Page 13 of Fae Reckoning

“Plus, ye’re the daughter of Odelia n’ the king,” Edsel said.

“The true heir of Embermere and the whole o’ the Mirror World, some might even say,” Roan added.

My scowl deepened. I had very little idea how to use whatever magic I possessed. It was as new to me as the realization that, yes, Iwasostensibly the true heir to the throne. I hadn’t asked for the role, and I sure as shit wasn’t prepared for it, but I was the best chance we currently had. It meant our odds of long-term survival were dismal at best.

Tilting up my chin, I straightened my shoulders and pretended I didn’t have a dragonling lapping up my blood because I’d been foolish enough to put myself in range of a killer flower. “I don’t know much more about what I can do than you do,” I announced with a resigned sigh. “But whatever it takes to save us all and kill the queen, I’m in. Until there’s nothing left of me.”

The ensuing silence was loud until awaawaaabroke it.

“So what do we do next?” I asked. “Other than take them with us, obviously.” I glanced at Ramana and how verywrongshe looked. If anything, her eyes only glowed redder still. I gulped. We’d have to hope notonly that the queen wouldn’t find and kill us all before we could stop her, but also that Ramana and the others were safe to keep around us. How far did the queen’s interference reach? Almost certainlytoo far. “Then start traveling from point to point on my map, freeing everyone we can? Hmmm, our group will keep getting bigger, harder to hide. And how do we even disconnect them from the queen’s hold? If we take them with us?—”

West growled.

“Sincewe’ll be taking them with us,” I amended, “how do we keep the queen from knowing where we are through them?”

“She’s already got Az, lassie,” Roan answered. “He can find ya just as well.”

I swallowed again, the lump in my throat feeling a lot like panic. “So we need to get out of here. Maybe I can go, leaving some of you at different spots to free whomever she’s got at them, and then I’ll keep moving on with some of you. We’ll go faster that way.”

“I’m staying with you wherever you go,” Xeno said in a deep grumble that brooked no argument.

I nodded. “And I’ve gotta get to Rush. I need him for the map.”

That, of course, was an excuse. I did indeed need him to most easily access the map—or at least, I thought I did. Regardless, what I most needed was Rushfor me. I needed my mate at my side to settle the beast that couldn’t be sure she was safe until he was. The beast that had growled at the contestants of the Nuptialis Probatio until I’d learned how to muzzle her. Deepinside me, the beast wasn’t settled; she was snarling and thrashing and roaring—desperate to reunite with Rush.

For all their earlier restraint, everyone who could speak did so all at once. I ignored the rest to listen to Hiro, who was saying, “We’ll go with you to find Rush. He’s probably still at the palace?—”

Xeno interrupted with a snarled, “She’s not going to the palace. It’s too dangerous.”

“Yes, Mistress,” Pru agreed, wringing her hands in a way I hadn’t seen since she was first assigned as my attending goblin.

As Pru and Edsel shuffled closer and Pru’s big, dark, pupil-less eyes implored me not to return to the den of the viper, I renewed my vow to kill the queen for Pru. My goblin friend had only just begun to relax into some confidence, and now all that progress appeared lost.

“It will be off with your head, Mistress,” Pru said, blinking away the sudden sheen to her eyes. “Pru doesn’t want that.”

I sighed and took a step toward her. Xeno shadowed my moves. Ignoring Xeno’s large presence, I dipped my head low to meet her stare. She tipped her head up to mine.

“Pru,” I said softly. “Remember, call meElowyn. We’refriends. Friends call each other by their names.” It was, arguably, the least of our issues.

She shuddered when I slid Saffron to one hip to press my free hand to her small shoulder. From her side, Edsel watched on with open wonder. Zafifeigned continued interest in her nails while glancing up at our interaction from under her lashes.

“Mistress … Elowyn,” Pru said. “You can’t die, not now. Not when?—”

Bolt snorted, tossed his head, and pawed at the dirt floor.

Swiftly, we silenced. Even Bertram held back hiswaawaas.

“If you finally know where she is, Azariah,” came a damning, disembodied voice that chilled my very blood, “after an unreasonable time to find one silly, foolish girl, then what’s the delay now?”

The queen sounded as if she were in the room with us. Thank sunshine she wasn’t.

Eyes wide with alarm, we exchanged frantic looks. She’d found us. Or rather, Azariah had. It was a guess, but I suspected a good one, that the unisus was trying to give us a warning.

The murderous queen was coming.

There’d be no outrunning her, not with her preternaturally enhanced speed once she was within pursuing distance. The only way to throw her off our trail was to use the map again—and to hope with a desperation I despised that it would work. Once again, the lives of every person and creature I cared about depended on me and my fumbling use of my newfound powers.

“If you’re delaying to help them,” the queen said from somewhere I hoped was very far away, “you’ll pay,pegicorn. I’ll take your head and mount it next to the dragons’.”

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