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Queen Fae (NYC Mecca Series Book 3)

Page 10

by Jaymin Eve


  Kade! I had been trying not to think about my mate. The moment my mind flittered toward him, I started to lose control of my calm. If I lost it too badly, I would have no chance of getting out of here. Still, even knowing this, a part of me couldn’t help but call out for him. Kade! I tried again, but there was no answer.

  A small portion of the panic I had been keeping contained seeped out. My limbs were trembling and I had to remind myself how strong and capable Kade was. He would be okay. I had to believe that or my mind would be shattered and that would help no one.

  “We need to talk. Shift back now.”

  The queen’s words were commanding, each laced with mecca. But I was a queen too, and I took orders from no one. Time to show her who she was dealing with. Shaking off her icy spell, I lunged at the bars, my muzzle able to fit through as I snapped at her. One of the guards went to pull her back, but she gave him a look and he refrained from stepping any closer.

  “I do not fear this rabid beast,” the queen murmured. “But she will learn to fear me.”

  With that she turned and walked away, only pausing to call over her shoulder. “I need her willing to talk, which means you need to show her our methods of enticing prisoners to cooperate.”

  I knew what that meant. The Red Queen had been my aunt after all. I didn’t care though. I was strong enough to withstand whatever torture they threw at me. She obviously wanted me alive, so I could fight as long as I needed to. Plus, I was too busy being grateful that she didn’t seem to know about the bond between Kade and me. My mate was the only thing she could use against me right now.

  The two guards followed her out, and many moments passed in silence. I was just beginning to think the winter queen was all talk when I heard boots clomping on the stone floor. An unfamiliar male fae carrying a wooden case approached my cell, flanked by two others. One was a tall and gangly female magic born with a crooked nose; she had the white coloring, unlike the last I’d encountered. The other was a short, stocky man. He had dark, angry eyes, and just a quick glance gave me shivers down my spine and had my wolf pelt standing on end. There was evil in his eyes, pure evil. The three opened the cell door and approached me. With a growl I backed my wolf up to the wall and bent low, ready to attack.

  The magic born raised her hands and before I could move, she shouted, “Shift!” She then threw some type of purple powder at my wolf.

  With a sneeze, my body contorted and I was suddenly being forced through the change, into my human form. The pain was almost unbearable as my body and wolf fought the magic. I wanted to howl and cry, but I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. How was this even possible? I had never seen anyone force a shifter to change before. What the heck was in that purple dust? Scattered around me was its glittery remains, shimmering across the floor.

  The color was familiar, and the shine also reminded me of my crown.

  Wait a freaking minute. It wasn’t dust … it was ground up mecca stone. No wonder it was so powerful. They literally had mecca energy in powder form. It would make any spell a thousand times stronger. Still, I could barely touch the stone in the royal estate back home. Its power was immeasurable, so how had they turned one into a weapon?

  The pain eventually faded away as I lay upon the freezing and filthy stone floor. I was naked, without weapons, and at my most vulnerable, but that wouldn’t stop me from fighting. I jumped to my feet, fists clenched at my sides, legs somewhat steady, staring the three down.

  “You can’t break me,” I said, my voice quiet. I would show no emotion. That was what they wanted from me, and there was no way in hell I was giving their queen anything she wanted.

  “Get dressed,” the magic born ordered.

  As much as I wanted to defy her for the sake of defying her, I was freezing. The cold would tire me faster and I needed all my strength. I dressed quickly, keeping my eyes firmly locked on them. The man opened his wooden case. The dull sconces of light that were scattered up high above our heads caught the glint of sharp tools. I didn’t react, but on the inside I was rolling my eyes. Seriously?

  I was a queen. Did they think cutting off my pinky would make me cry for my mommy? They were in for a surprise. I’d been trained to withstand this sort of punishment since I was sixteen. Heirs had a lot of luxury, but we also had to deal with some very painful training. If a queen were ever taken prisoner, we were to choose death over giving up any intel about our kind. Kade would be fine, Finn was safe, and Violet was on her way to healing. I could die now and it would be okay. My people were okay.

  Finn! I had briefly forgotten one small point – my familiar was my literal soulmate. I couldn’t die, because Finn would die. Which meant I had to be strong enough to survive this and hope that I either figured a way out, or someone came for me.

  It was weird that I hadn’t heard from him since I woke up. Finn…

  Nothing happened. I felt a fuzzy reply but couldn’t read it, just like when I’d tried to contact Kade. Whatever magic was around, it was shorting out my bonded soulmates.

  Taking a step forward, I was going to try my best to knock out the magic born. Without her, they would be weakened and I’d have a decent shot at escape. But before I could launch myself at her, the evil eyed man stepped in closer to me and pulled out a long, thin knife. I hesitated, unsure if he was about to attack or not. Instead, he reached down and picked up a dark block-like object and began to sharpen the blade upon it. The magic born and other guard – who I was starting to think was just here to carry the heavy torture device case – stepped back toward the entrance.

  They bowed their heads, and I had a terrible feeling I knew what that meant. Sure enough, I heard the footsteps moments before the winter queen stepped into the cell, ignoring her genuflecting minions as she sort of stumbled closer to me. I was wondering what was wrong with her, when I noticed the child she was dragging behind her. Oh crap!

