The Warlock Queen: Book 13 of the Grey Wolves Series

by Quinn Loftis

  “I think we should iron out exactly what constitutes breathing wrong, because my idea of breathing wrong and your idea of breathing wrong could be two very different things,” Lilly said, completely serious.

  “I’m not playing, Lilly.”

  “I’m not either, Perizada. You can’t just kill her because she makes a face that you interpret to be deceptive. You are not judge, jury, and executor.” Lilly had to make this clear to the high fae or Myanin would be gone before she could prove to Peri that she wasn’t a fraud.

  “Says who?”

  “Says the Great Luna,” Lilly growled, her eyes narrowed on the high fae as she stepped closer this time. “Not only that, but Myanin’s crime was against her own people. It’s on them to deal with it. I know how much you care about those who you consider yours, Peri. I know. But you’ve got to trust me. I’m not just Lilly, Jacque’s mom, Slate’s grandmother, or some human brought unwillingly into this world. I am a supernatural being, and I am the queen of the warlocks.” She stood taller and raised her chin. “I am telling you, as one leader to another, that I am not making a mistake. I am not putting my trust in the wrong people. I have taken a calculated risk that the Creator of our races has blessed. As a queen, I am telling you this is what is going to happen, whether you like it or not. As a friend, I’m asking you to trust me.”

  Peri closed her eyes and took several breaths before finally opening them and meeting Lilly’s gaze. “I can’t lose any more people I care about, Lilly. You understand that.”

  “I do.”

  “As an ambassador, I accept what you’re telling me. As your friend, I’m telling you that I will unleash hell if she hurts you or anyone in our pack.”

  Lilly knew that the word “pack” no longer just meant the wolves. Peri was speaking about the combined supernatural forces who’d joined their cause, those who were willing to take a stand against the Order. Those willing to give their lives.

  “I understand that as well.” Lilly stepped back. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Tension still filled the room, but she no longer felt in danger of being hit by a magical snowball or turned into a rug. At least for now.

  “When are they returning?” Lucian asked. Peri had resumed her pacing while Gerick continued to hold his steady pose against the wall.

  “I told them I would contact them via cell phone after I spoke with Peri and could be certain she wouldn’t kill Myanin on sight.”

  “Already, you show wisdom as a queen,” Lucian said with a small smile.

  “Do not praise her.” Peri huffed at her mate. “You’ll only encourage more of this rash behavior.”

  Lilly didn’t bother to respond to Peri’s jab. She knew it was just the beginning of the crap the high fae would give her. It was one of Peri’s trademark moves when she was perturbed with someone’s actions. Lilly would just roll with it, unless Peri started passing out zappings like candy to kids on Halloween.

  “Go ahead and send them a text,” Lucian said. “The sooner we can be sure they are really working with us, the better.”

  Lilly picked her phone up from the coffee table and pulled up Myanin’s number. She typed out a quick, concise text. Peri knows. It’s safe to come back.

  A few seconds later her phone buzzed. We will return tonight. Tenia says you’re in a different time zone. So, whatever night is here, I don’t know what time it will be there.

  “She said they can return tonight, their time. So for us that would be?”

  “We’re nine hours ahead of them,” Peri rattled off. “Depending on what ‘tonight’ means, for us it would probably mean early morning tomorrow.”

  “What do we do until then?” Lilly asked. It was probably sad that she, the queen of a supernatural race, had to ask someone else what to do. Crazy card, people. She was using the crazy card.

  “We need to discuss what Lysander has been planning.” Peri stopped pacing and turned to face Lilly.

  Gerick pushed off from the wall. The lazy pose he’d held disappeared. Sharp eyes focused on Peri as he asked, “What do you know, fae?”

  Chapter 13

  “’Once upon a time, there was a single mom who fell in love with a warlock king, discovered she was a sprite, watched her warlock king be killed, took over as queen of his kingdom, made a blood oath with a murderer who might betray them, and then died a horrible death at the hands of one of her new subjects. The end.’ That’s what my tombstone will read if I get my ass kicked by Lysander. I really don’t want all that on my headstone.” ~Lilly

  “We might as well sit down.” Peri and Lilly sat across from one another. Lucian sat next to his mate, while Gerick took one of the single chairs in between the two couches.

