Page 9 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

THE VAMPIRE QUEEN

I was the only one who noticed the explosion. The party went on as though nothing had happened.

Nothing had happened. It was all in my mind.

Only now, I was in control.

Sounds twisted and twirled in my mind, solidifying into a spell on my tongue. The spell had a life of its own—a will of its own. It slithered across the ballroom, invisible and sly, infecting each and every person it touched.

“Silence,” I commanded.

My voice wasn’t loud, but it filled the room. It ruled the room.

Everyone stopped talking.

“Stop,” I told them.

Everyone stopped moving.

“Listen.”

They folded their hands in front of their bodies and waited.

I smiled in wicked satisfaction. “Thank you for your attention. Now you’re going to listen to every word that President Stout has to say.”

I must have bewitched the President too because he knew just what to do. He moved to the podium beside the orchestra and grabbed the microphone. And as President Stout delivered a carefully-prepared speech all about Gaia, I subtly retreated to the sidelines. Kato was waiting there for me.

“Hi,” I told him with a smile.

“Hi? That’s all you have to say?”

“Yes? What’s the matter? Is a simple ‘hi’ too informal for this posh affair? Ok, how about greetings ?”

Kato rubbed his head like I was too crazy to handle right now. “What just happened?”

“Well, I could be wrong, but I think I managed to make the Court finally stop ignoring us.”

He stared at me, and I couldn’t tell if he was upset or impressed. Meanwhile, the President was telling the leaders of the Many Realms of Gaia’s many magical accomplishments. And I wasn’t surprised that many of those accomplishments were Kato’s.

“Hey, he’s not talking about any of my accomplishments.” I winked at him, but that wink quickly turned into a wince.

Kato’s forehead furrowed with concern. “Are you all right?”

“Not really. It’s kind of hard to hold all of them in place for so long.”

I rubbed my temples gently. The mother of all headaches was blossoming inside of my skull. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep the President’s audience placid. So I was pretty relieved when he put down the microphone and stepped away from the podium.

I released my control over everyone. Immediately, I felt a rush of relief—and lots of dizziness. Kato caught me before I tumbled to the floor.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

I tried to regain my balance, but my head was pounding like a jackhammer. And it didn’t help when all the leaders of the Many Realms surged toward the President and the General, talking very loudly. Some shouted in protest. Others laughed.

But one thing was for sure: no one was ignoring the Gaian delegation anymore.

“Mission accomplished.” The dizziness had subsided enough for me to give Kato a thumbs up.

“You’re insane.” He took my arm and led me around the back of the very tall chocolate fountain, away from the shouting, laughing, debating Court delegates.

He watched the delegates fight for a chance to speak to the President and the General.

“That was a very risky move, Seven. And very impressive. How did you manage to enchant all of them? And for so long?”

“I have no idea.” I shook my head. “I was upset. And then it just happened. The spell just exploded out of me.”

“Exploded out of you? Just like the avalanche you made this morning.” Kato’s hand made an absentminded move for the magical disc attached to his shoulder armor.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine now. I won’t bury the Many Realms Court in snow.”

“An avalanche might have been preferable,” he said quietly. “The Court is more likely to forgive being buried in snow than they will excuse having their freewill ripped away from them.”

I nibbled on my lip. “Well, I didn’t actually mean to do it. I just got so mad. And then it happened.”

“So emotions are a trigger for your magic.”

“I guess so.”

His frown deepened.

I forced a smile. “At least no one saw me perform the spell. They were too busy ignoring me. Wait, you don’t think they think you did it, do you?” My smile faded.

Across the room, the General met Kato’s eyes and gave him a slight nod, which appeared to be the Iron Wolf’s way of telling him to get his butt over there ASAP.

“Don’t worry about me, Seven. I can deal with them. I’m more worried about you. You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I’m fine. You’d better go before that angry, twitching vein in the General’s neck bursts.”

Kato turned to me, setting his hands on my shoulders. “Are you sure?”

“Go. Now that no one is ignoring us, Gaia finally has a chance to make allies. I’ll be fine here. I’m sure I can manage not to collapse until you return.” I leaned my back against the wall for support. “See? I look so suave, no one will even know I nearly fainted.”

Kato didn’t look like he bought my confident smile, but the General wasn’t giving him any choice. His subtle nod had quickly escalated into a crisp, agitated flick of his finger.

