Tower of Tempest: A Steamy Fantasy Romance (Stolen Crowns Book 3)

Chapter 34

They darted around in a frenzy, the guards running to fight them off with their lightning. Bolts crackled in their palms, sizzling up into the air, the light keeping the shadows at bay.

I wanted to help, but I wasn’t trained well enough.

“Your Majesty,” I heard Saestra say, “we need to get inside.”

“You go,” she yelled. “I must find Arabella.”

Others were already running for the castle, but the shadows swarmed them, keeping them from getting inside to safety.

“Spirits below,” a guard said from nearby, a sword of lightning forming in her hand as she summoned her magic.

A shadow flew over the guards and lunged for me, and before I could jump away, a body slammed into mine, both of us crashing to the ground. I looked up to see my mother.

We hit the grass with a force that rattled my teeth, and I blinked to see bolts of lightning and wind rushing overhead, pushing the shadows away from us. She dragged me behind a hedge, blocking us from view of the shadows and guards.

Something sticky and wet covered my stomach. Had I been hit somehow? But when I glanced at the queen, her face so pale, her eyes fluttering, I slowly looked down between us, realizing what had happened.

The shadow that had lunged at us had somehow swiped at her, punctured her. I grabbed her arm, trying to pull her to her feet as she slumped against the green hedge.

“No,” she said forcefully.

I tried again.

“No,” she insisted.

“But we have to get inside, get you to a healer?—”

“No,” she said. “Those shadows, they’re here for you. I know it. And I won’t let them have you. I won’t let you get taken. Not again.”

“Where is the queen?” Saestra yelled. “Where is the princess?”

I opened my mouth to yell, but my mother put her finger to her lips. “We’re hidden from view. You’re safe. Don’t you dare make a sound.” She grimaced, face scrunching in pain.

“Queen Bronwen, please,” I said. “You don’t need to protect me. I’ll run away, and then you can call out for help.”

She hunched over, clutching at her stomach where her dress was shredded, slices of skin and blood seeping through. Red liquid bloomed across her dress, staining her fingers. The shadow had cut her deep, too deep. She reached for me and pulled me to her while shouts and grunts echoed on the other side of the hedge.

“Just stay with me.” She gripped my hand so tight it hurt, but I didn’t protest.

“Please,” I begged.

“No.” Her voice was hard as stone.

“Why?” I asked, helplessness rising in me. I couldn’t force her, but she needed help.

“If they can’t find you, the shadows will leave. So we will stay hidden until they go.” She gasped in pain. “It is my job to protect you. I failed to do so once, and I won’t again.”

My throat grew thick. “What are you talking about? How did you fail to protect me?”

Clouds still blocked the sun, letting the shadows roam free. A few whooshed over the hedge where we hid, and we went deathly still until they were out of sight.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you. With anyone.” Her breathing grew labored, her words coming out with ragged breaths.

I didn’t understand.

“I grew up poor, as you know,” she explained. “My parents died when I was fourteen fighting in the Shadow War. I was alone, living on the streets of Winded, nowhere to go and no skills. One day, a woman stopped in front of me while I was begging for coin on the street, cloaked and mysterious. I couldn’t even see her face. She offered me a deal: she said she could give me a crown. Literally.” She coughed again, and I winced at the harsh bark of it.

“You can tell me this story later. Once you’re feeling better,” I said.

“No, let me finish. I need you to hear this. The woman pulled this gleaming crown out from under her cloak, said if I took it, I would marry the sky king. He’d just come into power, was young, only eighteen. His parents had died during the Shadow War as well. She told me the crown would come with a cost.”

Magic always had a price.

“What cost?” I asked with a shaky voice.

“My firstborn child,” she rasped.

My blood ran cold. No. No, surely she wouldn’t have...

“I was only fifteen, had no idea what I was doing. I took the crown and put it upon my head. A zing of power shot through me. That was it. The woman disappeared, along with the crown, and I went to chase after her when the king’s guards were flying through the streets and knocked me over. The king was with them, insisted they stop and help me.” She drew in a shuddering breath, and I thought she might not finish the story, but it didn’t matter. It was already clicking into place, the entire horrible truth unfolding before me. “He brought me back to the palace, sat with me while the healers tended to me. I ended up staying for the week, and he proposed before I could leave. A peasant like me. A nobody.”

“You used magic to become queen?” I asked with a shaky voice. “Dark magic.”

The crown had to come from Sorrengard, had to be produced from ripping someone’s shadow away.

“Yes,” she said, voice full of regret. “I married the king and forgot about it, lived out my dreams. But the years passed, and I didn’t become pregnant. Not until much, much later in life.”

“When you turned fifty,” I said.

She dipped her head in acknowledgement.

The clouds parted slightly, letting a ray of sun through. Just a sliver, but that would help. Feet pounded on the ground, everyone no doubt running to that sliver for protection.

“She came a few nights after you were born,” Queen Bronwen continued. “While I was singing you that song. My song. It calmed your crying. I begged her not to take you, begged her to reveal herself. She laughed and told me if I could guess her name, I could keep you.” Tears welled in her eyes, more blood spilling through her fingers. Too much blood. “I knew the offer for what it was: a mockery. A farce. I’d never be able to guess her name. She stood there in that same cloak she had all those years before. Her hands were more wrinkled, the skin thinner, but I recognized her voice. It was that same woman who’d offered me the crown. She snapped her fingers and you disappeared from my arms. Then shadows swooped in and took both of you away before I could even scream for help.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks now, her green eyes so bright.

She coughed again, and the clouds opened farther, letting the full force of the sun through. The shadows shrieked and fled over us, the guards yelling and chasing them.

“Where is the queen?” someone yelled now that the threat was gone. “Has anyone seen the queen?”

“Here!” I yelled out, edging forward and laying the queen onto her back. She gurgled out a sickly breath. The entire front of her dress was covered in blood now, and each breath she sucked in was wet.

“No,” I said.

She raised her bloody hand to cup my cheek. “I didn’t protect you then. I didn’t keep the shadows from taking you. I didn’t tell anyone the truth for fear of the retribution against me. It’s all my fault. I owe you everything.” She swallowed thickly, her hand falling to her side with a thunk. “Even my life.” Her breathing became shallow, and she gasped for air.

The guards surrounded us in the hedge, all of them staring with wide, suspicious eyes.

“Call the healer,” Erasmus yelled, then knelt down next to us. “What happened?”

“She killed the queen,” one of the guards said.

“What?” I shot to my feet, backing away. “No! No, it was the shadow. I don’t even have a weapon.”

“We do not make unfounded accusations,” Erasmus said with a sharp edge to his voice.

But the words had already been said, planted in everyone’s minds. A few of the guards took a step toward me, hands hovering over their weapons like I was a threat.

I stumbled back as the queen took a final ragged breath, and all the light left her eyes, her body going still.

“Blood and skies,” someone whispered.

“Princess,” Erasmus started, everyone except him staring at me with accusing glares. They’d arrest me. Take me to the king. And he was already suspicious of me.

I didn’t even think, just shot out my hands. Wind rushed from them, knocking the guards back with a force, giving me just enough time to turn and escape. I fled, racing through the hedges, entering deeper into the maze and fleeing through the confusing passageways as shouts rang out behind me.

I turned corner after corner, frantic, looking for a way out, wings rustling as they flapped overhead.

“Find her,” Erasmus shouted.

I turned another corner when a pair of hands wrapped around my mouth and yanked me into darkness.