Page 18 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
I was wrong, what she offered next was not what I expected at all. It disarmed me, and though I knew it was dangerous to allow it, I couldn’t help it.
“You will be crowned soon, Aurra, mark my words,” the queen said, head bowing slightly as her gaze intensified. “But If we can buy some time before then, push off the inevitable shock that will follow news of the king’s death, then we might at least be able to stem the flow of that blood, if not stop it entirely.”
My eyes narrowed for a second as I took in what they said.
“Buy some time?” I asked. “What do you mean by that?”
She took a short breath. “This is what I propose … but first … if you wouldn’t mind, mydaughter… lift this curse you’ve placed on your twin. I know you wish her gone, but the crown isn’t finished with Princess Fauna yet. She still has a part to play for some weeks yet.”
CHAPTERSEVEN
The queenand Eckhardt and been busy.
They said nothing at all that day in the salon, and at the same time, all too much.
Their words were the flowery words of the fae, practiced word-weaving meant to lead me astray, the proposal they made so simple and straightforward that it surely it couldn’t be either.
But it also made sense, and that was why I had no choice but to accept it.
The queen’s proposal had been this:
Life in the castle would appear to go on as normal.
For two weeks, I would study night and day beneath a tutor to learn my place in this court, while she and Eckhardt prepared the guard for whatever may come once the announcement of the king’s death—and my ascension—broke.
In the meantime, I would place a glamour over the castle to protect us.
It sounded simple enough, straightforward enough, but it very soon became apparent why it was not at all.
First of all, the glamour I was carefully instructed to place, drained every ounce of magic in me once again. It was no small feat the queen asked me to perform, one that left me so lethargic in the wake of its casting, that I had no energy left to argue the particulars of the rest of my bargain.
I didn’t fall into a useless slumber as I had before, but it was all I could do to begin the studies I’d promised to dedicate myself to.
They began at once.
However, as the days progressed, it was not the curse I was instructed to lift over Fauna that came to bother me in the coming days. It was the one I was commanded to place, instead.
With the king dead, the only true instruction I could expect in using my gift, the Tongues, could come from those who had most often seen him use it. And unfortunately it seemed there were not many.
The king had been private in his use of the power, and I understood why. I’d experienced firsthand its power, that it didn’t need the fae it was aimed to affect to be in my presence. So, why then, would the king risk exposing himself by using it in front of his subjects except when he had to?
The queen was the only fae who’d seem him use it more than a handful of times over the years he’d reigned—a useful detail that she was keen to remind me of as she carefully laid out the exact words I should use to bind the court. More than that, she instructed me how to layer multiple commands so that they fell over the inhabitants of the castle at once, and so that—if the time came that we needed it—we could lift part of the spell I’d cast instead of all of it.
This was part of her strategy too, I knew. It gave her life value to me, well beyond my ascension to the throne.
She made sure, as I cast the glamour as instructed, that I knew I needed her.
By having me bind my court with a powerful glamour, she’d ensured her own power over me, protected her place at my side. At the very least, she’d made sure that I wouldn’t thoughtlessly dispose of her. Not when I knew, from the careful way she instructed me, there was far more she held back about my glamour then she actually chose to share.
I didn’t mind. I had my own secrets, too.
I knew that I’d learn my powers faster with her help, but I also knew the glamour had a way of revealing itself to me without the need for instruction. I already knew far more about my gift then she could possibly guess.
The queen’s plan made sense, but that didn’t stop Shiel’s warnings from ringing in my ears. My mother was sure to have a plan, and this was just the beginning. This would give the queen and Eckhardt time to try and find a way to push me out, I knew, but what was my alternative? To take the throne and my crown by force with my glamour instead?
I had no desire for bloodshed. I already worried enough about the prophecy that had been not only spoken over me, but given to Icarus to remind me of, too. I was buying the queen time, sure, but I was buying myself time, too.
And two weeks, what was two weeks in the grand scheme of things?
