23. I Will Follow You Anywhere, My Queen, Even to the Very Belly of the Beast
23. I WILL FOLLOW YOU ANYWHERE, MY QUEEN, EVEN TO THE VERY BELLY OF THE BEAST
RUSH
Dusk was creeping in, and with it came a foreboding I couldn’t shake. It crouched along my shoulders without reprieve like Saffron crawled over El’s. Though the darkness consuming the forest was natural, I recognized danger in each whisper of a leaf and in every snapping twig. My fingers rarely left the cutlass’ grip for long, and then only to touch Elowyn and reassure myself of her safety.
Save Xeno, who kept watch somewhere up in a tree, the rest of us huddled near each other, crowded in a haphazard circle around the recuperating fae. Even the black dragon’s neck was craned low to be part of our group. There was a slight chill to the cooling day but we didn’t light a fire. As soon as we decided on our next move, we’d be leaving. No one suggested delay. We all seemed to sense that we were running out of time, as if the queen’s executioner hid behind tree trunks, biding his time, growing weary of the wait .
“I just can’t believe it. How’d she get away with doing this to her own sisters?” Reed was asking, but it was a rhetorical question. We all knew how the queen had secretly imprisoned all four of her siblings and taken their power for herself all these decades: the same way she did everything else. She took what she wanted, how she wanted, and dared anyone to confront her about it. Whoever did was likely to be dragged to one of her dungeons to never emerge again.
“And the Crown Princess Odelia too,” Reed continued. “Elowyn’s mother was supposed to inherit the throne. They’re all royals of Embermere. Taking them like this shouldn’t have been possible. If nothing else, why didn’t the magic of the land prevent it? Couldn’t it have done something to stop her?”
There seemed to be no end to the queen’s might, no adversary strong enough to challenge her, and that was more terrifying than whatever might lurk in the deepening shadows of the woods. The queen was the igneosaur monster parents had warned their children about perhaps since as long as the Mirror World had existed. The only way to evade the igneosaur monster was to stay tucked away safely at home after dark and to obey your parents. The queen was worse than any mythical monster, her reach far too tangible, extending into any home to destroy the family of her choosing.
I looked to Ivar to answer Reed. I still didn’t trust him, but he was more knowledgeable about the workings of the royal family than the rest of us. He sat next to Lisbeth, absently detangling her hair, a task he’d been working on for at least half an hour while we talked. Her hair was matted and filthy, a fact that didn’t impact the reverence with which he touched her.
I didn’t want to like anything about the man, but I understood him. No more than a few minutes went by without my remembering that Ramana was alive. The recollection shocked me each time, overwhelming gratitude rocking me.
Ivar wiped some of the filth from Lisbeth’s hair onto his breeches, adjusted her head on his lap, and continued carefully pulling apart the strands. “Everything I know about the queen and the royal family must now be considered suspect. If she lied to me so convincingly for so long about my sister, the very nexus of our relationship, then who knows what other lies she spun?”
Ryder said, “We don’t trust you anyway.”
Ivar shrugged. “You don’t have to believe me, but I swear on the life of my sister”—he bent to press a kiss to her forehead, so gentle it was like a caress of feathered wings; Lisbeth’s eyelids fluttered—“that I will do everything in my power to help you bring down the queen. If you so choose, you may consider me your ardent ally. Every skill and knowledge I possess, you may count on.”
“You’ll swear a blood oath?” I asked.
Ivar met my eyes. “Aye, I will.”
“Then no time to waste. Azariah, will you witness the blood oath?”
“Aye, Drake Rush,” the pegicorn said, his voice deflated still. “Anything I can do to make up for pursuing Elowyn and all of you.” With laden steps, he clopped over to us, Bertram leaping along with him, the two creatures inseparable.
El raised her head from where it leaned against my shoulder. “That wasn’t your fault, Az. We all know that. You did the best you could.”
His dark eyes glimmered with determination in the soft glow of our lumoons. “I thank you for your compassion, Lady Elowyn, but I should have found a way to do better. I should have tricked her the way she tricks us.”
“Nah, Az, you couldn’t have,” El said. “We haven’t known each other long, just long enough for me to know you don’t have a cruel bone in your body. You’re no match for the queen’s wickedness, and that’s a very good thing. You’re not to blame. Point that blame directly at her, where it belongs.”
Azariah wagged his lips back and forth along big horse teeth as if he were chewing. “I’ll try, Lady Elowyn. But I don’t know if I can. I might have gotten you killed.” He glanced around. “All of you.”
“But you didn’t,” El insisted. “You misled her long enough for us to flee. You did well.”
