The Queen's Choice

by Cayla Kluver

  I swiveled about in alarm, but Zabriel brushed me off.

  “Just because he was nice to you doesn’t mean he’s a nice person. Let’s just say he has a rough outer shell when it concerns people who come without references.”

  I huffed, pulling my hood up to hide my growing fear. I shouldn’t have suppressed my instincts about the captain; I shouldn’t have let Shea go with him. She had no business on a ship full of pirates. Unable to restrain myself, I asked the obvious question.

  “How can you trust him if he tried to kill you?”

  “He’s straightforward. If he’d wanted to kill me that day, I’d be dead. No playing around. Besides, that was almost two years ago. He’s grown fonder of me since then.”

  “As long as the two of you are happy.”

  “We are, thank you. But now I have to ask both of you to be quiet. We’re getting close.”

  A few moments later, the stillness of the bay vanished. I gripped the sides of the boat, sure that every muscle in my body would turn to mush. If only I could have calmed the water with my hands. Eddies swept us this way and that, always away from the shore. Rather than directly fighting the current, Zabriel rowed across it, bringing us to anything but a soft landing upon some boulders. We climbed onto the slippery surface of the rocks, spray from the waves drenching us. When our feet finally found the sand, I sank to my knees, limbs trembling. I’d never felt so happy to be grounded. Illumina rested, as well, but Zabriel dragged the dinghy by its rope to a more sheltered area. We would need the small craft to get off the island.

  “This way,” he called, heading into the trees and the dense forest beyond. Illumina and I followed, knowing we would have no road to guide us, only our senses and our persistence.

  As we moved away from the shoreline, the soil on the island became damp and springy, giving beneath my feet like the vines that made up the floor of Ubiqua’s dwelling. In my clumsier human form, I worried that I would stumble or fall. I tried to calm my wildly beating heart, despising the anxiety that had gradually been taking up residence in my psyche ever since my injury, making me more cautious and fearful by nature than I’d ever been in Faerie form. If Zabriel hadn’t valued my mind, I had no doubt he would have left me behind. Without me, my cousins could have taken to the treetops and gone twice as fast with a fraction of the effort, and that knowledge was downright embarrassing. But we managed, Illumina leading our party with a flame in the palm of her hand, while Zabriel flew up periodically to check our progress.

  Wind was intermittent, but when it blew, it was cold and powerful, ripping between tree branches that reached out to one another, blocking all other sound. When it rested, cannon fire rent the air, and my heart pounded painfully at the thought of Shea. Fane and his crew were creating the distraction we needed, but what might their losses be?

  The warehouse was hidden from view until we were almost close enough to touch it. It seemed to come out of nowhere, distinguishable only by the light of the torches at its narrow perimeter and upon its high walls. It loomed over us like a castle, turreted and made entirely of stone.

  “Why was this built?” Illumina asked, awe in her voice.

  Zabriel stole forward until he was pressed against the wall. “By all accounts it was here when the Warckum Territory was settled. If you believe the lore, it was formed by the original Fae more than a century ago. That’s why it’s part of the mountain. I seriously doubt that’s true, but it would be a bit ironic, don’t you think?”

  We crept onward, keeping to the shadows, Zabriel every so often holding up a hand to shush us so he could listen to the night. So far we had seen no sentries, which made me almost more nervous. When we came to an oaken door without encountering resistance, I cast around, not trusting our luck.

  “Shouldn’t someone be here?” I hissed, but Zabriel motioned Illumina ahead, silently instructing her to melt the door latch. A fire so hot could only be conjured in this environment by a Faerie—whoever discovered the evidence of our trespass would know one of my people was responsible. I couldn’t stop to consider the political ramifications this might generate.

  “The island is under attack,” Zabriel reminded. “The guards are fending off pirates at the opposite shore. Besides, I doubt whoever’s running this place has more than a minimal staff—the more people, the harder to keep them quiet.”

