The Queen Revealed

by A. R. Winterstaar

  Adele wasn’t sure how Rainere would take her heart breaking proclamation and she watched him carefully. She wouldn’t blame him if he screamed at her or smashed things and howled in frustration. She felt awful. This was all her fault. She had promised to marry Rainere and now she was breaking that promise. She had torn his Magic out of him and Marked him as her own. Whether it was by accident or not, she always seemed to be hurting him and he was always having to forgive her. Maybe that would stop now.

  “Oh, cara mia,” Rainere sighed, defeated. “My darling, cara mia, you just can’t understand can you? The danger is already surrounding us, my love. War is here.”

  He pierced her with a look that was so poignant with despair that she burst into tears. In a few steps, Rainere was there, holding her tight. Yet again, comforting her, though she was the one who had wronged him. Adele sobbed against his bare chest.

  “Shhh, my love, don’t be afraid. I will find a way to keep you safe,” Rainere murmured into her hair, as he stroked her back. “You will be safe from harm, I promise. I know you love me, but if you do not want to marry me now, I understand.”

  Rainere was gentle as he helped Adele back into her long gown. With deft fingers and a tweak of Magic he did up all her buttons and ribbons. Not for the first time Adele wondered what it would be like to go back to Rainere’s room with him and wake up next to him, and plan her day with him, like a normal couple. Why did it have to be so impossible?

  Adele and Rainere held hands as they walked slowly back to the suite. When they reached the hallway of the guest suite they paused and gazed at each other in the near-dark. Suddenly, Rainere pushed Adele up against the wall, making her gasp.

  “Your guards are patrolling tonight, I can hear them at the other end of the hall,” he whispered in her ear. “But I cannot let you go with the sound of your tears in my ears.”

  Careless of who could hear them Adele threw herself into kissing Rainere, wanting to say with her lips all that she couldn’t with words. She reached down between his legs and stroked him firmly before fighting with the buttons to free him from his pants. Rainere groaned in her ear and scooped her up, pressing her up against the wall and managing to push her long dress aside. He ran his tongue down her neck, and pressed his teeth against the fragile skin as they reached a climax within moments of each other.

  The tryst was over in minutes, but they were both sweating and breathing hard. Adele felt something tickle her neck and swatted it away. In the dim light she saw her fingers came away dark.

  “Rainere, I’m bleeding,” she whispered.

  Rainere handed her a handkerchief and his apologies. “You just bring out the beast in me, cara mia,” he growled in a hoarse whisper and kissed her again. She could taste her blood on his tongue.

  As reluctant as she was to leave Rainere Adele knew she had to get back to her General. It must be past midnight now and Ohrig would be frantic with worry that Rainere had whipped her off to rape her and force her to marry him. She gave Rainere a lingering kiss and promised to see him tomorrow. He pulled his handkerchief out of her hand and melted away into the dark.

  She was still dazed by a weird emotional mix of heartbreak and carnal satisfaction when Adele met Captain Lucky and QG Leith in the hallway outside the door.

  “Good evening, Your Majesty,” said Captain Lucky in a voice filled with relief.

  “Something wrong, Captain?” asked Adele as she heard a commotion behind the doors to the suite.

  “It’s just the little Princess isn’t feeling well and has been asking for you all night, Your Majesty,” said Lucky.

  “The General went out to look for you half an hour ago, but we haven’t seen him since,” added QG Leith, looking worriedly over Adele’s shoulder at the dark hallway behind her.

  With a sigh, Adele pushed her way into the apartment and was confronted by a sight that made her stomach drop. Siobahn was pacing the floor with a pale and screaming Stella, the nanny almost as upset as the baby.

  “Oh, Your Majesty!” Siobahn sobbed with relief when she saw Adele walk in. “The poor Princess isn’t well. She hasn’t slept since dinner time and she is so hot, I think she has a fever.”

  Adele took the weeping Stella into her arms and expertly felt her baby’s forehead with her cheek while checking her tummy with her other hand. “Yes, she has a temperature, but it isn’t too bad,” she said quickly. “Send someone to fetch Pere Raven from wherever he is and bring me some cloths and cold water.”

