Page 31 of Queen of Ever (Curse of Fate and Fae #2)

Chapter 31

Imogen

W hatever was said of the inevitability of a lesser fae rebellion failing, the rebels weren’t giving up without a fight. The defensive strategies mostly consisted of setting what amounted to a series of booby traps throughout the tunnels closer to the surface, with hopes of thinning the numbers of the High Fae forces out as they attempted to descend into the interior of the court. Those preparations I was happy to help with, but the idea of actually fighting was terrifying. I was trying my best to work out how to use my magic, and it was getting easier, but as the whole turning the cavern to diamond incident had shown me, there was a lot I didn’t know about how it worked. I still wasn’t sure how much help I would be when it came down to actually fighting the High Fae.

‘What’s that face for?’ Ethan said, falling into step with me and drawing me out of my thoughts. ‘Are you feeling a bit pessimistic about their last stand?’

‘Don’t you mean our last stand?’

He gave me a sardonic look. ‘I’m not here for the rebellion. I’m here for you,’ he said before his expression turned playful. ‘Though if I’d known this is where you’d take me, I might have had another think before taking you under my wing.’

I smacked his arm. ‘You love me and you know it.’

We entered the tunnel that was next on our list for lacing with defences. It narrow, low and dark and no end in sight. It turned out a lot of the court’s tunnels were of this sort, with little in the way of lighting or decoration to differentiate them from mineshafts. I was getting used to them, but if I got caught standing in the dark in one, I was liable to start hyperventilating, thinking about all that dirt above me, so I tried to stick close to the others who were working with us.

It looked like Ethan and I were dawdling, if Cassian’s scowl was anything to go by. It seemed that he wasn’t thrilled at having his brother back home. I was curious to know what had happened between them, but I knew better than to ask while Cassian was in earshot.

‘Good of you to finally join us,’ Cassian said bitterly.

Ethan rolled his eyes. ‘Who pissed in your Cornflakes?’

A frown furrowed Cassian’s brow. ‘What the fuck are Cornflakes?’

Ethan scoffed. ‘I forget how unworldly you are sometimes. And so serious. Doesn’t it ever bore you?’

‘Someone has to be serious with you flouncing around like you have no responsibilities.’

‘There was nothing stopping you from doing the same. You didn’t have to follow dad so closely.’

‘We can’t all be as selfish as you. Some of us actually believe this is worth fighting for.’

Ethan rolled his eyes again. ‘Please, save the sanctimonious bullshit for someone who doesn’t know you have daddy issues.’

‘Maybe this isn’t the best time to argue,’ I said, deciding to break my silence before things escalated.

‘Yes, you’re already late. Everyone else has started,’ Cassian said irritably. He handed us each a piece of paper.

I opened mine—instructions on what to set up and where. Cassian wasn’t leaving anything to chance, which made sense with what I’d seen of him. It was funny how similar the brothers looked and yet they were as different as night and day.

‘At least your magic will be useful,’ Cassian said.

I felt a prick of frustration and looked up to give him a piece of my mind, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Ethan. But Ethan wasn’t listening, he simply folded the paper up and shoved it in his pocket with a carelessness that suggested he wasn’t going to follow the instructions all that closely.

‘Follow the plan, Ethan,’ Cassian said, as if he had picked up on the same thing I had.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Ethan said, waving a hand as he turned and headed further into the tunnel. I quickly followed after him, not exactly keen to spend any more time in Cassian’s company than necessary, especially when he was in a bad mood. Although, I wasn’t sure he had ever been in a good mood.

‘So... what exactly happened between you and your brother?’ I asked when I was sure Cassian couldn’t hear us.

‘You’re really asking me for my life story?’ he asked, as if he thought it would be the most boring thing to do with our time. But I’d known Ethan for five years and it turned out I knew nothing about him.

‘Yes, I’m really asking.’

‘There’s not much to tell. Our father brought us into this fight when we were kids, after our mother died in a raid. Maybe it hit Cassian harder, but I wasn’t old enough to remember her. Dad kind of went off the rails and while Cassian was happy to play the good little soldier, I wasn’t. So, I left.’

‘You had to go to another realm to get out of the rebellion?’

‘I didn’t have to, but it was the easiest way. My father would have hunted me down if I’d stayed. And besides, what kind of life could I have here? Servant, slave, or rebel?’

‘But surely you left people behind that you cared about. People you missed?’

He was silent for a long moment and when he stopped walking, I realised we were at our designated spot. I started to think he wasn’t going to answer me at all. ‘I did. But it was for the best,’ he finally said, clearing his throat.

I knew he was giving me the short version; I caught the note of emotion in his voice, but I didn’t want to push him. ‘You kept so much secret for so long.’

‘Well, yeah, I was trying to be human.’

‘And after?’

He shrugged. ‘I wasn’t exactly keen to revisit my past. And yet, here I am, right back where I started.’

‘Sorry about that,’ I said, feeling a pang of guilt. ‘But are you telling me you really don’t want to help these people— your people?’

