Chapter 24 #3
Remembering what Dawn had told me about the queen’s relationship with her son, I wondered if the prince also feared that the queen’s visit might be a trap.
The queen gazed at him from under the embroidered edge of her veil, then let go of the supporting arm of the guard and stepped closer to her son. She took his hand in both of hers.
“My son,” she said softly.
Just two words, said in a voice that only those of us standing close enough could hear. Yet the effect of them, combined with the queen’s gesture of holding her estranged son’s hand, was profound.
Prince Rha froze. Even his breathing seemed to pause. Dawn moved her eyes between her prince and his mother, her mouth hanging slightly open. Her eyes searching, she seemed to be waiting for something either really good or terribly bad to happen next.
Ciana, who was obviously aware of the situation between Prince Rha and his mother, gasped softly, bringing her hand to her mouth. She looked more hopeful than the others. Anticipation sparked in her golden-brown eyes.
The tapestry curtain of the litter flew open once again, and a human woman exited onto the plaza. I recognized her flaming-red hair immediately.
“Lucia!” I whisper-screamed in shock and excitement.
“Well, helloooo again Teneris.” Lucia stretched her back, likely sore after the long journey.
“Lucia, you’re back!” Dawn jumped to hug her, forgoing all formalities.
“Did you miss me?” Lucia grinned, returning Dawn’s hug.
“You brought a Joy Vessel with you?” Prince Rha asked his mother.
“Not just any Joy Vessel,” the queen corrected sternly. “Lucia is my friend. I hope you can find her a suitable accommodation close to mine. We just started reading a new book, and I wish to continue our daily reading sessions while I’m here.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” the prince replied, then added as if trying the word out loud, “Mother.”
“And where is your mated one?” The queen slid a glance along our line, finding Dawn among us. “Ah, there you are, my dear.” She reached a hand to her. “It is…um, comforting to find you by my son’s side.”
Looking slightly stunned, Dawn bowed to the queen. “It’s an honor to welcome you to Teneris, Your Majesty. How was your journey?”
“Terrible,” the queen complained, threading her arm through Dawn’s. She then leaned with her other hand on her son’s forearm. “Please tell me you two have a comfortable chaise for me to rest on. I prefer a chaise over floor cushions lately. It’s much easier to get up from.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Dawn assured her. “We have everything ready, and if anything is not to your liking, please let me know.”
“I most definitely will.” The queen allowed Dawn and the prince to lead her into the palace, escorted by her numerous entourage of courtiers to the accompaniment of the parade music and welcoming cheers from the crowd.
Lucia stayed behind with us.
I grabbed her hand, then quickly introduced her to Ciana, “Lucia arrived to Prince Rha’s sarai with us, but we all got separated on that hill by the temple while trying to escape. Now…” I turned to Lucia. “How in the world did you end up in Queen Abeille’s litter today?”
She grinned. “It’s a long story.”
“Is there a short version? Because I don’t think I can wait until we have more time to catch up properly.”
“Sure. I guess.” She shrugged, tossing a red curl away from her face in a gesture I remembered well.
“So, I didn’t particularly want to go through the portal and end up in our old world again.
Things weren’t going so great for me there.
I only agreed to escape because all of you wanted to go, and I didn’t want to hold anyone back.
But then, on the hill, I was in no rush to jump through that thing that cut Kostya in half. ”
“What?” I stared at her in shock. “What happened to Kostya?”
She waved a hand. “Never mind. It’s too gross anyway.
The point is that I didn’t jump through the portal.
I hoped that Prince Rha’s guards would grab me and take me back to Teneris.
But it was the queen’s men who ended up catching me instead.
They brought me to Kalmena. And the sarai there was really a mess, I have to tell you.
Everyone was just drinking wine and fucking all day. ”
“Really?” I glanced back at Timur quickly.
That made sense, considering the odd behavior of our Kalmena clients who had access to the queen’s sarai and the emotion of the inebriated humans.
“Yeah, sounds fun, doesn’t it?” Lucia grimaced. “But it got old pretty fast for me. I tried to escape, got caught, tried to fight, and bit off a guard’s nose.”
“You did w-what?” I stuttered, convinced I misheard her.
