Page 41 of Fae Champion

“She doesn’t know all that we’re trying to do,” Hiroshi said.

“How could she not? She’s despicable, obviously, but she’s smart. She must know once she crowns one of you prince heir you’ll just turn around and kill her.”

Hiroshi scratched at his partially empty sleeve as if the limb growing beneath, with its new, itchy flesh, were causing him discomfort. “Yes, well, Rush isn’t the only one she’s figured out how to control.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“Meaning we don’t have time to get into all this now.” Rush’s breath rustled my hair, wet and loose. “Elowyn has to get out of here before there’s no chance of it. I’m going to check on Roan. Surely he’s secured the new escape route by now.”

“No,” I said. “I have a better idea.” It wasn’t so much an idea as a fuzzy sketch of one, but all four warriors faced me in anticipation.

“West never refers to my lady parts again unless he wants a one-two of my knees to his balls”—he opened his mouth; I barreled on—“and we pretend Rush apprehended me to keep me from escaping. That way Rush remains the queen’s favorite. West, if I understood you correctly, you can’t change the evidence around my cell now that it’s been found, but could you distort things so it’s plausible that Rush could’ve been following the queen’s orders? And I don’t know how, but do something about Finnian and Reed being there too?”

Ryder and Hiroshi turned toward West. Rush’s silver eyes burned the side of my face, seeking myattention, but I wouldn’t give him the chance to talk me out of it. Not when he’d pay such a steep price for my escape.

West appeared thoughtful for several moments. “I mean, I could try. But no guarantees the queen won’t kill you anyway.”

“That’s where the second part of my plan comes in. Rush takes me to the queen and king together.”

“They’re only together when they have to be,” Hiroshi said.

“What about the Hall of Mirrors? Has the king been going to the parties?”

“Yeah,” Ryder answered. “He’s still pasty and weak from the poisoning, and he spends the entire time sitting on his throne, but he’s there.”

“Excellent.”

“How’s that excellent?” West asked. “In case you hadn’t noticed, the queen’ll have no problem killing you there. It’s not like she doesn’t love a crowd.”

“Yes, but she won’t, not if the king’s there.”

West snorted. “The man’s got the balls of a toddler.”

“Agreed, but that man with the toddler balls happens to be my father, and he seems to want to keep me alive.”

“That’s a sworn secret, El,” Rush admonished. “The king might be soft next to the queen, but he won’t hold back when he finds out we broke our promises.”

“Nope, you’re the only one who swore to keep his secret. As far as I can tell, I owe the man nothing,unless you count having me kidnapped and brought to this shithole in the first place, and I sure as dragonfire don’t.”

“You’re the king’s daughter?” Hiroshi asked, interrupting what I now realized was their stunned silence.

“Yep. Just found out recently myself.”

“Then who’s your mother?” Ryder asked. “Please tell me it’s not the queen…”

“Don’t know who my mom is. The king wants to tell me who she is, but the queen figured that out and hasn’t let me get close to him since.”

“If the queen doesn’t want you to know, you’ll never find out,” West said.

I smiled sadly at how easily this strong drake accepted defeat after a lifetime of abuse by the queen. “I never say never. I’m extremely determined when I wanna be. Hmm, what would happen if I tell everyone I’m the king’s daughter? Would that help? Now that the queen’s whole Zinnia charade’s over, and Braque’s spell that kept me from saying what I wanted is gone, I could tell everyone how not ‘distant’ of a relative of the king’s I really am.”

“That’d make you a target for whatever assassin’s going around killing nobles,” Rush said. “If everyone realizes you’re a royal, it’ll put you head of the line.”

“I thought it was only the queen’s bloodline that mattered.”

“That depends on what the assassin’s goal is.”

“And it’s not any of you?”

---