I thought he’d insist on his culpability some more—pegicorns were proud creatures—but his lids lowered over heavy eyes and he nodded. His following smile was sad but there, the first since we’d encountered him in the dragon dungeon deep beneath the palace.
He flicked his tail—an encouraging sign; it brushed against the ranucu’s body. “Lord Ivar, I’m ready. Speak your oath.”
Gingerly, Ivar lowered his sister’s head to the ground, rose, and ran his hands along his breeches. He straightened his shoulders. “On the life of my dear sister Lisbeth, who now rests at my feet, I do swear that I stand against Talisa Zafira Tatiana, false queen of Embermere, and that I stand with you as the force who opposes her illicit reign. Insofar as it will aid us in removing Talisa from the throne of Embermere, you may count on me as an ally.”
I frowned at his careful wording. “Swear that you will not betray any of us.”
“I swear not to betray any of you here, unless you turn out to be a traitor and are secretly in support of the false queen.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“I vow to be a true defender of Embermere and the Mirror World at large,” Ivar continued. “Whatever it takes to restore the land’s magic with a rightful ruler, if it is within my power, I will do it.” He jerked his head in my direction. “Satisfied?”
Was I satisfied? No, not until the queen’s head was separated from her neck.
I slid my dagger from Elowyn’s waistband. “Your palm,” I told Ivar.
With a reluctant grimace, he extended it. I sliced a small nick into it and squeezed so that five drops of blood splattered to the ground. The land—and its magic—swallowed them up faster than normal .
I craned my neck to look at the pegicorn. “Good?”
Az nodded. “Good. The oath is complete.”
“Then aye, your oath is enough,” I told Ivar. “Not enough to forgive your past deeds, but enough to move forward.”
“Fair enough,” Ivar said, echoing my earlier sentiment.
I wiped the blade on my breeches and slid it back into El’s. Thank the Ethers my mate was the sole female in all the Mirror World who’d trained to defend herself should I be unable to protect her myself.
“So,” I prompted Ivar. “The land magic?”
He was guiding Lisbeth’s head back to his lap to resume his detangling efforts. “The land magic recognized Talisa as the queen. Why, I can’t say. The land is mysterious and wise in ways I can’t pretend to comprehend. The land saw fit to allow Talisa to do whatever she wanted with its power. But it wasn’t enough. As she grew more … like she is now, it was as if the land’s power was … drained by her nature. Or perhaps … nullified by it.”
“ Her darkness , you mean,” Hiro interjected.
“Aye, I suppose I see that now. Her darkness . The … darker she became, the less the land’s magic fueled her, the less she was able to use it to extend life force to the Mirror World. Which as you know is the responsibility of the reigning bloodline monarch of Embermere, the rightful heir of Prince Borromeo.”
“So she started stealing it from others,” West said bitterly .
Ivar nodded. “Aye, though I didn’t know she was doing it.”
“You yerself told us ya went with ‘er everywhere,” Roan pointed out.
Ivar’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “I thought I did. But I didn’t know about Odelia, Zelia, Inaya, or Nazira, and I certainly didn’t know about my sister.”
“How about mine?” I asked. “Did you know Ramana was alive?”
“I didn’t know.”
There was something about how he said it—too carefully. “But you suspected,” I guessed.
“I did.” When West hissed and unsheathed his sword, Ivar hastened to add, “In general terms only. I didn’t actually know how Talisa was doing it, only that she was gaining power from others.”
“You knew about the dragons though, didn’t you?” Elowyn asked.
He hesitated. “I did.”
“Is she drinking their blood?” she asked.
Again, he hesitated but finally nodded.
Hiro drew in a long, affronted inhale. “The most noble creatures in all the Mirror World, and you stood by while she imprisoned them and drank their blood ?” My gentle friend’s eyes blazed.
Ivar jerked his hands free of Lisbeth’s hair to gesticulate with them. “And what was I supposed to do, exactly? What do you think I could have done to stop her?” When none of us offered a reply, he pressed, “ Huh? What do you think I could have even done? She would have just killed me too!”
“No great loss there,” West muttered.
“No, probably not,” Ivar snapped. “I know I’ve done hideous acts in her name.”
“You enjoyed hideous acts in her name,” I corrected.
He yanked his head around to face me. “Yessss, I did, alright? I did. I lost my sister, the only person to ever matter to me, and the world was a horrible place—and I did.”
At that unexpected admission, I didn’t know what to say. It was difficult to accuse a fae already condemning himself.
“I did, okay? And I’ll be the one who’ll face the consequences of that when my essence leaves this world. I’ll be the one sharing the Igneuslands with Her Highness .” For the first time ever, instead of the title dripping with obsequiousness, it dripped with venom. “But that won’t help us save any other fae she has captive. She said she’d kill them all, if she hasn’t already.”
