Page 84 of Fae Crown

“He’ll announce the magic binding all of us dissolved. And the rule of Embermere will continue as it was always intended.”

No mention of her precious deceased Prince Heir Saturn, I couldn’t help but notice.

My poor friend. He hadn’t stood a chance against his mother. He’d lived on borrowed time since the moment he first drew breath outside her putrid womb.

“You’ll all be free to return to your usual lives. Here at court,” the queen added, in case any of us dared believe we’d be trulyfree.

“None of you have proven you deserve it. But some of you at least have not betrayed me. So, to mark theend of the trials, I’ve arranged for one final bit of entertainment.”

“So generous of my queen,” Braque said.

She didn’t so much as glance at him. He pouted before composing himself and patting his potions satchel as if to reassure himself that he, too, was powerful.

The queen swiveled in her throne to single me out with another of her creepy grins. “Actually, I’ll rephrase. The entertainment I’ve arranged is exactly whatyoudeserve.”

Mutely, I stared back at her until she again faced forward. Then my heart resumed its beating, pounding too fast.

By a dragon’s spilled blood, what had I done?

In a furious flash, the faces of my loved ones flitted by, too fast for me to hold on to:

West, Hiroshi, Ryder.

Larissa.

Elowyn.

Perhaps my parents.

Ramana, already gone.

Or someone like Gadiel.

Elowyn. By the Ethers, it would be Elowyn.

Ivar had found her. The queen would try to kill her in front of me. I’d try to kill the queen, and then Elowyn and I would both be dead.

My mate would be gone before?—

The sunlight beyond the wall of windows suddenly dimmed—the queen’s power, I realized. She’d neverbefore been powerful enough to affect the weather without extreme displays of emotion.

Then again, she’d never been fuckingimmortalbefore.

Lumoons surged to life in bobbing lines around the stage.

The lilac-gray gossamer fell from where it had floated, sliding into silent heaps on the floor.

And there, at the center of the wooden platform, where no one had been minutes before … stood my sister.

The one I hadn’t yet let down.

Naked and trembling, she stood with bloodstained rings pierced through swollen, red nipples. Feathers of the trufy bird—perhaps even the identical ones the queen had sent me—hung from the rings to cup Larissa’s small breasts.

Not even a single feather, however, concealed the rose hair that marked the apex of her thighs. The queen hadn’t afforded my sweet, gentle sister even that modesty.

No, I corrected. The queen hadn’t affordedmethat modesty. What she’d done to my ethereal-like sister was because ofme.

Larissa was paying the price for my fruitless rebellion.

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