarely ever seen on him: surprise. She wasn’t sure what had brought it on. Perhaps because she was snapping at him and not letting him lead, or perhaps because she had guessed his plan?
“I trust you, Fyrn, but I will beat the shit out of you if you ever put Audrey’s life in danger like that again.” With that, Victoria pressed ahead of him.
***
Fyrn almost couldn’t believe what had just happened.
How quickly the student becomes the teacher.
She was right, of course. He could have warned them, but he had wanted to ensure they slept. They wouldn’t get to do much of that in the coming days, and they needed their energy. Worrying about an impending ambush would have left them restless and maybe too tense to surrender believably.
He’d had everything under control—at least until the queen had read their minds.
He hadn’t been aware such abilities even existed anymore. To not only see it, but to experience it was a gift he would treasure forever. These powers the queen possessed were lost arts. He would have to earn the queen’s trust and learn her methods, though he had to be honest with himself—Diesel would most likely win that honor.
But what amazed him most was Victoria. Her confidence. Her sacrifice. She would have died in that gilded square to save Audrey. He didn’t have a doubt in his mind.
Victoria was a true leader, one most men would follow into battle and off cliffs. She led with compassion, ferocity, and faith in herself.
Perhaps he needed to turn back now and return to Fairhaven. She had mastered her Rhazdon Artifact’s darkness, even if she didn’t have full control over its power. If she only ever had this one Rhazdon Artifact, he was suddenly convinced that she would never, in all her life, succumb to greed or bloodlust because of the dark magic in her body.
But if he added a second, he very much risked losing the powerful woman she was becoming.
He sighed in defeat, following her and discarding the thought as quickly as it had come. Without the second Rhazdon Artifact, she would die regardless. No, they had a mission, and they would keep to the plan.
To the end, as the girls would say. Despite his weariness, the weathered old wizard smiled.
CHAPTER 16
Victoria sat across an elegant table from the queen, with a glimmering golden forcefield between them. Three dozen guards stood around the royal woman, more likely as a show of force than out of concern for her safety, considering the powerful ward that sliced the table in half.
With Styx newly freed from his metal prison and now gorging on the grapes covering her plate, Victoria waited for the queen to speak and used the time to examine their surroundings. The golden forcefield certainly looked imposing, but she wondered what it actually did.
To test it, she tossed one of the grapes on her plate at the forcefield, and it dissolved in a puff of smoke.
Victoria quirked an eyebrow. “Overkill much?”
The queen tilted her head slightly at the phrase as if she wasn’t familiar with what it meant, but shrugged. “I do what is necessary to protect my people and myself. Prove me wrong and I will remove it.”
Oh, I’m going to prove you wrong. Just wait. Victoria reveled in the thought of making this woman eat her words about Rhazdon hosts being evil.
Well, Victoria wasn’t evil, at least. Luak was a total dick.
“What do you know of the sphinx?” the queen asked, eyes locked on Victoria.
Victoria waited for Fyrn to interject like he always did, but he didn’t. He eyed her, apparently waiting for her to answer this one.
“Not much,” she admitted. “Just what I know from legends. They’re creatures with the face of a human, body of a lion, and wings of a bird. They’re vicious and cruel, but you can win against them by answering a riddle.”
“Not that we were offered one,” Diesel said bitterly. “I’m quite clever and could have answered it easily.”
Victoria nudged him in an effort to make him be serious, but he smiled charmingly instead. God, she wished he didn’t enjoy messing with her so much.
The queen’s eyes widened, and she momentarily dropped her stately decorum. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned forward in her seat with sheer excitement. “You met it?”
Victoria nodded. “It’s ugly as sin.”
The queen inhaled as though she were a sixteen-year-old who had just gotten the keys to a convertible. “You met it, and you lived? How is this possible? What did it do to you? Did you go into the cavern? If so, how in the heavens did you escape?”
Victoria suppressed the smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth. It seemed the queen had more to her personality than cold commands and a regal presence. For the briefest of moments, they had seen the real woman beneath the royal mask.
A few of the soldiers behind her raised their eyebrows, apparently surprised at the outburst. Seeming to sense their confusion, the queen retreated to a proper position in her seat.
It was clear that Victoria had the upper hand. She and her friends had done something amazing in the queen’s eyes, and that meant Victoria had bargaining power.
“What’s your name?” Victoria asked plainly.
Fyrn nearly spit out the water he was drinking, and Victoria reveled a bit in his discomfort. Her eyes never left the queen’s, who smiled mischievously at Victoria’s brazen question. “You haven’t met many monarchs, have you, child?”
Victoria shook her head. “Just one.”
She had wanted to add that he was an asshole and that she hoped this wouldn’t be an emerging pattern with the monarchs she met, but she held her tongue. Victoria didn’t want to push her luck.
“I am Queen Angelique, but you may call me ‘Your Majesty.’”
Ah. Point taken. Victoria nodded, conceding for the moment to keep the conversation amicable. She had no intention of calling her “Your Majesty” long-term.
A nervous prickle raced down Victoria’s spine, and she subtly tilted her head until she could find Audrey in her peripheral vision. Audrey remained at the edge of the conversation, quiet and looking a little faint from holding her shift so long. Her face had gone pale, and she leaned slightly to the left.
Victoria willed her friend to hold on a bit longer. She would get all four of them—five including Styx—out of here as fast as possible.
Fyrn set his goblet on the table and leaned toward the queen. “Your Majesty, please tell us how you were trapped here. It will help
us in our,” he shot an annoyed glare toward Victoria, “quest to help you.”
The regal woman sighed wistfully. “I’ve lived two hundred years, and yet I’ve never known life outside the city. We are trapped here by that…that thing, and I want it dead. If you kill it, you will be rewarded handsomely. You will be heroes to us, treasured champions who will be remembered for all time. You will never want for wealth or status again in your lives.”