  It was just a virus she was sure. The kids got them all the time, it was nothing to panic about. Stella had already quieted in her mother’s arms and just hiccoughed a few sobs now and again. Adele noticed the other two children were also out of bed. Aaron was almost asleep in QG Pepper’s arms, but Natalie was sitting up beside him and listening to Pepper’s story with wide eyes. Lady Olivia was sitting comfortably in an armchair listening, too.

  “Lady Olivia, please see the other two are put to bed somewhere in the other bedroom,” instructed Adele, frowning at the lapse in routine when there were so many adults who could have helped Siobahn. “They should have been asleep hours ago.”

  “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I think the poppets were just so concerned about their baby sister that they wanted to be up with her,” said Lady Olivia with a slightly defensive tone, but as she approached, she gave Adele a curious look. “Your Majesty, you have something on your neck. Is that blood?”

  Adele was too busy to feign surprise at the trickle running down her neck. “Let me get this baby settled,” she snapped. “She needs sleep to feel better. Please don’t come in and disturb me with Stella unless there is an actual emergency.”

  She didn’t stop to look at the reaction to her command, but took Stella into the dark bedroom and shut the door.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  “And Back Down to Hell Again”

  Rainere wandered aimlessly through his laboratory. He had lit a few candles, but it was the near full moon that bathed the room in silver light. Rainere tried not to look up at it. He only had what was left of this one night to come up with a plan to save Adelena from the Spider Empress.

  Rainere wasn’t accustomed to suffering such anxiety. Melancholy, loneliness and bitter depression, these had been his constant companions over the years, but this debilitating fear was just too difficult to bear. Never before had someone else’s life mattered more than his own.

  Before Adele had come into his life and he had been confronted with her passionate and desperate love for him, Rainere had never considered his Immortality as anything but a curse to be endured. He had thought little of wasting his years studying the most esoteric of Magic, keeping his body weak and malnourished from his abuse of the Blue Tonic, and staying away from the world outside the Grey Palace. But now he had given his heart to a St. Lucidis Queen who was a figment of Prophecy and he wanted nothing more than to see her live through it all, even if he had to sacrifice himself to do it.

  Rainere bent down and picked up a few tools that the children had left on the ground, and placed them back on the bench next to a pile of broken glass. It was the same bench on which he’d taken Adele so recklessly just this morning. He placed his hands where her body had lain and tried to drink in the memories the old wood might have stored. He closed his eyes to better imagine her gasps and the way her body had moved under him.

  He felt a pull in the Mark at his side and his eyes snapped open, his breath coming out in a hiss. Rainere placed his hand on his side and winced as the Mark shifted and rippled, stirring like it was trying to pull him back to her. It was such an odd feeling, uncomfortable and irresistible at the same time. She was so close to him, just in the next wing of the Palace, if only he could go to her. But Adelena was distracted and she lost her focus on him. The Mark settled back down. And Rainere felt hollow again.

  Adelena was probably with her children right now. Rainere did not enjoy the knowledge that he was not alone in Adele’s heart. She had three other people in h
er life who would always come before him. He knew they were the real reason she would never risk a marriage to him when it meant putting them in danger. But now time had run out. The full moon rose tomorrow night, and the time of the Prophecy was at hand.

  By the Goddess, why did everything have to be so complex!

  With a wave Rainere picked up the broken glass from the table and watched as it danced in mid-air, sparkling in the candlelight. He waved his hand to and fro and the glass fragments swirled into an image of Adelena’s face.

  “Prince Rainere?” a tiny voice behind him caused Rainere to break his concentration and the glass tinkled in a heap on the bench again.

  Natalie came into view wearing a frilly white nightgown, her dark hair tumbled about her pale face, looking for all the world like a tiny Adelena. She walked over to the table and looked at the mess of glass. “Did I break it?” she asked, looking up at him through her dark lashes, a tiny frown creasing her forehead.

  “Not at all child, it was my own fault,” Rainere replied, brushing the glass aside. On a whim he picked up Natalie and sat her on the bench. “What are you doing out of bed, little Princess?”