‘I didn’t leave because I didn’t care. I just wanted a life of my own, not something tied up in a losing war. Truth is, we never really had a chance at winning until you.’

‘I think you’re giving me too much credit.’

‘You have no idea how important you are, the significance of the magic you wield,’ Ethan said, and for the first time he sounded like he belonged with the other lesser fae rebels.

‘I know it’s important, but I can’t use it the way they need. Maybe if I had more time...’

‘Hey, don’t do that,’ he said, taking my hand the way he’d always done. ‘You didn’t even know you had this power until a few days ago. If anyone really sat down and thought about how long it took to master their own magic, they wouldn’t expect so much of you either.’

‘I know,’ I said, not really feeling those words. Logically, I knew. But I still felt guilty that I couldn’t do what they needed me to do. ‘They’re desperate.’

‘They’ve been fighting this fight a long time. They want it to be over. And hey, soon it will be. Maybe not in the way they expected but recruiting Tarian, the heir to the Unseelie throne? That was something no one ever would have thought possible before. That was all you.’

That was true. Honestly, I was still a little surprised by that, though I knew he was here for me more than anything else. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, I’d seen firsthand that he was perfectly capable of that, it was just that his priorities were different. But this would give us a shot and freeing ourselves from both Moriana and Solas. And that was high on his list of priorities.

I flipped open my instructions from Cassian, placing it on the ground so I could refer to it as I positioned myself in front of the left wall. I let my magic free, let it feel what was around us. It was as if I could see what was buried beneath the soil; insects, stones, tree roots. A familiar presence seemed to reach out to me but I couldn’t quite identify it.

‘I’m glad you’re not going to be challenging either of those royal wankers,’ Ethan said, pulling me out of my trance before I could search that presence further.

‘Yeah, I’m glad, too,’ I said. As much as I wanted to help the rebels, the idea of fighting Solas—or worse, Moriana—seemed utterly impossible. Even if I had full control of my magic, I’d never fought anyone in my life. Unless you counted the guy Tarian had sent after me in the human realm, but I was short one car for running people over with here. I certainly couldn’t use a sword or a bow.

And Moriana had my fiorainm. Even if I could beat Solas, which seemed unlikely, how would I be able to beat her when she had complete control over me?

But I wasn’t ready to admit that to Ethan yet. Or anyone else, for that matter. And since I wasn’t challenging anyone, the subject never needed to come up.

‘You don’t have to fight, you know. You could stay with the other civilians,’ Ethan said. It was then that I realised the floor next to him had markings on it, two circles, one inside the other, and some strange symbols in the space between them. They were glowing red, not enough to light up the space but enough that it was noticeable.

‘What the heck is that?’

‘My magic, of course,’ he said, as if I’d asked the dumbest question he’d ever heard. ‘But don’t worry, it’s not visible to the enemy.’

‘What does it do?’

‘It goes boom,’ he said, grinning widely. ‘Come on, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can have a drink.’

‘You want to drink now?’ I asked incredulously.

‘Of course. What better time to drink than when you’re preparing for battle?’

It was hard to argue with that logic, I supposed, though I didn’t know if I could do it. I’d be too worried about being drunk or hungover when the enemy arrived. It would have been far easier if we knew exactly when they were going to show up. Haddock was supposed to be looking out for that, one of the perks to having an oracle on side. But so far, he hadn’t been able to see anything. Something was blocking him, he said. If that was true, it did nothing for the anxiety that had been steadily knotting in my stomach since I’d agreed to help the rebels.

‘Where is Tarian, anyway? I expected him to be shadowing you since you finally took him back,’ Ethan said, and he was lucky Tarian hadn’t heard that.

‘He went to speak with Haddock.’

‘Ah yes, the useless seer.’.

‘You don’t like Haddock?’

‘Is he really an oracle? So far, I haven’t actually seen him predict much of anything.’

‘Is it Haddock you don’t like or oracles?’

‘Oracles have a nasty habit of interpreting the future in whatever way they want. But the future isn’t set in stone. No matter what most of the fae seem to believe.’

‘You had your stars read, didn’t you?’ I asked, a smirk tugging at my lips. ‘What did they predict?’

‘Never you mind. It was a load of rubbish anyway.’

I snorted a laugh as he turned back to his task. I placed my hands on the wall, my magic reaching forward, drawing on the elements in the soil, taking the roots already there, growing thorny spikes along them, coaxing them through into the position we wanted. It took a surprising amount of effort and I felt my breath quickening as if I’d been jogging. I definitely needed more practice at this.

As we worked our way down the tunnel, the task became easier, and I found the tree roots and the elements more willing to work with me. None of the other fae spoke to us as we went, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of me or Ethan. The traitor or the woman with Oberon’s power.

Suddenly, there was a loud clanging, something striking metal, ringing out through the tunnel. Ethan stopped immediately, his head snapping towards the sound, his expression growing grim.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

‘That’s a warning alarm. The High Fae are coming,’ he said, a seriousness in his voice I had never heard before.

And now it was all too real.

We were going to war.