The Joy of Hex

by Sarina Dorie

  My voice rose in panic. “If you kill me, you won’t get your demonstration. If you hurt me, I won’t be able to control my lightning. It might explode without warning.”

  She grazed the edge of her talon against my cheek. “Who said anything about hurting you? I simply wish for a demonstration. Then you’re free to go.”

  She hooked her finger under my chin. I was forced to lift my face to look into her eyes. She was so close, frigid waves of power washed against me.

  She leaned even closer, brushing her lips across my jaw. She inhaled. “If only I could bottle up your fear and wear it as a perfume.”

  Psycho much?

  She hooked her talon over the edge of my dress, the lace collar snagging. She jerked her hand downward, tearing through the gauzy fabric of the dress down to my navel. I flinched at the sound. Cold air met my flesh. I wasn’t completely naked. I still wore the lacy green slip underneath. But it wasn’t going to take much to shift the fabric aside and remove the remaining shreds of my dignity.

  On the other hand, being naked in public was the least of my worries. From the sudden disrobing, I realized I was the demonstration. Craptacular. Perhaps this was what Odette had been trying to warn me about.

  My voice shook as I spoke. “I already told you. This won’t work.”

  She pressed a finger to my lips. “I already told you, ma chère. I am a queen. I know how to persuade.”

  The black depths of her eyes were void of compassion. Without meaning to, my awareness left my body, tasting her magic. The winter of her soul was like every flavor of ice cream all at once, overwhelming. Suffocating. I tried not to gag. My eyes watered, and I turned my face away.

  Queen Morgaine’s fingers skimmed over my belly and over my breasts. She kissed my forehead. “Not all Fae are incompetent lovers. Or so I am told. Then again, not all Fae can be the Queen of Pain and Pleasure.”

  Did she think she could seduce me and lull me into complacency? Julian had. I had made him suffer for it. I had struck Quenylda down with electricity earlier this night for trying to hurt those I loved.

  Did the Raven Queen want to test me? Fine. I would kill two Fae enemies in one night.

  Fury drove out my fear. I would use her touch to fuel my affinity, even if I didn’t like it. I tried to relax into her touch. I would allow her to arouse me, to generate more power faster. I would use my affinity to strike her down.

  Ragged breathing came from my sides. A gray goblin was humping a tree nearby. He stared at the queen and giggled. I prayed she wasn’t trying to get me aroused for that thing.

  I glanced again at the Raven Court behind their queen. They leered at me, drinking in my terror. The queen lifted a finger and placed it between my breasts. “Your heart, ma chère, has such power. Do you know how much I crave a taste of your heart’s blood?”

  I swallowed, thinking of Snow White and how the huntsman had been ordered to cut out her heart.

  I fought to control my breath, to push down the terror inside me. I needed a clear head. Right now I was running on a low battery, lack of sleep, and a surplus of terror. Making myself aroused enough to kill her wasn’t working so far. I needed a plan. A new plan.

  Only, I had planned. I needed a backup plan for my backup plan.

  The cold radiating off of her body chilled my flesh and sent goosebumps across my skin. She pushed the lace of my dress down my shoulder, exposing more of the slip.

  She purred into my ear. “Aren’t you a lovely specimen? I can see why Felix wanted such a novelty. Too bad he isn’t here to show you off himself.”

  She skimmed her talons over my breasts, her fingers teasing the lace lower. Goosebumps rose on my flesh. The panic that feared the darkness in her didn’t want to become aroused. I didn’t want my body to betray me and to show her that she could control me.

  I also needed this to fuel my depleted magic so that I could be in control again. Logic and fear battled inside me. I focused on my core. I tried to distract her so that she wouldn’t know what I was doing. Tilting my chin upward, I pressed my lips to hers.

  Her eyes widened with momentary surprise before she drew back and laughed. I needed to keep on distracting her as I worked the energy inside me.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” I asked. “To punish me for my mother’s crimes?”

