by A. K. Koonce
Lincoln restrains himself as the men tug him forward. He is assured in every graceful movement, strong in the chording muscles of his jaw, fierce with the stern stare of his eyes.
I catch myself much quicker than my old body would have and lift my chin in defiance. I give the crowd my attention and watch the idea of having a new queen play out in their thoughts.
"You know the deal," Cordelia starts. "It's very clear that the girl is now very much...Shadow Fae, but I need to know from whom she was born. The specifics. I want to end this once and for all."
"What about him?" Zeve focuses on Lincoln. "He obviously isn't this Mortal Queen you're so fearful of.
"I'm not scared of the Mortal Queen." Cordelia takes a step closer to Zeve, who only gives her an amused grin before she herself takes another step closer to the queen. "She's a nuisance that needs to be dealt with. And as for the half-breed, he's a traitor. I'll end his life after he gets to watch his bitch die."
I know Cordelia means for her words to be cutting, or heartfelt in any way, but all I can think about is the fact that I'm Lincoln's bitch. Like damn, we're finally an item and Cordelia's about to slit my throat. So, it isn't so much an insult as it is exciting.
I toss Lincoln a soft smile. From my view inside his head, I know that he knows how I'm looking at him but he remains focused on Zeve.
"Shall I begin?" Zeve sighs.
"Yes, but one more thing." The queen spins on her heel, flicking her skirt behind her. Her head held high, her shoulders relaxed, and a content smile on her face. This is the ending she's been waiting for. "To ensure that you play nice with the seer, I have my guards at the ready." She points back to her throne.
Stomping footfalls make the rhyme of a song, an arguing male voice the lyrics. The queen's yes-men bring Jase forward and force him to his knees on her dais. Surprisingly, he looks more annoyed than scared. Perhaps at this point, I've gotten him out of so many messes he still has some sort of confidence I can get him out of this one.
This isn't one of those times, Jase. I don't think I can pull this one off. Cordelia isn't some jerk picking on you because your mother was a drug addict, or my foster mother who caught you stealing. I can't talk us out of this one.
"Now, be a good little kitten and hold still for the seer." The edge of her nail digs into the skin of my chin as she pinches me with a small shake.
"No, I want the man first." Zeve crosses her arms.
"Lincoln? I don't need his mind looked into."
"Yes. Lincoln," she says his name as if it's a foreign language, "first. Or neither of them at all."
"Fine."
Bare skinned guards muscle Lincoln forward. Golden eyes, sparked with the zealous flame of life, stare into my soul as he speaks. "I won't let anything happen to you."
"Oh, don't feed the girl false hope." Cordelia laughs, stepping up to her seat. Once she nuzzles herself into the throne, she crosses her legs and gives Jase a slight pat on his head, pushing his blonde hair into his eyes. Jase leans as far away from her as the hovering guards allow.
"I imagine a man of your talent should know what to expect." Zeve says to Lincoln.
He gives her a tight nod, closing his eyes. Her slender hands cup his temples and an electric current sparks between them. Lincoln gasps, his mouth falling wide, his chest stretching forward, and his eyes flying open as lighting snaps within them.
"Lincoln!" His name falls from my lips and I can feel the presence of Zeve inside his mind... and then inside mine. I try to snap my mental barriers up to push away her clawing grasp, but she nudges them aside as if they are as light as a balloon bouncing through the breeze.
Be still, Briar. The seer sings. I have already seen your past and your future. You are meant for that throne.
I squeeze my eyes tightly shut. I may be meant for the throne but my time here is running out. Cordelia will have both our heads.
I'm calling in my favor. Lincoln's voice says sternly. His physical body sparks with a loud crackle of energy. He groans, making Cordelia giggle like a child.
I was hoping you'd say that. Zeve's voice is smooth and enchanting. Maybe it's how she was created or maybe it's the magic she uses but every word she speaks lightens the anxiety inside of me.
What do you mean? I demand.
Kai wasn't the only one who Zeve owed a favor.
Now when I say run... you run. Zeve says, echoing the command as she pulls herself from Lincoln's mind. His skin buzzes, glowing eerily bright from the power that just ran through him.
Zeve sighs, rubbing her hands together. "Queen Cordelia," she begins, "I'm afraid I have a slight variation to your plans for the evening." The crowd begins to murmur, glancing from one another in question as if their friends might have an answer for Zeve's insubordination. "You, my dear, are not fit for your throne."
Cordelia bolts out of her seat. "What is the meaning of this? You better hold your tongue before I have it cut off!"
