Wooing the Witch Queen (Queens of Villainy #1)

Chapter 19

19

Everything was roiling, whirling darkness—no words, no air, no hope left in the pitch-black sea of feathers that had sucked Saskia down and held her there, drowning—until a faint, golden glow appeared high overhead.

Saskia surged upwards, too desperate even to care what it might be. Something warm and strong caught hold of her fingers and pulled —and as feathers began to clear above her, she finally realized exactly where that golden glow had originated.

Divine Elva grinned down at Saskia as She effortlessly pulled her up, on top of the shifting sea of feathers beneath an endless, starry sky. “F ANCY SEEING YOU HERE , Y OUR M AJESTY .” The goddess’s shifting form—young/old, small/large—fluctuated with every instant around the shape-memory of Her priestess’s face and figure, and it glowed in the darkness like a star, making Saskia’s eyes sting.

She refused to rub them or look away. Her heartbeat was a desperate thrum against her chest as she sat perched atop her shifting, impossible seat, braced for the feathers to part once more beneath her and suck her back down to drown at any moment.

All around her, more black feathers stretched to the horizon, without any landmarks in sight. Her castle was nowhere to be found—and as for the people in it, left without her protection…

Her fingers clenched around black feathers. “Is this Your doing?” she demanded fiercely. “Have you kidnapped me on behalf of the Estarian Archduke?”

Divine Elva tipped back Her head and laughed, a deep, rolling sound that shook the sea of feathers beneath them. “O H, CHILD . T HERE’S VERY LITTLE THAT A GODDESS CAN ACTUALLY DO IN THIS MODERN WORLD. H AVEN’T YOU WORKED THAT OUT AFTER ALL THE TIME YOU’VE SPENT IN STUDYING M E, LATELY? ”

Curse take it, of course the goddess knew about her research. Had Saskia really imagined that anything could stay secret from an all-knowing being? Fighting down a snarl, she said, “According to my research, you’re all-powerful.”

“A ND ARE YOU ALLOWED TO USE ALL OF YOUR POWERS? ” the goddess inquired.

“There are limits, even for a queen,” Saskia said tightly. “Lines that cannot be crossed, to stay safe. But—”

“A RE THEY TRULY UNCROSSABLE ? O R DO YOU HIDE BEHIND THEM? H OW MANY TIMES DID YOU TRY TO PRAY AWAY YOUR OWN POWERS WHEN YOU WERE A GIRL?”

“That’s not the point!” Saskia was breathing hard. “I’m not a child anymore.”

“N O ?” The goddess looked at her with a face that shifted from youth to age again and again. “B UT DO YOU NOT STILL FEEL THAT CHILD’s fear? ”

Oh, she remembered those frantic, sobbing old prayers far too well. She’d aimed them at every god and goddess she could think of, with a single, desperate message every time: Just take them away. Take them back! Set me free!

Her powers had broken her family. They’d turned her into a monster whispered about and feared by everyone.

Back then, she would have given anything to be rid of them.

Now, Saskia said with all the adult calm she could muster, “My uncle used my powers as his excuse to seize the throne. He would have found another reason, though, if he hadn’t had them to seize upon.”

“V ERY WISE .” There was a maddeningly indulgent tone to the goddess’s words. “B UT DO YOU BELIEVE YOUR OWN WORDS ? T RULY ?”

“We’re not here to chat about my powers. I didn’t do any of this !” Saskia waved at the expanse of feathers and darkness around them. “Only a goddess could.”

“M M …” Divine Elva cocked Her head. “I T IS AN INTERESTING QUESTION, WHAT A GODDESS CAN OR CANNOT DO NOWADAYS. WE MAY NO LONGER ACT DIRECTLY IN THE HUMAN WORLD. WE MAY WATCH. W E MAY WHISPER A DIVINE brEATH OF PERSUASION FROM TIME TO TIME, IN AID OF THOSE CREATURES WE HOLD MOST DEAR. W E MAY, OCCASIONALLY, DEIGN TO APPEAR IN DREAMS . A ND EVERY SO OFTEN, MOST RARELY OF ALL …”

She swept out Her own golden-glowing arm in display, her smile curving wider. “W E MAY ENACT A TINY MIRACLE .”

“You mean… this?” Saskia’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked around once more at the surreal landscape. “Why waste a miracle on me?”

“O H, THIS ISN’T THE MIRACLE. N OT YET. ” Divine Elva’s gaze caught hers and held. “H AVE YOU NOT NOTICED THAT YOU’RE DYING? ”

Saskia went still, awareness crashing through her.

