Queen of Fae Academy

by Kendal Davis

  “Of course it is not normal,” Alder said. The distance between our hearts had grown, even in the minutes that I’d been there. It seemed impossible that he was in league with Breze, a man who had apparently found a rejuvenation treatment for the Queen who threatened my very life. But here he was. If the memory that gnawed at the back of my mind was correct, then Alder was even more dangerous to me than Breze.

  “We’ll need to talk,” I said to him, speaking more firmly than I’d meant. I reached out with my mind to feel our earth bond, but it was not as it had been. Alder was holding back from me.

  Worse, though, was this ridiculous standoff that Thorn had placed me in. I had a feeling that I might want to add a negative review to his official file at the school. Not that it would matter, if it meant the administration weighing the word of a despised mortal against that of an established professor.

  Choose a path.

  I looked around again, still flummoxed by the richness of the place. I’d thought the Tithe had the most luxurious rooms in the world, but this was a new level of displayed wealth.

  Choose.

  When I exhaled, I found that I knew what to do next. I didn’t have to choose from what they offered me. I could forge a new path, one entirely my own.

  They should have known I was stronger than they were.

  I flicked a hand over to Thorn, teleporting him back to the Academy without me. It was against his will, obviously, but it took almost no effort from me. The small girl watched me without speaking as I flicked a different magic over to her. I used an air spell to create a pocket of space around her that was ever so slightly tipping into another dimension. We could still see her, but she was untouchable by any physical force in this room.

  I turned to Breze. “This was fun, but I don’t actually respond well to this kind of crap.” He reacted with a slow smile, which made me want to slap him.

  I walked around Breze, stalking so as not to touch him, and made my way to Alder. He was closer to the fireplace, and I thought the warmth brought heat to my cheeks. Then I realised that it was from my proximity to him. He and I were in strained circumstances, but he was still my bonded mate, my eternal lover. My body remembered.

  “Alder, I don’t know what to think,” I spoke softly. “You’ve been avoiding me since we got back to school. Ever since I remembered that the two of you had been in my room. Our bond is still there, but it feels cloudy. Dirty.” I bit my lower lip, wishing I had more time right now to speak with him. “I’d ask you if you truly tried to kill me that night, but I don’t think you’d answer.”

  “Oh, he did try,” drawled Breze. “Who better to assassinate a future Assassin than an Assassin?”

  “Shut up,” Alder and I said in unison.

  I was so close to Alder that I could smell his musky heat. I reached out to stroke his cheek with my hand. “We’ll figure this out, together,” I said to him. Then, with an apologetic dip of my head, I used most of my remaining strength to teleport him back to the Academy as well. With a lift of my finger, I created a barrier around the space of the room that would prevent anybody from teleporting in. Including Alder, who would surely try.

  That meant that I was left alone with Breze in the space that he commanded. It was a risk.

  But I was stronger. I could feel it; there was no contest between our abilities.

  “So you want to talk in private?” he grinned at me, the charm in his lips never reaching his cold blue eyes.

  “Yes. Let’s just cut to the chase here and we’ll see what I can do for the Queen. You work for her, right?”

  “You are sworn to her,” he said, sidestepping the question.

  “Through false pretenses, but yes. It is true. And I will have to do her bidding in the end.”

  “But you have scruples about taking life? That’s a little inconvenient, isn’t it? What difference do you think it makes if your target is six or sixty?”

  I felt my eyes open wide in outrage. “Of course there’s a difference. How can you fae be so cold and heartless?” I hadn’t figured out my next move yet, but I knew if I kept him talking, I would come up with something. “I remember that I once learned at the Academy that the fae were horrified at the idea of taking a life, even if it was a mortal one.”

  Breze waved away my argument. “That was a long time ago. Things change.” He took a step toward the fireplace, toward me. Near the door of the paneled room, the little girl still stood frozen in her own bubble of time. He had turned his back on her, certain that she was of no concern. When he took another step, and another, he was close enough that he could have touched me.

  I cocked my head as I looked at him. He was tall and broad-shouldered. Although he wore the fine apparel that matched his station here in this office building in the mortal world, he looked as if he spent his days hauling timber in the woods, rather than signing papers. His arms were tanned and firm with muscles that did not come from desk work.

  “Breze, tell me what I should do,” I whispered. “You are an air fae. From what Alder says, you might be the oldest one alive in this dimension. And yet you have never taken a mate?” I blinked, not sure where those words had come from. I’d meant to press forward with the question of what I should do with the little girl. To protect her, of course.

  From me.

  But instead, all I could think of was the bond that stretched between me and Breze. It called to me, sending a song through my body, so that all I could think of at all was touching him. I stepped forward slightly, wishing I could keep my mind on what I’d planned to say.

  Breze kept his face still, trying his best not to react to the way our bond was swirling between us. “I like your trick with the target,” he said quietly. “You’ve set her out of my reach. And I can feel that you’ve blocked Alder from returning. You are a force worth fighting.”

  “But why would you want to fight me?” I asked, my eyes riveted to his lips. If we are both sworn to the Queen, then we are not enemies.”