  “Alouette Loraline is dead. She paid for her crimes.” She bit my earlobe. “This is to punish you for your pride. A queen must put the lower classes in their place. You forced my hand. Now I demonstrate who is queen.”

  My pride? More likely because I had wounded hers. This was her method of revenge.

  She kissed me again. I tried to use that kiss to my advantage and concentrate on my affinity.

  It was so much more difficult to focus than when Felix Thatch’s arms had been around me earlier. I had been on edge with his all-black eyes gazing at me with open affection. He had been too nice, a game being played that I hadn’t understood. Even apprehensive as I had been, it had been easy to rev up the magic I needed to kill Quenylda. I tried to churn the electrons inside me as I had before, but my generator ran sluggishly. My brain was slowing down as fatigue tugged at me, as fear threatened to suffocate me.

  Queen Morgaine’s fingers skated down the length of my body. I tried to make my expression neutral as she nibbled at my neck. It didn’t matter, though. I suspected she would feel the thunder of my heart slamming against my rib cage. She would smell my fear and know every flare of emotion that fluttered in my chest. She stroked me with the heel of her hand, momentarily drawing her sharp fingernails away from my flesh. I almost felt enough pleasure to avoid thinking too deeply about the danger I was in.

  A sneaky smile laced her lips. She hooked her talon down the torn edge of the dress just under my navel and continued shredding the fabric downward.

  “There’s a reason they call me the Queen of Pleasure . . . and Pain.” She stroked down my leg with the pad of her finger. Her grin turned mischievous. She pushed her talon against my thigh, and I flinched away from the point.

  “My affinity is not pain,” I said.

  “I can make you like pain.”

  If I had use of my hands, I could have used the amulet Elric had given me. Thatch had said never to use it unless I suspected my life was in danger at the hands of the Raven Queen. I knew my body was in danger. Perhaps my soul was in danger. Elric had also said the amulet was only meant to be used in an emergency.

  I was certain this counted as an emergency. I struggled against the vines holding me in place.

  “Please. Don’t do this,” I said. “You’ve humbled me. You’ve put me in my place. You were right. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have tried to outwit you.”

  She snorted. “If only you meant that. But you’re part human. It’s in your nature to lie and try to undo anything you promise.”

  “No, I really promise.” I scanned the crowd of Fae, searching for a friendly face among them. “Please. Let me go.”

  Odette turned away.

  “I will allow you to go free. When I’m finished with you.” The queen withdrew a step. “First you need to provide that demonstration.”

  As she drew back I felt some relief that she was done toying with me for the moment.

  She tapped her fingers against the side of her face. “Who will sire this child, I wonder? Which of my heirs would it please me most to raise and take care of his child?”

  I knew she’d already chosen someone. I’d heard her order her guards to summon her grandson. This was another game meant to amuse her.

  She turned from me, scanning the crowd of courtiers. She strode around the tree. I turned my head to see where she had gone.

  With her absence, warmth returned to my flesh. Fae and goblin-like creatures ogled my torn clothes and exposed skin. Their chatter filled my ears like the buzz of a thousand flies. Odette sat on the ground, her head leaned against the oak tree that had been my fairy godmother. I didn’t remember
her sitting so far off from me before, but then I’d walked off, thinking I had the freedom to do so. She hugged her arms around herself, watching me with hollow eyes.

  I couldn’t say she hadn’t warned me.

  The queen gazed imperiously down at her subjects. “Whom will I call upon to be your consort? Who carries enough of my blood to make this a child of my flesh as well?” She stopped before a hulking boulder of a man made of rocks. He reminded me of the golem Quenylda had made to crush me not once, but twice.

  The monster bowed to her, but the entire time he kept his eyes locked on to me.

  Newfound terror returned at her words. Was this her grandson?

  “You mean you’re going to have one of your relatives rape me?” Tears welled up in my eyes.

  The court laughed.

  “No, of course not, ma chère. You will make me a grandchild, and you will enjoy it. That is what you require, no?”

