Chapter 17 Raven
Raven
So this was my mother-in-law? Wow. With her glossy blonde hair and pale blue skin, she was exceptionally beautiful in an ice-cold sort of way. So beautiful she made me want to look away.
Goddess, did she expect us to bow? I probably should have checked what the protocol for meeting royalty was.
I stole a glance at my mates, but none of them were scraping the floor at the queen’s arrival. Nor was Farris, although he dipped his chin briefly.
“Farris, lovely to see you as always,” the queen purred in a voice that screamed we’ve fucked before and I’d like to repeat the experience.
The queen’s turquoise aura swirled around her like pea soup. The strands of black among the green suggested darkness in her soul, which made sense given she was trying very hard to murder her son.
But I wasn’t thinking about that, just in case her magic included a mind-reading ability. Something else I should have asked Farris about. He clearly knew the bitch well.
“A pleasure, my queen. Please forgive me for the long delay between visits.”
Queen Laryssa licked her lips and smoldered at him before finally acknowledging us.
“And your associates are…?”
“They are consultants I’m working with to improve productivity in the mines. Rasimor from the Winter Court, Maven and Zane from the shifter community, and Rania, an earth witch.”
He’d given us all different names, in case the queen had heard of us, but from her bored eye roll, she was deeply uninterested in Farris’s consultants. Hardly surprising when she continued to eye-fuck the hell out of him, not caring that her fated mate stood less than a foot away.
Honestly, it was gross, and I rued the day I ended up with a slut of a mother-in-law.
Weren’t mothers-in-law supposed to be kind, homely types who baked cakes and offered to look after the grandkids? I couldn’t picture Queen Laryssa bouncing bear cubs on her knee or teaching baby mermen to throw a trident.
Kai had told me nothing about his family, but the queen showed no signs of possessing a maternal instinct. Goddess, did she abandon her fertilized eggs in a cave somewhere and let nature take its course?
Or maybe she was the type of mother who gave birth and let the father raise her offspring?
“Is Malakai not attending the banquet this evening?” Farris asked innocently.
The queen’s mouth tightened and her green eyes darkened. “My son is unwell,” she said with a sniff. “But we expect him to return to the court in a few days.” My stomach churned as her frown turned into a gloating smile. “If you stick around, my dear, you may be party to an exciting announcement!”
The queen’s mate dropped a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
“My love, we should circulate.”
“Yes, yes.” The queen shook his hand off irritably and resumed preening for the fae. The way she thrust her ample breasts in his face was disgusting, but he gave an excellent impression of enjoying her attention, and from Zane’s glowing eyes, he was soaking up all the lust with great enjoyment.
“Those two should get a room,” Kenji said in my head. His voice made me jump; I hadn’t spotted his arrival.
“Where did you disappear to?” He’d vanished shortly before the guards arrived to escort us to the palace.
“On a reconnaissance mission.”
My hand jerked, knocking my glass sideways as the queen purred something sultry about catching up with Farris later. From the way she sank her surprisingly sharp incisors into a plump lilac lip, I assumed catching up was a euphemism for fucking him senseless.
The goblet of fruity punch in my hand spilled all over the table. Stars, why was I so clumsy?
I grabbed a napkin and wiped it up, praying the queen didn’t throw me in her dungeon for making a mess, but she took no notice. Instead, she slanted one last smoldering look at Farris before sashaying away.
“Did you find Kai?” I prayed Kenji had so we could go rescue my mate and leave this awful place.
“I did, but the sea witch was there, so I didn’t linger.”
“Oh my goddess, was she hurting him? We have to go get him out!”
“Not yet, little mate,” my bear interjected, having heard my conversation with Kenji.
“The bear’s right,” Rasmus agreed. “We’ll leave once the orgy begins.”
“ORGY?!”
Everyone standing nearby turned to stare at me, and I flushed bright red with embarrassment.
“Why did none of you mention this?” I hissed, plucking at the skirt of my dress and wishing it didn’t expose quite so much skin.