I watched the General. “I wonder how long you’d have to stand here before he starts jumping up and down like a chicken.”

“Let’s not find out.” Kato took a step away from me, then he whipped back around. “Promise me you will stay here until you can walk without running into the walls.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.” I set my hand over my chest.

“I’m serious, Seven.”

I winked at him. He rolled his eyes, then strode off toward the General like a Knight marching to war. Meanwhile, I continued to lean against the wall, hoping I wasn’t leaving a sweat stain on it. This room was really hot.

An elegant woman in a gold dress stopped in front of me.

I remembered watching her from the balcony above.

From a distance, her gold dress had stood out in the crowd.

Up close, it was almost blinding. And her skin was so perfect, so smooth that I was tempted to reach out and squeeze her cheeks to see if it was real.

I checked the urge. I’d already caused enough trouble as it was.

Her dark gaze drank me in. “You are Savannah Winters, the girl who saved the Spirit Trees.”

“That’s me.” I went for a casual shrug, but I only kind of pulled it off. It was really hard to shrug when you needed to lean against the wall so you didn’t face-plant on the floor. “And you are?”

“I am Seriana, Queen of Vampires.” The title rolled off her tongue like oil over water.

I stared at her with strange and terrified fascination.

“You are a Polymage,” she said.

I opened my mouth to protest, but Queen Seriana cut me off. “Don’t try to deny it. Your outbursts of magic are all over the news. And I saw what you did just now, bewitching everyone here.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I played it safe and said nothing at all. Strangely enough, Queen Seriana didn’t look mad; she actually seemed intrigued. She looked at me like she was memorizing every curve of my face, counting every hair on my head, measuring every nail on my fingers.

I tucked my hands behind me. The last thing I wanted was for this elegant, regal vampire to know that I sometimes bit my fingernails.

Though, come to think of it, she couldn’t exactly judge me for biting my fingernails when vampires had the much nastier habit of biting people. Or was that just a myth?

“I haven’t seen you around here before,” Queen Seriana said.

I counted the fat rubies on her tiara and found over twenty of them. That crown must have weighed a ton. How had her neck not snapped under the weight of it?

“I’m new.”

“I can see that.” She laughed behind her hand. “Only someone who knows nothing of our ways would attempt a stunt like that.”

“Well, it worked.” I indicated all the people lining up to speak to Kato and the General.

Her lips were pinched. “Yes. So it appears.”

“I’m curious, Queen Seriana, what exactly is bothering you?

The fact that the Knights of Gaia have enough magic to pull off such an impossible ‘stunt’?

Or that you made the mistake of ignoring the most powerful people in all the Many Realms, and now you need to compete with everyone else for our favor? ”

“Don’t fool yourself, child. The Knights of Gaia are not half as powerful as you think you are.” She hit me with a dark granite glare.

I countered with an easy smile. “And yet we’re still at least twice as powerful as you.”

She bristled. “Do you always speak your mind so freely?”

I shrugged. “Pretty much.”

The Vampire Queen stared at me for a long while, like she believed if she stared hard and long enough, I would burst into flames. I folded my arms over my chest and met her stare, never letting my smile fade.

Finally, Queen Seriana blinked. And then she laughed.

I hadn’t expected that at all.

“You’re very brave, young Apprentice. I’ll give you that.

And while I’m at it, let me give you something else: a piece of advice.

Shocking displays of magic won’t be enough to secure your realm’s place in the Many Realms. That will take patience, perseverance, and proof of your worth—proof that goes beyond a few flashy magic tricks. ”

“I’ll be sure to remember that,” I said with a tight smile.

“You do that,” she told me. “It might just save your life.”

Then Queen Seriana swooshed around and joined the line of leaders waiting to speak to the Gaian delegation. Standing tall and confident between the President and the General, Kato watched the Queen for a few steps, then his gaze shifted to me.

His brows lifted, as if to say, Can’t you stay out of trouble for even five minutes?

He was right. I was really bad at talking to queens.

Maybe Kato could loan me a book on royal etiquette when we were done for the day.

Until then, I should probably stay far away from them.

The room had stopped spinning. Mostly. I was probably good to walk.

In fact, I had to hightail out of here before Ainsley came looking for me. My half hour was long over.

Two vampires joined Queen Seriana in the line. They both had her eyes. They had to be her children.

The taller of the two was a youthful man dressed in a princely suit, crimson in color.

