“I think you stayed hidden because if you’re telling the truth that the Seventh Kingdom is real, then it’s in Antarctica,” I said flatly. “It doesn’t get any more remote than this.”
“I assure you that I’m telling the truth.” She smiled again, like she was amused I doubted her. “Come with me, and you’ll see.”
I stayed put. “How long have you known we’d come here?” I asked.
“A while.”
“Days? Months? Years?”
“Something like that. But all that matters is that I’m here for you now, ready to bring you to my kingdom.”
“It seems too easy,” Bella said what I was sure we were all thinking. “Shouldn’t there be trials we need to pass, or something?”
“This isn’t Avalon,” Queen Katherine said. “I’m not recruiting you to join an army.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Mira muttered.
“I’m also only inviting the three dragons to the Seventh Kingdom,” she said, and then she looked to Bella. “You and I will teleport back to the ship—while it’s still anchored down—so I can compel everyone on board to forget you were there.”
“I’m staying with the three of them,” she said. “We already have vampire allies prepared to do reconnaissance once the ship lands back in Ushuaia.”
“And until then, you intend to have them think you’ve gone missing on Detaille Island?” she asked, and none of us replied, since our plan hadn’t actually gotten much further than locating the second half of the Crown. “They’ll send out teams looking for you. It’ll draw attention—possibly supernatural attention. Demonic attention.”
“Fine,” Bella said, and then she glanced at me, Ethan, and Mira. “But we can’t leave them here while you handle the crew and passengers on the ship.”
“They’ll be perfectly safe here,” Queen Katherine said. “The ship you came here on is small. This won’t take me long. But obviously our time is limited, since we can only teleport onto the ship while it’s anchored down. So I need you to take me there—now.”
Bella said nothing. It was like she was waiting for me, Ethan, and Mira to make the decision.
“I have a question,” I said, and all eyes went to me. “You say you’re a queen of a vampire kingdom. That would make you an original vampire.”
She nodded, and I continued, “But there are only six original vampires. Five, now that Queen Laila’s dead.”
“There were seven original vampires. Six, since Laila’s passing.” She frowned when she said the dead queen’s name, as if they’d been friends.
They likely had been, since the original vampires had performed the long-forgotten spell that had turned them immortal together.
“Then why do the others never speak of you?” I asked.
“Because they don’t remember me. I compelled them to forget.”
“Impossible,” I said. “Vampires with the ability to compel can’t be compelled by other vampires.”
The only vampires with the ability of compulsion were the original vampires and the vampires they’d personally turned—the vampire princes and princesses. It was why the original vampires were so particular about who they turned.
“I’m gifted with the ability of superior compulsion,” she said. “I can compel anyone—including other original vampires.”
I became suddenly aware of the onyx ring beneath my gloved finger. It was supposed to protect us from mind intrusion, including vampire compulsion.
Would it protect us against Queen Katherine’s superior compulsion?
Bella shifted uncomfortably on her feet.
“We’re running out of time,” Queen Katherine said to Bella. “I need you to take me to the ship.”
Bella pressed her lips together, not replying. Which was a good thing, since it meant Queen Katherine wasn’t using her ability of superior compulsion to force Bella to take her to the ship. She was letting Bella make the choice on her own.
“Do it,” I said. “We came here for a reason. We can’t lose this chance.”
I purposefully didn’t mention the second half of the Crown, since Queen Katherine hadn’t yet specified what she had that we were looking for. No need to show our cards this early.
“I agree with Gemma,” Ethan said, and Mira nodded that she also agreed.
“Very well.” Bella stepped toward the edge of the cliff, in front of Queen Katherine’s iceberg.
Queen Katherine launched herself up with vampire speed and landed gracefully in front of Bella.
Then Bella took her hands, and they vanished into thin air.
32
Gemma
“The Seventh Kingdom is real,” I said once they were gone. “I can’t believe it.”
Ethan stared out at the mountainous horizon.
I glanced at Mira, who’d barely said a word since Queen Katherine had arrived. “You okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she said, although from her tone, she was clearly not fine.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
I bristled at her tone, then brushed it off. Mira had been moody since the ship had set sail. Being cooped up in our suite had really been getting to her.
Now, she stared at the iceberg Queen Katherine had arrived on, lost in her thoughts.
“Do you trust it?” I asked, motioning to the iceberg.
“It’s ice,” she said. “Of course I trust it.”
Then, she was silent again. Ethan, too.
“Is there something you guys aren’t telling me?” I asked.
“No,” Mira said quickly—too quickly.
Ethan gripped the straps of his bag tighter, not looking at either of us.
“You still have the Crown,” I said to him. “Right?”
“Of course I still have the Crown.”
I nodded, since obviously he would have said something if he didn’t. And there was no place he could have lost it. Plus, Ethan was too responsible to lose anything, let alone half of the Holy Crown.
So why were they both acting so strange?
“Is everything okay between the two of you?” I asked the first possibility that came to mind.
Mira snapped her head around to look at me and shot me a bright, forced smile. “Everything’s great.”
