Queen Fae (NYC Mecca Series Book 3)

by Jaymin Eve

  I dropped down beside Nikoli, closer than was normally appropriate, but it was so damn cold, even with the fire. We needed pack warmth. Both of us were silent, watching the fire sparkle in the rapidly dimming light. It was never particularly bright in the Winter Court, and the nighttime here seemed to be darker than any I’d seen before.

  As though he had to finally speak his thoughts, Nikoli shifted around to see me better, and said: “I hate to bring this up after we have just had a big setback but…” Cautious with his words, he paused. As an heir and queen, I was used to this. Despite my recent dethroning, most shifters still sensed the mecca within me, and even though I was not his queen, he’d still be hesitant to bring me news that would anger me.

  “Speak freely,” I said, offering him a small smile.

  He nodded. “I respect that you have boldly taken this trip to save your friend, but it was hastily put together.”

  Okay … that was fair. I nodded.

  “I just want you to prepare for the fact that we may have to do some drastic things to get home once we reach Violet. As of now, we have no way of opening a portal home. I don’t know how, and I’m pretty sure Violet doesn’t either. Unless we find a mecca crystal for you to use, then … well, drastic is pretty much where I’m at.”

  I stared back into the fire, letting out a sigh. He was right … about all of it. I had hastily thrown this together, and we didn’t have a way home right now. I had been so focused on getting Violet that I really had no plan A or B for getting us out of here.

  “Tell me about this drastic,” I finally said.

  He nodded. “On the Island, there were two magic born who opened the portal on the hill the night they attacked. They didn’t use their normal water portal, probably because we had many of our waterways spelled. I would guess it’s much harder without a reflective surface to step between our worlds. Possibly, if we can find two magic born to help us … or we might have to capture two of them and force their help…”

  “Force them how?” I raised an eyebrow. Something told me beating the crap out of them wouldn’t work. There was a reason the winter queen, Isalinda, had not managed to break Violet yet. Magic born were very strong of mind and will, otherwise they could never handle the power of the mecca.

  Nikoli shrugged. “You leave that to Violet and me. Once we get inside the Winter Court I have a spell that will help me detect other magic born. Assuming this winter queen is as powerful as I think, she’ll have a few magic born in the vicinity. We get Violet and then capture the winter magic born and flee through a portal they make for us.”

  “Easy as that, hey?”

  He met my stare, and I knew both of us were pretty much expressionless. There wasn’t much else we could do or say at this point. We were here now, and once we had Violet we would just have to hope that a path opened for us to make it back home.

  Here’s hoping that a little luck went our way at some point.

  A warm body dropped down on my free and chilly side. Kade’s scent swirled in the icy air and instantly I was warmer. He draped his arm over my shoulder and I was reminded of our last battle.

  “How’s Nix?” I asked.

  “She’s snuggled in the tent with Finn; he’s sharing energy with her. Thankfully she’s doing well, but tired.” Kade sounded exhausted himself. Not only had he recently shifted to his bear form, but his familiar was injured. He needed food. Lots of food. Nix would be drawing energy from their bond, and without food both would be weakened.

  The treeling had warned us to be very careful about what we ate here. Many things were poisonous or spelled. With the mecca imbalance, he believed anything edible would have to be scavenged. Which is why our rations were so important.

  “Be right back,” I said, jumping out from under of the warmth of Kade’s arm. I made my way over to where Monica was still dividing up the food, her face pinched.

  I dropped in beside her and lowered my voice. “How’s it looking?”

  She let out a long exhalation, teaming that with her pinched brow and rigid jaw. I knew it wasn’t looking good. “This is each person’s daily ration.” She gestured to a small scrap of leather. I felt my face pinch up in a similar stressed look as I stared at the two tiny piles. Two meals per day – each pile had about ten cashews, three or four dried apricots, and one meat jerky piece. For a normal human that might be okay, but as a shifter we would be weak and worthless if this went on for too long.

