Page 56 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
The council room existed just above the throne room, so that both of their windows faced towards the east. I imagined, in times when the court gathered down below, that you could hear the rumbling of their whispers, the tremor of their many footsteps.
All there was now, however, was silence.
At the far end of the room was a small balcony that overlooked another courtyard, this one stretching from one side of the castle to the other along the edge of the sea. The eastern sun still hung low enough to cast a silver morning glow around the silhouette of the one fae standing before us.
The chamber was dominated by a square table in the center, formed by the same white limestone as the white walls of this mausoleum of a castle. A compass rose had been carved into the middle each point designating a seat at the table for each court.
Two of the seats were empty, but it was the second occupied seat that first made uncertainty stab deep inside me.
Seated in the Southern Court’s chair was not Lady Phyrra, the queen’s sister and rightful lady of the court, but a stranger. Then, before Shiel could seat himself in his own seat, his advisor stepped up and took it instead.
That was when every nerve in my body froze.
“What is this?” Shiel demanded, his hand automatically reaching for the sword strapped to his side. He didn’t have time to draw his blade before a second figure, Princess Fauna, stepped out from the queen’s shadow and fixed him with a glare.
“Lay down your weapons.”
It took me a second to realize what she was playing at.
What was this? Some farce? Was she really pretending she hadmyglamour?
A laugh had half clawed its way up my throat before it died, instead.
To my horror, I watched as not only Shiel, but Zev and Finch stopped in their tracks, their hands frozen on the hilt of their weapons for a long moment. They remained there, unmoving, as if they fought with an invisible enemy.
I could sense the fear emanating from them, and I knew that something had gone terribly wrong. I stood there, staring at them in shock. I couldn’t believe that they had been so easily subdued. Was Princess Fauna actually controlling them somehow? That was impossible.
She turned her gaze towards me, and I felt a chill run down my spine.
Unless … of course.
Princess Fauna might not be the heir to the throne like she pretended to be, but she was an Eastern Court Fae.
A fae that, up until a couple months ago, had no glamour. A fae that could now channel the same dark glamour that had left both Icarus and I blackened and burned, without the same trouble.
My head snapped back to stare at the princess, but that was my mistake. I should have been watching the queen. By the time I’d fully understood the stakes of the tableau playing out, one of the guards lunged forward and struck me hard in the center of my back, knocking the wind from me.
At the same second, the doors flew open and more guards poured in, their hands roughly grabbing Shiel, Zev, and Finch at my side. Silver flashed as their hands were put in cuffs, and before I could summon my next breath, and with it my own glamour to protect us, silver flashed before my eyes too.
I was not cuffed however. No, the queen made sure I wasn’t treated with any such dignity. The hands that reached for me didn’t take my hands, they instead grabbed me by my shoulders, metal snaking around my throat as I was collared instead, the metal tightening around my skin until it made me choke.
Still, I managed to draw the smallest of breaths, a half breath really, and reached for my glamour before they could make their next move.
Only, when I reached for it this time, I couldn’t find it.
I couldn’t find … anything.
The hands that had collared me grabbed me and held be firm as I choked at more breath, reaching and reaching only to repeatedly find only emptiness.
It wasn’t that the well within me had been run dry, it wasn’t there at all. Panic flooded through me. I had never felt so powerless before. It was as if I was stripped of everything that made me fae.
I didn’t understand what was happening to me, but as my head lifted to look at the queen and the smug princess at her side, again, I knew one thing, at least.
I’d been right.
I’d guessed this might be part of the queen’s plan.
But why act now? Why such urgency? The council was set to meet in a week, already. Why call them early? Was it really the riots? The talk of rebellion?