She rolled her eyes. “He had a long nose, it got in my way, okay? No big deal. He’s a fae, it grew back already, even longer than before, if you ask me.
Anyway, they brought me to the queen for her to decide what to do with me.
Normally, I think I’d be labeled as dangerous and difficult, and they would’ve put me down like a rabid dog.
But apparently, the queen had connected to a Joy Vessel before.
Only once, mind you. Believe it or not, she has a sarai with two dozen humans run by her stupid council, and she hadn’t even tasted any of her own humans’ joy.
The only one she’d ever connected to was Dawn. ”
“Dawn?” Ciana and I gasped at once.
“Yep. The queen said that Dawn was the one who convinced her to spare Prince Rha’s life at the end, though she didn’t even realize it when it happened.
The queen saw Dawn’s love for Prince Rha when they connected.
She recognized the fear and the ache of that emotion.
But there was also joy she didn’t know before.
Despite Rha being sentenced to death, Dawn’s love for him still gave her joy, something the queen never thought could come from love.
So, she wondered if that was what love meant for all humans and wanted to see if it’d be true for me too.
I laughed in her face and told her there is no love in me, that’s for damn sure.
With my knack for attracting assholes, I’d die a happy woman if I never saw any of my ex-boyfriends again.
But I told her that if she wanted to see me happy or even joyful, then she shouldn’t send me back to her sarai again.
And in exchange, I’d show her all the things that make me happy. So she kept me in her rooms.”
“Did she make you her favorite?” I asked.
Lucia nodded causally. “I guess, if that’s what people call it.
But all I do is just keep her company. You know, she’s just an old woman.
She doesn’t have much time left in this world, and she spent so much of her life mourning what she’s lost that she failed to see what she still had.
The queen is a smart woman. She just preferred to live in the past. I guess it’s hard to recover from grief if you can never feel happiness to balance it out.
So, I tried to cheer her up. Over the past month, we’ve tried many things I always wanted to do but never had the time or money before. ”
“Like what things?” Ciana asked.
“We did pottery, painting, sculpture. I tried to learn how to crochet, but that went nowhere.” Lucia laughed.
“Knitting also got me so irritated, the queen forbade anyone to bring yarn into the palace ever again. But the baking went well. We’ve made sugar cookies several times now.
She insists on reading. But I wish they had better books here.
Since the shadow fae don’t read for pleasure, all their reading material is so fucking boring.
Oh, do you know where I could get a pet?
Something cute and fluffy, like a rabbit or a cat maybe?
The queen only has those killer bees for pets right now.
I’m so afraid of them, I refuse to go into the room where she keeps them.
The cat could stay with us while we read.
Petting it would help her relax too, I think. ”
“Prince Rha’s cat Zala is going to have kittens soon,” Timur chimed in unexpectedly.
“The prince has a cat?” I gaped at him. “And he showed her to you?”
“How do you know about the kittens?” Ciana asked.
He looked slightly uncomfortable under everyone’s sudden attention.
“I saw the cat during my visit to Prince Rha’s palace before our attack on Ashgate. She was pregnant then,” he muttered, sinking deeper into the shadows from his hood.
I smiled, looking forward to meeting the new kittens, then met Timur’s knowing gaze.
“Can we have a cat too?” I asked softly, and he nodded indulgently.
We were getting a cat.
“Is that why the queen changed her attitude toward Prince Rha?” Kurai asked Lucia. “Because of you?”
“Maybe,” Lucia replied with a cocky smile.
“Are you the one who convinced her to come and reconcile with him?” I asked.
“Well, we never really spoke about the prince, to be honest. But we talked a lot about love, friendship, and family. The queen is facing death, you know, and she knows that Prince Rha is the best heir to her throne. But who cares about the throne if he’s also her one and only family left, right?
” Lucia spread out her arms. “ Anyway, the queen has a lot of shit to unpack. And I’m no fucking therapist. But something must have clicked in her during the time we spent together, because she decided to come here for a visit with her son. ”
“Well.” Ciana perked up optimistically. “It’ll be good for them to spend some time together.”
“Meanwhile, you’ll get a break from all those therapy sessions too,” I said. “Talking about other people’s problems can be exhausting.”
