Page 46 of Kissed the Mark
Part of my discomfort wasn’t related toFaerie, though I couldn’t pin why, or maybe I didn’t want to. Mystomach churned when Leandra name-dropped people I’d only heard ofin passing to the bookseller, when she made connections I had neverthought to make. But of course she was a literary person—her reallair had been filled with books. They couldn’t have all been forwhat little research existed about Viktor Lehmann.
The instinct to apologize made its way to mymouth, which I quickly clamped shut. I was too stubborn toapologize for something that I was embarrassed to put words to.
Before I knew where my feet had taken me, wewere through the upper bailey and standing before the main doors tothe castle, flanked on either side by a fairy knight. Leandrareached out and touched the dark purple plume protruding from thehelm of one, completely lacking self-consciousness. In response,the guard lifted his helm to reveal a set of eyes and a nose.“Olympia Carter!” he shouted, friendly.
“Freddie,” I said, the familiarity of hisface bringing me some minor comfort. Freddie and I had swum in theFaerie lakes together every summer. “Is my mother around?”
“Is your mother the Unseelie Queen?” Leandraasked under her breath. Her skin looked paler than usual.
I could’ve laughed. I didn’t answer thequestion, keeping her in suspense.
“Yes, she’s here,” Freddie said. “Should Itell her you’ve arrived?”
It wasn’t a question he would’ve asked ifI’d come alone. “Please do.” Freddie disappeared into thecastle.
“Olympia, I need to know what to expecthere. Please tell me if your mother is the Unseelie Queen,” Leandrasaid. The remaining guard snickered at her, metal chafing with theferocity of their chortle.
“She’s not,” I said.
“But your mother lives in the castle?”Leandra asked, her face tilting upward. The crenelated wall was sotall that it hardly seemed to ever end. “Are you Unseelienobility?”
My pants were torn and muddy, my hairmussed, my face scratched up from the recent battle. What about mescreamed “Unseelie nobility” to her?
“We’re kind of all nobility, if that makesany sense,” I explained. “There’s the Queen, and then there’s therest of us. Even her consort isn’t really considered high up on thefood chain. Service workers and servants are basically the same asanyone else here. It’s respectable work. And people always live atthe courts, wherever they are, like bees flocking to thequeen.”
“I guess I never thought about it,” Leandrasaid. “It’s interesting.”
“I’m sure it’s not something you were everintended to see.”
Her eyes flashed quickly to me, and thenaway. The gravity of how wrong it was for her to be here wasprobably sinking in. If Leandra was capable of looking nervous, herfidgeting certainly made it seem like she was now.
The tall door opened again with a groan ofwood. My mother, in her maidservant uniform, rushed forward to hugme. “Olympia! You couldn’t call? Tell me you were coming?” Shedidn’t spare Leandra a glance.
“Sorry, it was sort of short notice.”
Mom stepped back, examining me from head totoe. A crease line formed between her eyes—a considerable feat,looking at her, because she hardly appeared older than forty.“You’re here for shelter? Did you get in a dispute? Who is afteryou? What happened?” She expended no space between questions foractual answers, letting her panic seep into the environment aroundher. “Who is this?” Then, as though burned, she stepped back.“Vampire,” she hissed.
“Hi, Ms.—Mrs.? —Carter,” Leandra said,holding out her hand to shake. My mom did not take her up on theoffer.
“Olympia, what have you done?”
“Mom, can we come in? I can explain,” Isaid, though I wasn’t sure if that was entirely true.
For a second, I thought she’d say no. Theguards were still as statues, eavesdropping on every word of ourconversation. With how gossipy the court could be, I had no doubtthe news that Olympia Carter had returned to Faerie after yearswith a vampire in tow would be around the entire city bymorning.
My mother stopped a kitchen boy in theservant’s hall, gripping him by the arm and whispering intensely inhis ear. He looked about to piss himself. Leandra and I were quitethe sight—the vampire must have taken time to freshen herself up inthe airport bathroom, because her hair was flawless and there wasnot a drop of blood on her, but her clothes were torn with theeffects of battling a vampire as strong as Mateo Rivera.
I expected Mom to bring us to the Queen’schambers—she had an antechamber where she entertained requests likethis, or she did when I used to live here—but my mother took us toa parlor right on the ground floor near the grand staircase. Whenshe shut the door, jiggling the lock to ensure we couldn’t bedisturbed, she turned to us with fury lit in her eyes.
“What’s going on here?” she demanded.
“We’re being chased,” I said. “The vampirequeen’s out to get me, and the vampires have all turned onLeandra.”
“Leandra,” my mother said, scrunching hernose, as though she was unimpressed with the name itself. “You’regoing to assert that you did absolutely nothing to cause this?”
My thoughts stilled. I didn’t have a way ofexplaining the mess we’d gotten into, that was admittedly mostlyLeandra’s fault. “Leandra doesn’t want to be part of vampirepolitics anymore,” I said. I was shocked to see Leandra’s demeanornext to me as she demurely eyed the ground.
“Ma’am,” she said, “I didn’t mean to causeany trouble, but they’ve been attacking me because I did somethingthat undermined their power, and they’re going after your daughterby association. I’m very sorry. We seek shelter, if you will giveit to us.” Like a chastised child, she raised her gaze only whenshe finished talking. The effect was astounding.