  The door swung inward, creaking loudly, and I cringed, expecting someone or something to jump out of the dark and attack us.

  “If only we had an Oil Faerie,” Illumina whispered, breaking the tension and bringing a fleeting smile to my face.

  “Just keep moving,” Zabriel muttered, no longer in the mood for humor.

  We followed Illumina through the door, still relying on the tiny flame in her palm for guidance. The darkness inside was heavy, but we seemed to be in a storeroom filled with pots and pans. We’d no doubt made use of a servants’ entrance. We proceeded slowly to avoid crashing into the wares and eventually reached the corridor, where feeble torches flickered in a row. There was dead silence aside from our ragged breathing.

  “This can’t be normal,” I apprehensively noted.

  Zabriel scowled at me. “It’s the middle of the night on an island nobody frequents, and there’s a siege going on. Stop worrying, Anya. Either that or stay put and be on watch duty.”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, irked by his condescending tone. He didn’t have the right to chastise me for being wary. Before I could say anything to that effect, there was a clang that echoed off the stone, and I could have sworn I heard the rumor of voices. We looked at one another, our alarm unspoken, then Zabriel darted down the corridor. Illumina trailed him, her fist closing around her flame to extinguish it. For a split second, I couldn’t move, terror freezing me in place. Then I forced myself to look over my shoulder. Seeing no one in pursuit, I gulped in air and rushed after my cousins.

  As we hurried onward, I tried to pay attention to details so we could find our way back out, not wanting to end up trapped within these cold stone walls. However, the infrequent and irregularly spaced torches made it almost impossible to do so. There seemed to be no right or wrong way to go within the labyrinthine halls. Everything was identical in the castle on Evernook Island. If this place had been carved out of the mountain by Fae, I couldn’t fathom what purpose it had served.

  Too much time was passing, and in my rising trepidation, it struck me that I could no longer hear the sound of cannon fire. Had it stopped, or had we ventured far enough into the massive structure that outside life no longer penetrated its walls? If the latter were true, did it mean there might be soldiers inside this sanctum who hadn’t responded to Fane’s attack? Sweat broke out on my forehead despite the chill in the air, and I was almost immobilized once more. Then my thoughts went to the scars on Illumina’s body—belief, strength, power, perseverance, never look back—and to fifteen-year-old Zabriel’s boldness in crossing the Bloody Road to live in the Warckum Territory on his own. I hastened onward, struck by the thought that I might be the only member of our trio who wasn’t inclined to be reckless. We needed to leave now, while we still could.

  “Zabriel, if Fane has confiscated the shipments, we have enough,” I said in an undertone. “You can determine the nature of a predator without walking into its lair. I think we should go.”

  “No,” he flatly responded. “We’ve come too far to quit now.”

  We’d passed through a number of doors in our advance through the corridors, their dark gray stone absorbing torchlight to a discomfiting degree. For the first time, Zabriel put his hand on the latch of one and found it locked.

  “Open it,” he instructed Illumina.

  He crossed his arms, black cloak thrown over one shoulder, and leaned against the wall, allowing her to brush past him. She stretched out her hand, but despite her efforts to concentrate, no flame appeared.

 
“Well?” he prompted, ruder than he needed to be, his forehead creased in concern.

  “I can’t do it,” she carped, staring at her palm, willing a spark to appear. “I can’t feel the connection.”

  “There’s only one substance that can affect Fae that way.” Zabriel kicked at the metal rimming that adorned the door, cursing under his breath. “Sky iron. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to safe-keep whatever is on the other side of this barrier.”

  Numbness stole over me, followed by a sudden rush of heat. Sky iron had been studded into the bindings used by the hunters who’d taken my wings. It deprived us of our connection to the elements, took away our powers and defenses. To Fae, it was the most treacherous substance on earth, and its presence instantly altered my thinking about our mission. Caution now seemed overrated.

