Crucible and the Crown (Misfits of Magic Book 3)

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

“All hail Queen Jacqueline of the Winter Kingdom, and her consort, King Micah!”

As the attendant made the announcement, Jackie and Micah took their seats on the throne, the jeweled crowns on their heads sparkling under the lights. The massive crowd that had assembled in the ballroom applauded and cheered. Admittedly, the coronation ceremony had been a little rushed, but no one cared that it hadn’t followed all of the traditional fanfare.

Everyone in the Winter Kingdom wanted to catch a glimpse of the new reigning monarchs since word had already spread about the new powerful queen and king.

With the amount of people who had shown up to the coronation ceremony, they’d had to improvise to accommodate everyone. Overflow had spilled out onto the sprawling front lawn of the palace, and large screens had been set up inside heated tents for the crowd outside to watch the proceedings.

That had all been thanks to Devon and her tech magic.

It had been two days since they had returned from the Realm of Illusions, and it felt like Jackie and Micah hadn’t really had a chance to breathe since they had gotten back. When they had arrived at the Winter Palace, it had been in the midst of pure chaos. However, they had been ready for what waited for them due to Kami’s warning.

Explaining the entire situation to Kami had taken a while, but they’d had the time while they had waited for Jackie to wake up. Despite the shock of it all, Kami had taken the explanation of who the Goddess of Illusions was and how she was related to her far better than anyone had expected. She had always suspected something had been wrong with the queen and finding out that she’d really been a power-hungry goddess had made sense.

At least that had clarified why Jackie and Crispin had very different memories of their mother when they had been younger.

While Kami claimed to be fine, Jackie was still really worried about her. So was Micah, although he thought they should leave her alone and give her space until she was ready to talk to them about it. That was something she didn’t seem to be willing to do just yet, and no one could blame her for that.

It was difficult for Jackie since she hated to see her siblings in pain, but there wasn’t anything she could do to fix things for them. Their family as a whole was going to need time to heal from the damage the goddess had done to them.

As they had expected, Crispin had witnessed something in the past that had made him suspect the queen was not who she said she was. Not only had the goddess used magic on him so he couldn’t talk to his sisters about it, she had also used a spell that had made him want to avoid being at the palace altogether.

After they had brought the queen’s coffin to the palace, they had immediately placed her next to her mate, who was also in a magical coma. Their bond had been disrupted by whatever the goddess had done to Bianca, but she had also been using magic on Nick to make him believe her illusions. Even though they were free of her influence now, it would take time to figure out exactly how to heal them.

While Jackie and Micah both had excellent healing abilities now, the damage the goddess had done to them wasn’t something either of them had any experience with. If they tried to fix the damage without understanding exactly what was wrong, they worried they could end up doing more harm than good.

Because of that, Crispin had taken over their care. He planned to invite some of the talented healers he knew to consult on the case. Until then, no one knew for sure if Nick and Bianca Frost would ever fully recover.

Since the Winter Kingdom needed a ruler to stabilize the magical ley lines, Jackie and Micah had immediately prepared to take the throne. While the palace staff had gone into a frenzy planning the expedited coronation ceremony, Jackie and Micah had visited the ice cavern where the ley lines intersected underneath the palace.

The ice sculpture relic had been carved from a piece that had come directly from that cavern. Perhaps one day, they would create another sculpture, but until then, they needed a quicker solution. They hadn’t been sure the Crucible had counted since the goddess had messed with that whole process, so they figured they could see if the ley lines would directly accept them as the new rulers.

If they were rejected, Crispin would become king.

He hadn’t been pleased by the idea. Actually, he had been adamantly against it. No one had prayed for Jackie and Micah to be accepted as the kingdom’s new rulers more than Crispin, but she had been confident her brother would have done what was best for the kingdom if it had come down to it.

“Are you ready?” Micah had asked her before they had stepped inside the ice cavern.

“I am. Whether we are accepted or not does not matter to me anymore.” Jackie had been surprised just how true that statement was. “We are the best rulers for the kingdom, and if the powers that be don’t accept us, it is their loss, not ours.”

“That’s my queen.”

Luckily, there had been no reason to worry. As soon as they had spilled a few drops of their blood on the ice, the entire cavern had exploded in a brilliant display of light.

“Uh oh,” Jackie had whispered as fae magic had begun flowing into her. “More magic?”

“Is this even possible?” Micah asked as he’d watched the streams of light flowing into his own body. “Do we even have any more room inside of us?”

Apparently, they did.

The connection they had to the kingdom was different than their other magic. It was like a deep well they could use if and when they needed, but it wasn’t all stored inside of them. There was way too much for that. They had simply been given access to it, not that they really needed it at this point.