  The creature’s voice came out a low rumble. “It would be an honor to serve you, Your Majesty. Blood of the Raven Court runs through my veins.”

  “You don’t have veins,” the queen snorted.

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “You’re more likely to crush her than get her with child.” She waved a dismissive hand at the monster. “In any case, you’re only a second cousin. Surely there are others with more of my blood than you.” She glided behind my tree. “Where is my great-grandson? Does he ignore the summons of his queen?”

  I couldn’t see her, but I saw the eyes of those in front of me riveted on her movements behind me.

  When the queen rounded the tree again, she stopped in front of a creature made of trees and earth. His doublet was made of rotting animals and bones. “Do you doubt my virility?” He unbuttoned his codpiece, exposing a giant hornlike penis that ended in a sharp point. He put the Chucky-doll imps to shame. The macabre sight reminded me of an ink print from Dante’s Inferno.

  The Raven Queen waved him off. “I want to get her with child, not impale her.”

  My relief was short-lived.

  The queen pointed to a man dressed in armor. “Where is my grandson? Bring me my heir.” He nodded to a man on the other side of the courtiers.

  A man with the beak of a bird and a top hat stepped forward. His head tilted to the side as he eyed me.

  “Not you,” the queen said. “I don’t need another heir who turns out to be a birdbrain.”

  He gave a curt bow and straightened stiffly, his posture not so different from Thatch’s. He backed away.

  The queen’s voice amplified. “Get me my other grandson. The one who has regained my favor.”

  The crowd shifted and parted. Two guards in gleaming armor that looked as though it were made from a thousand iridescent beetles pushed forward. Standing between them in a straitjacket was Felix Thatch.

  “There you are, mon cher.” The Raven Queen smiled. “Clarissa Thatch, allow me to introduce my heir and great-grandchild, Prince Felix Thatch.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Granny Dearest

  Felix Thatch stared at the ground. This couldn’t be.

  “But you’re his fairy godmother,” I said stupidly. Disbelief tainted every word I said.

  That was what he’d told me. He’d run away from home with his sisters to escape their abusive and sadistic mother. He hadn’t mentioned the Raven Queen was his grandmother too.

  The Raven Queen glided past Odette without another glance. Monstrous creatures darted out of her path. Now that the queen stood before him, almost nose to nose, I could see how similar their silhouettes were. He had the shape of her eyes, the elegant slope of her nose, and her regal bone structure.

  She patted Felix on the head as though he were a child. “Why do you think I took in Felix, Odette, and Priscilla?” Queen Morgaine asked. “Out of the kindness of my heart? Any other children who came knocking on the door of my castle seeking refuge would have ended up in a stewpot. The Thatches were my granddaughter’s children. Not that Elise deserved such precious pets.”

  He’d run out of the frying pan and into the fire. He didn’t meet my eyes. He’d kept this from me? He’d told me he worked for the Raven Queen, but he had never shared that he was one of her heirs. No wonder she’d crashed our wedding. No wonder she’d never wanted to free him.

  This also explained why she’d never killed him, only taunted and punished him.

  It all made sense. The Queen of Pain and Pleasure. That was why his Red affinity manifested as it did. It wasn’t just his lineage from the Lost Red Court, but also from the Raven Court. He drank in pain and used it for magic.

  New red lash marks were etched into the flesh of his neck. The queen hooked a talon under the collar of the straitjacket and tugged him forward.

  His shoulders sagged, and his feet stumbled over the uneven ground. The Fae guards flanked his sides as she dragged him along.

  Thatch looked as exhausted as I felt. She took him by the chin and turned his head toward me. “Look at your pretty little wife. Doesn’t she look lonely? Frightened?”

  He glanced at me and then away.

  “She came back for you. That must mean she loves you, no?” The Raven Queen asked.

  “No.” He spoke in a gloomy monotone. “It probably just means she’s stubborn and foolish.”

  The Raven Queen cackled. “You always had a way with words. Such a charmer.”