  “We have to get in there.” I lay my palms against the door as though to push it open, but unsurprisingly it didn’t budge.

  Zabriel cocked an eyebrow at me. “It’s good to have you on our side again. I thought for a moment you’d lost your sense of adventure.”

  “I probably deserved that. But how do we get through?”

  Zabriel dropped to his knees and pulled two long, thin metal implements from his coat pocket. He shrugged and began to pick the lock.

  “I brought them just in case. They’re like old friends. They even have names. I call them Breaking...and Entering.”

  Illumina and I peered over his shoulders, watching him manipulate the tools, and it wasn’t long before we heard a satisfying click. I bit my lip as the door swung inward, only to stop after a few inches, its movement inhibited by a thick chain. My heart pounded, for either this wasn’t the only entrance, or someone was already on the other side.

  “Really?” Zabriel declared, staring at his new foe. Frustrated, he pulled out his gun and fired twice in rapid succession. I’d never seen a pistol capable of a double shot without some fussing in between, and it felt like my eardrums exploded in the confined space. Pain reverberated like a shrieking echo, and I clutched the sides of my head. Illumina did the same, but Zabriel didn’t flinch. He simply kicked the door the rest of the way open.

  There was no point asking him to explain his actions, or in trying to convince him that stealth would have been a better approach. Zabriel plunged forward, and not a force in the world could have prevented him from descending the seemingly endless and winding staircase that lay before us.

  We hurried after him, dodging pitfalls of crumbling stone. When at long last the three of us reached the bottom, Zabriel snatched an unlit torch from the wall. He held it out to Illumina and it came brilliantly to life, signaling that we had left the sky iron far enough behind.

  The room that sprawled before us was lined end to end with bookshelves bearing journals with unmarked spines. Here and there stood locked glass cabinets that held vials of strange-colored potions and concoctions, along with desks that were littered with research tomes and notes. The scent of chemicals and decay was rank about us. I coughed when it invaded my lungs, and resorted to short, unsatisfying gulps of air.

  Zabriel walked the perimeter of the room to light other torches fastened to the walls. When he neared a desk, he flipped open one of the research volumes that rested upon it, while Illumina hastily scanned the shelves. I peered at the contents of a cabinet, covering my mouth and nose with my sleeve to block out some of the odor.

  “Medical journals,” Illumina called.

  “And these are books about Fae,” Zabriel added. “By the titles, I think whoever is working here might be studying our magical affinities.”

  I knew they were waiting to hear from me, but I couldn’t manage to produce a sound. They had discovered information, while I had discovered a monstrosity: vials were set out on the shelves inside the cabinet like a macabre dinner buffet with the courses labeled—Blood of the Fire Fae, drawn the twentieth day of spring; Blood of the Air Fae, drawn the third day of fall; Marrow of the Water Fae, supplied the thirty-fifth day of summer.

  Then there were the jars, filled with liquid preservative to sustain their contents—pieces of Faerie wings, a heart taken from the chest of one of my people, and some body parts I couldn’t identify. There were slides, as well, which I could only assume contained tissue samples, slices of skin, and Nature knew what else. The vials, jars, and slides were innumerable.

  The room moved in and out of focus as I strove to keep my head. How long? How many? The dates given did not identify the years.

  Seeing my distress, Zabriel hastened to my side. “For the love of—” he swore, surveying the atrocities I had discovered. “Is this...real?”

  “Are you happy now?” The voice, low and solemn, snapped me out of my daze. I blinked and looked up at Illumina.

  “Happy?” I dumbly repeated. “Why in Nature’s name would I be happy?”

  Illumina’s black hair blended into the background, although the flame she protectively cupped in her palm reflected in her green eyes. On her back, wings the color of dark bruises spread to points, her shroud temporarily forgotten.

