Chapter Enchanting the Fae Queen
Ailana of Nornne was famous—some might say infamous—across the continent for the ice that she manipulated with her magic and the equally cool control that she maintained over her emotions in every situation.
Unfortunately, her two closest and most trusted allies seemed determined to test that self-control in this meeting.
“What do you mean, you’re getting married?
” Queen Lorelei of Balravia gaped at Ailana with deeply aggravating shock from her perch atop one of Ailana’s favorite elegant, high-backed chairs.
Ivy leaves glistened within the curls of the fae queen’s hair as her deceptively guileless blue eyes narrowed upon her hostess.
“Darling, is this your idea of a bad joke?”
“I don’t think Ailana does tell jokes,” said Queen Saskia of Kitvaria.
The witch queen’s brows lowered as her suspicious gaze swung back to Ailana, her eyes dark against the pale skin of her face.
“Is this part of some political ruse? Will you only be pretending to be wed, to cover up some complicated spywork? That would make much more sense for you.”
Oh, really. Ailana set her teeth together with a nearly inaudible click.
It had, she reminded herself, been wise to form an alliance with the only other queens on this continent who led kingdoms of their own, independent from any overbearing husbands and from the ever-hungry Serafin Empire that had already annexed so many other nations on this continent.
The fact that both of the other Queens of Villainy possessed magic strong enough to rival Ailana’s own—and thus felt no intimidation when it came to her powers—should, theoretically, be a bonus.
Politically and practically speaking, she was glad they didn’t fear her.
Every so often, though, they did make it difficult for her to remember that.
Ailana gently lowered her teacup to the table beside her and spoke with unruffled calm.
“It is neither a joke nor a ruse. The ceremony will be private and unannounced until after its completion, but as my closest allies, I wanted to pay you the respect of alerting you ahead of time … especially as it may have implications for all of our plans.”
“Well, you certainly can’t get married without us.
” The fae queen’s pink slippers lay carelessly discarded on the carpet beside her as she perched cross-legged on her seat, blonde hair flowing in wild curls and feet scandalously bare, but she raised her eyebrows at Ailana with all the outraged haughtiness of a society grande dame witnessing a sordid scandal.
“Did you really think we wouldn’t clear our schedules to attend? ”
“There is no need for anyone to attend,” Ailana said crisply. “It isn’t that sort of arrangement, as I was about to explain.”
“So, it is a ruse.” Saskia nodded in satisfaction and picked up the first of the cardamom biscuits from her plate. “I knew it.”
Ailana drew a deep, sustaining breath. These two women weren’t only her closest allies. They were also the closest she had to real friends. The closest she had ever had …
Apart from one brief moment nearly two decades ago, at that ill-fated political summit that had changed her life forever. For years, all she’d remembered from that summit was the devastation in its wake, but lately …
Lately, other memories had been sneaking through without permission. Disconcertingly vivid memories of clear hazel eyes and a confident smile that shone with the irresistible, beaming warmth of a hearth fire in winter. “There you are, at last! I’ve been waiting for you.”
Ailana shook off that pointless, distracting flash of recollection. There had been far too many of those ever since an Imperial announcement had shaken the continent two weeks earlier.
“The Imperial high priest has been arrested on charges of vile corruption and treason to the state. While prosecutors have requested a sentence of execution for the former high priest’s crimes, Emperor Otto II has appointed a new Imperial high priestess…”
The girl Ailana had met all those years ago would never have colluded to accuse a peace-loving, honorable old man of treachery only to clear the way for Imperial expansion.
That girl had been honest and forthright to a terrifying degree.
Now, though, not one of Ailana’s hardworking spies had uncovered any evidence of the new high priestess expressing even the faintest disapproval of any of Otto’s brutal plans.
The princess Ailana had once known was clearly long gone, regardless of the unexpected messages—and aid—that Clothilde had sent Ailana four days earlier.
“This will be a true and binding marriage … of political convenience. Unlike either of you, I haven’t fallen prey to romance or any sentimental feelings.
” She smiled coolly as she poured a steaming arc of tea from an elegantly decorated white-and-blue pot into her empty cup, careful to hold her powers in check.
Nothing ever really warmed her nowadays, but that first sip of hot tea always offered some relief.
“However, if you would care to offer me a wedding gift, I would gladly accept your aid in transporting my bride here in the first place, to aid with speed and secrecy.”
“Of course,” Lorelei said impatiently. “But why would it need to be a secret if it’s a matter of political conven—?
Oh, no!” The fae queen abruptly stiffened, trading a look of deep alarm with Saskia.
