Wooing the Witch Queen (Queens of Villainy #1)

Chapter 5

5

Felix halted with one hand in midair, still reaching for the handle of the library door.

“ Whoever finds and captures him—or kills him…” The words, spoken in Imperial Serafin, had sounded all too clearly through the door.

Had he really imagined, only yesterday, that he could throw himself upon Queen Saskia’s mercy? Silently, he sent up a prayer of thanks to all the gods and goddesses of the Imperial pantheon—Estarion’s own Elva in particular—for last night’s misunderstanding and the disguise that had come with it.

Felix had found the silver moon-mask, as promised, lying on the floor outside his bedchamber that morning beside a hot breakfast. Now, the cool silver covered his face with an enigmatic—and entirely deceptive—smile carved into its expression. When he’d looked into the mirror in his room after tying the mask’s black satin ribbons into place, only his eyes had been left unhidden—and even those had looked oddly unfamiliar through those small, shadowy holes in the mask.

With the hood of his cloak pulled up over his dark hair, he looked every bit the mysterious and powerful dark wizard he was meant to be.

That sight had buoyed his confidence enough that he didn’t falter when a squawking crow arrived next, tapping noisily at his door, to lead him insistently out through the maze of the castle. Felix hadn’t even lost his nerve when they arrived at this carpeted and gaslit antechamber to find two massive creatures already engaged in battle, their cruel eagle beaks clashing furiously, their muscular leonine bodies locked in combat, and the force of their massive wingbeats sending furious gusts of air that tipped small tables and crockery in all directions.

Until now, Felix had only ever read about the flocks of dangerous gryphons who still lingered in some wild, forsaken corners of the continent. His eyes had widened behind the mask when he’d glimpsed the gleaming leather sidesaddles on this pair.

Fortunately, the furious cawing of his guide crow had made both beasts rear back obediently and then fall into reluctant-looking bows, their gold-furred forelimbs propped on the patterned carpet as they cleared his way.

With their hot breath still panting against his cloak and that fragment of overheard conversation in his ears, Felix squared his shoulders and turned the handle of the library door. With all the arrogance of any dangerous dark wizard, he stalked into a large, circular, and astonishingly cluttered room with a high, rounded ceiling… and found himself facing three figures far more dangerous than any snarling beasts.

“Your Majesties.” It took all his years of courtly training to move smoothly forward into a bow instead of jerking backwards in recognition. “I beg your pardon for interrupting all of you. One of Her Majesty Queen Saskia’s crow-guides summoned me here to begin my work.”

“And who is this intriguing creature?” purred the predator on his left.

Queen Lorelei of Balravia was universally agreed to be the greatest beauty on the continent. Popular songs about her deadly allure were sung throughout the empire, while theatrical entertainments by the dozen dramatized her many scandals, and moralistic screeds circulated dire warnings about the perils of such dazzling female and fae glamour unchecked by mortal men’s control.

With long-lashed cornflower-blue eyes, a scandalously low-cut gown that showed off every astonishing curve of her figure, and poppy blossoms cascading from her abundant blonde curls, she looked the very image of enticement… but Felix knew only too well how much could lurk behind appearances, especially at court. The calculation in those lovely blue eyes as they rested upon him made his skin prickle with instinctive warning.

“He’s my librarian.” Queen Saskia’s voice was brusque, but Felix’s gaze still turned to her with an irrational sense of relief as she straightened in her seat, setting down her half-drunk cup of coffee with a sharp, decisive movement.

Last night, in the flickering torchlight of her entry hall, his first sight of her—fiercely beautiful, terrifying, and more intensely compelling than anyone else he’d ever met—had seemed to be tinged with the surreality of his exhaustion and the crown of bones she wore.