  I grabbed the leather piece and mixed the two piles. “Kade can have my share tonight. Don’t tell him though.”

  She nodded. I grabbed up Kade’s leather and quickly popped a cashew in my mouth before walking over to slide in beside him.

  “Mmm, dinner is served,” I said, handing him the leather. He took it and I chewed on my cashew. Kade would be able to see and smell that I was eating; he would never eat before knowing I was fed, and he would never knowingly take my share and leave me without. Never. But he needed it more than me.

  Even with all my fake eating, the leather remained untouched in his huge, outstretched hand. “Where is yours?”

  I patted my belly. “Wolfed it down while talking to Monica.”

  Wasn’t even a total lie, I had definitely wolfed that cashew down. I was thankful that at the moment we were still being pretty mindful of each other’s thoughts. I was doing all I could to keep our shields in place.

  “I can feel your hunger,” he said finally, holding out the leather. “Take my rations, I am fine.”

  Love swelled up within me until my chest felt like it would burst. I gently pushed his food toward him. “I’m not hungry, mate. You need it much more than me. Think about Nix.”

  Kade’s gaze flicked to the tent where our familiars were recovering and I knew I had won this round. His meal disappeared in about twenty seconds then. He placed the leather on the ground beside him, and even though he didn’t complain or act like he was hungry, I knew he was still starving.

  As the others moved around the fire with their meager rations, Kade lifted his head and eyed our people. He wrapped his arm around me again so that I was pretty much in his lap when he said, “When we get out of here, I’m having a big fancy dinner at my house to celebrate. There will be mounds of food. Roasted lamb, duck and quail, scalloped cheese potatoes, and all the sides.”

  “And chocolate fondue!” Monica piped in and I smiled.

  “Pretzel bread and cheesecake,” I added.

  “Bacon,” Blaine said, pretty much drooling.

  “So much bacon,” Victor agreed, sounding much more like my old friend. The one he had been before he lost both of his brothers to Tuatha attacks. I knew Victor was irreparably damaged from these losses, that I’d never have the same fun loving, part-time chef, part-time jokester back. But I had some hope that we would all make it through this and come out the other side with some semblance of happiness.

  I reached across and found his hand in the darkness, a memory springing to life in my mind. I let out a chuckle as I said, “Do you remember that night after we got drunk playing poker, and you decided to cook dinner for us.” A grin was already across his face, he knew exactly what night I was talking about.

  “Ben thought he’d lost one of his new little fire-cracker weapons inside my quiche.”

  Blaine let out a snort of laughter. “And he only bothered to remember after we all ate dinner.”

  There were a few more chuckles. We had all wondered for a few hours if one of us was about to blow up, but thankfully it had fallen into Ben’s shoe when he took them off at the door.

  There were so many memories like that for all of us. So many times together as a pack and family. In a blink of an eye everything had changed, making us all realize how fragile life really was.

  “I miss cooking,” Victor finally said, the crackling flames lighting up his handsome face. He was a bit more roughhewn than the other guys, but this gave him a rakish sort of look. “I just can’t find the joy in it without Ben and Derek. I can’t find th
e joy in anything.”

  He was an amazing cook, but it had been a long time since I tasted one of his crazy dishes. He liked to experiment with flavors. Sometimes it worked, other times it was a hilarious and messy disaster.

  I squeezed his hand hard before crawling over my mate to fully wrap my arms around Victor. Outside of Blaine I had not hugged my dominants much, protocol and all that rubbish, but I was totally done with that now. Even if I were to be queen again, I would not want to hold myself back from them ever again.

  “I wish they were here with us,” I whispered, breathing in deeply as I fought tears. More arms were around us then and I could feel the energy of Monica and Blaine. My body was still across Kade’s so his comforting presence was there also. His large hand splayed on my lower spine.

