Queen of Blood and Vengeance (Secrets of the Faerie Crown #4)

57. Veyka

57

VEYKA

Fully healed, fully dressed, and fully ready to draw blood. Just another morning.

Arran walked at my side, the tension of barely contained violence wafting off of him like it had an actual scent. Not an hour before, he’d had me on my back, moaning loud enough to wake the entire terrestrial army camp. But his edges were just as sharp as they had been upon waking. If I was lucky, he’d point them at our new allies.

As much as I hated Evander and mistrusted Agravayn and Gaheris, the picture of the battle had become clear as reports came in over our evening meal. We had not defeated the succubus on our own. Pale blue bodies littered the western half of the Crossing. There were dozens of reports of fire being wielded against the succubus. The elementals and the water fae had fought with us.

Water fae? Ancestors, I thought I’d dreamed it. But as we approached the midpoint of the Crossing, halfway between our camp and theirs, reality insisted on smacking me right in the face.

Agravayn and Gaheris stood side by side, the former still in warrior’s armor. Where was their third brother, Gareth? The laughing one who’d looked so much like Gawayn that my stomach flipped just at the memory.

Sleep appeared to have done nothing to improve Evander’s mood nor his opinion of me. He wore his shortsword and a dagger, tucked into his belt. The dagger shimmered with swirled amorite. They understood how to fight the succubus.

At his side stood Mya, looking every inch the queen she purported to be. She’d dressed in shades of aqua and silver that complimented her pale blue skin as well as the delicate sea glass crown she wore perched atop her dark hair.

As we approached, she jabbed her husband in the side with her elbow. I was inclined to like her.

I leaned into Arran as we walked, hoping the casual contact would dull the need that hummed constantly along our mating bond.

“In another decade, we would have been here anyway,” I said casually. He did not respond, too focused on the group ahead. “The Summit?”

“Is that how you would have preferred to meet Morgause?”

“Someone in that court would have killed her by then, I guarantee it.” I flashed a grin. His jaw ticked almost imperceptibly. My smiled widened. “Possibly her own son,” I added, glancing over my shoulder.

Mordred walked with Lyrena a few yards behind us. It must be horrible for her, having to decide between staying at my shoulder or keeping within arm’s reach of Morgause’s son. But as the newest Knight of the Round Table, we couldn’t very well leave him behind.

As we took the final few steps, a tall water-fae female stepped up to Mya’s other side. I recognized her for a warrior instantly, and it had nothing to do with the massive trident she carried. Where Mya’s face was soft, her posture easy and open, the new female was rigid and firm as the weapon she held. And the only part of her that moved were her eyes, scanning each of us up and down like the threats that we were.

The void tugged at my consciousness while my fingers drifted to my waist. The urge to test myself against her in combat was as potent as any physical hunger. Except for the hunger for chocolate croissants. Still no sight of one of those. Mysterious water fae? Sure. Delicious, flaky golden pastry filled with chocolate? None.

I muffled my sigh and slid on the bored, slightly sarcastic mask that was becoming less and less comfortable to wear. It turned out that hiding my feelings had always been easy because I had not let myself fully feel them. Fall in love, make friends, decide to care about my kingdom… and all of the sudden, that mask did not fit quite so well.

Arran stopped three yards short of the other party. Plenty of room for bloodshed. One of the many things I loved about him.

Mya stepped into the breach immediately. “Good tides. This is not my land to offer welcome, so instead I offer my thanks for your willingness to speak with us.”

Arran said nothing. I supposed the politicking fell to me, then. I didn’t match her step forward, but I made my hands fall away from where they’d lingered not-so-accidentally near my weapons. “Thank you for fighting with us yesterday. Our losses would have been much more severe without your help, Your Majesty.”

The blue-skinned queen nodded gracefully. It was easy to imagine how she’d move in the water. “We do not use honorifics. My position is not hereditary. I was elected to the queenship. Queen Mya, or just Mya, will do fine.”

“Elected? You water-fae really are a breed apart,” Lyrena quipped from my shoulder. Apparently with so many potential enemies, she needed to be close.

“Aquarians,” Evander corrected, glaring at his former fellow Goldstone. “She is the Queen of the Aquarian Fae.”

Ancestors, he was still fucking irritating. But the intensity in his eyes was aimed squarely at Mya. It seemed he made a better consort than Goldstone Guard.

“And how did an entire race hide for so long that we—who can live a thousand years—forgot your existence?” I addressed my question to Mya. If I talked to Evander any more than absolutely necessary, I was likely to fling a dagger at him.

“By doing precisely that. Hiding.” Mya still stood in the space between us. Evander drifted to her side as she spoke, but Agravayn and Gaheris did not, setting themselves apart. Interesting.

