Chapter 20
Shock riveted Gisela to the floor as she stared at the last person she’d ever expected to see. Indeed, the dead Garyn would have been less stunning had he appeared in her bed.
Gisela moved to confront the queen. Even if her legs were unsteady.
Dressed in black leather armor, her mother was as regal as always. Right down to that imperious sneer on her beautiful face.
“I knew this day would come. From the moment I birthed you and failed to cut your throat. I knew I’d regret it.”
“Why didn’t you kill me, Mother? Really. What was the point of allowing me to live?”
Something wistful filled her eyes. If Gisela didn’t know better, she’d swear it was regret.
But Meara didn’t answer her question. She closed the gap between them so that she could glare down at Gisela. “You had one task. One. Protect the ataswere with my contract on him. How hard could that be?”
Gisela wanted to laugh at her naive question. How hard, indeed…
“If it was easy, Mother, why did you send out another to kill the same ataswere you’d told me to protect?”
That question caught her mother off guard.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Gisela scoffed. “Yes, you do. I can see it in your eyes that you’re trying to find a lie to get you out of this. Is that why you want me dead now? So that no one else will ever know how duplicitous you are?”
Meara went to slap her, but she ducked and moved away.
“I’m not a child anymore. And you no longer command me.”
“Ungrateful wretch! You’re just like your useless father! Feckless and cruel!”
“Cruel?” Gisela was incredulous that her mother would ever apply that label to anyone other than herself. “Cratus—”
Her mother cut her words off with a high-pitched scream. “Never say that name out loud!”
“Why? Because he was a unicorn or because his parentage betrays the fact that you are a shape shifter?”
Fury darkened her mother’s eyes.
“So, it’s true. The mark beneath your tongue wasn’t something you put there. You were born with it.”
Her mother lifted her chin. “And I should have killed you at birth as I did your shifter siblings!”
That outraged confession stunned her. While she’d known she had three siblings who hadn’t survived childhood, she’d never dreamed their own mother had slaughtered them over an ability they’d inherited from her.
The nightmare of that truth took her mother to a whole new low.
In that moment, she had an answer as to why she’d been allowed to live when the others had been killed. The one thing that made her different.
“You planned on using me against my father, didn’t you?”
“He wasn’t supposed to die!” That honest shriek caught them both off guard.
It was probably the most honest thing she’d ever heard her mother say.
But that left her with one more question. “Once he was gone, why did you keep me?”
Fury caused her nostrils to flare. “I don’t answer to you!”
No, she didn’t and Gisela should have known her mother would never answer that question.
Before she could move, her mother unsheathed her sword and angled it at her throat. “I’m done with you.”
Gisela barely had time to duck. But her mother’s intent was clear… She intended to behead her.
On the one hoof, she was impressed. Meara didn’t like to get her hooves dirty. This kind of execution was normally relegated to Gisela or another of her mother’s goons.
On the other hoof, she was horrified that her own mother wanted her dead badly enough to do it herself.
Their relationship had just sunk to a whole new level of shit.
And if she’d ever possessed any hope that her mother might have held a modicum of maternal instinct, this extinguished it. The creature in front of her was completely devoid of compassion or love.
That knowledge and reality crushed something deep inside her.
Her own mother wanted her dead. She winced at the truth she could not deny. While Masakage, Candara and Xaydin might have issues with their mother, at least she wasn’t actively trying to kill them.
“Don’t do this.” The words were out before she could stop them. Worse, they were said in the tone of a little girl, and that made her hate herself.
It was a pleading tone. Not because she wanted to live, but because she didn’t want to die by the hand of her own mother.
How pathetic is my life?
But Meara wouldn’t be deterred.
Gisela ducked the next sword stroke and twisted away. This was when having two legs was beneficial. She was much spryer than her four-legged mother, and those two legs allowed her to run up the ladder to the main deck.
As she reached the walkway, her mother appeared behind her and buried her hand in Gisela’s hair. “I told you not to fail me.”
Yes, she had, and Gisela had known the price of failure. But she’d never dreamt that the price would come at the hands of her mother.
Gisela tried to pry her mother’s hand loose from her hair. “Let go!”
Her mother raised the sword to cut her throat.
Just as her mother would have sliced, Gisela turned into a bee and flew around to sting her mother’s back.
Meara screamed as she swished her tail, trying to strike Gisela.