“Sometimes it does get too much,” Lucia agreed.
“But honestly? I really like hanging out with the queen. For one, it sure beats staying in the sarai. Two, I get the best of everything, food, clothes, jewelry, anything I ask for and more. But I also never had a grandma and never knew my mom. So it’s kind of nice to have an older, smarter woman to talk to.
The queen may be centuries old, but her mind is sharp like a knife, I tell you.
So smart, it’s scary. She’s been teaching me a lot of neat things not just about Alveari, but about life in general too. ”
A palace guard approached us.
“Lady Lucia,” he said. “Her Majesty Queen Abeille is worried about you and wishes to have you at her side.” He then turned to the rest of us. “All of you are also invited to join Prince Rha for the welcoming celebration meal.”
Lucia ran her hands down her pretty mint-green dress, then shook out her long red locks.
“Well, the job of queen’s favorite is a demanding one.” She smiled. “Actually, it’s the best job I’ve ever had, and I want to keep it. I should go, but we have to get together sometime, maybe later tonight?”
“How long are you staying in Teneris?” Ciana asked.
Lucia shrugged. “As long as the queen stays, I guess. Which may be for a while. She even brought her bees with her, so she’s clearly planning on sticking around. Unless she and the prince get into a fight, of course.”
“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” I said quickly.
I didn’t know either the prince or the queen well, but I wished them both a happy reconciliation and peace to the whole of Alveari.
After hugging Ciana and me again, and making us all promise to get together again soon, Lucia followed the guard into the palace to join her powerful royal friend.
“Alright, let’s not leave the royalty waiting then.” Ciana threaded her arm through the crook of Kurai’s elbow.
I gestured for the guards to come over to carry Timur’s chair. He groaned softly, and I assumed he disliked having to depend on other people to carry him around. Even in his old chair, when he couldn’t yet fly, he’d had more independence than this.
When I turned to him, however, I realized we had a different problem to deal with. Soft golden glow filtered through the dark material of his skirt. It tented in the front with his rising cock and undulated slightly with the feelers of his cluster coming back to life under it.
“Oh no,” Ciana gasped with alarm. “It looks like you have a situation on your hands.” She yanked Kurai’s arm. “We need to do something. Quickly.”
“It’s mating fever,” Kurai said with a knowing nod. “We’ll find you a room.”
Timur leaned back in the chair, stretching out his shoulders as if waking up from a long sleep.
“No need,” he said, opening the clasp of his cloak. “I’ll fly us back home.”
“Fly?” Ciana gaped, along with Kurai and the guards, as Timur shrugged off his cloak, straightened in the chair, and unfurled his massive wings.
“Well, um…” Kurai scratched his neck above the gold collar of the Joy Guardian, a million of unasked questions written on his handsome face.
“Timur is only partially a fae,” I gave a brief explanation. The rest could wait until we had more time to talk. “His mating fever actually started a day ago. He was just able to control it enough for us to come and show our respect for the queen.”
Kurai’s green eyes opened wider as he stared at Timur with shock and even something like reverence. “You can control it?”
Ciana looked at Timur’s face, which I had to admit would look rather striking to anyone seeing it for the first time.
“Who are you really?” she marveled.
A ghost of a smile played on Timur’s lips as he seemed to ponder her question for a moment.
“I’m a fae,” he said. “And a virutu dragon. I’m Prince Rha’s general and a new resident of Teneris. I am many things. But first and foremost, I’m Elaine’s mate. And right now, I need her above all else.”
His great wings beat the air, lifting him off the chair. The wind they created blew back our hair and clothes. Timur swept me into his arms and off the ground.
“Say goodbye to Dawn and Prince Rha for us please.” I waved at Ciana and Kurai as my fantastic man carried me up into the sky with all of Teneris watching us from below. “You’ve just plunged the entire city into shock.” I laughed into the wind rushing by my face.
Timur snuggled me into his chest. “Let them watch. I’m done hiding.”
He kissed my neck, and I hooked my legs around his hips. My core pressed against his straining cock, sending a hot wave of arousal through my body.
“Take me home,” I murmured, melting into his embrace.
Because finally, we had a real home, Timur and I. The home that we’d made together.