by K. M. Shea
“Now that’s a depressing way to look at things.” Lord Linus rubbed his chin and glanced at me. “But it does make a point. The sun hasn’t risen in the Night Realm for at least twenty years. But even when I was a kid the days here were short. You can’t undo decades of suffering in the Court and realm in six months, Leila, no matter how good you are.”
I was tempted to shrug off the observation—I really didn’t like Lord Linus—but maybe he was right.
At the very least I’m probably being too impatient. But I don’t like to see the glooms and shades looking half starved. And the Court has finally settled down and stopped fighting. I thought…I hoped…
I sighed as I stared at the broken castle.
A griffin—not one of the neat lion/eagle ones they had at the Autumn Court, but a house-cat sized griffin that was a cross of a pigeon and a raccoon—glided over our heads. In its stupidity, it smacked into one of the castle walls and skidded down it, shedding iridescent feathers and little tufts of fur from its striped tail.
The creature scrambled to its feet, ruffled its feathers, then threw up on the patio.
“Yeah, that seems about right,” I grumbled.
“I will organize the staff,” Skye said. “We will organize a work day in a few weeks—if that is an acceptable timeline, my Sovereign?”
I shook my head at the pigeon-raccoon-griffin-thing, then forcibly turned my attention to Skye. “Yeah, that sounds great. Are you still having your guys patrol in here, Chase?”
The werewolf nodded. “We haven’t had any activity since King Fell dropped the monster in here that you destroyed…with a hydra.” His pupils widened for a brief moment—Chase’s version of being spooked. “But I can cross reference with Skye what times will be scheduled for the cleanup efforts and make certain some of my people are here then.”
“Fantastic, thank you.” I smiled. “I don’t think any of the Courts are going to dump anything on us, but there are still at least one or two people out there who want me dead.”
There’d been multiple assassination attempts on my life. We actually thought it might be two different culprits because there was a very big difference in the attacks—one culprit only seemed to send monsters after me when I was surrounded by my loyal people and in areas where there wouldn’t be much collateral damage. The second was far more deadly.
The thought of my would-be-killers used to cause me a lot of anxiety, but I’d been living in a near-constant state of adrenaline since I was made queen. I was kind of over it by now.
“I’m assuming we don’t have any news on that end, still?” I asked.
Chase grimaced, and the magic orbs cast odd shadows on his warm, sepia-brown skin. “No leads, I’m afraid.”
“That’s about what I expected.” I said.
“It’s not good enough,” Lord Linus insisted. “I, for one, am inclined to grow faint at the thought of you living under such danger.”
Lord Linus was a perfect example of the craftiness of the fae. Even though they couldn’t lie, they wordsmithed everything. In reality Lord Linus didn’t care much about me, but he got around his lie by saying he was “inclined” to grow faint. Not that he actually did.
Ugh. I had made peace with my fae blood and didn’t dislike fae like I used to, but I still couldn’t stand all their stupid games and political maneuvering.
My hope was to end all of that—it was why I asked to be made the fae representative on the Regional Committee of Magic—and the Night Court was doing better. Since I’d married Rigel, the amount of political backstabbing had dropped drastically.
Don’t think about Rigel.
I tried to stuff back the pain his name brought and smiled at Chase. “Lord Linus doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Ignore him.”
Lord Linus squawked and finally stood straight so he could give me a wounded look.
“I think that covers everything for our morning meeting. Should we head back to the mansion?” I asked.
Skye made a few more notes in her tablet. “Indeed. Do you still intend to have your magic lesson with Lord Linus tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I reluctantly said. For all my issues with Lord Linus, I had to admit he was an excellent teacher in the more advanced magic techniques I hadn’t learned as a kid.
“Naturally.” Lord Linus puffed up his chest. “Magic is an art that must be mastered with the fires of one’s soul! Leila’s soul is on fire, now is the ideal time to shape her magic!”