The other vampire was a girl about my age, with bouncy blonde hair and a shimmery layer of pink lip gloss. Her party dress wasn’t crimson like her companion’s; it was bright yellow and glittery, like someone had woven it from a ray of sunshine.

“It’s ludicrous to wait in line to speak to humans .”

Queen Seriana gave her son a frosty look. “They have earned the right to plead their case to join the Court, Wyxl.”

“The Court is far too easily impressed.”

“It was certainly impressive.” The Princess stole a not-so-furtive glance at me.

I pretended not to notice.

“Did you see the way she made everyone in the room stop? I have never seen anyone do anything like it.”

So Queen Seriana wasn’t the only one who’d noticed I was behind the spell that had bewitched everyone. Fantastic.

“You are far too easily impressed too. It’s thinking like that which makes me glad you will never be queen, little princess.”

“I’m not a ‘little princess’ to you, dimwit. I’m your sister. So stop calling me stupid little impersonal nicknames, thinking it makes you sound so scary and cool.” She stuck her pretty painted finger in his really pale face. “Because you aren’t scary or cool, Wyxl.”

The line started moving again, carrying them along.

My head wasn’t spinning so much anymore. Carefully, slowly, I pushed off from the wall, but Prince Fenris swooped in and cut me off before I could make my retreat from the ballroom.

“Savannah Winters,” he said silkily.

“Prince Fenris,” I replied, just as silkily.

His mouth twisted into a cold smile. “You were there yesterday, at the Spirit Tree.”

“Yes,” I said. “And you’re welcome, by the way.”

His blond eyebrows squeezed together.

“For saving the Many Realms,” I explained, smiling.

“Oh, no. You don’t get to claim credit for that. The Spirit Trees were only in danger because of terrorists from your realm.” He took a step toward me, his tall body looming over me, eclipsing me entirely.

I folded my arms over my chest, trying to keep my voice steady. “Ok, so if you aren’t here to thank me, then why did you walk over to me?”

“To warn you.”

Fenris was seriously terrifying. It was a good thing my arms were squeezed to my chest. That’s the only reason my hands didn’t shake.

“I know what you are,” he told me.

I stared back at him, defiant. “And what is that?”

He leaned down and whispered into my ear, “You’re a Polymage .” The word was a threat on his lips. “And Polymages are nothing but trouble.”

Then he pivoted around and strode off to speak to Queen Seriana.

I fell back against the wall. I was still trying to calm my racing pulse when Kato came up to me. “What did Fenris want?”

I blinked. “Kato? What are you doing here? I thought the General wanted you by his side.”

“The General saw you with Fenris and sent me over to talk to you. He thinks you two are conspiring together to get on his nerves.”

I choked out a laugh.

“Yes, the General is paranoid.” Kato leaned against the wall next to me. “It looked like Fenris was threatening you.”

“Oh, he was definitely threatening me,” I said with a shaky laugh. “I’m just not sure what, where, why, or how.”

“Watch your back, in any case. Vampires are devious.”

A terrified scream cut through the room. Every conversation died a sudden death. Everyone turned and stared.

“No!” The second scream was louder, the voice deeper. It came from Fenris. He had the tip of a knife pressed to his own throat.

“Stop this vile witchcraft!” Queen Seriana hissed. She, too, held a knife to her throat.

“What the…” Kato pushed off the wall, moving toward them.

“Stop!” Seriana warned him—warned anyone who tried to approach her and her son. She pressed the knife closer, drawing blood. “I can’t control this.”

Everyone stood very still.

“Who is doing this?” Duchess Dellondré snapped her fingers. A slew of guards in scarlet uniforms flocked to her. “Find them and stop them!”

“It’s too late,” Fenris told her as he moved the knife lower. Then he stabbed himself in the chest.

Duchess Dellondré’s screams mixed with Seriana’s as the Vampire Queen plunged the knife into her chest. She fell onto Fenris’s body.

I looked at Kato. “Are they…” I couldn’t finish that sentence.

Lord Daykan knelt beside the two fallen vampires. The members of the Court watched him.

“And? Daykan?”

“Are they?”

Lord Daykan rose slowly out of his knees. “Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris are dead.”

“But how? How did this happen?”

“I know how.” Duchess Dellondré thrust a pale, skinny finger in my direction. “She bewitched them. She killed my Fenris!”