“Our numbers were depleted dangerously after battling the succubus in the Great War. Fearing extinction, our ancestors retreated into the depths of the Split Sea and forbade any water-dwelling creature from breaching the surface.”

They already know about the Great War and the succubus’ role in it. Perhaps they had never forgotten, like we had. Arran’s hand brushed against mine, a silent offer of comfort. I resisted the urge to curl my fingers around his. We could communicate with our minds. There was no need to show these newcomers any softness.

I was still unconvinced that Gaheris and Agravayn did not nurture some other nefarious purpose.

“Much can be forgotten in seven thousand years,” Mya said.

That truth fucking burned.

Do you think she speaks true? Arran’s beast growled into my mind. I recognized the timber of it. The low threat of a stalking predator.

Her skin is blue and yesterday she had a tail. I’m not sure how much she could be making up.

The Faeries of the Fen hadn’t existed to me a few months ago, either. What was another mythical being? Elemental, terrestrial and Aquarian fae? It was not the most fantastical thing that had happened in the last year by anyone’s measure.

Arran was trying to mask his feelings, but though the Brutal Prince’s facade remained staunchly in place, he could not hide his mind from me. Skepticism mingled with desperation and quickly fading hope.

“What do you know of the Ethereal Queen?” Arran demanded, wasting no time on pleasantries.

Mya dipped her chin. “I am the Ethereal Queen.”

“Prove it,” Arran said, brows rising. He threw out a hand in the direction of the lone male off of our right flank, two steps behind—Mordred. “Who is he?”

We had not bothered to introduce anyone else in our party. And though the resemblance between them was there, it was not obvious.

Evander sucked in a breath, a protest on his dangerously sharp tongue. But Mya reached for his arm, leashing him with a single soft touch. Impressive. I’d never quite managed to bring Evander to heel.

Arran’s feelings blurred with my own. He wanted her to fail. Because if Mya was the Ethereal Queen, there was no more reason to delay the sacrifice that would bar the succubus from Annwyn forever. Oh, Arran.

But the Aquarian queen had no reason to lie to us. No one would claim a power whose inevitable conclusion was death. But even depleted, Arran’s hope was a constant white flame, burning the same color as my hair and his beast. I was suddenly glad I hadn’t gorged myself on croissants. They would no doubt be trying to make a reappearance now.

Mya approached Mordred but did not reach for him. “May I touch you?”

His face was an eerie mirror of Arran’s, his jaw ticking in an identical motion that could only be inherited. But he was not as good at masking his emotions. Terrestrials valued truth. Strength. They were not schooled to dissemble the way elementals were. Trepidation took up residence in the crinkle of his brow, discomfort in the pucker of his lips.

But he nodded.

The Aquarian queen lifted her hand to cup his face. I watched for some outward sign of her magic. Twice blessed, the realm of shift and mist, when comes the awaited queen who shall possess ethereal might. With a touch, she will feel the heartbeat of her subjects and she will unlock the secrets they guard within . But all I saw was the contrast of her pale blue fingertips against the deepened bronze of his cheek.

Mya spoke softly. “Assured in his prowess as a warrior; perhaps a bit cocky. Determined to prove his loyalty. He fears that he will not be able to escape the reputation of his mother. Your son.” She dropped her hand as she turned back to look at Arran, eyes searching. Then they came to me. “But not yours.”

I stifled my sharp inhale. Clever, brilliant mate of mine. By challenging Mya to use her ethereal powers on Mordred, he’d verified two vital truths at once—Mordred’s loyalty and Evander’s veracity.

But those realizations dimmed in comparison to the other. Mya was the Ethereal Queen.

A light inside of me flickered out.

Arran’s son shook his head, dislodging Mya’s hand. “Mordred. My mother is Morgause, of the Terrestrial Dyad in Cayltay.”

A flash of a golden cape, and he no longer stood alone.

“Lyrena Lancelot. Goldstone Guard and Knight of the Round Table. Try that trick on my queen and I’ll cut your hand off.” She punctuated her threat with a wink. Oh, Lyrena.

The Aquarian warrior was at Mya’s side in a flash. “Try it, and I’ll show you what real water power feels like,”

Fire flared to life at Lyrena’s fingertips.

“General Ache,” Mya said, giving Mordred space and coming back to address me and Arran. “Commands my small army.”

Arran’s onyx eyes narrowed. “How small?”

“About a third the size of your terrestrial forces, if my scouts were correct in their estimations based on what they observed yesterday,” General Ache said with a bite that immediately had Arran’s beast growling. Thank the Ancestors I was the only one who could hear him.