“Ailana, we all know you’re a mistress of calculating risks, but this …
darling, this might be too much for even you to handle. ”
“I beg your pardon?” Ailana raised her eyebrows in an unmistakably quelling message.
Naturally, her fellow queens ignored it.
“Wait, are we talking about the Imperial high priestess?” Saskia demanded.
“Of course we are!” Lorelei groaned. “Didn’t you see the way Ailana looked when Clothilde appeared in the mirror-box the other night? ‘No romance or sentimental feelings’ my arse!” Eyes narrowed, she swung back to her hostess. “You two knew each other when you were younger, didn’t you?”
“Briefly.” Ailana bit off the word. “If you’d take a moment to listen, though, and stop jumping to conclusions—”
“Oh, no. She’s the Emperor’s sister.” Saskia—Saskia, of all people, who barely paid any attention to anything outside her own laboratory except her smitten consort!
—shook her head at Ailana as pityingly as if she were conveying brand-new, startling information, as if Ailana’s own massive, carefully built and meticulously tended spy network weren’t the source of all the crucial information that the three queens relied upon to manage the lethally shifting ice floes of politics around them. “His sister, Ailana!”
“I am aware of that.” Drawing ice through her veins, Ailana held fast to control. “But if you’ll recall—”
“Oh, we all know she helped us last week,” Lorelei said impatiently, “and I’ll be grateful for that forever, but darling, you must understand: That doesn’t mean we can trust her. For all we know, Clothilde could have done all of that as a ploy to win your confidence!”
For one instant of self-indulgence, Ailana allowed her weary eyelids to fall shut. How long had it been since she’d had a true night’s sleep? “Lorelei…”
But the fae queen barreled onwards, irrepressible as ever.
“Everyone knows that you control the most dangerous spy network on the continent. Of course Otto must know that, too—so he’ll know exactly how much trouble that could cause him when he sends his armies out to invade the rest of us!
What could possibly be better for him now than sending his own sister into your home to ferret out all of your secrets—weakening you and all the rest of us!
—just in time to aid in his long-awaited expansion? ”
“I could think of a few easier methods,” Ailana muttered as she forced her eyes open to face her allies once more.
“Could you?” Lorelei tilted her head in challenge. “Could you really? We know you, darling. You would never allow any ordinary spies close enough to you to learn anything, no matter what clever role they were playing. A wife is the only one who could ever manage it.”
“So, that is a possibility.” Saskia scowled, crossing her arms. The still-untouched cup in front of the witch queen lifted into the air and began to circle dangerously around her empty plate, conveying the force of her mounting ire …
and spilling tea with every move. “When Clothilde helped us the other night, she said you would owe her a favor, didn’t she?
So, was this it? Did she tell you that you had to marry her? ”
Lorelei’s answering gasp of outrage accompanied chains of thorns stabbing upwards through the floor of Ailana’s parlor, ripping holes in the cool blue carpet and piling in furious tangles around the fae queen’s seat. “If she thinks she can force any of the Queens of Villainy—!”
“Enough.” Metaphorical ice crackled through Ailana’s tone, but it was physical ice that shot across the floor as she rose to her feet, freezing every drink in its delicate cup, wilting Lorelei’s vines, and turning the three queens’ breaths into visible clouds as the air chilled around them with an audible snap.
“No one is forcing me into anything, now or ever again. She has not called in the favor yet; she’s only offered me a proposal, one that I chose to accept with a full understanding of all the potential nuances involved.
“Clothilde may well be lying when she claims to secretly oppose her brother’s aims, but I, of all people”—dangerous memories crashed in the distance, but her ice held them safely at bay—“know better than to ever allow myself to be deceived by any member of that family again. We will be wed in name only; I can assure you that no feelings will be involved, now or ever. If she’s telling the truth, we will have gained a strong advantage in the war to come. But if she isn’t?”
Ice silvered Ailana’s vision as she looked at the only two allies she completely trusted.
It was the same ice she had used to such terrible effect the last time her family’s trust in an alliance had been unforgivably betrayed …
the ice that had run in her veins ever since.
“I know very well how to deal with my nation’s enemies. ”
Saskia didn’t answer; she only frowned more ominously than ever, without even hunching her shoulders against the cold.
With a flick of her small, fair-skinned fingers, Lorelei created a bubble of summer warmth around herself.
“Very well.” She met Ailana’s gaze steadily, but with unmistakable warning.
“We won’t argue anymore if you’ve really made up your mind, but we will both come with you when you retrieve your new bride.
She needs to know exactly what she’s in for. ”