  “We left the humans alone. We gave them peace. We even tried to manufacture friendship between their race and ours through Aunt’s marriage to William Ivanova. And all the time, my father warned that the humans shouldn’t be left to their own devices, that they are betrayers by nature, always seeking to conquer and destroy. You and Aunt and all the human-lovers turned a blind eye, hosting your parties while they tortured and experimented on us. If any of you had taken the time to look, this place wouldn’t exist. So I repeat, are you happy?”

  “No, I’m not happy.” I took a step toward her, balling my fists. “Our trust has been broken. But you can’t make me feel guilty for trusting in the first place, not when it was the right thing to do. You’re just saying these things because you need someone to blame.”

  Before I completely lost my temper, Zabriel stepped between us.

  “Not all humans would approve of this, Illumina. There’s a reason this research is being conducted in secret.”

  Illumina’s petite frame shook, and it looked as if her entire body might burst into flame. “Are you too blind to see that the government has a hand in this? What does that say about your precious humans?”

  Zabriel glowered at her as he gently pulled me away from the contents of the cabinets, then he resumed the argument.

  “If the whole government was involved in this, the facility wouldn’t be located in the middle of pirate-infested waters, secret or no. Yes, Evernook is government owned, but that only means someone made use of government resources that were available to them. That much we already knew.” Zabriel’s eyes flicked between Illumina and me as he let us process this. Although he was right, my stomach flipped, for logic meant little when standing inside a house of horrors. “We don’t have time right now to consider who that someone might be, but we will find answers. I swear it.”

  “Maybe we’ll find them here in the castle.” Sorrow and anger were coursing through me, and I needed to focus on action lest my heart break right there and then.

  “Plus the evidence to prove it.” Zabriel held his torch high and proceeded toward a door at the other end of the hall. “This way, cousins.”

  We followed the spiraling steps farther downward, deeper and deeper until it seemed we were entering a cavernous new world. After a while, the steady ebb and flow of waves covered up our quick footfalls, and Evangeline’s descriptions ominously returned to me—the sound of water, the smell of salt. I shuddered. This was where she’d been held captive. She’d heard these same waves as she’d been tortured, interrogated, and stripped of her wings and dignity. But why had she been let go? Why had any of them been let go?

  A light appeared below us, and Zabriel immediately snuffed out his torch, singeing his cloak in the process. The slightly acrid odor burned my nose and throat, and I st
ifled a cough, fearful that there might be someone stationed in this pit who would hear me.

  We pressed ourselves against the stairwell walls, moving more slowly onward. A short distance ahead, an eerily familiar glow danced across the stones on one side, revealing an opening. I pushed off the wall and started forward, knocking aside Zabriel’s hand when he reached out to stop me.

  “It’s not guards,” I hissed. “It’s Sepulchres.”

  “How is that better?” Illumina demanded.

  “Shea and I ran into a whole nest of them in the tunnels under Tairmor. They seek magic, but I don’t think they hurt magical beings. Fae magic is their key to survival, so if they destroy us, they destroy themselves.”

  “But they do hurt humans,” Zabriel cut in. “The children who have gone missing in Sheness—they’re being fed to these creatures, remember? And you and I aren’t far enough from human to make me comfortable with that.”

  “We’re not little children, Zabriel. And I don’t think they otherwise attack without instruction. Besides, if they’re here, they must be confined. The Sepulchres in Tairmor said the ones working for the humans are corrupted. Made violent or something. So they’d be dangerous to those who work here if they weren’t caged.”

  “More victims,” Illumina concluded. “When we’re out of here, the first thing I’m going to do is vomit.”

  For once, I couldn’t disagree with her.

  Zabriel was again the one to make the decision for us. “We really have no choice but to proceed if we’re going to find out what’s going on here. So let’s continue, but no more noise than necessary.”

  “So you won’t be shooting off bullets like a madman?” Illumina responded, earning a scowl in return.

  Dropping our conversation, the three of us crept past the last of the inner wall. In a flash, at least twenty pairs of eyes were on us, and it felt like the breath was sucked from my lungs.