A sarcastic remark played across my mind, but if Arran heard it he showed no sign. He only nodded, then looked over Mya’s shoulder to Agravayn and Gaheris. “And your force of elementals?”

“A quarter of that,” Agravayn said.

Arran nodded again. “More troops are coming from north of the Spine. The commanding general of the elemental army is rounding up what remains after the siege of Baylaur, and Guinevere seeks to build a human coalition.”

We do not know if we can trust them , I hissed at the feral beast. But the wolf was already off and running in the opposite direction.

“Even with these reinforcements coming, it would only take a horde twice the size of what we faced yesterday to destroy us. I cannot overstate the importance of your forces joining with ours. The need could not be any direr than it is in this moment,” Arran said, dividing his attention between Agravayn and General Ache, commander to commander.

“Ancestors,” I breathed, realization slamming into me.

Even at a whisper, all eyes swung to me.

“She is the Siege Perilous,”

Arran tensed beside me. I knew Lyrena and Mordred would understand. The latter had just fought for his position at the Round Table based on that same prophecy. But our new allies stared at me openly.

“Another prophecy, this one made by Merlin, the priestess in my court. It speaks of the Round Table, gifted to me by Guinevere, and the Knights who will sit around it,” I explained, hating that I remembered it so well. “ The last is the Siege Perilous. It is death to all but the one for which it is made—the best of them all—the one who shall come at the moment of direst need. ”

I exhaled, letting the words of the prophecy settle. “It cannot be a coincidence that Queen Mya and the Aquarian Fae have appeared now, after seven thousand years in hiding, at what can only be described as the moment of direst need—driving the succubus from Annwyn.”

“She is a queen in her own right, not a knight to be seated at your table,” Evander snarled.

“So literal, Evander. I’d think you’d been spending time with terrestrials,” I bit back.

The insult landed, sending the male a step in my direction. Arran swung his battle axe, the growl that had been just for me spilling out. Evander, wisely, stepped back.

My emotions churned too fast for me to smile genuinely, but I flashed my wicked smile just the same. “We’ll call it an honorary knighthood, then.”

“I accept,” Mya said readily, her smile softer and infinitely more genuine.

The growl in Arran’s throat turned inward.

So we believe in prophecies now, do we? he growled.

When your life hangs on one, you’re entitled to whatever opinion you like, changeable as it might be, I snapped back.

Mya glanced between us, sapphire eyes sparkling. The prophecy said she must touch in order to access thoughts and intentions, but there was a knowing in her eyes that told me she’d at least guessed at me and Arran’s private conversation.

“Evander, you did not tell me how entertaining your queen is,” she said around a smile.

“ You are my queen,” her husband said through gritted teeth.

“General Ache has agreed to lead the Aquarian forces. She will work with you, Your Majesty,” she nodded to Arran. “But not under you.”

Arran did not quibble; I did not expect him to. His goal had always been to assemble an army big enough to defeat the succubus without having to fulfil the void and ethereal prophecy.

“And what of us?” Agravayn interrupted.

Apparently the reprieve from dealing with traitors was over.

“Your brother betrayed his sacred sworn duty and facilitated the deaths of hundreds of elemental courtiers—including my own friends. Unless you can prove your loyalty, you shall meet the same end as he did.” I did not mention that Arran’s beast had ripped off Gawayn’s head with his jaws. If they did not know, letting them imagine was even better. “Where is your baby brother?” I’d seen no sign of Gareth.

Gaheris dropped his gaze. Agravayn held it.

“Dead, Your Majesty,” the latter answered.

I did not need ethereal magic to detect the pain that limned his words.

“Queen Mya can vouch for our good intentions. She has put her hands on us more than once to assure we mean the Aquarians no harm.” Gaheris paused, but I did not fill the space. “Our only desire is to protect Annwyn. We will fight the succubus until the prophecy is fulfilled and they are banished forever.”

They knew about the prophecy—and what would be required of me and Mya in order to fulfill it. They’d bow to me as their queen, knowing I would not be alive for long. If it meant the succubus were gone, it would be worth it.

“You will subordinate your forces to Arran, as Elora will be expected to when she rejoins us.” I hoped that was not just lip service. “We are not the elemental and terrestrial armies any longer. We are one.” I lifted my finger to tap the swirling black tattoo on my cheek. “And we will fight as one.”

I held each of their eyes. Gaheris, Agravayn. Then Evander, Mya, and General Ache. I did not possess Mya’s ethereal gift. I could not see their intentions or guarantee their loyalty. I’d been betrayed by those close to me again and again. But choices were deserting me one by one. If creating an alliance would save my kingdom, I’d do it.

And then my pocket started to glow.