Page 28 of Queen of Ever (Curse of Fate and Fae #2)

Chapter 28

Imogen

I f I didn’t have so much on my mind, I would have fallen asleep in that bed with Tarian’s body tangled with mine and an easy bliss settling on me. But as it was, thoughts circled like vultures, drifting away only to return again.

Tarian’s hand traced my skin, gliding along my stomach, sending a shiver through my body. ‘If you’re still thinking this hard about anything other than me, I think I should be offended.’

A smile stretched my lips despite my stormy thoughts of war and succession. I had to talk to him about all of it, but I was also loathe to leave that bed, so I settled for rolling over, resting my head on his chest where I could hear the steady beating of his heart.

‘There are some things we need to talk about,’ I said finally.

‘That sounds ominous.’.

‘It’s not that kind of talk,’ I said, which was a relief, but I realised I had no idea where I was even supposed to start with this mess. What was I even going to suggest we do? It wasn’t like I was going to be any help in a war. I didn’t even know how to use my magic. Hell, until a few hours ago, I didn’t even really know what my magic was.

‘What kind of talk is it, then?’ he asked, reminding me that I had lapsed into silence.

‘I want to help the lesser fae,’ I said. As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew they weren’t helpful. They did nothing to explain anything.

‘You want to help the people who kidnapped you?’

‘Not the strangest thing I’ve done with someone who kidnapped me,’ I pointed out.

‘True.’ His fingers began to trace down my back, then slowly up along my shoulder blade, the movement almost hypnotic and completely distracting.

‘First, I think I should tell you that I apparently have a rare type of magic,’ I said, trying to ignore the sensation of his fingertips on my body, the goosebumps that scattered across my skin.

‘Creation magic,’ he said.

‘Wait, you knew?’ I asked, my head snapping up so I could look him in the face and gage his reaction properly. How the hell did he already know? And why hadn’t he told me?

‘Haddock told me after the furies attacked,’ he said. ‘But how did you find out?’

‘The lesser fae queen knew. Well, I suppose Marietta would have told her since Solas knows. Which at least finally explains why he’s been so interested in me. It’s apparently why everyone wants me,’ I said bitterly. I hated that this power I didn’t even know existed until a few hours ago had taken so much control of my life.

‘Not everyone,’ he said suggestively.

‘You’re not helping,’ I said, but my tone lacked any firmness. He was helping, he was making me feel like a person instead of a tool. But I needed to get back to the topic at hand before he made me completely forget what it was we were talking about. ‘The lesser fae have a few options open to them, at least as they’ve explained it to me. They remove Solas and your mother from power, putting rulers on the throne who would be willing to negotiate a peace.’

‘Marietta, I would understand, but you can’t expect me to believe they’d be happy with me on the Unseelie throne,’ he said sceptically. But he didn’t seem angry about that as he continued to trace his fingers along my skin. I’d expected him to be angry, to tell me there was no way in hell they’d take his throne. After all, hadn’t the throne been the reason we’d fallen apart before? That prophesy had come between us because he didn’t want to lose it.

I put that question aside for now, it would only serve as another distraction and if Tarian had found me already, then it couldn’t be too long before Solas did.

‘I suppose they hope I’ll be a calming influence on you,’ I said.

He laughed then, a sound that I loved. ‘They clearly don’t know you very well.’

My mouth popped open in offense as I smacked him playfully. ‘What are you saying, exactly?’ I asked. But I knew damn well what he was saying. Maybe there were times when I could get him to listen, but there were also plenty of times when I made him crazy. The same could be said of him, though.

‘So, they’ll have me on the throne so long as you’re there to control me?’

‘Don’t put words in my mouth,’ I said, matching his light-hearted tone. ‘Besides, are you telling me you don’t want me there?’

His arm tightened around me, and a seriousness entered his expression. ‘I want you wherever I am.’

I laid my head back down on his chest. ‘There is another option,’ I said after a long moment, finally breaking the silence with the words I didn’t want to speak. It still sounded too ridiculous to be real. ‘One that could potentially negate a war.’