  “That’s me.” His eyes were pitying as he took in the sight of me. He sighed and looked away again.

  He had to be wishing I’d stayed away. I was wishing that as well about now. My only consolation in all of this was him. I would be with him. We would conceive a child. Then we would get to leave.

  Probably after nine months.

  It wasn’t ideal. I didn’t want her to have his firstborn—our firstborn—but I would have done anything to have him back and safe. I thought of Baba Nata’s prophecy. He had tried to sacrifice himself for me, and it hadn’t worked. I was probably going to die in childbirth. But at least we would be together for a while, and he would have freedom.

  The queen pointed to him. “I command you to impregnate her.”

  “Why? So you can have my firstborn child?” he demanded. “Or so that I might kill my wife in the process?”

  He had always been so thoughtful about my concern that I might get pregnant before I was ready. He’d never argued about wearing condoms. He had been careful not to come inside me so he wouldn’t burn me with his electrical magic. I didn’t doubt he feared he would hurt me. But now I saw his true motivation.

  He didn’t want to have a child. He didn’t want to give the Raven Queen his firstborn. That was why he’d given me a potion after Queen Morgaine had made us entertain her court with sex magic before. He didn’t want me to become pregnant.

  Back when Maddy had been captured by the King of the Pacific, the Fae king had wanted Thatch’s firstborn in exchange for Maddy’s freedom. He had refused because he said someone already had a claim on his firstborn. And his secondborn. Probably his thirdborn as well.

  I had chalked that up to him making excuses. Now I understood.

  I would have understood if he had told me the truth. It wouldn’t have stopped me from marrying him. I loved him.

  Yet out of all the lies he had kept from me, this was the most damaging. How could I operate intelligently when I didn’t have all the facts? If he had told me the Raven Queen was his grandmother, I would have understood her hold on him. If he had told me she had claims on his firstborn, I would have figured out a way around this—weeks before when I’d had one of his competency potions to guide me.

  “I will not endanger Clarissa by getting her with child,” he said.

  The queen grabbed him by the hair and shook him. “Don’t pretend your electricity will harm her. She’s immune. I saw how she harnessed your magic before. This will be killing two birds with one stone. She’ll show me how the Red affinity works to create life. And I�
��ll get the firstborn child you promised me.”

  “You say it as if I volunteered to hand over my firstborn. I was thirteen.” He twisted his face away from hers. “You coerced me into agreeing. You said you would take a mallet to Priscilla’s feet again, and this time you promised she wouldn’t ever be able to dance again.”

  Priscilla, his little sister. Her affinity had been dancing.

  “I didn’t know what I was promising,” Thatch said. “I didn’t even think I could have children.”

  “Boo hoo. Life isn’t fair.” The queen released her grip on his hair and patted him on the cheek.

  His eyes met mine across the divide between us. I didn’t want him to think I hated him.

  “I love you,” I mouthed, hoping no one would see but him.

  The sorrow in his expression deepened.

  Queen Morgaine looked from him to me, her lips curling back into an expression that resembled a sneer more than a smile. “All you need to do is this one little thing for me, and then you’re free to go. She’s purchased your freedom with this.”

  “No.” Thatch lifted his head, glaring daggers at her. “I will not create a child for you.”

  “I could give her to your cousin instead.”

  I shook my head. Didn’t he get it yet? She was going to get her way with this. I had made a mistake. We both had. Couldn’t my husband make this as easy on me as possible?

  The other man with the bird beak for a nose stepped forward.

  “No.” Thatch tried to kick him in the shin.

  The man with the bird beak dodged out of the way. He bowed to the queen. “Let me have her, Your Majesty. He isn’t worthy. Let me sire this child.”

  She shook her head at him. “She wouldn’t enjoy the taste of your . . . magic.” She glanced down at his crotch. “I need someone who can draw out her affinity, whether she is willing to give it to me or not. You’ve already proven you’re incapable of pleasuring a woman. You can have her if Felix fails.”