When she’d felt herself drowning under that impossible sea of black feathers… what had she actually been doing, before the goddess had yanked her free for this dreamlike conversation?

Goddesses could appear in dreams, Elva had said. Could They appear in other forms of unconsciousness?

Saskia had felt so unnaturally dizzy and weak in her last memories of the real world of her castle. The past and present had merged around her, the room had disappeared, and then…

I was attacked. At home, in her very safest of places, someone had found a way to pierce all of her magical defenses and bring her down without her even recognizing the assault as it happened.

But if that were true, where was she now?

The body she wore now felt as hollow as air the moment she focused upon it. How had she not realized? It was a dream-form with no substance. What was happening to her true body in the world outside?

And if an enemy had somehow reached into her castle once already, what else might they do to everyone left there?

“I have to get back!” she said. “I have to protect—”

“N OW, THAT WOULD TAKE A MIRACLE .” Smiling serenely, Divine Elva raised her eyebrows. “D O YOU WISH TO PRAY FOR ONE ?”

Saskia gritted her teeth, rage and fear uniting. “First tell me what you’ll demand if I do.” She might still be confused and hopelessly out of her depth, but she knew the goddess wouldn’t have bothered with this offer of salvation if She didn’t have another purpose in mind. Saskia had never been one of Elva’s worshippers. This was no random act of kindness… and her months as a queen had taught her to beware of hidden schemes.

Goddesses could whisper persuasion in aid of their favorites, and this goddess had visited Saskia twice now—a singular effort, if She was to be believed.

The first time, at Winter’s Turning, She had pointed a finger directly at…

“ No! ” Saskia lunged to her feet as that shared memory filled the space between them, eerily mirrored in the goddess’s shining eyes. “I will not hurt Fabian. Not for You and not for anyone else. I don’t care what he’s done to anger your precious Archduke! I will not release him from my protection. If that’s a condition of my survival, You might as well just let me die.”

She expected divine outrage or disdain. Instead, Elva’s lips stretched into what could only be termed a smirk. “A LL OF MY CREATURES ARE PRECIOUS ,” She murmured, as horns and wings and fangs joined the whirl of fluctuating characteristics in Her golden form, “ BUT YOU’RE RIGHT: E STARION’S A RCHDUKE IS INDEED DEAR TO ME. I HAVE MANY PLANS FOR HIM. ”

Saskia eyed Her warily. “I won’t allow Fabian to be harmed, no matter what the Archduke wants.”

“V ERY WELL. I ACCEPT THAT CONDITION .” Divine Elva lowered one shining eyelid in a wink. “I SHALL GRANT YOU A MIRACLE OF ONE MINUTE’S LENGTH. I SUGGEST YOU LISTEN TO ADVICE AND USE IT WELL. B UT WHEN YOU ARE FINALLY INTRODUCED TO ESTARION’S ARCHDUKE? RESTRAIN YOURSELF FROM HARMING HIM, FOR MY SAKE. I PROMISE, YOU WON’T REGRET IT. ”

Saskia was fairly certain that she would regret it if she came face-to-face with that bastard and didn’t mete out the treatment he deserved—

But as she opened her mouth to argue, she found herself abruptly surrounded by bright light and freezing cold, lying propped along one of her library couches with Fabian’s familiar, masked face just before her.

His hands were clasped beneath his black half-mask as he knelt before her, his lips moving continuously with inaudible prayers… until a fresh shiver racked Saskia’s freezing body, she let out an involuntary huff of air, and his brown eyes flashed open to meet hers.

Felix nearly fell against the couch with the force of his relief. “Your Majesty! Elva be thanked, you’re awake—”

“Elva gave me only one minute,” Saskia muttered, pushing herself up onto one elbow with what looked like intense effort.

“I beg your pardon?”

As Felix frowned at her, the door to the library burst open. “I’ve found it,” Mrs. Haglitz announced. “It was in a pot of coff—Saskia!”

“Your Majesty.” Morlokk’s thunderous strides shook the floor in Mrs. Haglitz’s wake. “Are you cured?”

“For less than one minute, now.” The queen’s face was still flushed with fever, and her shadowed dark eyes burned with ferocity. “Divine Elva gave me a deadline and told me to use it by following advice. Are any of you prepared to offer any?”

For one awestruck moment, Felix stared at her in incomprehension… and then realization clicked into place. He could have laughed with both relief and despair. So much for attempting this in private.