  “You will be consumed when she takes your magic,” he said flatly. “There is no point in claiming any bond that might exist between us.”

  “Might?” I spoke just one word, then followed it up with a soft kiss on his lips. He tasted of dark, dangerous spices. It made me want more. “You know it as well as I do. We are fated to be mates. That is why you have never taken a fae mate before, in all the years you’ve lived.”

  “Because I did not want to lose her,” he said, his words muffled by emotion. I caught a glimpse of his blue eyes again as he leaned down to kiss me again. He looked tortured, his eyes full of bleak hopelessness. And with the smoldering of eons of waiting for me. Without another word, he pressed his lips firmly against mine. His hands were in my hair as he kissed me, with his hard, unyielding passion.

  I gasped with desire as his tongue thrust into my mouth. His left hand was at my waist, then on my ass, bringing my hips against his. His right palm was still cradling my cheek, keeping me close to him. A tornado of pent-up wanting raged around us.

  I had chosen a path and I was well and truly on it now.

  Instead of allowing myself to get caught up in the question of the girl, of how I would ever follow the Queen’s instructions, I’d changed the lesson entirely. I’d flipped the game on its head.

  I hoped Hellebore was watching us. Jealousy of my lovers was her weak spot.

  Breze was tender, yet strong, as he held me in his arms. He leaned me backwards so that I had the golden wooden paneling at my back. His lips were traveling down my neck, setting me aflame with wanting him.

  One path.

  One question.

  Would Breze feel it when I took the golden bracelet from the pocket at my hip and used it to destroy him utterly, taking away his right to inhabit eternity?

  10

  Breze

  I knew.

  I knew how strong Ciara was. I’d always known. While Alder had been busy with his own plans in her training as the Tithe, I’d taken a different path.
I’d pulled every string I needed to in order to bring us to this moment. And now?

  How could I do it? How could I ruin this breathtakingly beautiful mortal woman’s life?

  Oh, I knew well that her powers were stronger than mine. It was I who had planted the idea in Hellebore’s mind that she should try to give more than one power in her gift. Nothing like that had ever occurred before. It took some doing for me to convince our imperious Queen to break from tradition. Hellebore had insisted that the old way of doing things was still just fine.

  I’d let her know that if she ever hoped to nurture this one, this mortal Tithe through all three years of an education at Fae Academy, there would have to be something special about her. Finally, she agreed, and we set about trying to construct a spell that would rend through everything we knew to be possible. We gave the infant Tithe all four powers.

  And we gave her more.

  “I knew you would come around,” I whispered as I kissed her. “You were always meant to be a killer. That is why the Directors gave you the golden bracelet.” I kept my breath steady as best as I could, aware that these were dangerous waters to navigate.

  Ciara gasped. She would have stepped back, but I had her back to the wall. Instead, she pushed past me, using a thrust of air power to get past me. She hadn’t needed to. I wasn’t at this crucial junction merely to stop her.

  I was here to test her, so the more power she used in this room, the better. I wished I could tell her that.

  She was standing in a fighting stance, her eyes snapping with anger. “You know about the bracelet?” Her hands were at her hip, tipping me off to the bangle’s location on her body. “Was this supposed to be some sort of trap? Because I think you’ll find that you’ve caught a bear when you meant to snag a mouse.”

  “I know,” I breathed watching her. “Your powers are magnificent, aren’t they? Your work at the Academy is coming along well, is it not?”

  She stopped in confusion, her hand still at her pocket. “What do you know about the bracelet?”

  “I know that you used it to kill Alder, even though he is an eternal being. That was a gamble. You might not have been able to bring him back as you did.” I kept talking, even though she was already trying to break in. The woman had a lot to say. “And I know that he told you it was an ancient object of magic, stealing fae power just as the white mists of our oldest forest do.”

  “I’ll use it against you,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not afraid to do it.”

  “I don’t doubt that. But what then? What secret plan do you have for breaking the Queen’s hold on you?”

  “I wouldn’t tell you that,” she said in a mulish way that made me sure she had no plan as of yet. Her jaw was smooth and confident, making me wish I had the time to kiss every inch of her face, then move down her neck. Then farther down…

  “You are distractingly beautiful,” I said plainly. “When I resolved not to claim our bond, I did not know how it would feel to be in the same room as you again. I have not seen you in person in the two years since you’ve been at the Academy.”

  “Were you afraid?” She was quicksilver smart. She was feeling out my defenses, just as surely as if we were facing each other with physical weapons.

  “Afraid to see you? No, that has never been the case. I’ve always treasured the time I got to spend watching you and listening to you.” I closed my lips, knowing that I’d said too much.

  “So you have been spying on me while I’ve been at school? I was sure the Queen had minions there, but I thought it was the more politically obvious ones I had to worry about, like Landon.”

  “And you sorted him out. What held you back from killing him, or even the Queen, once you found out the power of your bracelet?”

  “I just don’t want to,” Ciara said firmly. “I want to rule the fae as a true leader, strong in my magic and compassion both.”

