The Queen's Consorts Box Set: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Trilogy

by Elena Lawson

  The palace loomed to above us—up a slow-rising hill. It crouched against the earth like a beast made of sand colored stone. The keep was tall in the back with battlements crowning the top and towers on either side. The rest of the palace was walled in and at varying heights, with interconnecting bridges and what looked like a forest growing up through the middle.

  Liana gasped as it came into full view, “It’s magnificent, isn’t it?” she said, her eyes alight with excitement.

  “It is,” I answered her, “But it’s no rival to the palace of night.”

  She scrunched her eyebrows, considering. Shook her head, “No, but it’s a close second.”

  Liana tried to spur her mare faster, but the rotund creature whinnied and stomped its hooves. “Ugh,” she groaned, “This godsforsaken horse won’t go any faster!”

  I brushed the dark hair and sweat from my forehead, wishing I’d brought lighter clothes. “Take my horse, if you’d like,” I offered her with a challenge in my stare, “But I can’t guarantee he won’t throw you.”

  She huffed, rolling her eyes, “Just tell me how to make it go.”

  I tried not to laugh at her ire and failed, “Squeeze your thighs,” I told her, “And then thrust your hips forward in the saddle to give her direction—No, don’t pull on the reins like that. That’s telling her to stop. Give her her head and then—”

  “I haven’t taken her head—it’s still there isn’t it?”

  “No, just—” I started, but she did as I told her, and the mare took off down the winding path towards the palace, the sound of my queen’s squeals trailing behind it.

  Finn and Tiernan trotted up beside me. Tiernan whistled low, and Finn sealed his lips tight against a laugh, clearing his throat.

  “Should we…” Finn began, gesturing to where Liana bounced in her saddle as the mare broke into a full run.

  “Alllllaaaaaaaaarric,” she shouted, her voice wobbling with the movements of the horse.

  I sighed, giving Finn and Tiernan a wide-eyed stare and a shrug “I suppose we should.”

  “Bet I can catch her first,” Tiernan said, shouting to spur his white mare into a full sprint.

  Finn bucked his own steed before giving it its head to follow closely on Tiernan’s heels. And for a moment, I pictured it—what life could be like once it was all over. Once there was no more danger, and it was just us—together, helping Liana to rule her court as best as she could until the end of her days. No more worrying about my comrades or my queen. It was a dream worth fighting for. One I would die trying to protect.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Liana

  Bastards. The damned horse could have killed me! They rode up more concerned about who’d reached me first before they even bothered trying to help slow Scylla. I was still grumpy when we finally reached the main gate of the palace. And it seemed here, the Fae knew who we were despite not wearing our court’s colors.

  They stopped to gape at us as they milled about the palace. Nobles and servants and courtiers. Not separate but living in harmony—shopping from little market stalls along the walls of the inner ward of the palace.

  “Welcome,” A red-headed female said, curtsying, a bounce in her step. Her cheeks flecked with tiny spots of brown. “Do you know the way to main palace?”

  Alaric pushed ahead of me, blocking the female’s line of sight, “Would you be able to show us the way?” he asked, her, standoffish—his voice a brusque timber.

  “Of course,” I heard her say, “Follow me.”

  “Alaric,” I chastised, trying to kick him from my saddle, moving to get down when I couldn’t reach.

  “Stay on your horse, Liana,” he said—a little too harshly, and I could see how on-edge he was. His eyes wide and watching everything around us. His teeth clamped and grinding together with his nerves.

  “Alaric, stop,” I said, “Can’t you feel it?”

  We had reason to be apprehensive, but with the ancient law of Honorem Copulare invoked, it would be an act of war for any of the people of Suriel’s court to attack us. But it wasn’t the reason I was so calm. With my Grace over emotion, I felt the surrounding Fae. There was nothing like hatred radiating off them. They felt honored—maybe a little confused, and a bit apprehensive, but there was no animosity. Only curiosity.

  They didn’t mean to harm us.