“We thought you’d be fine with an orgy, pet,” Zane admitted. I guess he had a point, given I’d witnessed one at the club in Thornville.
“I’m not fine with an orgy if we’re expected to, um, participate!”
“You won’t be,” Farris assured me. “The queen doesn’t require her guests to join in, but you will be expected to watch. At least until everyone is too drunk on lust and liquor to care about your presence.”
“Do you normally…join in?” I asked the fae, my lip curling in faint disgust at the very idea. I liked to think I was a sex-positive witch these days, but the idea of the fae getting naked made me deeply uncomfortable. He was attractive, I supposed, just not to me.
I thought back to my bestie.
Glynda had definitely noticed the fae. Had she found him attractive? Something told me that yes, she had.
“I do, yes.” The fae smirked. “But I won’t be this time.” That surprised me. The queen had made it more than clear she expected him to catch up later.
“Not in the mood for some fish treats, Farris?” Zane’s crude question had us all glowering at him, but he grinned, completely unrepentant.
“Not today, no.” The fae brushed Zane off with a breezy smile, but there was a hint of something in his usually pink aura that caught my attention. Something sad.
But it was none of my business. I didn’t care about the fae asshole. Not after he’d tricked me into two unfair fae bargains.
The music had become less upbeat and more sultry over the last hour. The queen and her two consorts sat to the left of us, on a platform that overlooked the vast room, while guests trickled up and down to simper at the feet of her Royal Highness.
The mer queen was shameless. She lapped up the attention like a sponge. The more I watched her, the harder it was to rationalize her role as Kai’s mother. Birth mother anyway. No actual mother would subject her son to such diabolical acts as the mer queen had done to Kai.
The longer we sat in these horribly uncomfortable chairs watching mermen and mermaids dance, flirt, and act like they didn’t have a care in the world, the more anxious I became.
Which was a problem.
My magic didn’t respond well when my emotions were all over the place, and I was already a mess thanks to Maverick’s revelation about my potential pregnancy.
“Your boobs will get much bigger,” Zane announced, apropos of nothing. He’d been reading the book he downloaded all evening. It was kind of concerning how excited he was about something that might not even happen.
Hopefully.
“You can barely take care of yourself,” Kenji said from his spot under the table, where he was grazing on a tray of non-fish snacks stolen from the buffet station. “I’m not sure any offspring will survive.”
“That’s a horrible thing to say!”
“Page two, paragraph nine, sub-section three of the Kitsune-Witch Relations handbook states: ‘A kitsune must always strive to be honest and truthful when conversing with his or her witch; lying, even to protect the mental health of one’s witch, is a potentially punishable offense.’”
I huffed crossly. The damn kitsune always had a snarky response to any complaint about his behavior I dared to voice. I’d never seen this so-called handbook, and a big part of me suspected it didn’t exist.
Before I could voice my suspicion, he vanished, leaving a pile of crumbs behind.
The sight of the queen’s second consort heading our way jolted me from thoughts of my familiar. This male was shorter and had a kinder face than the other male. His navy-blue hair hung down his back in braids, a bit like Kai’s, and he wore a pale green gown embroidered with silver thread.
Several pretty mermaids simpered when he passed them, but he seemed oblivious.
Farris sat up straighter when the male reached our table.
“Daresh, good to see you again.” The warmth in his voice told me he liked this male. Were they lovers when the fae visited the mer kingdom? I nearly choked on a small fruit while pondering that question.
Zane leaned in. “Almost certainly, pet. The fae don’t discriminate when choosing lovers.”
“Like vampires,” Rasmus purred in my other ear.
I immediately pictured what it would look like if my incubus and my vampire became intimate. Zane’s chuckle said he’d read my mind, while Rasmus leaned in and scraped his fangs over my neck.
The merman’s attention drifted my way as he chatted to Farris. As I leaned forward to pick up my drink, desperate to quench a thirst that had absolutely nothing to do with being dehydrated, my dress slid down to reveal the small tattoo above my breast.
Daresh’s eyes widened in shock when he saw it, and I realized almost immediately that our window for rescuing Kai without bloodshed had just closed.