Today, with sunlight flooding in through the line of windows to illuminate every golden speck of dust in the air, the suppressed magical power that crackled around her figure still gave off a tingling, magnetic charge. Once his gaze had landed upon her, Felix couldn’t look away—and she didn’t need any adornments to look impressive as she swept to her feet. Her close-fitting crimson velvet gown clung to her own curves as she stepped firmly into place between him and her visitors, her pinned crown of smooth black plaits just at the level of his mouth and her warmth and energy filling the air between them. “There is a reason I keep an actual parlor to receive guests,” she added tartly. “We ought to go there and leave him to begin his work for the day.”

“You have a librarian ?” The third predator in the room raised one elegant eyebrow as she looked meaningfully around the great room. It was full of shelves that rose a full two stories high, with ladders, a narrow mezzanine, and a curving staircase that ran along the wall to aid in books’ shelving and retrieval—but still, teetering piles of books, newspapers, and manuscripts filled most of the floor, creating an ocean of confusion that almost entirely surrounded the circle of couches.

Apparently, Queen Ailana of Nornne didn’t need to exert her famously inhuman ice magic in order to chill the air.

A low growl sounded from Queen Saskia’s throat as she stood protectively before him. That sound made Felix swallow hard over an unsettling sensation that… didn’t feel like fear.

“He’s new . He hasn’t had a chance yet to sort out the mess my uncle left me.”

“But can you really trust him to look through so many dangerous old tomes without any supervision? And is it fair to expect so much of him?” Queen Lorelei batted her lashes with faux concern as she rose to her stockinged feet, waving one arm in a gesture that gracefully indicated the disastrous state of the room. “If you’d like, I would be more than happy to send one of my own librarians here to aid him in this great challenge, as a token of our friendship.”

“As would I, believe me,” Queen Ailana said dryly.

Would a sinister dark wizard allow anyone to speak so dismissively about him without erupting into a storm of magical temper? Felix glanced around the three most notorious rulers on the continent and decided: even the most powerful dark wizard couldn’t be foolish enough to think this a battle he could win.

“Absolutely not,” Queen Saskia snapped. “You two have had all the chances you’ll get to gather information from my library.” Proving yet again that, unlike Felix, she had not been forced into years of training in courtly courtesy, she shook her head in open disgust. “Enough nonsense! We can finish up our conversation about… that other matter in a different room.”

That other matter. Of course. Felix let out a long, controlled breath as the world resettled itself around him.

The ferocious Queen of Kitvaria might be standing in front of him now as if ready to defend him from the world, but if she ever discovered his true identity, that equation would be reversed. She was every bit as much a threat to him as the other two queens…

So it was clearly a sign that he hadn’t yet recovered from the exhaustion of his journey that, even with everything he knew about her, he still couldn’t stop his gaze from dropping to the curve of her velvet-enclosed waist, so close before him… and the lush, tempting area beneath it.

It was fortunate that the folds of his stolen cloak were so voluminous. Even so, Felix shifted back a careful step as he yanked his gaze upwards.

“Ah, well.” Queen Lorelei’s gaze met his over Queen Saskia’s shoulder. Surely, she couldn’t have seen where he was looking, not with his eyes partly shielded by the eyeholes of his mask—but the thoughtful way she pursed her lips stiffened his muscles in warning.

Stretching those famously plump lips into a rueful smile, she stepped closer and reached past Queen Saskia to hold out one dimpled, ungloved hand. “Perhaps we’ll have a chance to converse again one day. I’m always interested in adding interesting characters to my own court, you know.”

At that, Queen Ailana muttered something under her breath, but Felix couldn’t make it out. There was no way to ignore the expectation in that outstretched royal hand. He had to take it or offend a fae queen.

Yet, she was fae. If she had some magical scheme in mind that she could only enact with the clasp of bare skin…?

Well, then, he would have to hope that his own magical employer would sense it happening and protect him. Bowing respectfully, Felix took Queen Lorelei’s right hand in his and politely kissed the air above it.

Her fingers darted upwards to grasp his wrist with the rapidity of a striking snake. Yanking him forward, she turned his hand to study his palm with narrowed eyes and unmistakable, dangerous focus.

Gods and goddesses preserve me. His heartbeat was thundering in his ears even louder than the angry snarls of the gryphons outside as those earlier words echoed once more in his ears.