  After many moments of comfort we pulled away. There were cleared throats and shiny eyes all round, but in some ways I felt a little lighter. And I thought my friends did also.

  The silence was relaxing then as everyone ate their meagre rations. I sank into Kade, listening to the fire crackling and the frigid wind blowing through the trees. I was almost dozing off when a weird feeling came over me, a tingling of mecca, which had not happened much so far in the Otherworld.

  Wide awake now, I looked around. I could swear there was a tiny voice coming from somewhere close to me.

  I sat straighter. “Did you hear that?” I asked, trying to figure out what was going on. Was this another fae creature? I really wasn’t up to battle number two today.

  Something dawned on Nikoli’s face then. “The flower!” he whisper yelled.

  Oh! I scrambled to get my frozen hands out of my furs so I could search my inner breast pocket for the flower that linked me to Baladar. As I pulled it out, I was still astounded that it wasn’t crushed, not even a single bruise on all the beautiful petals. Gotta love mecca energy.

  I placed the flower to my ear, and even though I was expecting it, still jumped when I heard Baladar’s voice. “My Queen? Are you there?” He sounded urgent. I pulled the flower from my ear and brought it to my lips.

  “I’m here!” I said, and then brought it back to my ear as Kade leaned in closely.

  “Oh, thank the gods. I don’t have long to speak right now, there is much I’m doing here to keep war from erupting. I just wanted to let you know that help is arriving shortly.”

  My head whipped back so fast that I almost cracked Kade in the face.

  “Help? Who? And what do you mean war?” I asked the flower.

  Had he sent more people through to the Otherworld? How? Only Kade and I could open the portal.

  Baladar said in a rush, “Selene has declared war on the bears. Provided false evidence that they were in cahoots with the fae. She wants all five boroughs, all that mecca power.”

  Kade’s bear rumbled beside me as he gently pulled the flower in my hand to his lips. “My mother and Gerald … are they aware? Are my people okay?”

  Baladar snorted. “Your mother is preparing for battle. She tried to stop it, asking for a private meeting on neutral ground with Selene. Calista was there.”

  Oh no. That had to have been a disaster.

  “Twenty seconds with that disgrace of a wolf queen and your mother slapped her across the face and then agreed to her terms of war. Each side has two days to remove children and pregnant women to the Island, which will remain neutral territory for the duration of the battle.”

  My stomach dropped. “Winnie…”

  Baladar’s reply was instant: “Already safe at Kade’s Island home under fierce guard. I must go now. I just wanted you to know that help is coming.”

  The tingles of mecca disappeared in an instant and I knew he was gone.

  What. The. Heck?

  I sat back, my head buzzing. How could she? How could Selene break a peace that had held over a hundred years?

  “I’ll kill her,” Kade said beside me.

  I shook my head. “No. She’s mine.” My words were barely distinguishable from the growls ripping through my chest. My wolf was ready for blood.

  Selene was already on my list of people to wipe from the Earth. Now she had just reached the top spot.

  Despite my hunger, the cold, and a million other worries, I slept soundly that night, wrapped in Kade’s arms – except when it was our turn to keep watch for attacks. His presence kept the horrible stuff at bay. Unfortunately, there was no way to hide in our tent forever, and all too soon morning dawned on the icy land.

  As the first dull rays of light broke through to illuminate the tent, my eyes fluttered open and immediately my stomach started to rumble. One thing I was not great at was going without food. As a royal member of the packs, we always had the best of everything to eat. Still, this was not a huge sacrifice to make for Kade and Violet. I could go hungry for a few days. Surely.

  My wolf whined but didn’t let loose with growls, and since I was able to keep her contained inside, I knew she agreed with me about being able to do without food for our pack.

  Kade had me spooned in against his body, our furs draped tightly around us. We were still fully dressed in case of battle, and also so we didn’t freeze to death. Rolling over, I faced him; his arms tightened around me and I was hit with the full force of his bronze eyes. They were light for the most part, darkening to a rich whiskey close to the pupils, framed by dark, thick lashes. They were still the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen; I could have stared into them for hours and never grow bored.