“We have no way of finding them,” El said miserably. “My map is gone.” Her head canted. “Hey, do you know where my map came from?”
“I do not. Talisa was as shocked to see you branded with it as I was, though neither of us realized what it was then. I’m not sure she knows yet.”
“Well, that’s something,” El said. “A respite, perhaps. ”
“Maybe.”
Not very promising.
“If I were to hazard a guess,” Ivar said, “I’d say the land gifted you with it. Its way of saying it’s had enough of Talisa’s nefarious measures and wants a pure ruler as its steward.”
“It could do that?” Ryder asked.
Ivar shrugged. “I don’t know, but I would think so.”
“What’s she doing to the dragons in the dungeon?” Hiro asked. “It looks like she’s been experimenting on them. Is that true?”
“Aye.” Ivar nudged a fallen twig with his boot. “Since the time of Erasmus.”
Stunned silence hung heavily for long moments, during which El and I sat on a broad tree stump, until Ry asked, “She was hurting dragons when King Erasmus the Bloody was still in power? How?”
“King Erasmus was consumed with finding his missing brother. Once he decided Prince Lohan was never returning, he was too focused on punishing all the dragons to notice or care. Even if he’d discovered what his daughter was doing, do you think he would have stopped her?”
Hiro sighed. “No.”
“Exactly.”
“And did she kill Erasmus?” Ry asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ve long suspected.”
“Did Her Majesty kill Crown Prince Saturn?” This question came from Pru. Elowyn guided Saffron onto her lap, and the dragonling went eagerly.
Ivar’s shoulders sagged. “Same answer.”
“I thought she included you in everything,” I said. “You were always trailing her around.”
“Yeah, well, I did too. I guess she did a lot more than I thought she did in the special private time she requested for her liaisons.”
I tensed at the memory of her private time with me, and how Ivar had been very much present for it. “You did nothing to stop her abuse,” I whipped out.
“No, I didn’t.” This time, he cast a resigned look at his sister, whose eyes were closed as she rested. “And I should have.”
“Do you recognize any more of them?” I asked tightly with a jerk of my head that indicated the rest of the recovering fae.
“I do not. But they resemble little of their former selves. I only recognize my sister and Talisa’s because I’m so familiar with their features. Any of these fae could have shared passing time at court with me and in their current condition I wouldn’t know it.”
“Do you have any idea how we can find the rest of these cabins of hers?” El asked. “Where they might be, how many she has?”
He stared at my mate. “How many locations did this map of yours indicate?”
She grimaced. “Too many. We can’t let them all die.”
“We don’t have a choice. There’s no finding them now. Not without your map.”
“Is this how she’s become immortal? By draining all this power and drinking the dragons’ blood?”
“I don’t know. I was as surprised to hear her pronouncement of her immortality as Rush was.” He sighed, sounding ancient. “It’s possible Braque may have found a way to help her with it. Over the decades they’ve discussed the possibility numerous times. But I never heard either of them mention it as more than that, an unattainable dream of hers. But Braque”—he sneered—“despite his many irritating characteristics, is a brilliant alchemist.”
Scratching under Saffron’s chin, where his scales were still soft, El turned toward Azariah. “You’re the only immortal among us, ‘cause dragons are just really long-lived, right? Do you think that might be how she’s done it?”
“My kind is naturally immortal,” Azariah answered. “Unless we’re murdered, of course. We’re born this way. I don’t know, Lady Elowyn, though I wish I did.”
“And you can’t track these fae she’s draining?” El asked him.
“No. I only detect royals and their magic. I could sense you, and had I known to search for them, I could have found the princesses.”
El’s brows arched. “So you can sense the queen?”
“I can.”
“Where is she now?”
He leaned more heavily against his ranucu friend and closed his eyes. Several breaths later, he announced, “At the palace.”
“Okay.” El was nodding. “That buys us a little time. Not a ton, but enough.” She gnawed at her lip. “I hope, anyway. There’s one last thing I need to try to see if I can get my map to activate again.” Her gaze dragged slowly along my body. When her eyes met mine, her lids were heavy. She licked her lips, and my loins stirred.
Did she mean what I thought she meant? By the holy glorious Ethers, I hoped she did.
“Rush and I will be gone an hour or so,” she announced to the others. “While we’re gone, keep brainstorming. If there’s a goblin, ranucu, parvnit, or any other creature out there who might be able to help us find these poor fae, we need to call on them. And while we’re at it”—she pointed her stare down at Edsel, who was spoon-feeding a male an herbal concoction he could barely hold down—“it’s time to gather whatever army we can. Whoever you think might be willing to fight with us, figure how the dragon’s roar to get them here, and as fast as possible. If not here, they can meet us near the palace.”
