Page 12 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
They’d seen where my attention shifted, but before they could do anything about it, the words poured out of me.
They were wrapped with that strange power, unmistakable now.
“If you are an imposter, then it’s time you put yourself out of your misery.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Those turquoise eyes bored into mine blinking slowly, bottom lip quivering for a long series of second until, suddenly, she turned and lunged for the tip of Eckhardt’s sword, now drawn. She nearly impaled herself on it, too, before he had the sense to draw it back.
When that failed, her eyes grew wide in desperation as she reached for the knife strapped to his side, then, wailing, tried to throw herself from the edge of the throne towards Zev and his sword point, next.
Eckhardt and the other guards had fully caught on to what was happening now, however, and soon more than one pair of hands was holding her in place, simultaneously struggling to keep her from grabbing any of the many weapons attached to their persons while at the same time trying to stop her from throwing herself off of, onto, or bashing herself into anything.
It was the queen’s voice that finally rang out above the clatter of armor and muffled grunts that came along with her guard’s efforts.
She strode off the dais now, headed straight toward me. I felt Shiel bristle at my side and the other two close in with each step that she took.
“End this, now!”
Her eyes burned into mine, fury painting her face a deep purple. Gone was that perfectly curated, stoic mask.
But she held no power over me, now.
Just as I no longer held my own.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, slumping into Zev’s waiting arms. “I’ve no power left.”
Rage, pure and hot, flashed in the queen’s eyes, and for a moment I saw her lips part, saw her readied to make the order—but then she saw what I saw. She saw how half the guard had frozen. Their eyes were on me, the look on their faces shifting now, too, as they understood what they’d just witnessed. Slowly, as I looked on, their posture straightened, their feet tilted, and they turned their attention—and the loyalty that commanded—to me.
Whether or not the queen had intended to keep her end of the bargain, there was only one choice for her now.
Her eyes were dead when she once again looked to me, her anger still not fully masked beneath the careful expression now stretching across her face.
It was not she who spoke, however. Her lips were pinched together so tight that I didn’t think she had the ability to, that if she did, nothing but vile hate would spew from between them.
So, instead, Eckhardt stepped up. He left the imposter still struggling to follow my order with his men and bowed low when he came to stand before me, too.
“Welcome to the Eastern Court, Your Highness.” He stopped for a moment and summed me up, a new look, one I didn’t fully understand slowly stretching across his face. “A new era is upon us, it seems, as much as we’ve tried to avoid it.”
CHAPTERFIVE
I didn’t fully understandwhat my uncle meant. Whatever era he’d referred to, it would have to wait—at least as long as it took me to recover.
Temporary quarters were offered to me and my guests while more suitable ones were prepared, or at least, that’s what the boys told me as I collapsed into the first thing that even vaguely resembled a mattress. I was slightly surprised when no doctors came to tend to me, and then even more surprised to learn upon waking that they had—only that they’d not been able to wake me when they tried.
Though, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Not when I learned that it was not the next morning that I’d awoken at all, when they told me this, but nearly a week later.
I’d drained more life from myself than I thought.
Upon first inspection, my body had recovered, the skin of my fingers glowing a tender pale pink. The restored skin stretched all the way up my fingers, well past the blackened tips that I remembered. That last spell, the one that had drawn power from the dredges I’d not thought existed, must have dragged that black color further up my arms. Just looking down at the pink skin served as a reminder of the pain that had wracked through me the last time I’d scraped the wells of my magic, already dry, until I’d found those final remnants that sealed my fate here at the Eastern Court.
Atmycourt … and sealed only for now.
I had no fantasy that whatever lay before me now was going to be easy. I’d seen the look on my mother’s face when that stoic mask of hers finally slipped, but more than that, I’d heard the words the Oracle had spoken.
I knew the truth of how I’d come to be exchanged for that imposter princess that wore my face, so try as my mother might to play innocent, this was all a game to her, too. Another game … this one maybe even more wily than whatever Icarus played at.
At last, my stirring in the bed drew hurried footsteps to my side.