I frowned at him. “Does talking like a nutcase come naturally to you? Or is that a learned behavior?”
“My dearest daughter, though you may speak to me so, know that I will love you as much as I always have, even during this rebellious stage of yours.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said.
He loves me as much as he has, which means he doesn’t love me at all, or he wouldn’t have left mom and me. He’s just fae wordsmithing.
“Chase, do you want to join Skye, Indigo, and me for lunch?” I asked.
“What, you’re not going to ask me?” Lord Linus asked.
“Nope. Definitely not.”
“How hurtful!”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re going to tag along anyway.”
“Certainly,” Lord Linus agreed. “But it might warm my soul to hear my own daughter invite me to lunch.”
“Whatever,” I said.
Muffin and Kevin abruptly broke away from Lord Linus and me, peering at the shadows. Kevin sniffed the air, and Muffin twitched her tail.
No. It couldn’t be.
But I knew it before he emerged from the shadows. My pets only reacted that way to one person—one particular fae lord.
Chapter Four
Leila
Rigel stepped into the dim light cast by my orbs of magic. The white light of the moon made his silver hair extra bright, but his eyes were difficult to read due to the shadows cast on his face by his sharp—and perfect—features.
Taller than me—taller than Chase and Lord Linus, even—Rigel was lean and lethal. Unlike most fae—who wore a smattering of fashion trends—Rigel always wore black pants, black boots, and a fitted black shirt that buckled at the shoulder. Today he was wearing his wraith jacket—the jacket he wore as an assassin—with the collar popped and the back of the coat split like a swallow’s tail.
There was something feral about him that was more reminiscent of the wild fae knights who roamed when the elves were still alive.
He didn’t smile, but there was something in the way he slightly tilted his head back that conveyed a smirk. “Hello, Leila,” he said in his voice that made my spine shiver. “I’m home.”
Skye made a noise in the back of her throat, and Chase slipped his handgun out of his shoulder holster and wracked it—loading a bullet—as I snatched up my staff.
Unlike other artifacts, my staff didn’t need an activation word. It automatically started feeding me magic, invading my senses so I could physically feel all the wild magic in the area, and even see flashes of it.
As my staff flared with power, I felt the wispy, sticky feeling of fae magic and glanced over at Lord Linus.
He held three glittering jewels pinned between his fingers. The jewels glowed with magic, but it took me a moment to realize they’d been carved into dice.
Of course.
I gritted my teeth as I turned back to the one responsible for the past two months of heartbreak and pain. “What are you doing here, Rigel?”
Rigel blinked. “I would have thought it’s obvious—I’ve returned.”
I wanted to cry—this was all I had dreamed about for the first few weeks he was gone. But it was too late.
A quiet click broke the silence as Chase turned off the safety on his gun.
It seemed it was up to me to question Rigel, so I made myself ask, “Returned for what?” I sounded defeated—I wanted to be stronger, but falling in love with Rigel had demanded a pretty serious emotional cost from me. I just…had nothing left. “Are you going to try k
illing me again?”
Rigel tilted his head the other direction. “What?”
“The trap in our rooms, your butterfly swords.” My voice shook a little, but I felt magic twine around me as it filtered through my staff.
It’s fine, I’m okay.
“I didn’t set up a trap in our rooms.” He narrowed his black eyes and looked a touch wilder as he took a step closer to us—to me. “I’ve never set up a trap for you.”
Something in me collapsed in relief—if he said it, it had to be true. But I didn’t relax just yet—it could be fae wordsmithing. “Then where were you?”
Rigel mutely stared at me.
Chase tilted his head from one side to the other, much like a dog trying to make sense of something. “Did you work with the culprit responsible for the trap?”
“No,” Rigel said.
Chase twitched his nose, and although he didn’t lower his gun, he slightly relaxed his stance.
Skye scowled at him. “What are you doing?”
