Page 49 of Fae Crown

The queen’s eyes took on a bored glaze, and Natania gestured animatedly as she rushed on before seeming to notice her nervous tell, and clasped her fingers tightly in front of her misshapen skirts.

“Little sooner than I was through the doorway, I encountered an awful band of feethles who were so ravenous I’m certain they forgot they’re sometimes people. They were commoners, had to’ve been. No changeling at court would behave like they did, gnashing and growling at me as they were.”

Natania shuddered, and I was left wondering whether it was for theatrics or if she was really this shaken to face a pack of changelings when she kept company with the likes of the queen.

“Then a sneakle snuck up on me?—”

“It is what they’re known for doing,” the queen added in a lackadaisical tone which wouldn’t have been alarming save for its speaker.

“Oh yes, yes, Your Majesty. ‘Tis true. But this onebit me.” Natania’s brow rose as if to say,Can you believe it? The nerve of the thing!

If something so insignificant as a sneakle bite could so fluster the female, she wouldn’t last a day as ruler of Embermere. Surely the queen must know it too.

“Next there was a snake, who was actually quite polite.”

Based on the queen’s sudden scowl, the snake wasn’t supposed to have been. I suspected she’d soon again be serving roasted serpent in the Hall of Mirrors.

“There were quite a lot of animals trying to scare me. But for the most part, it wasn’t too bad.” She tipped her chin up until her coiled hair started to slide, then she hurried to return to neutral, and moved stiffly afterward. There was always a chance the queen would punish Natania for her unkempt appearance in her presence, regardless of the reason for it.

“Well, except for a pair of numenits. They were truly awful.” She rubbed at the skin around her bite. “They threw rocks at me and pulled my hair and clothing. They pinched me something ferocious, but at least they didn’t bite me.”

Thenumenitswere fairies slightly smaller than the goblins but with equally disagreeable temperaments. If pinch her was the worst they’d done, Natania had been fortunate.

“I was brave, Your Majesty,” Natania insisted in an unwavering voice, and Azariah and I shared a look that was nearly an eyeroll on both our parts. “They didn’t shake me. And the meadow, that was truly lovely.”

The queen studied her hands, tipping them in thedirection of the windows so a black diamond the width of her finger could catch the light.

When the queen appeared to study her nails next, Natania fidgeted, hesitantly asking, “Is there anything else Her Majesty would like me to address? So she can complete her judgment of me and award my points?”

The queen’s gaze snapped sharply to hers, as if she’d somehow forgotten the female was there. “No, that’s it. You’re excused. Join the others for the exhibit.”

Natania opened her mouth, reconsidered, bowed, backed up toward the door without turning, and slipped out into the hallway with a final wary glance at the queen. Her footfalls picked up speed until she was running away.

The queen smirked. “How … trite,” she finally settled on and shared a meaningful look with Ivar. Braque frowned in displeasure at being left out and shifted closer to his precious queen in two steps of his stubby, stockinged legs.

She leaned back on her throne and summoned a goblin, who openly ran to her side with a laden tray at the ready. While she sipped from a noticeably opaque silver goblet she, Ivar, Braque, Azariah, and I silently waited for the next contestant to emerge from a threshold. The unmistakable hue of blood crusted at the corner of her lips, and her eyes, usually a disconcertingly bright sky-blue, gleamed with a sheen of … very faint … crimson.

She blinked and the effect disappeared, making me question whether I’d imagined it all along. The queenwas villain enough on her own without my imagining additional wrongs.

It took the length of time for the queen to drain her goblet and gesture for more before another contestant stumbled out from a door. Two others followed soon after.

In and out went the competitors from the two doorways on either end. The one in the middle, the one Elowyn had walked through, never varied.

The more princess contenders cycled through those other four doors, the more firmly I trained my focus on the center one.

As a whole, the ladies’ reactions became predictable: harried, frightened, and frazzled, but relieved to have survived the first event of the Nuptialis Probatio relatively unscathed. Their stories were equally unsurprising: they encountered a variety of idyllic scenarios, all reflecting their home clan typographies, while they were approached by mostly unfriendly faefolk.

With each retelling, the queen cut off the contestants earlier, until the nineteenth one had opportunity only to mention the claw marks on her arm were from anumenitwho wore a bear paw braced against a wrist.

“Where’s Elowyn? Why hasn’t she come back yet?”

Every single fae in that room had fully turned to face me before I understood that I’d voiced my thoughts aloud. I brushed off the outburst that was so unlike me with an affected shrug. “I apologize for my abruptness, Your Majesty. You have me enthralled withthe well-engineered tension of the unknown you’ve developed in this trial.”

I hoped that didn’t sound as stupid to her as it did to me, and added, “It’s been a long time since she left.”

The queen’s attention on me was too piercing, and I silently chastised myself for my recklessness. Elowyn and I had only just met, but already I sensed there was the chance of an important, meaningful connection between us.

The queen thrived on finding people to threaten to guarantee my continued cooperation. By omitting her title and calling her simplyElowyn, I’d put a target on the woman’s back, when all she’d done since I met her was stand up to and defy the queen—impressive though highly foolish—and offer me a desperate comfort in the queen’s bed.

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