“Whoever finds and captures him—or kills him…”

At least he wasn’t wearing his archducal signet ring. That lay safely hidden in the single makeshift traveling case he’d managed to bring, along with the locket that held a miniature portrait of Emmeline and a strand of her soft brown hair. The only other possession he cared about…

Felix’s breath caught at the realization.

… Was the one adornment that no one would expect any archduke of the Serafin Empire to wear.

When he was still a very young child, his parents had made him swear never to remove the slender golden loop that pierced the upper cartilage of his left ear. Even the Count had never forced him to break that vow—but he had ruled that every single cut of Felix’s short, dark hair had to thoroughly hide that “womanish” adornment.

His portraits had been spread across the continent from the time he’d first inherited the archduchy, but not a single one had ever included that earring.

Still bowing politely over their joined right hands, Felix pulled back the hood of his cloak and carefully swept back his hair over his left ear.

Queen Lorelei’s quick intake of breath cut through the air.

He couldn’t help glancing up. At this angle, the eyeholes of his mask obscured half his vision… but her blue eyes glittered as if she’d had a revelation.

“If you’re quite finished ogling my employee?” On his right, Queen Saskia had already started for the door with a swish of crimson velvet. “As you both pointed out a moment ago, he does have work to do.”

“As do we.” Queen Ailana rose from her own seat but waited expectantly behind her companion as their hostess opened the door before them, casting the wrangling gryphons outside back into silence. “Lorelei…?”

“Of course.” With a lingering—warning?—stroke of her soft thumb across his palm, Queen Lorelei finally allowed Felix’s wrist to slip from her grasp. “I wish you fortune with your task, wizard,” she murmured as she leaned down to scoop up her boots from the carpeted floor. “Perhaps we shall meet again soon.”

“Good fortune with your own endeavors.” Felix rose with practiced fluidity from his bow to watch all three queens glide out the door to finish their joint plans of how best to hunt him down.

The moment the door fell shut behind the last of them, his legs gave out beneath him.

“ Ahh! ” He had to grasp hold of the closest claw-footed couch to drag himself over and then slump onto its cushions, letting out a shuddering breath that rocked through his limp body.

Divine Elva! He’d been in danger of death for months now, but it had never before felt quite so visceral.

Gradually, as his breathing slowed, he became aware that an ancient-looking book lay half-open beside him, its paper binding broken, three fragile-looking pages already shaken loose.

Never, in all his life, had Felix been able to ignore an open book. He scooped up the first page with fingers that still trembled slightly.

It had been printed long ago in the crabbed, old-fashioned script of a past era, which few people in the modern day remembered how to read. Fortunately, Felix had learned early to read that long-gone script as part of his much vaunted classical education.

Even so, the words written in that script seemed meaningless at first—until, as he read further with his eyebrows drawing lower and lower with every line, he realized that the syllables all fell into familiar beats. Wait. Could ancient magical spells actually use the same scansion as the poetry he’d spent years analyzing?

Lifting his head, Felix surveyed the vast room of unsorted books and manuscripts and what looked to be the forgotten paraphernalia of at least a century’s worth of readers.

Blinking, he recalled Queen Saskia’s instructions last night.

“Arrange it all into some reasonable order, set aside anything that looks particularly dangerous or useful, and catalogue the contents. Do you think you could do that?”

Felix had no idea how to maintain his disguise well enough to survive the next few months… but for this particular task, at least, his education had finally served him well.

Carefully, he tucked those delicate lost sheets back into their damaged casing and gave the book a reassuring stroke. “Don’t worry,” he murmured as he rose to his feet. “You won’t be mistreated again. None of you will.”

Already busy making notes in his head, he strode towards the ordinary, nonmagical satin bellpull that hung by the door, muscle weakness entirely forgotten.

His attempts to sort out his own life might have gone catastrophically wrong, but with a fountain pen, a supply of black ink, and blank paper—a good deal of blank paper, he amended—he might just be able to sort out this broken library of magic after all.