‘Oberon’s power gives you the right of challenge,’ he said as if he was reading my mind. But what he felt about that, I couldn’t say. He kept his emotions from his voice, hiding his thoughts from me.

‘Apparently.’ I couldn’t bring myself to put anything into that single word. ‘If I did, theoretically I could reunite the realm and we’d all hold hands and sing kumbaya or something.’

‘Kumba-what?’

I shook my head. ‘Human thing, never mind.’ We lapsed back into silence, one that made me increasingly anxious, not only because of my thoughts but because I wanted to know his. Part of me wanted him to tell me what I should do so that I wouldn’t be responsible for the outcome of this, so that I wouldn’t be responsible for the lives of so many.

‘What do you want to do?’ he asked instead, his tone gentle. As if it was as simple as what I wanted.

I sighed. ‘I don’t want to do any of it. I want to just run away with you to some remote place where we don’t have to worry about crowns and thrones and kingdoms. Somewhere like Fiji, where they serve you cocktails on a warm beach and the only thing you have to worry about is reapplying sunblock.’

‘You say the strangest things sometimes.’

Right. That fantasy was another human thing, I supposed. Life was so much simpler when I thought I was human.

‘I don’t want to rule,’ I said finally. ‘I wouldn’t even know how to start.’

‘Some might say that makes you perfect for the role.’

‘Well, they’re idiots.’ I ran the tip of my nose back and forth across his skin as I thought it through. ‘But I guess we need to figure out a way to deal with Moriana at some point. This does sort of provide a solution.’

‘Leave my mother to me,’ he said, and his tone was dark, now, no longer teasing or soft. I knew it was more than a want, he needed to deal with her. He needed to take back the power she had stolen from him for so many years. Just thinking about it, imagining what she’d done to him in that time, made me feel sick. She likes to ruin things , he’d said. From what I’d gathered, her favourite project was ruining him. But even if he wanted to take her on, how was he going to defeat her when she could bring him to his knees with just a word?

‘And Solas? You’re just going to leave him to me, are you?’ I asked sceptically, propping myself up to look at him again. ‘No problem. Can’t fight to save my life—literally—and I have no idea how my magic works. Should be a piece of cake.’

‘It does things to me when you sass me. Keep it up and you’ll be asking for trouble,’ he warned. He gripped my chin and kissed me hard, stealing my breath and making me want to see what kind of trouble he meant.

All too soon, he released me. ‘I’ll teach you how to use your magic. Not to fight Solas, but because I’d feel better if I knew you could protect yourself.’

‘I suppose that means we have to get out of bed now, doesn’t it?’ I asked reluctantly. I wasn’t foolish enough to think that Solas and Moriana would sit around and wait for us to be ready.

‘I wouldn’t say that.’ His lips curled into a wicked smile. He pulled me to him again, sending that thrill through my body as he pressed against me, as he leaned in, his breath caressing my lips.

A loud knock interrupted us, making my body stiffen. It was far too easy to forget where we were when we were together. There were always far too many people around us. Perhaps a holiday to a tropical island in the Human Realm wouldn’t be such a bad idea when this was all over.

‘Get your pants on,’ Ethan’s voice called through the thick wood. ‘The queen would like to speak to you.’

‘Why would she send Ethan?’ I asked in confusion. Maybe it was because of his relationship to me but it seemed strange when he was considered a traitor. Or perhaps only his brother felt that way.

‘Does it matter?’ Tarian asked, holding me a little tighter, as if he had every intention of picking up where we’d left off.

‘Hey!’ I said, doing my best to pull out of his grasp. ‘We can’t keep her waiting.’

‘Why not?’

I gave him a stern look. ‘You should speak with her.’

‘This isn’t a real court.’

‘Why not? Because it’s not High Fae?’ I asked. ‘Whatever the High Fae think, they deserve to be treated with the same respect as anyone else. And that means treating their leader with the same respect you’d treat a High Fae ruler.’

He let out a sigh of resignation. ‘Fine, I’ll speak with her, if that will make you happy.’

‘Thank you.'

‘But we’ll finish this later,’ he said. Then he pressed a final, heated kiss to my lips before getting out of bed and began pulling on his clothes.