  My chest clenched as the little girl, no more than five years old, fell to the floor in front of the queen. She was crying, the queen having a firm grasp of her long ponytail, her tiny pointed ears visible, huge blue eyes staring straight at me. This was so much worse than I had expected. They weren’t going to cut me. Nope, this torture was going to be of the heart and soul variety. They were going to hurt this random innocent girl and hope I wasn’t a typical leader, which unfortunately I wasn’t. I’d never been a big fan of sacrificing the one for the many, especially when that one was a child. A child that painfully reminded me of my little sister.

  The queen dragged her even closer and I lifted my head to meet her cold dark gaze head on, letting some of my anger filter out. “You’re unfit to be a leader. A true queen protects her people, they do not use them in whatever sick game you’re playing. You will burn in the eternal fires of hell.”

  Her minions flinched at my condemnation, and I knew that this wasn’t the first time Queen Crazy had hurt her people. But they didn’t move or say anything. They knew better.

  The queen grinned. “Do you know why you couldn’t hold on to your crown, Arianna? You’re weak. A true queen knows she has to do everything in her power to get the job done. In the end, I sacrifice a few for the many.” Exactly what I had thought previously.

  The little girl was squirming now, tears tracing down her cheeks as she tried in vain to pull from the winter queen’s grasp.

  “Let her go,” I said, utilizing every ounce of mecca energy inside of me, trying to force her to obey me.

  The man holding the knife starting grinding it even louder on the sharpening stone, making that nail grating sound.

  The queen had to raise her voice to be heard over him, but she didn’t reprimand him. “I will let her go. You just need to do one thing for me first. Transfer that power you stole back to me.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “My essence? The power which was stolen from me, you mean? What makes you think I even know how to give it back? It’s part of me, my soul. How does one cut out part of their soul?”

  Her f
ace, which had been calm and genial except for her crazy eyes, suddenly turned cloudy and dark. Icy winds slammed against the walls. “That’s not my problem. You need to figure it out … and fast.”

  She turned to the man holding the knife. “Cut her,” she said, as she casually tossed the girl at him.

  Dropping the stone, he caught her in one swift movement, his huge hand wrapping around her tiny throat. Without pause, he brought the blade to the girl’s forehead. That’s when I lunged for him. Halfway to him, a blast of frigid air hit me and I was slammed back into the wall. I looked up at the ice queen and threw my own blast of mecca her way, but she easily deflected it.

  The girl shrieked and I watched in horror at the man sliced a small gash in her forehead.

  “Stop! Okay! I’ll do it! Just stop.” I placed my hands up, never taking my eyes from the child. She would not be hurt any more because of me.

  The queen seemed satisfied, giving me a little smirk. I calmed my expression so that I didn’t bring any attitude with my words. “I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t know how to do this, but I have an idea. I will need a night to think on it.”

  Total lie. I had no freaking clue, but I needed to buy some time.

  The queen’s smirk morphed into a glare that took over her entire face. She started scanning my body, as if she could figure out if I was telling her the truth. “What way do you think you know?”

  I stood frozen for a moment, and then blurted out the first thing I could think of.

  “The mecca crystals. I think the power could be transferred through one.” I hoped to God it wasn’t true, because that meant giving this evil woman part of my soul, but … I couldn’t stand to see this innocent little girl suffer for me.

  That seemed to satisfy the queen, because she nodded to the tall man carrying the case. “Keep the girl overnight in case Arianna suddenly forgets her idea by morning.”

  The magic born was glaring at me, and I hoped she didn’t have the power to read minds, because the only thought I was having was how to break out of here and find Kade. After a tense pause, the magic born nodded and they all disbanded. Tall man carried out the case and the girl, but the stocky man stayed. He still had his blade.

  He pulled up a chair and sat right in front of my cell. A low headache started to throb at my temples as I listened to their retreating steps. What the hell was I going to do? This new power inside of me was shooting around like a live wire, and I had no idea how to use it. It felt like my mecca power, but also different, like it was angry and needed an outlet. Which made me hesitant to tap into it. I’d had problems with new powers and the mecca in the past, and this time Kade wasn’t here to help me.

  Knifey reached down to a pile of wood at his feet, grabbed a piece, and then using his knife started whittling away like he didn’t have a care in the world. I slid down and just sat there, going over all of my options. My best chance was in taking this guy out, hoping he had a key on him, and escaping. Or alternatively, taking him out, and if he didn’t have a key, then taking his knife so I would at least have a fighting chance over the next people to open my cell. I’d wait for him to lose some focus though. Right now he was definitely on guard. Even though he was feigning disinterest, he was keeping a firm eye on me.

  With the magic born gone, I attempted to contact Finn and Kade again, utilizing more and more mecca power as I tried to project my voice. Nothing. They’d better be okay. I would know if either of them were dead, but otherwise there was no way I could tell their condition. Not blocked like this.