  “As I mentioned to Lilly earlier,” Peri began, her eyes bouncing back and forth between Lilly and Gerick. Lucian most likely already knew everything his mate was about to divulge. “I’ve had some of my little pixie friends keeping an eye on the other warlock clans. So far, only one has shown any sign of seeking to challenge you.”

  “Lysander,” Lilly said, remembering that Peri had mentioned him.

  Peri nodded. “I took it upon myself to join them on one of their little scouting missions so I could hear for myself exactly what the rat betrayer was saying.” Peri stopped and tapped her foot as she pursed her lips.

  Lilly waited, but when the high fae didn’t continue, the queen narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to build suspense?”

  “No, I’m just giving you a taste of your own medicine.” Peri sniffed, raised her chin, and looked around the room as if anything would be more interesting than Lilly.

  “Are you freaking kidding me?” Lilly growled.

  “It’s annoying when someone doesn’t tell you something you need to know, isn’t it, queenie?”

  Lilly looked at Lucian. “You realize you’re mated to a psychopath, right?”

  Lucian didn’t look offended or even a little bothered by Lilly’s words. “Anyone who lives as long as we do has to develop the ability to turn their emotions off. They won’t survive otherwise.”

  Lilly blinked a few times as she stared at him. Okay, so they were a psychopathic couple. Lilly wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. With Lucian, she understood. He’d been trapped in the dark forest for hundreds of years. Peri had no excuse. Lilly looked back at the high fae. “Please continue. You’ve made your point.”

  Peri tilted her head slightly. “Thank you. As I was saying, I joined the pixie to pay Lysander and the Lowthorne clan a visit. It is certain he will challenge you in the next couple of weeks. He plans to enact a very old—quite ancient, actually—decree he has unearthed in bygone warlock law. It allows for a challenge to the throne if someone of a new bloodline—in this case you—ascends to the throne.”

  “Why does he need a law?” Lilly asked. “Kings and queens are challenged all the time.”

  “Sure, by outside invaders,” Peri replied. “But not their own people. This is a warlock clan, and one of your own is attempting a coup. A mutiny,” Peri added. “There are many differences, the main one being that your people cannot fight this battle for you. This will be a fight between you and Lysander. Only you and Lysander.”

  “Okay,” Lilly said, nodding. She sounded calm to her own ears, although she was freaking out on the inside. Sure, she’d fought in some battles, but she hadn’t been alone, fighting a far more experienced warlock who, if he defeated her, could change the future of the warlock people forever and probably not for the better. This seemed a tad more daunting. “So what do I need to do?”

  Peri snapped her fingers and a book—large, old, and dusty—appeared in her hands. “You need to read this.”

  Lilly’s eyes widened. “That whole book?”

  Peri shrugged. “Do you have something else going on? Is your calendar suddenly full? Do you have more pacing, crying, and incoherent mumbling to do in between negotiating blood contracts with murderers?”

  Don’t slap the high fae, don’t slap t
he high fae, don’t slap the high fae, Lilly chanted in her mind as she met Peri’s gaze. “I’ll have to double check. I’ve been quite busy lately, mostly with this online class I’m taking. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called How to Strangle a High Fae and Make it Look like an Accident.”

  Gerick and Lucian both coughed. Lilly didn’t miss the slight smiles that appeared on their faces before they quickly returned to stony impassivity.

  Peri raised her chin and narrowed her eyes. “Okay, that was actually a good one,” she said. “Never let it be said that Perizada of the high fae can’t take as much crap as she dishes out.” She set the book on the coffee table and pushed it toward Lilly. “You don’t have to read the whole book. I’ve marked the parts you need to read. You must know what he is allowed to do and what he is not allowed to do. I assure you, he is going to assume you’re ignorant and try to capitalize on that.”