After Jackie had woken from her healing sleep, they discovered that the dark god magic Micah had used to bond with her again had fully merged with her other magic. Before, her fae abilities had remained separate from the dark angel powers Micah had given her through their bond. While she’d had access to both, she had never used his dark angel magic until the Crucible.

Now, she didn’t have to think about which one she wanted to use. All of her magic was fully integrated into one powerful source.

No one had been more pleased about their magical upgrades than Micah’s cousin. Braxton had been giddy as hell after he’d discovered what had happened to them. He loved that Micah was also a dark god now, almost as much as he enjoyed the fact that they were both royalty.

Even now, Braxton was shaking his head and chuckling as he watched them take their places on the throne. Devon tried to elbow him in the side to shut him up, but that just made him laugh harder.

“I swear, I am going to strangle him if he doesn’t stop laughing,” Micah said through their bond.

“Let him have his fun. You have to admit, this has all been a strange turn of events,” Jackie pointed out. “Who would have ever thought we would end up like this when we first met.”

Micah glanced over at her and smiled as he took her hand in his. “We were always meant to end up here. Just…maybe not with this much magic.”

That made her grin. “I fucking dare the other kingdoms to try to mess with us now.”

Laughing, he said, “That could be fun.”

When the ceremony was officially declared over, Jackie and Micah joined their friends and family for a private celebration. That included Micah’s parents, Lucifer, and a plethora of people who had come from other realms to wish them well.

“Now that the Supernatural Council has taken your corrupt cousins and uncles into custody, we should have a hearing soon,” Kingston Spencer declared.

As the mate of the Goddess of Revenge and a member of the Supernatural Council, Kingston loved making sure people paid for their bad deeds. Besides attempting a coup, they had discovered that Jackie’s cousins, Rowan and Charles, had been guilty of other serious crimes.

They had been terrorizing the citizens in their tiny little corner of the kingdom, but they hadn’t stopped there. Rowan and Charles had also used their influential magic to kidnap females from the other realms to trade and sell in an underground market.

Micah had wanted to kill them, but because their crimes had involved other realms, Jackie had agreed to hand them over to the Supernatural Council to deal with instead. More people were involved in that underground market, and they wanted to find all of them in order to shut it down completely.

“I don’t care what happens to them now,” Jackie said honestly. “Unless they somehow are freed. Then, we will deal with them.”

Autumn, the Goddess of Revenge, let out a wicked chuckle as she leaned against her mate. “I’d love to help you with that.”

“Vicious females are my favorite,” Kingston murmured as he pressed his lips against Autumn’s forehead.

Micah laughed as he pulled Jackie closer. “I guess we have that in common.”

“Enough of that lovey-dovey shit,” Keo, the Original God of Fate, declared as he stomped over. “What are we going to do about the reapers? We can’t just leave them where they are.”

“Until we figure out how to wake them, what choice do we have?” Micah sighed. “Jackie and I are still sorting out all of the knowledge we’ve gotten from the Goddess of Illusions and Merlin. Once we find something that we can use, we will let everyone know.”

“That works for me,” Lucifer said, slapping Micah on the shoulder.

A week ago, that blow would have knocked him on his ass. But now that he was a dark god, Micah found that he could hold his own against other powerful gods. That meant no more being strung up in Lucifer’s throne room.

Lucifer grinned as if the devil knew what Micah was thinking. “You still have a lot to learn, young one.”

Micah chuckled. “Remember, Merlin was a lot older than you, Uncle Luc. Now, I have all his magic, memories, and knowledge.”

“Want to test it out?”

“Enough, Dad,” Braxton groaned. “Leave the new king and queen alone. They are still recovering from their ordeal.”

Lucifer sighed. “I guess I can wait.”

“On that note, you guys enjoy yourselves. My queen and I are leaving.”

Before anyone could protest, Micah teleported Jackie to their bedroom. The lights in the room were off, but the starlight shone through the wall of windows.

“Alone at last.”

Jackie laughed as he pulled her into his arms. “We just left our own party.”

“They won’t miss us.” Resting his forehead against hers, he sighed. “I feel like it’s been days since we’ve been alone.”

“It has.” Reaching up, she cupped his face. “So much has changed in the last few days, but one thing has remained constant. I love you, Micah.”

“And I love you, mate. My queen. My goddess.”

Wrapped in shadows under the starlight, he pressed his lips to hers in a kiss filled with all the passion and love he felt for her.

Together, they were fire and ice.

Light and dark.

They were a mixture of magic that suited them far better than any single source ever could. What they had together was a bond that could never be broken, and they had proven that theirs was a love that could not be deceived by illusions or deceit.

They were true partners, in life and in love, and they would remain that way…always and forever.