  “I do,” he sniped, “But that doesn’t mean I trust it. Come on, the faster we get to the main palace the better. And where the hell is Edris? He should’ve been at the gate.”

  The path wound through the market, past an inner garden and ornate fountain, and through the stables, where we left our horses with a very enthusiastic stable boy.

  The main palace was on the far southern side of the inner ward and seemed to grow from the ground itself. A wide stone staircase led to the main entry, and above that were the walkways we could see from the road, connecting the different wings and towers. Through the entrance was a great tree—the largest I’d ever beheld, with white bark and leaves the color of fresh blood.

  And as we ascended the staircase, we could see Edris walking around the tree’s wide trunk—a female keeping pace with him, a trio of guards flanking them. It was Suriel, I was sure of it. Was Edris laughing? Alaric and I shared a look, coming over the top of the stairs.

  “Took you long enough,” Edris said to Alaric, stepping in to shake my captain’s hand. The queen held back with her guards, watching us with a curious glint to her blue-green eyes. “I trust the journey wasn’t too taxing.”

  “It was fine,” Alaric said gruffly, and I watched his adam’s apple bob as he took in the queen. But she fixed her gaze on Tiernan, who looked away as soon as their eyes met. Then her gaze rested on me, and she stepped forward.

  “Welcome to my court,” she said in a voice like honey over stone. Her pin-straight long black hair ruffled in the warm breeze, half of it up and the other half down. Suriel’s turquoise eyes slanted in consideration, set in a long face of soft features with a full-lipped smile. Beautiful. She looked like a goddess with her exaggerated curves. In her gauzy sunset colored dress and gold neck and arm bands.

  I gave her a small nod in lieu of a bow. “Thank you for agreeing to this meeting.”

  Her gaze flicked to Tiernan again, and I felt his unease seep through my own skin.

  “You must all be in need of washing and a good rest,” she said, and a petite mouse of a female scurried over from somewhere unseen behind the front walls. “Arin will show you to your chambers, and tonight we’ll feast to your arrival.”

  Seeing the confusion in my expression, Edris turned to Suriel, “As I said before, Your Majesty—there is a very pressing matter to be discussed. My daughter would not have invoked Honorem Copulare if it weren’t urgent.”

  Her eyes hardened, “There will be plenty of time for council on the morrow,” she said in a sing-song voice, “This is a momentous occasion. There hasn’t been a meeting between the queens of Meloran for an age. Tonight, we celebrate—now please, allow Arin to show you to your chambers. She will get you anything you need.”

  Edris shrugged, and the queen spun on her heel and walked back the way she came. Her three guardians following closely behind her.

  “She dismissed the urgency for council so easily… Edris, you haven’t told her why we’ve come?” I asked him.

  He shook his head, “I thought I would leave that to you… and Suriel is a bit standoffish at first, but in the day I’ve been here she’s already softened. She has a good heart—she isn’t unlike you.”

  My brows raised. Queen Suriel had only had her crown for a little over twenty years and was only half a century older than me. I supposed it was possible we held similar, more modern views.

  “I’m going with her—she said she’d give me a tour of the palace,” Edris said, as though asking for my permission.

  Before I could formulate a response, he turned to follow her, “Great! I’ll see you at the feast later this evening.”

 
Tiernan stepped up beside me, “I think he’s smitten with her.”

  I cocked my head at my father, seeing the slight bounce in his step, “I think you might be right—though I’m not surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rival to her beauty.”

  “I have,” Tiernan said, and I turned to find him gazing at my face, a cheeky smirk turning his lips up at one corner.

  I shoved him, “Come on, let’s go get cleaned up.”

  “If you’ll follow me,” Arin said with dimples in her cheeks and a glimmer in her brown eyes, not bothering to check if we were following her when she took off at a near jog around the great tree and into the heart of the palace of Day.