  “It’s really annoying when people do that,” Lilly said as she stared at the book.

  “If your nightly visitor makes an appearance tonight,” Peri said, looking at her pointedly, “you might ask some questions.”

  Gerick narrowed his eyes and looked from Lilly to Peri, his protective instincts no doubt going into overdrive.

  Lilly held up a hand. “It’s okay, Gerick. She’s talking about Cypher.” The fact that she was seeing visions of her dead mate wasn’t something she’d planned on telling the general, but she didn’t want him hanging outside her door thinking he needed to protect her from an intruder. “His soul has been making an appearance.” Judging by Gerick’s reaction, or lack thereof, he wasn’t surprised.

  “Why aren’t you looking at me like I’m crazy?” Lilly asked.

  Gerick’s eyes softened. “The wolves are not the only supernaturals that have a special mate bond. Ours may be different, but it is just as strong. There is nothing crazy about the fact that your souls long for one another and still perhaps need one another.”

  Lilly swallowed the knot in her throat at the understanding she saw in her general’s eyes. She wondered if he knew this from experience. The question must have been clear on her face.

  “No, I have never had a mate. But I have been around a long time and, unfortunately, watched many of my kind lose their mates. Your pain is not lost on your people, Lilly. There are many who have been through it and grieve for more than just the loss of their king. They grieve for your loss as well.”

  “All right,” Peri stood, and her mate joined her. “We will leave you to it.”

  “Wait, what?” Lilly said, scrambling to her feet. “You’re leaving?” She’d just been told she would be challenged for her throne in a couple of weeks, now she was being left to digest that little factoid all on her own?

  “You have plenty to do while waiting for the crazy, cotton-candy-eating murderer and her unlikely comrade to make their appearance,” Peri said, motioning to the book. “We’ll let you get to it. I expect a text the minute they arrive.”

  “Um, what should I do?” Lilly asked, her voice going up a pitch.

  “I don’t know,” Peri said, waving her hand around like that somehow explained something. “Read the book I gave you? Do jumping jacks or sit-ups while listening to some music that gets you ready to kick some ass? You are looking a little soft around the middle.”

  Lilly’s mouth dropped open. Oh, no she did not. “A little soft?” she drawled.

  “Around the middle,” Peri said, pointing and making a circular motion at Lilly’s stomach, as if Lilly had forgotten in the span of three seconds. “Although, if I remember correctly from the other day, your thighs seemed a bit dimply as well. Maybe some lunges would be good, too.”

  Lilly glanced at Gerick, who was taking slow steps backward toward the door, as if he wanted to sneak out before all hell broke loose. Smart man. “I need to speak with our warriors about Myanin and the training assistance she will offer. I think it best we don’t divulge her history for now,” he said.

  To his credit, his reason for getting out of dodge was legitimate. Lilly agreed. “Good idea.” Gerick left without another word. She looked back, ready to rip into the damn high fae about her soft middle and dimply thigh comments, but Peri and her mate were already gone.

  Lilly huffed and sat back down. She mentally grumbled a string of random curse words as she stared at the book for a long moment before finally picking it up. She flipped it open and ran her eyes across the letters. “Bloody high fae, asshat.” She growled as she tossed the book back onto the table. It was written in a language she couldn’t read. How the hell am I supposed to make any sense of this? “One of these days, Perizada,” she muttered and leaned back on the couch. The queen sighed and ran both hands down her face.

  What was she supposed to do now? She wasn’t about to call Peri and ask the fae to come read the thing to her like a toddler asking her mom for a bedtime story. She could ask someone in the clan, but that made Lilly feel separated from them, as if she shouldn’t be their queen if she couldn’t read their ancient language. She ground her teeth. Sure, she wasn’t a warlock, and she didn’t know their history. But she’d been mated to their king, and he’d appointed her their leader.

  “How can I help, my love?”