  Natalie looked down at the glass in case it might dance again. “Stella won’t stop crying and it’s keeping me awake. Mummy told me to go sleep in the other room with Aaron, but I wanted to come and find you.”

  “And why is that?” Rainere was shocked by the little girls’ courage. Surely the Grey Palace at night should frighten a little thing like her.

  Natalie didn’t answer, but pointed to the glass. “I saw my Mummy’s face in there.” Natalie smiled and turned to Rainere. “Do you love her?”

  Rainere’s heart stopped beating for just a moment before he heard the innocence behind her question. Natalie was fascinated by love and gave out her own generously. Rainere supposed it must have been because her mother had shown her how to. “I love her as my Queen,” he replied gently. “As all her subjects do.”

  Natalie considered this. “Do you love me as my subject too?”

  “I will love you all as your mother has instructed me to and as is my duty,” he answered.

  “Why aren’t you married?” asked Natalie curiously. She picked up a pair of fine-nose pliers and began trying to separate the shards of glass.

  Rainere paused, and decided to skip the history lesson. “Because I have never met anyone I wanted to marry before?”

  “And so you’ve never left a wife before either,” remarked Natalie. “My Daddy left my Mummy, you know? She used to cry all the time about him, but she stopped when we moved here,” - she frowned - “I don’t think Daddy is my Father anymore because we are so far away from him. Would you like to be my Father?”

  Rainere was dumbfounded. “Why ever would you want me as your Father, child?”

  “Because you are the handsomest man in the Kingdom and you are nice to Mummy all the time. She said you are a wonderful Prince and you can’t always believe what other people tell you about other people… and you are so kind and your Magic is more fun than Ohren's is and I think that the Grey Palace is better than the Golden Palace because there are less people here and no one tells me to leave Mummy alone all the time… you know, lots of reasons.”

  Natalie looked up at Rainere and her clear green eyes were wide with earnestness. “And I love you very much. Remember I gave you that picture of us together? I haven’t changed my mind, you know.”

  Satisfied with her speech Natalie gave up on picking at the glass shards and drew her hands up to pull her hair into a ponytail, just as her mother always did.

  Rainere caught a glimmer of silver at her throat. “Natalie, where did you get this?” he asked pulling the intricate chain from beneath a cotton frill. “I meant this to be for your Mother.”

  Natalie had the decency to look chagrined. “Oh, it was a special present for Mummy? I found it in her room hidden in a shiny black box.” She took it back out of his hand and dropped it under her collar again. “I think she wanted me to have it, but she was just too busy to tell me before we left Belvoir. Also, I can’t get it off.”

  Rainere was horrified. If Adele wasn’t wearing the necklace when they went to the Empress she wouldn’t be protected by its powerful Magic. His mind flew in a hundred frantic directions, but he couldn’t pull the necklace of Natalie’s neck now without hurting her, badly. He had no time to prepare the complicated Magic needed to break his own spell, so it would have to run its course. Already Rainere could feel Dawn approach as the stars shifted in the sky and the moonlight slanted over the bench, illuminating Natalie in its light.

  Rainere froze as a wicked through crept into his head and circled about, looking for a place to settle.

  “You don’t mind if I borrow the necklace for a little while do you, Prince Rainere?” Natalie asked, smiling up at him.

  “Of course not, Princess,” Rainere whispered hoarsely. He reached out to lightly touch Natalie’s head and ran his fingers through her silky locks. She was so much like her mother. “Just promise me you’ll keep it hidden and Mummy will never know.”

  Natalie threw her arms around his middle and gave Rainere a sudden, strong little hug. “Oh, thank you, Prince Rainere,” she said into his chest.

  Rainere felt guilt like a knife twisting in his gut and he steeled himself to the pain. “I think it is time you rejoined your Mother, Princess,” he said and lifted her down off the bench, trying to ignore the fragile feel of her ribcage beneath his hands.

  Natalie skipped to the door and sent him a little wave before she turned and left.

