Chapter Sixteen
Light pressed against her eyelids...too bright, too sharp.
“Ugh… so bright,” she mumbled, lifting a hand weakly as she tried to shield her eyes.
Her lashes fluttered as consciousness crept back in, slow and heavy, like wading up from deep water. Her head throbbed, not painfully, but insistently, an echo of everything that had gone wrong.
“Anabelle?” The voice was thick, unfamiliar, vibrating through her half-awareness.
“Sissy?” That voice...that voice...cut through the fog instantly.
Her eyes flew open, and the first thing she saw was Emmett. He was sitting beside her, legs dangling, happily sucking on a bright red lollipop like nothing in the world was wrong. He grinned when he saw her awake. Relief crashed through her so hard it made her dizzy.
“Oh,” she breathed. “Hi, Emmett… you okay?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “I’m so happy you’re awake. I was really worried about you, sissy. But my friends said you got rid of the monster! That’s so cool. Are you okay? Was it hard? Is that why you were asleep?”
“Emmett,” she said softly, lifting a hand to his cheek. “Sweetie, slow down for me a little, okay?”
As she spoke, the word friends finally registered.
Her brow furrowed. “Friends?” she repeated carefully. “What friends, Emmett?”
Her gaze drifted away from him for the first time.
She realized she was inside a car, not hers. The interior was unfamiliar, clean, too big. Through the window she could see the fluorescent lights of a gas station humming in the early dawn, the world looking painfully normal for everything she remembered.
And then she saw him.
Dark eyes.
Joshua was sitting across from her, staring like he’d forgotten how to blink. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes wide, filled with something that made her stomach twist, something like awe. His chest rose and fell rapidly, as if he’d just finished running miles.
She blinked, confused.
Then tension snapped into her spine. This was one of the men from the fair. One of the men who had cornered her. She instinctively pulled Emmett closer.
“What are you going to do to us?” she asked, her voice shaking despite her effort to steady it. “Where are you taking us?”
Joshua flinched.
“Please,” he said quickly, his gravelly voice sliding over her skin in a way that made her hold her breath despite herself. “Anabelle, we’re not going to hurt you.”
He swallowed, jaw tightening. “We were going to take you to a hea... a doctor. To make sure you’re okay after what happened with that de...” he stopped himself, flicking a glance at Emmett, “....with that monster.”
His jaw clenched visibly then, anger flashing across his face so sharp it startled her.
She tilted her head, studying him. Why does he look angry? she wondered. At who? At what?
Before she could ask, the trunk of the car popped open and other voices drifted in.
“No, Cameron, you held her the entire way here,” another male voice said, irritated, almost teasing. “We’re halfway there. It’s only fair I get the next turn. Then when we go to the Queen, it can be Dom’s or Josh’s turn.”
Dom’s voice followed, calmer, edged with something firm. “Rian’s right, Cam. And given the fact that Josh shifted the moment he saw her, I vote it’s his turn next. I can go a little longer...as long as she’s okay.”
“I’ll check on her now,” Cameron said. “She should be fine. She was dangerously close to burning out though, but whatever she did back there doesn’t seem to have caused lasting damage.”
Anabelle’s heart started racing, as her thoughts ran with so many questions.
They held me? Why?Dark eyes shifted? Into what?Did he say Queen?
Her thoughts tangled into knots. She tried to meet Joshua’s eyes, needing answers, but he refused to look at her....staring instead at his hands like they were something foreign. She inhaled shakily and tightened her grip on Emmett’s hand.
Okay, she thought grimly. This is insane. I’m in a car with four psychopaths my brother is calling friends, and apparently they’re passing me around like—
Her thoughts cut off as the doors opened and the men climbed into the vehicle. The atmosphere shifted instantly. Every single one of them noticed she was awake.
Anabelle sat up straighter in the back seat, pulling Emmett fully into her side, wrapping her arm around his shoulders in a protective hold that felt instinctive and unyielding.
None of them missed the movement. Not the tension in her body. Not the fear in her eyes. Not the way she positioned herself squarely between them and her brother. And for the first time since she’d woken...they looked afraid of losing her trust more than anything else.
Cameron was the first to break the heavy silence.
“How are you feeling?” he asked carefully, his tone gentle, almost tentative, like he was approaching a skittish animal.
“I’d be feeling a lot better,” Anabelle snapped back, her voice sharp despite the tremor in her hands, “if my brother and I weren’t being kidnapped.”
“We’re not kidnapping you,” Dominik said immediately, firm but controlled.
“Oh, really?” she shot back. Her pulse hammered in her ears as she tightened her arm around Emmett. “So we can just go then? If I ask you to let us leave right now, will you?”
The question hung in the air.
All four of them winced...actually winced...and that reaction alone made her stomach drop. Her shoulders tensed instinctively, and Emmett noticed. He looked up at them, brow furrowing in a way that made her chest ache.