My breath caught. Because she was lying.
Mira and Ethan were having problems—again. Problems that, knowing my sister, could distract her from what we’d come here to do.
And I was happy about it.
My stomach twisted, even though my seasickness had gone away since stepping onto solid ground.
“I don’t trust her,” Ethan said suddenly.
My mouth nearly dropped open. “You don’t trust Mira?”
“No.” He looked confused that I’d say such a thing. “I don’t trust Queen Katherine.”
“Me, either,” Mira said, although she still wouldn’t look at Ethan. “She can use her gift to make anyone do anything she wants, regardless of any protection spells they have on them. At least, that’s what it sounded like.”
“That is what it sounded like,” I agreed. “But if she wanted to use compulsion on us, why tell us she had it at all? Why not just use it and then make us forget she used it?”
“Maybe she will do that, after we leave the Seventh Kingdom,” Ethan said. “She clearly doesn’t want word out that it exists.”
“Which means she could compel us to forget everything that’s happened since she pulled up on that iceberg,” Mira said. “She could compel us to forget everything that’s happening now.”
“We won’t forget,” I said.
“How do you know that?”
“Because I trust her.”
“You can’t just blindly trust her,” Mira said, as if it were a dirty word. “You can’t blindly trust anyone.”
“I’m not blindly trusting her,” I said. “I’m trusting my feelings.”
“Same thing.”
I swallowed down irritation. Be
cause this was the same fight we’d had over and over again. Despite everything we’d learned about magic, Mira would never understand the power of intuition, and I’d never understand why she couldn’t believe we had magic inside ourselves after seeing so much magic in the world around her.
Why was one so hard to believe, and not the other?
“What do you think?” I asked Ethan, since there was no point in continuing this conversation with my twin.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But the heart directed us here, which means the Seventh Kingdom must have the second half of the Crown. We need to go with Queen Katherine, whether we can trust her or not. If she tries anything, we’ve trained enough that we should be able to handle ourselves. Plus, we have our keys. I’m going to assume there are doors in the Seventh Kingdom. If things get bad and we need to leave, we’ll use our keys and go to the Haven’s tearoom.”
“Assuming she doesn’t compel us to forget about the keys and what they can do,” Mira muttered.
“She won’t,” I said. “She can’t. The keys are Hecate’s magic.”
“You have no idea what Queen Katherine can or can’t do.”
I took a long, slow breath to calm myself, since telling Mira to trust Hecate would be pointless.
Instead, I changed the subject, and we discussed the possibilities of what type of magic the Holy Crown might be able to do. The Holy Grail turned deserving humans into Nephilim, the Holy Sword increased fighting ability, and the Holy Wand amplified magic.
What could a crown do?
“Maybe it enhances intelligence,” I suggested.
“Or allows mind reading,” Ethan said.
I frowned at the thought. A lot of people would love the ability to read minds, but I’d always imagined it would be terrible. Thoughts were supposed to be private. A person’s character should be judged on what they chose to say and do—not on their thoughts.
If anyone knew my thoughts about Ethan, they’d think I was a terrible person.
Maybe I was a terrible person. But I was doing my best to not let my heart control my brain, no matter how difficult it was. And that had to count for something. Right?
“Maybe mind control?” Ethan said, a moment before Queen Katherine popped back in.
She looked us over and nodded. “I told you you’d be safe.”
“How’d it go on the ship?” I asked.
“Perfectly well. No one on board knows you were ever there.”
“And what about Bella?”
“She’s returned to Avalon. She’s looking forward to being in warm weather again, so she can wear more flattering clothing.”
I smiled, because that sounded like something Bella would say.
“Now, let’s hop on board.” Queen Katherine motioned to the iceberg she’d arrived on. “And I’ll take you to the Seventh Kingdom.”
33
Gemma
The iceberg wasn’t slippery—probably thanks to some type of spell. But the moment I stepped onto it, the gentle rocking made my stomach cramp up. I wrapped my arms around myself, swallowing down nausea as the iceberg floated away.
We’d only traveled for about five minutes before the outline of a boundary dome shimmered in the open ocean ahead.
“This iceberg has been enchanted by our witch,” Queen Katherine said. “Anyone on board can pass through the boundary.”
Sure enough, the iceberg slipped through the boundary with us on it. As we went through, a tingle passed over my skin.
A small, deserted island had been hidden inside the dome, with a snow-covered log cabin in the center of it. No penguins waddled down to the water, and no seals laid on the ice floating nearby. There wasn’t even a breeze. It was so quiet that I could physically feel the stillness.
The iceberg docked into the side of the island. It fit perfectly into the ground, like each were pieces of a puzzle.
I hurried onto solid ground, then looked up at the cabin in question. A soft, orange light glowed out of the windows, the same color as the orbs in Utopia.
I’d expected something grander, like an ice palace.
Maybe, like the huts in the Ward, the cabin was a cover for an underground kingdom.
Without a word, Queen Katherine led us up the snowy path to the cabin. Once we were close enough, I noticed a thin layer of frost covering every bit of the wood.