  Rainere walked to the window and gazed out over the landscape of his moonlit garden. He let the thoughts pounding through his head wash over him. A firm tug of the Mark brought a clear image of Adelena into his mind, but now it was overshadowed with her daughter’s face. She could be his one day, his daughter, and he would be a good father to her.

  Rainere opened his hand and looked down at the strands of dark hair laid across his palm. He pulled the blood-stained handkerchief out of his pocket and carefully wrapped the hairs in it.

  But first he had a vow to keep.

  Chapter Forty

  “Innocent Dreams of Safety”

  Natalie trailed her fingers along the wall as she got closer to the brightly-lit hallway where the apartment was, but she was in no rush to get back.

  She was enjoying the warm, bubbly feeling inside that Prince Rainere gave her. She knew that no one believed her when she said that she loved the Prince, but she really did. He was everything wonderful about this new world of Evendaar. When her Daddy had left, she had lived with a big hole in her chest that had ached at night time, but Prince Rainere had filled that hole and she felt full again when she was with him. He really was her friend and when he looked at her, she could tell he was really waiting to hear what she had to say. When he carried her in his arms, he hadn’t complained or said “Ooff, you are too heavy, Natty!” or pretended to drop her like QG Leith did. He was strong enough to hold her for ages. He gave her presents, too. Well, he gave Mummy presents, but he didn’t mind when she kept them.

  Natalie skipped around the corner, but froze when she saw Captain Lucky, QGs Leith and Owens and Lady Olivia standing in the hallway discussing something with serious faces. They all turned to look at her.

  “Oh, Natalie, thank the Goddess!” exclaimed Lady Olivia and put her hand on her heart. “You scared the life right out of me when I couldn’t find you.”

  Lady Olivia bustled down the hall to grab Natalie’s hand and pull her along.

  “You really shouldn’t go wandering about the Palace like that, Princess,” smiled Captain Lucky. Natalie liked him a lot, but he was too young to be a Daddy.

  “Yes, it’s not safe with Mr. Grotto lurking about,” added QG Leith with a pretend shudder.

  Natalie didn’t say anything. She was too embarrassed by the fuss everyone was making. She let Lady Olivia yank her through the door.

  “Now, you need to go to bed, youn
g lady.” Lady Olivia dropped the smile she used when other people were around, other important people like Mummy and Captain Lucky, not maids or nannies of course.

  “What do you think your Mother would say if she caught you out of bed? I’m sure she would think you needed a hard slap,” snapped Lady Olivia. “You are so naughty to run away like that.”

  Natalie pulled her hand out of Lady Olivia’s and frowned. She hated it when people told her what her mother would do and say. She knew her Mummy better than anyone and she knew her Mummy thought she was “beautiful and terrifyingly bright”, and she knew that was really wonderful.

  “What do you think Mummy would say if she knew that you lost me?” Natalie answered tartly. “I think you would get the smack then.”

  Lady Olivia spun to face Natalie, her blue eyes narrowed and her mouth was pursed as if she was going to spit. Natalie watched the variety of emotions flash across the young woman’s face. Everyone thought Lady Olivia was beautiful, but Natalie just thought she was mean.

  “It’s late. You need to get to bed now, little Princess,” said Lady Olivia wearing a weird smile. “After all, princesses need their rest if they wish to grow big and strong, or at all.”

  Natalie trailed behind Lady Olivia as she went into the other bedroom where General Ohrig and the Guards had slept last time they were in the Grey Palace. She saw Aaron curled up in the middle of the big bed with Siobahn sleeping next to him.

  Natalie sighed. She didn’t like Siobahn very much either, but Aaron was such a cry-baby now that he had nightmares and dreams all the time and he always wanted someone to hold him or pat his back until he went to sleep. Normally Mummy did it, but Natalie did it a lot too when he woke up in the night.

  She crawled in next to her brother and leaned over him to give Siobahn a poke in the arm. Siobahn was lying on her back and snoring loudly, but with the poke she rolled over and quietened. Natalie wrapped her arms around Aaron’s shoulders and he instantly turned to snuggle into her.