  After an hour of sitting in complete silence, footsteps broke the stillness. Knifey didn’t turn his head, but I was immediately tensed, preparing myself. So far there had been no welcomed visitors to my cell, and something told me this time would be no different.

  A tall and regal looking man, around his mid-thirties in age, turned the corner, and as I got a clear view of him my stomach knotted. His long white-blond hair was braided at the sides, fae ears sticking out. But what had me frozen to the spot were his eyes. The very same shade of turquoise had stared back at me in the mirror my entire life. The high-born fae was silent as we took a moment to stare at one another. The moment I realized who he was, I stood slowly. I would not be looked down upon by him.

  He might be my biological father, but he was no family of mine.

  He pressed himself closer to the bars, like he couldn’t help but close the distance between us. His scent wafted toward me and it was familiar, a smell that had my wolf howling deep inside of me. It was the floral fragrance that had been in the Red Queen’s library the night she died. Rage built in my chest as I clenched my fists at my side, fighting down the shift. My words were low, laced with every ounce of hatred I could muster.

  “You’re a murderer. You killed her, didn’t you?”

  His voice was light and airy, not at all what I expected. I was used to the gruff tones of shifters – especially Kade. This fae’s voice was almost wispy, weak.

  “Who? Rosalina? Of course I did. It was my duty to end that traitor’s life.”

  His blatant admission caught me off guard, but if he was in a sharing mood, I wanted to know everything. He was my enemy, and information might help me escape.

  “Why would you kill the Red Queen?”

  He looked at me as if I were pathetic, sneering with a curled upper lip. Dammit, he looked so much like me. It was disconcerting and I kind of wanted to rearrange his face.

  After all of this posturing, he finally said, “I expected more brains from someone like you. Your lineage is … outstanding. I guess breeding doesn’t always win out.’’

  He was seriously overestimating his lineage, that was for sure. Before I clued him in on this, he continued: “I murdered that betraying waste of monarchy because the Red Queen was your mother. She hid your existence from me, which she should never have done, so I had to end her.”

  Blackness crept in at the edges of my vision as his confession reverberated through my mind. The Red Queen … my mother. No! No, that couldn’t be. She had never carried a child to full term…

  My breathing was coming in and out in short bursts as I fought to control my emotions. The power inside of me was spiraling out of control, but now was not the time to lose it. I needed to know more.

  “So the Red Queen was my mother, and you’re my father … how? Tell me how this all happened!”

  My attempt to contain my emotions was not going well. I had to curl over on myself to stop the wolf bursting free. As I leaned forward I caught a glimpse of knife guy. He had abandoned all pretense of whittling and was staring wide-eyed at me. No idea what he had to be so shocked about. This was my life out of control here.

  Once my wolf was locked down again, I straightened, and standing as tall as I could, let my gaze rest on Luca. That was what Violet had called him, right? I refused to give him a title, either familial or royal. He had his head tilted to the side, the slightest smirk on his face, relishing in my shock and discomfort. He was enjoying telling this story. I wished I could just tell him to screw himself, but I needed to know. Not just for myself, but for all of my people who were suffering from the Red Queen’s actions.

  But one thing was for sure, I would give him no more satisfaction with my emotional turmoil. I schooled my face, showing him only what I wanted to. Cold eyes, hard features.

  He faltered for a moment before continuing his story: “Twenty years ago, Earth time, I was working as a liaison for my mother. We wanted to control the mecca power on the Earth side, and to do so we needed to form a relationship with the shifter king or queen. The bear king was an untrusting and wily sort of man, tough to crack, so we started with the wolf queen.”

  Those turquoise eyes went a bit misty, the way mine did when I was reliving pleasant memories. At one point or another he had liked the Red Queen, but clearly not enough to spare her life.

  “Anyway, she was guarded at first, but soon became open to an alliance between her court and the Winter Court.” />
  “You seduced her,” I said, cutting through his bullshit.

  He laughed, and I fought the urge to cross the room and yank the knife away from evil-eyes so I could stab this horrible fae to death.

  “Yes, it was one of my easier and more pleasant assignments. We carried on an affair for some time. I was mostly in the Otherworld, but we could communicate through the flowers, and I would come across to meet up with her. We had plans to take out the bears. That way she would control all the boroughs, and then I would control her.”

  The flower in her personal items. The picture of her pregnant with her sister – the shifter I had always believed to be my mother. The Red Queen was not the one who miscarried, it must have been my mother. Or more correctly my aunt.

  “So then what happened?”

  Clearly they hadn’t taken on the bears, and the fae had left us alone for twenty years after I was born. There had been no trouble until the night the queen was murdered. So what went so terribly wrong after all of those years?

  The prince’s face darkened then, his emotions simmering closer to the surface. Maybe he would be the one to lose control. Maybe I could take advantage of that.

  “One day she stopped calling for me, and would not answer my summons. When I tried to see her, she refused to come to our meeting place. My mother decided that we should let it cool down, and that the basis I’d formed was still good for an alliance, but I knew something was going on. Against my mother’s orders, I snuck into Rosalina’s private quarters and found her pregnant. She told me it wasn’t mine, and I believed her. She had other lovers, and fae cannot breed with shifters. Still…”

 

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