  I sucked in a breath at the sheer size of the guest quarters when Arin shouldered open the tall, ornately carved door. Finn looked like he approved, with a dumbfounded expression on his usually thoughtful face. Alaric scanned each crevice with calculated precision. And Tiernan strolled into the room as though it belonged to him, pouring a drink of water from a large pitcher set against one wall.

  The chamber opened up into a gilded parlour set with plush crème colored sofas stitched with gold embroidery. Transparent red curtains billowed in the gentle breeze pouring in through a wide south-facing window. Beyond, I could see lush forests interspersed with plantations and small farms—and way out into the distance, the ocean gleamed like a polished jewel against the horizon.

  “The bedchamber is through there,” Arin said, gesturing with a dainty hand to a corridor off to her right, “And there is a dining area through there,” she continued, pointing the opposite way with a smile. “The bathing chamber is below the bedchamber—you’ll see the staircase in the room.”

  Only one bedchamber? I opened my mouth to ask her about it, but she was already on her way out, “I’ll return to fetch you for the feast this evening. If you should need anything else, there is a bell,” she pointed to a brass bell fixed to an iron hanger beside the front entrance, “Just ring and I’ll be right up!”

  And then she left.

  “Fan out,” Alaric said the moment the servant had departed. “Search the entire chamber.”

  Coming back to their senses, my males squared their jaws and did as he commanded them without protest. Tiernan took to the dining area, and Alaric searched the main foyer and parlor, careful to look outside the window as well. Finn made for the bedchamber and I followed him there, admiring the sandstone walls and the generally warm feeling of the chamber.

  “Is that a…” I trailed off, entering the bedchamber with Finn. The room was enormous—the walls rounded, and the floor covered in plush carpet. But it wasn’t the size of the room that caught my attention.

  It was the size of the bed. Double the size of mine back at the Night Court—at least. Maybe more. Covered in soft-looking golden sheets, thick pillows of many sizes and several blankets. Gauzy fabric hung from a ring in the ceiling, draping over the entire thing. I wanted to crawl into it and stay there—hide from all the horror of the world.

  A childlike joy rushed through me. It reminded me of the forts the seven sisters and I would build when I was a child—though they were smaller, and the netting was more to keep out insects than it was aesthetically pleasing. And Thana would…

  I clamped my mouth shut—gritted my teeth to block out the pain in my chest at the mere thought of her.

  Alaric and Tiernan entered behind us, and I heard my captain curse at what he saw and turned to find him throwing a fist through his hair. Tiernan didn’t look surprised and only sighed.

  Finn was the one to break the silence, cocking his head at the enormous bed, “Well, good thing it’s big—since there’s only one.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tiernan

  Entering the feast hall was like walking into a den of wolves. They all stopped in their chatting and drinking to ogle us. Well, to ogle Liana. The queen had sent up a gown for her to wear—crusted in a thousand sparkling blue gems, cut low in the front and tight around her waist. It had been near impossible not to want to tear it from her body the moment I’d seen her in it. The queen had even had servants come to our chamber and do Liana’s hair, piling it atop her head in a beautiful crown of silver locks.

  I knew Suriel, and she was a wise and fair ruler. But it seemed odd how she was acting. Was she trying to impress Liana? Or trying to befriend her? Or was something more sinister in fact going on as Alaric thought.

  Even though she never voiced it in front of me, I always thought she would be open to having a relation with the Night Court. It wasn’t like her to uphold the antiquated views of others. No, there was nothing sinister about it. Suriel was hoping to win Liana’s trust—to build a lasting impression of her people. The prospect of open trade between nations could have an incredible impact for her people, who were rich in wine and rice, but poor in grain and cattle.

  The large oval table was occupied by Queen Suriel, wearing a russet orange gown—her crown perched atop her hair like a yellow canary, and Edris, who sat to her right, and several esteemed nobles.

  I stiffened when my gaze fell upon him—a sneering expression twisting his face and darkening his pale features. My uncle sat on the other side of Edris, languidly chewing a piece of roast pork while he stared at me.