I led Tarian through the maze-like passages of the underground court, hoping that I was going the right way. Honestly, someone should have given me a map. I took one wrong turn before finding my way back to the huge open space where all the passages seemed to meet.

Ethan was leaning against a wall, an irritated look on his face. ‘Finally,’ he said bitterly before striding forward.

I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask him but now didn’t seem like the time given his sour mood. We followed him silently as he led us through the clusters of makeshift gardens I’d seen children running through, though they were quiet now, the space emptier. We rounded a stone pillar to find the queen was seated in a sort of throne made of twisting branches and vines. Standing just behind her was Cassian, eyeing us warily—or perhaps just eyeing Tarian.

The queen sprung to her feet in an elegant motion and smiled at us. ‘Welcome,’ she said graciously.

‘You wanted to see us?’ I asked.

‘I thought a formal introduction was in order,’ she said. She made her way towards us and inclined her head to Tarian. ‘I’m Queen Sylara. I appreciate you staying your hand.’

‘I wasn’t aware the lesser fae had a queen,’ Tarian said, a note of scepticism in his voice. I shot him a glare, but I couldn’t do anything to make him take the words back. Nor did I expect he would apologise for them.

‘I’m sorry—’ I began, but she waved away my words, a good-natured expression on her face. I was beginning to wonder if anything bothered her.

‘Don’t be silly,’ she said. ‘We did kidnap his mate, he has every right to be sour about it. But we wouldn’t have done it if we’d thought there was another way.’

‘It seems you’ve managed to garner Imogen’s sympathy, despite what you did to her,’ Tarian said, and he clearly wasn’t happy about that, either.

‘Imogen has a kind heart,’ she said. ‘It’s why Marietta suggested we ally with her in our fight for equality.’

‘And attacking the courts was part of that fight?’ Tarian asked, a sharp edge to his voice. ‘I lost people when you blew up the Unseelie Palace. Good people.’

‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ Queen Sylara said, her voice full of sympathy. ‘I can assure you, we weren’t behind those attacks, merely a convenient scapegoat.’

‘And who is it you are accusing?’ Tarian demanded. I slid my hand into his, entwining our fingers, hoping to bring him some form of comfort.

‘I can’t say for certain, but we do have a theory,’ she said. I was sure Tarian would put the pieces together soon enough, if he hadn’t already. ‘We’ll be meeting tomorrow to discuss how to proceed now that things are in motion. I hope you will join us for that, Tarian.’

Tarian didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked at me for a long moment before finally letting out a sigh. ‘I will hear you out. For Imogen.’

‘That’s all we ask,’ the queen said, smiling brightly again. I wasn’t entirely sure if Tarian would be convinced to help the lesser fae, but at least he was willing to listen. ‘And in the meantime, you’re welcome to explore. Our home isn’t a palace, it’s true, but there is plenty here worth fighting for if you’ll only look for it.’

Cassian made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but Sylara ignored him. We did as she suggested, wandering around the underground hideout for the better part of the evening with Cassian trailing along at a distance, clearly not as trusting as the queen was in letting us find our way around. The rebels were a wash of lesser fae, human changelings and half breeds, and the evening hour saw many of them gathering in groups around small cooking fires or sitting in sewing circles or telling children stories. They often fell quiet as we passed, but we were quiet too, quieter and quieter the more we saw. I noted how Tarian seemed to sink deeper into his thoughts, feeling further and further away even as his hand stay entwined with mine. His expression was as guarded as ever, but I thought maybe I could figure out a little of what he was thinking, perhaps visible in the subtle frown as we came across a group of winged children played a clapping game in a tiny dugout decorated with swathes of coloured fabric, or in the way he stopped to help a bent old creature with drooping, pointed ears to carry a heavy pot full of a sweet-smelling stew. Perhaps I could figure it out because my thoughts were running along the same lines.

And then we saw the group of fae taking inventory of weapons, laying out swords and daggers and bows along the ground. Preparing to defend this strange underground world.

‘So, you’re going to teach me to use my magic,’ I said as we watched.

And there was no mention of leaving, no trying to convince me that we needed to get out before it was too late.

‘Tomorrow morning,’ he agreed.