Chapter 50 #2
She let out a laugh. “Oh, I see your guilt, but it’s wasted. You cannot hurt my son.”
I wasn’t sure if she was insulting me, Fieran, or both of us at once.
Tay grinned as if he were carried along on her laughter, and my worry felt as if I’d choke on it.
How could I help my brother escape her clutches?
“Tell me more, Cara. Walk me through your talks with him.”
That was an awkward discussion to have in front of my brother. I chose my words as carefully as I could, though I was keenly aware I was sloppy, as if I’d had several cups of wine.
She regarded me impatiently. “I know you can’t lie to me. But I wonder if perhaps you’ve lied to yourself.”
“Did you compel me…”
“Of course,” she said. “Do you think I’d listen to all that besotted talk about my son without a purpose?”
“I’m not besotted.”
She made an impatient gesture. “As I said. Perhaps you’ve lied to yourself. But surely you have noticed more.”
I had to find something else to give her. “I know he’s scheming.”
“Obviously. He is breathing.” She gave me a look full of disappointment, and I braced.
The queen must have other spies, and she must have heard the murmurs that my dragon mark had been manipulated by magic, brought into being. I wasn’t giving away anything if I confessed to it. But there was another possibility too, a safer one to confess.
“Ander and Fieran have been fighting over me,” I admitted. “I think that’s the reason Fieran wants me to adore him. It’ll allow him to win over Ander. Besides, he’s accustomed to being adored, and it’s offensive that a mere mortal would not.”
She eyed me skeptically. “If you can’t figure out what game he’s playing, I might have to take away his toys.”
Tay stood by smiling as she threatened me, and I had never felt more alone in my life.
He was in danger too right now—his value to her, only that I was controlled by my need to protect him—and he had no idea.
Gods, I wish Fear was here now.
But I had to get to him before he could help, and the way the queen tapped her pointed fingernails on her sleeve made me feel as if a clock were ticking, as if losing Tay was again just a matter of moments away.
Worst of all, whatever magic she employed against me made me feel thick-headed and groggy, more loose-lipped and drunken by the moment.
“He thinks he can use me to ignite a mortal rebellion.” I couldn’t hold back the words. “I don’t know why he thinks anyone would follow me.”
“What has he said exactly?” Her bored gaze changed in an instant, became focused, and I realized her eyes were eerily like Fieran’s.
“He’s said nothing about a rebellion. He assumes I’ll give anything he tells me away to you. But I hear other students whispering.”
“He thinks the mortals will follow you into treason,” she murmured. “But why you?”
She was studying my face too closely, and I couldn’t meet that awful, bright gaze. I found myself studying Tay instead, feeling a swell of emotion at the sight of my brother, healthy and strong and empty-eyed.
“Mortals prefer to follow men, so you’re a rather poor choice. And even by mortal standards, you are aggressively ordinary.” She mused. I would’ve happily claimed the ordinary title on another day, but it still rankled on someone else’s lips. “Why you, Cara?”
Ander’s words floated back to me about why he’d wanted to claim me for his clan. “Maybe I’m not as weak as I look to you.”
“Perhaps your dragon mark isn’t a random slip of just any shifter, unable to contain his cock to suitable subjects,” she mused, and my heart sank. “Maybe the shifter who pumped himself into your mother’s maw is a rebel, and we are both unlucky enough that magic took root along with his seed.”
Her gaze studied mine. “Do you have any inklings about who your father is? Even a stray wandering thought as you meet older shifters?”
“No.” There was no need to dissemble now.
“Disappointing,” she murmured, which made my heart sink all over again. Could I get Tay out of here with me? “Well, we will have to work together to find him.”
Those words filled me with a fresh sense of dread.
“My son is foolish enough to think you’ll make him strong enough to defeat me with mortal allies. As if they would ever turn on me when I can grant their dreams.” She didn’t sound as confident as her words.
“I’m not going to help him.”
She gave me another knowing smile, her gaze seeming to encompass both me and Tay. “I know you won’t.”
She seemed as if she were turning away to leave. Tay didn’t fall into a bow, though, and I was sure he read her intentions better than I did—he just didn’t make sense of them.
Then she paused, and I felt myself go still as a rabbit being hunted. “Does he plan to marry you, foolish little mortal girl? To make you queen of mortals and himself king of shifters?”
“I wouldn’t marry him,” I blurted out.
“I didn’t ask what you would attempt. I doubt you’ll resist his impulses very well,” she said. “Does he intend to marry you, in your opinion?”
The sense that things were careening out of control—that Fieran’s plans, mysterious though they were, were becoming more tattered by the moment—loomed over us like the statues.
And I couldn’t hold back my confession.
“Yes.”
“I see,” she said. “How terribly unfortunate for us all. Especially you. Come, Tay.”
Panic seized me. “No. Tay—”
“Cara.” He gave me a bright, warm smile, and I was distracted by him from the look that had just crossed the queen’s face at the word no.
His hand on my shoulder was steadying. “You can’t expect me to wait in the stands and clap at your adventures.
You won’t even let me in the stands, for that matter. I want to have my own adventures.”
“I need you.” I’d been driven all this way for Tay and Lidi’s sake as our twined lives unwound, out of control.
And now I felt as afraid I’d lose him as when he was gripped in death’s maw.
“No, you don’t,” Tay told me firmly, wrapping me up in a hug. “You’ve never needed me. You’ve sacrificed so much for Lidi and for me. You’ve always looked after us, and I love you so much for it, but you’ve always deserved more. Now everything is fine, and you’re free to chase your own dreams.”
He pulled away, giving me another smile, as I tripped over my words, trying to make him stay.
He followed the queen away into the night.