  “Morning,” I said, still amazed that he was here with me.

  His lips descended onto mine and I fell into the kiss like a thirsty person to a glass of water, drinking him down, taking in everything that was Kade. My lips parted and his tongue slipped inside, stroking my own. His bear growled, chest rumbling.

  “We really need some privacy,” I murmured against him. Some of his growls turned to deep, echoing laughter as he pulled back to see me.

  His hand brushed against the side of my face, pushing back some of my unruly white-blond hair. I kept it closely bound here so that it didn’t draw attention, but I had to let it loose for sleep – it gave me a headache otherwise.

  “Soon, Ari.” He cupped my face. “Very soon we will have all the time in the world to wake up like this, and stay in bed for hours.”

  “I’ll hold you to that, King Kade.”

  Some of his joviality fled at my use of his title, and I knew immediately what held his concern. “Gerald and your mother will know what to do,” I murmured. “We lost many wolves during the battle on the Island, and Selene is a new queen. There’s weakness in our boroughs – this is not going to be an easy battle for her. Not to mention the wolves will not like that she has declared war when they are still recovering from the last fight.”

  Selene probably wouldn’t even see it, but she was making my job of getting the crown back that much easier with her irrational behavior. The wolves would not like it, and they would eventually rebel.

  Kade relaxed a little. “I have every faith in my people. They’ll not want this fight, but they will do everything they can to protect the dens and boroughs. It’s just … I should be there. I’m their king and without my energy they’re weakened.”

  He was right, our leader held our boroughs together, and if there was any way for me to send him back, I would.

  I’d never leave you, Ari! Never. That promise seemed so much stronger through our mental link.

  Leaning over, I pressed my lips once more to his, before rolling across and jumping to my feet. “It will be an even fight. The young are safe on the Island. Let’s just focus on getting Violet and then getting back home to stop this before it rages out of control.”

  Kade was on his feet in a whir of motion, moving with shifter speed. I had a moment of envy because I felt like an old woman today, low on energy and spirit.

  We made short work of packing our things and pulling the tents down. The fire had burned out through the night; no one bothered to light it again, we were heading
out as soon as we were packed up. Finn was close by my side and I found myself sinking my hands into his fur more often than normal. I needed the comfort, and besides Kade, Finn was the absolute best. Nix didn’t move from the king’s shoulder the entire time they were packing. I had no idea how Kade managed to do anything with a massive eagle on his body, but he never made it look like a burden.

  Just before we were to set out, Monica held each of our rations out for us, and even though I wanted to pass mine to Kade again, he was watching me far too closely. I didn’t fight, because I knew I needed to have some energy or I would run the very real risk of losing control of my wolf. Shifters were part animal, with lots of base instinct going on, and a hungry animal would do a lot to get food.

  Finally we set out, just as the sun started rising in the dull sky. From my experience here so far, the warmth wouldn’t be around for long, but it was nice while it lasted, giving us all a boost to our energy. I still had my furs on, but instead of them being just warm enough, I was actually cozy.

  The land was changing as we traveled closer to the main village. I knew we were deep in winter territory now. It was still very natural, with lots of forest cover, but for the most part the plants were winter barren, no leaves or greenery, except for a few breeds that seemed to thrive and blossom under the frigid conditions. One especially was all around, giving these bright pops of red foliage against a wintery background.

  So much beauty here. Made perfect sense when teamed with all the danger. In my world the most beautiful things were often the deadliest. Selene was a perfect example of that, although she added in a healthy dose of evil and crazy to her deadly.

  When we reached a valley that passed between two massive mountains, their craggy peaks towering over us, Kade pulled his map free from his coat. “Looks like there’ll be a small village on the other side of the pass. After that, there’s nothing until we hit the main village and royal palace of the Winter Court.”