She tilted her head up toward the black dragon and appeared to have a silent conversation with him. Then she scanned the rest of us. “I don’t care if the fae is tiny like Zafi or huge like Einar, if they want to fight with us in taking down the queen, we’ll welcome them with open arms, and they’ll have my sincerest gratitude and respect. ”
The more my mate spoke, the more I believed her use of we and our was becoming that of a ruler referring to her kingdom. Elowyn was becoming the queen the land had chosen before my very eyes.
“The time has arrived for whoever will fight to join us. This is our only chance.”
The certainty of her statement settled into my bones.
“The entirety of the Mirror World depends on our next actions. Let’s make them count.”
“Aye,” Edsel shouted in a fierce grunt. “The goblins will stand with ye.”
El looked to him, then Pru. “Thank you.”
Pru clutched her knobby hands in front of her chest. “I will follow you anywhere … my queen.”
Tears glimmered in El’s eyes. “Thank you, Pru. You’re a true friend.”
The goblin knelt before my mate and bowed her head.
Gobsmacked, I watched El do what Talisa would never, ever do. Awkwardly thanks to the little dragon on her lap, El slid him over to one hip, leaning much of his weight onto the tree stump, and knelt too. She bowed her head back to Pru and repeated, “My friend.”
I watched as, one by one, everyone but the big black dragon and Xeno, still in the trees, bowed to my mate. Even Azariah and Bolt bent a knee to her. Ivar’s steed couldn’t due to his injuries, but he dipped his head in deep reverence, telling me this stallion was as intelligent as Bolt. The ranucu tipped his head. The parvnit alighted on Pru’s shoulder to bow. Ry, Hiro, West, Roan, Reed, Edsel … even Ivar, everyone who was there and able to move, declared their allegiance right then for my mate.
Every time El and I had discussed her as rightful heir to the throne, she’d been timid to accept her role. Now she beamed at everyone bowing to her. “Thank you, my friends. I promise you I’ll do right by your faith in me. I will rule for all of you, for every fae and creature of this realm. I’ll honor the land with my actions.”
Then the queen— my queen —bowed her head even more deeply.
A sob shuddered through Pru. Saffron whined. Edsel put down his cup of medicine and went to comfort his gran’gobbler, only for his eyes to smart along with hers.
Saffron licked El’s neck as she reached over to me and clasped my hand. I swallowed thickly at the power of this shared experience.
“If I am queen of Embermere, then you are my king,” she said.
“Aye,” my brothers said in unison.
“Aye,” echoed the others.
I gulped. I’d been aware this was where my path might be headed for many years now. Even so, I wasn’t prepared for the surreality of hearing king . “Only if the land chooses me as it has you.”
El smiled at me, as if she already knew with certainty it would—because she had chosen me.
My heart swelled beyond measure at the confirmation that here she was, after a lifetime of not allowing myself to wish for such a gift: my mate , the one designed to be a perfect match for my essence and no one else.
She was a dream. My dream.
El leapt to her feet and turned to lift Saffron from the stump. “Pru, will you please take Saffy?”
Though the dragonling complained, El quickly handed him off and clutched my hand again. Gripping me tightly, she told the others, “Rouse whatever allies you can. We can’t afford to wait, or Talisa”—no longer the queen , I couldn’t help but notice—“will steal our one opportunity. Be ready to move out when we return. We go to the palace, to the very belly of the beast.”
“And where are you going?” Azariah asked in a squeak, a tad alarmed for his newly accepted queen to leave him.
“Into the woods.” And before anyone could ask additional questions, she led me by the hand into the thick of the trees, calling behind us, “Be back soon, X. Roar if there’s any danger and I’ll come running.”
To me, she said, “I’ll need your lumoon to show me the way.”
I arched a brow as I directed my lumoon out in front of her. “And where are we going exactly?”
“Far enough away to have privacy. You and I, mate , are going to make love.” Her grin was possessive and feral, and I fucking loved it.
When she started down a trail of her own making, I all but stepped on her heels to follow, the beast within me fighting to claim her here, right the fuck now. And when she peered over her shoulder at me, even with my lumoon casting her face in shadows, her light was so brilliant I knew I’d follow her to the end of the world, or the pits of the Igneuslands. Wherever she went, I’d be at her side.
Her fight was my fight. Her heart was my heart.
She broke into a run and I stopped her—but only to whisk her up into my arms. Her husky laugh was like a whip at my back, searching for the first spot to lie with her I could find.