"Be quiet!" Zeve yells, her deep voice booming like thunder inside the large hall. She thrusts out a hand, a blue bubble of zapping angry electricity forming around Cordelia. "It is destined that the Mortal Queen rises up and rules. Only she can bring peace to this land. We can never have peace with a crazed ruler like you. Your paranoia is rooted so deep, Cordelia Nightwaters, you can't even see how far you've fallen... how much farther you still have yet to fall."
"You will not make a mockery out of me." Cordelia's magic slams against Zeve's. "Guards, seize this traitor." She hisses, pushing against it again and again. Zeve's magic holds steady.
"Don't you move." Another song filled feminine voice rises. From the entrance of the room, Lylix storms forward, her body flickering in sync with Zeve's sparks. Lylix casts both hands in front of her, forming similar white orbs around the guards. Around us.
"Run!" Zeve whispers.
Nineteen
Lost
The back of my skull connects with the arch of a guard’s nose. My other hand already reaching for the other guard's throat before I turn and bring my knee up into his balls. It connects with a satisfying slap and dare I say... a pop.
A distant pain throbs in the back of my head. I don't stop to give them any more of my attention or cradle the annoying ache. I fling myself forward, wincing as her magic washes over me. The white of Lylix’s bubble parts around me slamming shut the moment I'm through. The guards stumble forward only to shriek as the power bites back at them, holding them in place.
"What about Jase?" I breathe. Lincoln reaches me, taking my hand and pulling me forward, even as my attention is focused behind me.
"I'll take care of Jase," Lylix calls.
"Someone stop them!" Cordelia's voice is hoarse.
But we don't need Lylix or Zeve to trap the crowd in whatever sort of forcefield they've managed to create. Because the entire gathering, backs away, allowing us an easy exit.
"Mortal Queen." Their whispers rise to a chant, then grow to a resounding demand.
I tug against Lincoln's hand, even as he pulls me forward and our feet pound against the tile. The echoes of the crowd follow us.
"We can't just leave them."
"Zeve has a plan." Lincoln cuts out quickly. "We need to hurry. Cordelia has more guards than this and I know they're on their way. They couldn't miss that commotion."
What I had once admired, this large beautiful mansion, is now just a streak passing me by. There isn't any time to take in the grand molding or the golden details. I don't bother to give the rising staircase, the one I'd met Lincoln on so many times before, another once over.
Every breath, every heartbeat, every step, it's all leading me away from where it all began. The Shadow Court may be destined to be mine, but first I have to get away.
Running as a Fae is hardly any effort at all. I may not be as fast as Lincoln, who shoves open doors and pushes a few servants from our path, but I'd still be nothing more than blur across any human’s vision. My muscles feel only the slightest fatigue. Which could be
attributed to the after effects of Kai's drugs... or rather Bellion's if I had to guess.
We move out to the Argenti Garden, the sun falling toward the horizon. Commands are called in the castle behind us. The concerning sounds hard to pick out around the now shouted 'Mortal Queen' from the Shadow Fae Court.
"Keep going. Hold my hand. Don't let go." Lincoln doesn't so much as ask me to do as he says, as he begs. His mind is a buzzing of worry, of determination to get me out.
We weave in and out of the plants, brushing by the long flowing limbs of the Reminints tree that tries to cling to our clothing. The valley is clear of Fae but the long posts set up for punishment are still here. Lincoln's dried blood against the blades of grass that we crush under our feet.
Guards crash out of the mansion behind us, swords caught in their hands. "Get them dead or alive!" The command is passed through the small regimen and carried to us on the wind that pushes against our backs as if to guide our steps.
"Where are we going?" I yell.
"I don't know. Away from here." Lincoln's voice wavers as he runs.
"I thought Zeve had a plan!"
"Yeah, a plan to get us out of dying but not a plan on where to hide us."
We reach the edge of the forest, and I bat away a jutting limb. I can't hear the sound of leaves and twigs over the blood rushing inside my ears. Even though I'm certain I can't hear the guards behind us either, the phrase 'dead or alive' echoes in my thoughts.
Our bodies twist and turn at incredible speeds, my balance keeping my heels from actually snapping my ankles as I leap over bushes. Lincoln yanks me harshly to the left.
"There's a spell just up ahead!" He points ahead of us. "It looks like a portal."
I follow his directions. Two trees have old swirling text carved into their trunks, they glow a brilliant neon green and the air between them shimmers.
"Where does it go to?"
"I guess we'll find out."
He holds my hand a little tighter and surges forward. "Take a step." He insists.
It reminds of Kai and the way he guided me through the portal from the Iron Court to the bottom of the Ganush Mountain range. That was when he was my friend, guiding me to my powers. Now he is the traitor to my crown. The brother who betrayed his own blood.