  “She won’t understand compassion,” I muttered. I knew, even if Ciara didn’t, that the Queen herself was listening, the bracelet itself giving her the power to eavesdrop on our conversation. “You should leave that in a drawer somewhere and never pick it up again.” That statement might be hard to explain to Hellebore later, but I risked it.

  “And what if I extend compassion to this girl?” Ciara had assessed my abilities, and decided that she did not need to worry. She was wrong. She had more power, but I knew a trick or two that she did not.

  “Pity is one thing,” I agreed. “But it does not mean you should forget who you are.” I wanted to tell her to kill Queen Hellebore. But I was not in the business of any of that. I was no longer the idealist revolutionary I’d once been. Sure, I had refused to be an Assassin. And then I’d fallen right into Hellebore’s trap, the moment I left the Academy.

  Ciara turned her wrist upward, venturing closer to me. “Let’s see your arms. Both of them. Do you not bear her mark?”

  I was so tall that my arms were close to her face when I lifted them up for inspection. I swear I felt her breath on my skin. Deep within me, a whirlwind of power was begging to be acknowledged, to mate with hers.

  “I truly don’t,” I said. “You are an Eternal Assassin, but I am not. If you refuse to kill this mortal girl, to do this thing the Queen orders you to do, then the Queen will be within her rights to destroy you.”

  I did not add that it was the reason I’d selected such a vulnerable target. Ciara, bless her mortal heart, was playing right into my hands.

  Ciara dropped her gaze, finally allowing her guard to soften. “I know,” she said sadly. “I thought I could brazen it out. That if I showed enough bravado, I’d convince her. Or maybe myself. I don’t know.”

  The room around us was thrumming with magic as Ciara’s mental state changed. She’d sought calm, and she’d hoped for purpose. That was what had kept her in check.

  “So do you plan to kill me?” I looked her right in the eye. “There’s no Queen’s mark on me, so you can’t claim that you are planning to bring me back cleansed of it, as you did with Alder.”

  She had her hand in her pocket now. “I know. But I came to kill, and I can still do it.”

  “You’ll be the Slayer in truth, then.”

  Ciara shook her head. “Not the Queen’s Slayer. I think I can never be that.”

  “What if you were the Queen?” I was treading too closely to the edge. I had to stop this. With a dark smile toward the woman who captivated me with every atom of her being, I lifted a hand and sent an air spell toward the dirty urchin who stood, immobilized, on my carpet. The girl’s magical cocoon had kept her in a dimension just slightly jarred from our own, but it did not save her.

  I was an air fae, through, and through. I had spent more years honing my powers than Ciara knew. She had made a mistake in protecting the girl with an air spell. It took only the tiniest twist of a jagged piece of energy to find the weak spot in the shield she had put around the girl. I broke it, and teleported the girl back to her hovel in the city.

  “What have you done?” Ciara was outraged. “Did you kill her?”

  “No. How many times do I have to tell you that it is not my role?” I was gruff with the lie I was embedding in my words. “The girl...the target...is safe for the moment, back at her own home.”

  “I don’t believe you,” my wild-haired mortal said. “This was some kind of test from beginning to end, wasn’t it?”

  I didn’t answer. The prole target would not die at her hands, but at mine, in the end. I ran all fae operations in the mortal world on the Queen’s behalf. Any mortal who existed there was doomed. They just didn’t know it yet.

  I had to choose between their safety and Ciara’s.

  And I was beginning to understand that there was only one possible choice.

  I gathered her in my arms again. She looked up at me, her eyes willing me to tell the truth. “Is the little girl safe?”

  “She is. But you are not.” I kissed her one last, agonizingly sensual time, then I sent her away. Ciara was blindingl
y strong in her powers. But as long as her lips were against mine, she could not concentrate as she needed to.

  I used my last reserve of strength to teleport her back to Fae Academy. She had failed the test set by Queen Hellebore, making clear that her earlier bravado was nothing but a ruse. She would never succeed as an Assassin now.

  Unless I could remove the Queen’s advantage, the ancient charm that clouded Ciara’s abilities and allowed the Queen to spy on her at all times.

  The bracelet.

  With my last gasp, before I fell to the floor, I twisted my spell and sent the cursed golden artifact spinning in a new direction so that it would not materialize with her. If I did this correctly, it would be lost for all time.

  And if it was erased from the equation, then perhaps Ciara and I might find each other again.

  Before the Queen destroyed her.

  11

  Ciara

  It took me the rest of the day to even be able to open my eyes without the worst headache of my life savaging my nerves. In the past, putting the golden bracelet away from myself, where I didn’t have to think about it, had helped me feel calmer. This time, however, it was all I could focus on. I knew it was no longer in my pocket, but I had no way of finding out where it had gone. I couldn’t feel it with my magic. Somehow, Breze had masked it from me.

  When he transported me back to the Academy, Breze had chosen the easiest destination for me: the one I’d just left. That, at least, was one thing I didn’t need to worry about. Blessedly, I hadn’t appeared at the Academy at the bottom of the lake or the roof of the castle, as some errant first-years always managed to do while they learned the skill of teleportation.