Gisela flew toward the docks, but because she was injured, she couldn’t hold her form. She hit the docks hard in her human body, then cursed the fact she was naked again.
The one thing she truly hated about shape shifting. Why couldn’t they keep their clothes when they shifted back to human?
She barely had time to consider that before Meara appeared at her side.
Her mother kicked her to her back with one hoof. A hoof she then put down on the center of her chest. She pressed so tightly that Gisela could barely breathe as pain exploded through her. It felt as if her ribs were breaking. She gasped for breath. An anguished breath that made her wound ache more.
It was over. She couldn’t shift. Couldn’t fight her mother off given the weight of her equine body.
If I’m going to die…
She wanted it to be in the body she was born in.
Closing her eyes, she exhaled and released all the energy she’d cultivated through her life to make sure she always appeared human. That she never once screwed up and became the thing her mother hated most.
A unicorn.
The moment she shifted, Meara screamed and backed up.
Gisela snorted and felt a new strength run through her. This was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Warm and soothing. She was still wounded, but the pain wasn’t so bad now. It was as if her body was so happy to be what it was born to be that it didn’t care about anything else.
And that body gave her another gift…
A weapon.
Lowering her head, she charged at Meara.
Just as she would have reached her mother and stabbed her through her cold, callous heart with her horn, Meara vanished.
Rearing up, Gisela cried out in rage. Coward!
The word had barely gone through her mind before she realized she wasn’t alone.
Xaydin was at her right side.
In front of her, Masakage and Candara stared at her in disbelief.
Well, not so much at her as they stared at her horn.
Pawing at the ground, Gisela snorted. “Anyone calls me a dart donkey and I’ll skewer them.”
Masakage laughed so hard he choked.
Candara rolled her eyes.
Smiling, Xaydin approached her so that he could stroke her mane. “That’s the last thing I’d ever call you, my love.”
“Well, we now know her paternal lineage, don’t we?”
Gisela turned her head to see Ronan joining them. “What’s happening with the centaurs?” she asked him.
“They’re retreating. Guess your mother knew she couldn’t stand up to the four of you.” Ronan scratched at his neck. “Love to know who opened the portals for them…in both directions.”
Gisela knew. “Her wizard brigade. I didn’t see any among them, but she uses them in battle and must have brought some with her.”
Which explained how she was able to appear on the deck so quickly.
I should have known. Just as she knew what her mother now planned. “She’s retreated to her lands. But she will be back. And in greater numbers.”
Xaydin nodded. “Sadly, we’re well versed in her battle tactics.”
Candara stepped forward. “But she doesn’t have what she wants most.”
“My head?” Gisela asked.
“I was thinking more about the contract with Dash. But sure, your head probably ranks up there. Her disappointments today were many.”
“Which will only make her more determined.” Gisela let out a tired sigh. “So where does this leave us?”
“Screwed and ass backwards,” Ronan said nonchalantly.
Ignoring his comment, Xaydin scratched his chin. “We have an errant prince to return home and a contract to deliver. Let’s take care of what we need to.”
“We still don’t know where the prince is,” Gisela reminded them.
Ronan shook his head. “Not exactly true. Mischief knows.”
Xaydin didn’t comment as his hand dipped to stroke Gisela’s side. It was then he saw the blood in her fur. “Are you all right?”
“I want to say yes, but… I need to lie down.”
He immediately took off his cloak and wrapped it around her. “Change, and I’ll get you to the inn.”
More grateful than she could ever say, she shifted to her human form. Had Xaydin not been there beside her, waiting, she would have fallen.
He scooped her up in his arms.
Candara opened a portal. “We’ll be along shortly.”
“Thank you.” And with that, Xaydin took Gisela through the portal to their room at the inn.
Gisela let out a sigh as he placed her on the bed, then went to find one of his tunics for her to wear.
He pulled back his cloak and cursed. “When did this new wound happen?”
“When I was running from my mother.”
“I swear, I’m going to kill her. How could she be so vicious?”
Gisela wished she had an answer. Rather, she knew her mother as a rabid beast with no decency in her.
Xaydin gently tended her wound until he could stem the bleeding. The tenderness of his touch soothed her in ways unimaginable.
“I love you, Xaydin.” The words were out before she could stop them.
He froze for a few seconds before he met her gaze. “What?”