Will Kai feel remorse after Rowan's death in the old burning church? Or does he even feel at all?
The green glow of the portal is even closer now. A relief as we hear the sound of the guards gaining ground. It's my untrained pace that's letting them so near. I should have fought harder to learn about my powers, to train myself before this disaster of a meeting came to be.
I shouldn't have listened to Kai.
"Hold tight."
I squeeze Lincoln's hand, hard enough I'm worried I'll hear the crunch of bones. He doesn't even wince as he takes the final leap into the portal and pulls me through.
Time no longer exists. In the step from this part of the world into the next I've both breathed a thousand breaths and lived a thousand lives with the single inhale it takes for me to take an exaggerated step down. My foot lands in clean white sand. My body tilts forward while my heels sink awkwardly. Neither myself nor Lincoln can catch ourselves from the force of our entrance.
Our hands finally slip away from each other’s, gravity dragging us down. Small particles of dust cling to my cheeks. I cough to expel any that have managed to settle in my lungs as I breathed them in.
Heat and perfect white light from the sky above us illuminates the sand like a thousand diamonds. Water tickles at my toes. With one hand, I feel for Lincoln, finding his leg. He sits up slowly, looking out at the great blue ocean before us that crashes with foaming white waves and fills the air with its crisp salty scent.
"Where are we?" I whisper.
Lincoln twists, his face paling to a shade I would compare to Lylix's ghostly color. "Nowhere good." He says at the same time as a blade is pulled from its sheath.
I turn slowly, following the singing sharpened edge that's tucked under Lincoln's chin and up the extended arm of its owner. Buckles and leathers are fitted to a curvy but lean frame, curling dark hair falls over the woman’s shoulders. Behind the swordsmen are several more women who shift without sound to surround us, all with their swords pointed for us.
"The better question... is who are you? And where have you come from?" Her voice is a deep baritone, gravelly, with a hint of an old accent I can't quite place.
We may be out of Cordelia's grip but we haven't out run death just yet.
I stare down at the blades aimed at my heart.
Death surrounds us.
THE END
Thank you for reading book two of our epic fae romance! The final book, The Lost Fae is now available!
Get your copy now!
The Lost Fae
Also by A.K. Koonce
Paranormal Romance Books
The Cursed Kingdoms Series
The Cruel FAe King
The Cursed Fae King
The Crowned Fae Queen
The Midnight Monsters Series
Fate of the Hybrid, Prequel
To Save a Vampire, Book one
To Love a Vampire, Book two
To Kill a Vampire, Book three
Reverse Harem Books
The To Tame a Shifter Series
Taming
Claiming
Maiming
Sustaining
Reigning
The Villainous Wonderland Series
Into the Madness
Within the Wonder
Under the Lies
Origins of the Six
Academy of Six
Control of Five
Destruction of Two
Wrath of One
The Hopeless Series
Hopeless Magic
Hopeless Kingdom
Hopeless Realm
Hopeless Sacrifice
The Secrets of Shifters
The Darkest Wolves
The Sweetest Lies
The Royal Harem Series
The Hundred Year Curse
The Curse of the Sea
The Legend of the Cursed Princess
The Severed Souls Series
Darkness Rising
Darkness Consuming
Darkness Colliding
The Huntress Series
An Assassin’s Death
An Assassin’s Deception
An Assassin’s Destiny
The Monsters and Miseries Series
Hellish Fae
Sinless Demons
Dr. Hyde's Prison for the Rare
Escaping Hallow Hill Academy
Surviving Hallow Hill Academy
Stand Alone Contemporary Romance
Hate Me Like You Do
Also by Rebecca Grey
Paranormal Romance Books
The Cursed Kingdoms Series
The Cruel FAe King
The Cursed Fae King
The Crowned Fae Queen
The Ruined by Fae Saga
Ruined
Madness
Heartsick
Reverse Harem Books
The Royal Harem Series
The Hundred Year Curse
The Curse of the Sea
The Legend of the Cursed Princess
Stand Alone Contemporary Romance
Hate Me Like You Do
About A.K. Koonce
A.K. Koonce is a USA Today bestselling author. She’s a mom by day and a fantasy and paranormal romance writer by night. She keeps her fantastical stories in her mind on an endless loop while she tries her best to focus on her actual life and not that of the spectacular, but demanding, fictional characters who always fill her thoughts.
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About Rebecca Grey
Rebecca
Grey leads a busy life. Somewhere between raising two kids and daydreaming about being a reality television star, she writes. As a reader she enjoys books filled with arrogant boys, who she would never waste her time on in real life, and large fantasy or paranormal novels. Much of her love for these things are reflected in her books.