Queen Katherine reached for the frosty handle of the door, turned it, and walked inside.
I toyed with the chain of my necklace as I stepped through. Because where there was a door, there was a way out.
Three women in heavy animal skins who looked around Queen Katherine’s age—in their mid-twenties—sat around a small dining table. By their scents, I could tell that one was a witch, one a vampire, and the other a dragon.
Their scents were complemented by an earthy, meaty concoction brewing in the cauldron over the fireplace.
The fire called to me, the flames leaning slightly in my direction.
“Meet Genevieve, Constance, and Isemay.” Queen Katherine pointed to each woman as she said her name. “My loyal subjects in the Seventh Kingdom.”
“There are only four of you?” Mira looked baffled.
I was also surprised, although unlike my sister, I did my best to hide it.
Ethan focused on Isemay, the dark-skinned dragon with soft almond eyes. “How did you get here?” he asked. “There haven’t been any dragons on Earth in centuries.”
“I arrived with the dragons when we first left Ember to explore Earth,” she said in a strange accent I couldn’t quite place.
“Impossible,” Ethan said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because the dragons came to Earth centuries ago. You don’t look a day over twenty-five.”
“Incorrect,” she said. “I’m twenty-seven.”
“It’s close enough,” he said. “Given that you should be long dead.”
She frowned, then looked to Queen Katherine, as if it wasn’t up to her to say more.
“Please, join us around the table,” Queen Katherine said to the three of us. “We’ve prepared a hot stew to enjoy while we fill you in on the purpose of the Seventh Kingdom, and our duty as its inhabitants.”
I glanced at the cauldron, and while I still instinctively trusted Queen Katherine, I also worried about consuming something when I didn’t know what was inside of it.
“It smells amazing,” Mira said, apparently not sharing my concern. “I’m starving.”
“Wait,” Ethan said, and Mira stopped when she was halfway to the table. He looked back to Queen Katherine, and continued, “You told us that you had what we were seeking. We trusted you by following you to your kingdom. Now, I think it’s only fair that before we sit down to a meal, you show us that you have what we came here for.”
“Understandable,” she said, and then she looked to Genevieve. “Go fetch it.”
Genevieve stood up—she was tall and willowy, with the classic looks of a Hollywood movie star—and walked into the next room. She returned holding a wooden box with sheer frost covering all sides of it. It was the same size as the gold box in Ethan’s backpack that held our half of the Holy Crown.
“Open it,” Queen Katherine said.
Genevieve did as commanded.
Inside the box was the second half of the Holy Crown. The small clear crystals and half of a crescent moon on the end were mirror images of the Crown in Ethan’s bag.
I wanted to run for the box and take it. But I also didn’t want to start a fight with an original vampire, a powerful witch, another vampire, and a dragon. So I stayed where I was, although my eyes remained glued on the second half of the Crown.
“How long have you had it here?” Ethan asked.
“We’ve guarded this half of the Crown for centuries,” Queen Katherine said. “Right after the dragons came to Earth, Isemay came to me with it. She said a fae with omniscient sight came to Ember with both halves of the Crown. He instructed the King of Ember to guar
d the first half. Then he gave the second half to Isemay, told her to find me, and gave her instructions on what to tell me to do with it.”
“The fae with omniscient sight was Prince Devyn,” I said.
“He was,” Isemay confirmed.
Queen Katherine gave Genevieve a pointed look, and the witch closed the box and placed it on a side table against the wall. “Now do you trust me to sit down to a meal?” she asked. “You know the rules of the kingdoms. Trust must be shown before deals are made.”
I nodded, since I’d learned that in Utopia.
Trust was shown by accepting food from your hosts. And I did trust Queen Katherine. So I walked over to the table and sat in the chair next to the other vampire, Constance. She was small with strawberry blonde hair, and appeared the least threatening of the three.
Ethan sat in the seat next to me, and Mira took the seat next to him.
“Isemay—get our guests some water,” the queen said. “I’ll serve the stew.”
Within a minute, we were all gathered around the table with glasses of water and steaming bowls of stew.
I picked up my spoon and studied the stew suspiciously. The meat inside was unidentifiable. “What’s in it?” I asked.
Please don’t say penguin.
“Whale,” Queen Katherine said, and my stomach dropped.
They expected me to eat whale?
However, I supposed I ate many other fish. And, more importantly, we needed the second half of the Crown. If that meant trying whale stew, then so be it.
I dipped my spoon into the bowl and took a bite. The meat didn’t taste all that different from beef.
Queen Katherine nodded after all three of us took a bite. “The four of us have been in this cabin for centuries, guarding the second half of the Crown so we can give it to you,” she said.
I looked around the small cabin in horror. “You didn’t leave this place for centuries?”
“Genevieve and Isemay worked together to safely freeze us until you arrived,” she said.
“You mean like in science fiction when people get frozen to travel through space?”
The Dragon Realm (Dark World: The Dragon Twins Book 2) Page 14