  Lilly jumped as Cypher’s voice rumbled from behind her. She stood and turned to face him … or rather … his soul. “You’ve got to make some noise when you pop in,” she said, pressing her hand to her racing heart. Then she relaxed and let herself drink him in. Lilly always did when he first appeared because she never knew if it was going to be the last time she was going to see him. The part of her that had been emotionally torn about seeing him had faded. She’d decided she’d rather have her nights with him for as long as possible than not have him at all. That probably wasn’t a healthy mindset, but then signing up to work with a known murderer wasn’t her brightest decision either, so why get all crazy and start making healthy choices now?

  She glanced at her phone and noticed it was several hours earlier than when he usually arrived. “What are you doing here?”

  “You need me,” he said simply.

  She wanted to say, “Duh, I need you all the time,” but then his eyes moved behind her to the book. Lilly grinned. “Can you give me the condensed version? I mean, I realize at some point I should learn how to speak and read the warlock language, but I’m on some pretty severe time constraints at the moment.”

  He walked over and picked up the book. His brow furrowed as he flipped it open. “Who brought you this?”

  “Perizada.”

  Cypher slowly turned to look at her, and she nearly took a step back. The anger in his face was frightening. “Why?” he rumbled.

  “One of the clans is going to challenge my place as queen,” Lilly answered slowly. She could practically feel the rage rolling off him.

  He stared at her for several heartbeats before carefully setting the book down. His movements were tightly controlled, as if he feared he might instead throw the tome across the room.

  “Cypher, what’s wrong?” Lilly reached out and placed her hand on his arm. She nearly snatched it back when she felt the heat on his skin. Until this point, she’d felt no heat from his body. But now, his skin felt as if he was running a very high temperature. “Okay, that’s new. What is wrong?”

  “What’s wrong is that I can’t protect you from this,” he said as he turned to her. “Who is it?”

  “Lysander,” she answered, observing his reaction to the name. He didn’t disappoint as he cursed in his language and then in English as well. “I take it you know him.”

  “He’s a sorry bastard.”

  “Yes,” Lilly agreed. “He most definitely showed that at the banquet.”

  “I didn’t expect any of them to actually go this far,” Cypher said. “I figured some would have concerns. There’s never been a ruler that wasn’t a warlock, but I believed they would respect my decision.”

  His skin was cooling, and Lilly took that as a sign he was calming down. He re
ached for her and wrapped his powerful arms around her. “I am sorry, my sweet Lilly, that you must face this.”

  “I raised a teen girl,” she said, trying to sound not terrified. “I think I can handle an asshat like Lysander.”

  “I’ve no doubt you can handle him,” Cypher said. “It’s just something you shouldn’t have to deal with. He is aware of what is at stake and still he’s willing to cause division in the clans when they need to unite. I would skewer him myself if I could.”

  Lilly patted his chest and then pulled him down to the couch. “Why don’t you tell me what I need to know, considering I can’t read the damn book? That way he can’t pull the wool over my eyes.”

  They sat, and Lilly turned so that one leg was bent and propped up on the cushion so she could face him. He took one of her hands and entwined their fingers, stroking her palm with his thumb. “He’s going to challenge your rule with an ancient right. Basically, the law says that if someone of a new bloodline ascends to the warlock throne, any clan leader has the right to test the new king or queen’s power. If they prove unable to subdue the challenger, then the new ruler must step aside.”

  “So it’s not, like, to the death?” Lilly asked.

  “It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. The fight is to the death if the loser does not yield,” Cypher explained. “If you’re winning, you may have him at the end of your sword or held powerless by your magic. If he then refuses to submit, you can kill him … and you should. If you do not, he will only continue to be a thorn in your side. The warlocks cannot afford division, not with the Order out there trying to take over the damn world.”

  “And what if he does yield?” Lilly asked.

  “Then you have the right to take his life if you choose.”

  “Would Lysander let me live if I yielded?”

  “No, he’d kill you without a thought,” Cypher replied.

  “Can I defeat him, Cypher? Be honest with me,” she told him.

  “Yes,” he answered immediately. “First, you’re smarter than he is. Second, you have my power running through your veins.”