Everyone who held any authority in this castle was here in this room now to serve as an observer if this shattered his disguise—but no matter.

“ I am ready to advise you,” he told her firmly. “You need to cast a particular spell.” If anyone in the world could make it work, she could. No one else had a greater reservoir of magical power. “Repeat these words after me, and put all of your intent into expelling the poison from your body.”

Her dark eyebrows rose sharply as he uttered the word “poison,” but she didn’t waste any time by asking for clarification.

Her trust was humbling.

As Felix coached her through the words of the short spell, Morlokk and Mrs. Haglitz drew closer and closer around them. The fire in the hearth crackled with heat. The air crackled with magical power.

Queen Saskia spoke the final word of the spell…

And then gagged uncontrollably as the contents of her stomach erupted and overwhelmed her.

Felix lunged forward, ignoring the mess showering onto his cloak, to hold and support her shaking shoulders as the heaving waves broke through her.

“It’s all right, you’re all right, my queen, you’re going to be all right now— Saskia! ”

As the tall clock across the room chimed dolefully, Queen Saskia’s eyes abruptly rolled back in her head. She slumped in his arms, still heaving uncontrollably but no longer aware of any of it. As promised, the queen had lost consciousness once more at the end of her single minute…

And as Felix caught her for the second time that night, a faint ripple of warm air brushed over his body, making every hair on his arms stand on end… like the breath of unimaginable divinity passing over him.

Divine Elva. The goddess truly had interceded. Felix swallowed hard, wonder and gratitude nearly overwhelming him.

“Don’t you let her fall!” Mrs. Haglitz rushed up to his side, propping the queen’s still-spasming body carefully against the back of the couch. “If she chokes on any of this now, we’ll be lost.”

“We won’t let her choke,” Morlokk said grimly, taking his place behind the couch and putting one big hand on Saskia’s shoulder. “But will it be enough? If it’s been too many hours since she first ingested the poison…”

“It was slipped into some coffee she drank,” said Mrs. Haglitz. “I found a pot and cup in her laboratory, but I can tell you, they didn’t come from our kitchen, and I didn’t send them to her. There’s no way to know when they were delivered.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore.” Felix’s own body felt utterly wrung out. The smell of vomit was overwhelming, and the tip of his left ear was still throbbing from his absurd earlier injury… but relief and wonder combined to make him feel as if he were floating above it all. “She cast the spell, and it took. Even if not all of the poison physically emerges now, the spell will see to all the rest.”

He might not have the power to cast it himself, but he had learned from his time in this library. He knew how to read and interpret magical spells, and he had felt the force of this one as Saskia cast it.

“You saved her, Sinistro.” Tears shone openly in Mrs. Haglitz’s eyes as she turned and grasped one of his hands in both of her own. “Without that spell, we would have lost her. Thank you. We won’t forget this, any of us.”

“You have all of our thanks,” Morlokk said gravely.

Felix’s eyes widened as the majordomo bowed respectfully over the back of the couch. “But I didn’t. If the goddess hadn’t intervened—if Her Majesty hadn’t awoken to cast the spell herself—I couldn’t do it. ” The truth burst out, uncontrollably. “I tried to cast that spell while you were both gone. I didn’t have the power to effect it.”

Morlokk nodded. “Very few people do have Her Majesty’s level of magical power. It takes a strong man to admit to his own weakness in comparison.”

“I…”

“Enough,” said Mrs. Haglitz firmly. On the couch, Saskia had finally finished emptying her stomach; now, the housekeeper stood, wiping her hands briskly on her nightgown. “We’ve all had enough worries for the night, so you’ll accept our gratitude and be done with it. Now, I need to get our girl cleaned up and into bed, and you, Sinistro, are not required for any of that.”

“I could—”

“You’ve done quite enough already.” She gave Felix an imperative look, and he slowly and reluctantly rose to his feet. “Her fever’s already gone. You told us yourself that she’ll be fine. Go and get some rest, so you can sit by her bedside tomorrow and make certain she doesn’t overexert herself while she recovers.”

“I can do that.” Letting out a long sigh, Felix started for the door. There was no Oskar here to flutter after him; every crow was busy now on the hunt for the poisoner, no matter where they might be hiding in this ancient castle full of secrets.

His own disguise hadn’t been broken after all. Still, as he looked back at the small gathering around the couch, his deception felt more fragile—and more unforgivable—than ever before.