“Friends don’t kidnap friends,” he said, his small voice cutting clean through the tension. “You said you were helping Sissy.”
Cameron inhaled slowly, crouching his shoulders a fraction, as if trying to make himself look less imposing. “We are, little man. We were taking her to a doctor. Just to make sure she’s okay.”
“And then?” Anabelle asked immediately.
Cameron blinked. “What?”
“And after that,” she pressed, her voice steadier now, colder. “Where were you planning on taking us?”
The four of them exchanged looks: quick, silent, loaded. That was answer enough.
“I thought so.” She snapped.
“Okay,” Dominik said after a beat. “We don’t want to lie to you. But there are some things we were ordered not to discuss with you yet. We have to—”
“Ordered?” she echoed, cutting him off sharply.
“Yes,” Rian said, meeting her gaze for the first time. “Our Queen. Once she learned of your… predicament...and the fact that you’re unregistered...she asked us to bring you to her so she can explain everything to you. Don’t worry though, she’s incredibly kind—”
Anabelle snorted, the sound brittle. “Yeah, right. In what universe are queens ever kind? No one who’s ever had that kind of power lets it not go to their head.”
Dominik’s expression hardened: not with anger, but urgency. “Anabelle,” he said carefully, “I understand how hard this is, and why you don’t trust us. But I strongly advise you...when you meet her...to keep comments like that to yourself.”
Her jaw clenched.
“Her… partners,” he continued, choosing his words deliberately, “our council leaders, won’t take that well. And we care about your safety. Please don’t do anything that could jeopardize your life.”
Her thoughts spiralled instantly. Partners? Plural?
She didn’t touch that. Not now. She’d just been reprimanded without even meaning to be, and she knew...
knew...that when things got intense, her mouth ran faster than her judgment.
No filter. Never when she needed one the most. And she was painfully aware of one undeniable truth: she didn’t know anything about this world.
Cameron spoke next, his voice quieter, earnest. “She is kind. And fair, when it matters. We were surprised too when we met her two years ago. She’s not what we expected from a High Queen either, Anabelle. The changes she’s made… they’ve made our community better.”
He hesitated, then added softly, “Just… please don’t insult her. Especially not in front of the council.”
Anabelle swallowed.
“What does she want with me?” she asked.
Rian answered, his tone gentler now. “She thought it would be better if she explained the supernatural world to you. And walked you through the steps you need to take to become a legal citizen within our community.”
Anabelle’s eyes flashed. “And why would she think she’d be better at explaining anything to me? How is that not a power move?”
Joshua spoke then. His voice was rough, unused, like someone who rarely said more than he had to. It was the first time she’d heard him speak since the others climbed into the car.
“She’s human,” he said simply. “Like you. She doesn’t have any powers though, she’s not a caster. But finding out about the supernatural world was a shock to her too.”
Anabelle stared at him.
“We thought,” he continued, jaw tight, “that since it’s hard for you to trust us from the start… you might feel safer with her.”
She gaped. That was more than she’d heard him say ever. And that...that revelation...hit harder than anything else.
The Queen of all supernaturals on Earth was… human? Her mind reeled. How was that even possible? How did someone without power rule beings like them?
She didn’t ask. Everything already felt too tangled, too heavy.
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Then, finally, she nodded. She leaned back against the seat, staring at the blurred glow of the gas station lights through the window. There was nothing she could say that would make them let her go.
She knew that now.
And if there was one thing that demon had taught her...
looming out of the dark with horns and fangs and a smile that still haunted the edges of her mind...
it was this: The world is not safe just because you don’t know what’s in it.
She couldn’t deny the supernatural anymore.
Not after barriers of light. Not after monsters.
Not after watching bones smolder on the road.
Ignorance is not protection. Pretending wouldn’t save her nor Emmett. But knowledge would.
Being prepared was being armed. Just like her mother always used to say.
And if the only person willing to lay everything bare, to explain the rules, the dangers, the truth, was this High Queen… then... Anabelle would meet her. For herself. For her brother.
She turned her head slowly and looked out the window again, watching the road stretch ahead into darkness and unknown cities.
“Okay,” she said quietly. “When do we meet her?”
All four men glanced at one another, something unspoken passing between them.
“We should be there in two days,” Cameron answered.
Her head snapped back toward him. “Two days?!”
“Yes,” Cameron said with a nod. “We’d normally take a portal, but...” he glanced toward Emmett, “little man can’t go through one. So we’re taking the long route.”
She exhaled slowly, forcing her nerves into submission.
“Okay,” she said after a beat, squaring her shoulders. “Start the car.”
They paused.
“The faster we get there,” she continued, her voice steady despite the storm inside her, “the faster I can figure all of this out.”
No one argued at that.
Cameron turned the key and the engine roared to life.