Page 16 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
The queen lazed back, her hand reaching for the bowl of dried fruits again as if she only half cared if her fingers found their prize.
She looked over me then in a way I’d never seen before. Her eyes drifted over me, drinking me in slowly, taking me in like a puzzle she didn’t know until this very moment that she needed to solve. It was disarming enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Her hate, her scathing glance, felt more natural than the way she looked at me now.
“My daughter …” she started again, her voice as slow and syrup-laced as the look that finally rose to look into my face. For a second, the queen’s lips parted but her words faltered. When her voice once more croaked from the back of her throat, it was half broken. “All this time, and the girl I raised as my own was not my real daughter.”
Her eyelids drooped slightly, the irises darkening as she allowed herself to be lost in thought for a moment. “Forgive me if this isn’t the joyous reunion you hoped for. I know I should be grateful for the daughter I’ve gained, but in reality … I can’t help but feel the pain of the one I’ve just lost.”
That, it seemed, was where Shiel finally lost his own composure. I felt his hands grip the back of the chair behind me so tight the wood started to crack and splinter.
“You really sit here, now, and complain about the loss of achangeling?” he asked, anger running so deep in his voice that it came out more like a growl.
“And not just any changeling, but one that you—” Finch’s voice followed, only to be drowned out moments before revealing too much.
“One that you were ready to defend above your own flesh and blood?” Zev finished for him, his own baritone dangerously low—though only we knew that danger was reserved for Finch, and not the queen that lounged before us, still.
“Forgive me again then, for wishing to hold on to the last remaining remnant of my family,” the queen spat back. “Or have you not heard yet?”
It took me a second to understand what she meant, and even though I’d known the news she referred to for some time now, for some reason, it hit me differently now. Standing here before the mother who never wanted me and realizing that the father who might have felt differently had only recently passed into oblivion, felt like a loss I’d never known before.
It was different, even, than when I lost Ada—maybe only because in a way, she’d already returned to me. My father, on the other hand, never could.
“The king is dead.” My answer was deadpan, emotionless in the sea of emotion that was threatening to drown me, but still it struck the queen as if I’d shouted it at her. Her eyes closed for just a second and she flinched back, and for a second, at least in that we were bonded. “We know.”
The queen nodded, unsurprised.
“Few know, but that won’t last long. We were waiting to announce it until my daughter—” her voice caught for a second before she composed herself enough to continue again. “Until Fauna manifested the gift. Now, though, it seems we know why it was taking so long.”
We sized each other up for a moment, and for that single, brief moment, I felt a companionship with her—right up until I remembered the one, vital, truth at the core of all this.
She knew all along.
This was all lies. All a part of the game.
Remembering that, at least, sobered me.
“So, what now?” I asked, knowing the question was too blunt and not being able to bring myself to truly care.
“Now,” Eckhardt’s voice echoed out from over our shoulders, causing all heads to turn towards him. “We work together to usher in the next era of this kingdom’s rule.”
I started slightly at the sound of my uncle’s voice, and then again when I saw what he’d brought with him.Who,he’d brought.
The changeling princess Fauna half-stumbled, half-dragged her feet behind a pair of unarmed, unarmored guards at either of her shoulders.
Her hands and feet were bound and her mouth gagged—and from the state of her, it was clear why. Scratch marks marred the skin of her arms and face, which, from the bloody remnants of fingernails that even now clawed at the backs of her own hands, had been her own doing. Her eyes rolled wildly in their sockets, the whites turned bloodshot, taking in the room with that same fevered hunger that had overtaken her the moment I made my command.
It was clear she was still on the quest to take her own life, as I’d instructed her to—and without the ability to comply, she’d grown more desperate by the hour.
How long had it been since I issued that command? How long had those hours dragged on with no one to lift it? How long had those marks marred her skin? Fae healed quickly, faster than humans—so did this mean she wasn’t fae at all? Or, worse, were those all fresh marks?
Whatever the truth was, there was one thing I knew for certain.
This was my doing.
The sight of the changeling princess brought a new layer of tension to the already heavy air. I could feel the anger and fear radiating from her, even through the gag. Her rage seeped through her very being, radiated through the rattle of her bones. My heart ached for her, guilt washing through me in a nauseating rush. But I couldn’t let my sympathy cloud my judgement.
Not when she was still the imposter, still the creature that had stolen so much of my life from me. I didn’t know her part in it, if it was merely as another puppet, or if she knew what she’d been doing.
The queen visibly shrank back at the sight of her, despite her best efforts to hide it.