Chase shrugged. “I figured it likely wasn’t Rigel who set the trap in their bedroom. He’ll still need to clear his name, of course, but as he cannot lie it seems he isn’t responsible, and I have no reason to attack.”
“He’s been gone for nearly two months,” Skye hissed. She glanced worriedly back at me.
“I said he probably didn’t set up the trap, not that he hasn’t mistreated our Sovereign,” Chase said.
“I’m not so easily convinced he’s innocent,” Lord Linus said in a voice of darkness and chaos. His expression was rock hard—a big switch from his usual charming smiles—and his three jeweled dice seemed to grow brighter.
Chase considered the fae lord’s words—I have no idea why he thought anything the nutcase said was worthy of pondering—then turned to me. “Your orders, Queen Leila?”
I clutched my staff, finding reassurance in the surge of magic as I stared Rigel down. “Why?”
“Why?” Rigel repeated.
“Why did you leave?”
Rigel shifted, and I thought I saw something flash in his dark eyes, but it was too fast for me to judge what it was. Besides that, he only stared at me.
Lord Linus tossed one of his dice in the air. “Do you really think you can stroll back in here without any explanation, brat?” His voice was still dark, and there was something sharp in his eyes. “Leila’s been attacked while you were gone. Do you really expect us to think it wasn’t your doing?”
Rigel shifted his gaze from me to Chase. “She was attacked?”
Although Chase kept his gun aimed at Rigel, his tone was conversational. “Several times since you left, yes. The trap in your room, some shadow monsters attacked her at a Court function, and the night mares intercepted a spell meant for Queen Leila.”
“Intercepted?”
“Someone planted an artifact—they broke it.”
As Chase and Rigel chatted, I tried to keep my expression even.
Hearing Rigel’s smooth voice, seeing him again, the familiar way he’d hold my gaze, all of it was upheaving my mind.
How can he act as if nothing happened? He left without telling me anything, and he never contacted me—never even texted me! And he’s acting as if he was just out for a few hours.
I still didn’t know for sure if Rigel was behind any of the attempts to kill me. There was a possibility he was mixing implications with vague statements to lead us to a conclusion—as Lord Myron had done when I’d first been crowned queen and he attacked me so he could frame another fae family.
Admittedly, I wasn’t sure how Rigel could be using the same technique here—he’d used pretty direct language in his answers.
Plus, if Rigel really was behind any of the traps, I’d be dead. He was the Wraith for crying out loud—the deadliest fae assassin alive.
But I wasn’t dumb enough to accept all of that at face value. We’d have to question him once we were better prepared, to make certain.
I thought that might make me feel a little happier—Rigel possibly hadn’t betrayed me. Maybe.
But it almost hurt worse knowing that then he’d just left. And for no reason he was willing to share.
Apparently, he cared so little about me that he had no regrets just vanishing.
Fresh pain rippled through me—not just in my chest and heart, where I’d been nursing it for months. No, this time it zinged all the way to my head, hammering at my eyeballs and making a headache throb in my temples.
Chase narrowed his yellow eyes. “You aren’t behind any of these attempts?”
“I haven’t tried to harm Leila since our first meeting,” Rigel said.
Chase sniffed the air. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to smell—any scent markings on Rigel, maybe? “But you won’t say where you’ve been? Or what you’ve been doing for two months?” There was a tiny bit of a growl at the end of his words.
A muscle twitched in Rigel’s cheek, but he said nothing.
At least he’s not going to attack us. Maybe he really didn’t try to kill me. Again.
I severed my staff’s connection to magic, then leaned into Skye. “Let’s go back to the mansion. I’m done here.”
“Yes, Queen Leila.” Skye started to walk toward the gardens—where a gate that opened into our human territory stood—then paused and peered back at me, her brown eyes crinkled with concern.
I tried to smile, but it was taking about everything I had not to cry, so it ended up a painful grimace. “Come on, Chase, Lord Linus. We better go back.” My voice was thick, and the words barely made it out of my throat as I picked my way down the stone staircase that was chipped beyond repair.