  “What is it,” Liana whispered, leaning in to my side and brushing her fingers lightly across the back of my hand.

  I shivered. “It’s nothing,” I said, pulling her arm through mine.

  “Come!” said the queen, rising from her seat, her cheeks stained red from too much drink, “Please, sit down—sit down!”

  I gave Liana’s hand a reassuring squeeze and led her to the table. Alaric and Finn moved to sit where the servants indicated a couple seats down from where the queen sat—leaving Liana to sit to the left of the Queen of Day and across from her father, and I to sit next to her, and across from my uncle.

  My stomach turned violently at the nearness. I had left his estate years ago but seeing him there put me right back in that younger self’s skin. Cowering from the whip of his belt as it bit into flesh that was already raw. Begging to be heard over the deafening silence within his walls.

  Liana’s fingers dug into my thigh under the table, her fingers tipped with searing heat. I turned and found her eyes aglow in a mix of gold and red—her gaze fixed on my uncle. Of course…

  Idiot.

  She could feel my emotions—and thanks to the bond, gods knew what she saw in my mind. I laid my hand over hers, tugged it until she looked at me. “It isn’t worth it,” I told her in a low voice, grateful for the cover of Edris and Suriel’s laughter.

  She took a moment, but I watched her begin to calm. Then she turned back to her food, her expression grim.

  He should pay for what he did to you.

  I jolted. My spine tingling when her voice rang out inside my skull, half choking on my swallow of wine.

  Finding the tether between us, I spoke down the length of it, as calmly as I could. And he will. In time.

  “I trust you’re enjoying your new home?” My uncle asked, his mouth still full of half-chewed meat.

  Overhearing my uncle’s comment, Suriel leaned in to give me a forlorn look across the table, “Ah yes, my Tiernan—well, I suppose not anymore. I was sad to see you go,” she sighed, holding out her glass to be refilled with wine, “But I can see now why you didn’t return.” Her gaze cut to Liana, whose hand froze under mine.

  Liana bit her bottom lip, swallowing the blush in her cheeks.

  Alaric cleared his throat, “Tiernan has been a valuable member of Liana’s guard. I thank you for releasing him to us.”

  “Hmmmmm,” she replied while swallowing down more drink. “I hope you feel welcome back at court and that you’ll return whenever you like… I do miss your company,” she finished with a sultry tone to her voice. A thread of heat seared down my spine and it took every ounce of my self-control not to shake my head at her.

  Her appetite for pleasure was always ravenous—but it w
as worse when she drank. And she wasn’t superb at taking no for an answer.

  A snort from behind her and I saw Salar’s look of distaste. As the captain of her guard and the one who chose me, I couldn’t blame him for being upset at my choice. The other two guards I never got to know well.

  Even though it’d been months, she still hadn’t replaced me.

  Edris resumed polite conversation with Suriel, tearing her attentions away from me. Thank the gods.

  Liana did not hide her discomfort and took a long swallow of her own drink, her eyes widening at the taste.

  I nudged her shoulder, “Quite good, isn’t it?”

  She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

  It was plain to see she was restless. War waited on our doorstep back home, and here we were breaking bread with her supposed enemy. I wanted to ease the tension in her shoulders and smooth the crease in her forehead. Kiss away the frown from her lips.

  Liana drained another glass of wine—picking at the foreign meal of salted pork and charred fruit. Lost in her own thoughts.

  “It doesn’t taste like it,” I said, staying her hand before she could take another swallow of the summer wine, “But it’s a strong blend. I would sip it slowly.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Liana

  I should’ve listened to Tiernan.

  By the time the nobles at the other end of the table were making ready to leave, the room swayed before my eyes. The edges of my vision were hazy as if I was seeing through a thin sheet of fog.

  I’d had enough of listening to Tiernan’s ass of an uncle make passive aggressive small talk to his nephew, who I could feel getting more and more riled and upset with each word out of the old fool’s thin lips.