Chase followed behind me, and after a few long moments, Lord Linus joined us.
“You’re not going to shout at me?” Rigel asked.
I stopped. “What?” Against my better judgment, I turned around to look at him.
His gaze flickered to the others.
I glanced over my shoulder, where Chase, Skye, and Lord Linus waited. “I’ll meet you all in the gardens,” I said.
Skye pressed her lips together, but bowed and picked her way through the wreckage, heading for the gardens. Lord Linus strolled after her. Chase did, too, but he stopped when he reached the garden entrance and took up a guarding position—just far enough away that he probably couldn’t hear what Rigel and I said if we talked quietly, but close enough he could reach me if there was trouble.
“What would I shout about?” I asked.
My headache was getting worse—my ears were almost buzzing from the pain as I struggled to contain my emotions and hold Rigel’s gaze.
He shrugged. “About being gone for so long.”
I held my breath until my lungs burned—reminding me I was still alive even though this felt like a cosmic joke. “If you’d been gone for a week I would have scolded you. Two, and I would have shouted at you. But, Rigel, you’ve been gone for two months.”
“And that means it’s not worth raising your ire?”
“No. It means—” I cut myself off and squeezed my eyes shut.
It means I love you, and you abandoned me. You left without telling me anything—without even thinking of me. You care that little about me.
I opened my eyes. “It means you hurt me.”
Whatever Rigel expected from me, that was not it. A few wrinkles marred his perfect complexion as he furrowed his brow. “Hurt you?”
“You left—for months—after I’d been nearly killed in our rooms,” I said. “You didn’t leave a message—Eventide found your cellphone in your room, and now you stroll back and—” I cut myself off and had to swallow as my eyes burned with tears again.
“I’d left before and you never minded,” Rigel said.
“You’d disappear for three days—or a week, maximum!” I snarled. “Two months, Rigel. Two months! I didn’t know if you really were behind the trap that injured me, or if you just got sick of being consort and decided to leave—I had no idea what you were thinking!”
Rigel narrowed his eyes. “The trap hurt you?”
“Yes! It was rigged between our rooms—I thought I was safe because I felt protected whenever I was with you—which was my mistake,” I snapped. “And you know what? It messed up my shoulder pretty bad, but that hurt way less than you leaving.”
“But I didn’t harm you. I didn’t set up the trap.” Rigel’s expression was so certain, I couldn’t handle it.
He doesn’t get it at all. He doesn’t understand why leaving me would make me upset, because it would never occur to him to care like that.
My tears finally broke through my weak control and dripped down my face. I’m not a pretty crier. I’m sure I was red faced and ugly as I clenched my hands into fists.
“Even if you didn’t set up the trap, you abandoned me.” My voice shook, but at least the pitch was steady. I hadn’t gone squeaky, yet. “And that hurt me way worse.”
I turned away from my consort and blindly stumbled toward Chase, my shoulders twitching as I tried to hold in a sob.
I felt miserable and defeated.
I’ve had to fight tooth and nail for every inch of progress I’ve made. Every part of my life is a battle. Isn’t there any place I can just be…free?
I angrily wiped my eyes when I joined Chase. The werewolf wisely said nothing, but he did glance back at Rigel and followed close at my heels—stopping only to nudge Lord Linus along when the fae lord lingered at the garden entrance.
“Skye, clear my schedule for this afternoon.” I coughed, trying to clear the emotion from my throat. “I’m going to visit my parents.”
“Yes, Queen Leila.”
I expected a complaint from Lord Linus—or maybe a request to come with as he weirdly got along great with my mom and my stepdad, who I considered my real dad.
Shockingly, he was silent.
When we reached the stone archway covered by the wrought-iron door, I curiously glanced at the fae lord.
He was looking back in the direction we’d come from, his hands straying to his belt.
What’s his problem? He likes to pretend he’s protective of me, but he doesn’t usually do anything.