Queen Alpha (NYC Mecca Series Book 2)

by Leia Stone

  Baladar distracted me then by producing an item from his pocket. He held it for a moment, before reaching out to give it to me. I opened my palm and a heavy metal object landed in it, a solid gold key with the House of Red emblem marked on it.

  “The keys your friends have will expire tonight, but this key…” Baladar gestured to my hand. “Will never expire. You’re welcome in my home anytime, and I look forward to more conversations with you. Bring your bear friend. I would like to speak with him too.”

  How did he know about Kade? That stupid website probably. He’d basically told me that all shifters came to his house with gossip on their tongue. There’d be no bigger story than that of an affair between wolf queen and bear king.

  Tucking the key in my jeans pocket for safe keeping, I said, “Thank you.” There were a thousand questions burning a hole in my tongue, but before I could say more, Baladar bowed deeply.

  “I promised Calista you would have fun tonight. So eat, drink, and be merry.” He looked around and inhaled again. “I don’t think the fae wishes you harm. Once I leave, they will come out and find you.”

  I was starting to see why the queen had locked him away. He saw and knew far too much, and clearly she had been the keeper of more than a few secrets. Feeling the heavy gaze of unknown sources, I spun around, scanning the bright lights and shadows beneath the trees, trying to figure out if a fae was stalking me.

  My dominants were standing guard about six feet from me. Next to them was Violet, pounding pink fizzy drinks like it was her last day on Earth and she needed to get rip roaring drunk. But no fae. When I turned back around, Baladar was gone. Typical magic born. Didn’t he get the memo? No cloaking in my presence. Oh well, I was starting to see that he was in the same realm as Violet – kind of outside my rule.

  My guards approached me now that the older shifter was gone.

  “Who was he?” Blaine asked, after he gave the proper protocol bow.

  “An old friend of Calista’s. He is bound to this home, and has made it a private sanctuary.”

  Blaine nodded but he didn’t relax. He remained rigid, his focus constantly shifting around the party. He was uneasy, and I raised my own awareness levels to make sure that this didn’t end up being a bad situation for us all.

  Suddenly there was a pink drink thrust in my face. “Spelled drinks!” Violet’s words were a little slurred. “They take the edge off, but if you feel you’re in danger or need to drive home, you just say the magic word and you’re instantly sober.”

  Shaking my head, I reluctantly removed the glass from her before she spilled it everywhere. The pink was sloshing dangerously close to the edge. Bringing it closer I smelled it: lemon, strawberry, and a mix of a few alcohols. Shifters were governed by rules based on European society. We could drink alcohol at eighteen; most started even earlier than that. As queen it was frowned upon for me to ever drink to excess. If a war broke out and I was impaired, I would let my people down. But one or two wouldn’t hurt, especially if there was a sober-up switch.

  “Prove they’re spelled,” Monica said, watching Violet sway to the music.

  “Purple pixies!” the magic born shouted, and immediately the dazed look on her face vanished; her eyes were clearer, and she stopped swaying. “See,” she groaned, “I’m perfectly fine.” As if to prove her point, she touched a fingertip to her nose, pulled it away, and brought it back again. She sighed. “Of course, now I’m going to need more drinks.”

  Somehow she had another drink in her hand then, and she raised her eyebrows at me. I knew she was silently asking if I was in or out of tonight’s debauchery. Staring at the fruity cocktail in my hand, I decided that maybe just for tonight I could forget my worries. I knew my boys wouldn’t touch the drinks; they would stay completely alert the entire time we were here. Monica, Jen, and Violet would drink with me though and it would be fun. Without another thought I tipped the whole thing back, letting the fizz roll down my throat. The sweetness overwhelmed me at first, but then as I got used to the taste I immediately craved more. Once the glass was empty, I noticed tiny writing on the bottom, two words. Lovely lilacs. There was my undo spell. I took mental note and handed the glass to Ben.

  Shifters have fast metabolisms. It’s almost impossible for us to become overweight or get drunk, but whatever was in these fruity numbers was clearly laced with more than human alcohol. One drink and I felt amazing. My muscles relaxed; my head felt light and airy. So much of the heavy burden I’d been carrying for weeks drifted away and I felt like a twenty-year-old for the first time in a long time.

  Grabbing Blaine’s hand, I tried to drag him to a nearby open dance area. He resisted me at first, and no matter how hard I yanked, there was simply no moving him if he didn’t want to be moved.

  “I’m your guard … which means I need to guard you,” he said, shaking his head at me as I danced around him.

  “Dance with me!” I shouted, throwing my hands up before diving toward him and trying to nudge him over to the dance floor.

  I could hear chuckles around me. Violet was laughing madly, clearly happy again under the pink drink’s influence. Blaine tried to remain stoic, but eventually I got him to smile.

  “One dance, then I need to keep watch,” he said, leaning over so I could hear him better, his deep voice tickling my neck as he spoke into my ear.

  “Yes, sir!” I fist pumped, the way we used to as kids when we got our own way. He shook his head at me again, but the smile was bigger this time. Genuine.

  The music picked up as Blaine and I ended up in the middle of a hundred dancing bodies. I lifted my arms, spinning around, moving with the beat, brushing against my dominant as we moved to the music. He was watching me with stone-like eyes, far too serious. He needed a pink drink. This was the worst sort of relaxing I’d ever seen.

  A flash of white to my left caught my eye. Violet was there dancing around us and giggling. Nothing was funny at all, and yet I felt the need to giggle too. This drink made me feel amazing, not drunk just … relaxed. Loose. Carefree. I laughed harder as Violet leapt with her arms out like she was on Broadway. This was exactly what I needed, a night of living like I was just a normal young shifter in New York City. I was just spinning around to look for Monica and Jen when the floral fae scent hit me, stronger than I’d smelled since stepping into the brownstone. They were close.

  “Lovely lilacs,” I said quickly.

  Immediately the buzzed carefree feeling was gone and I was focused. Blaine reacted to my hesitation, going into guard mode, scanning the area. Both of us saw her at the same time, near a beautiful purple-flowered bush – the lioness familiar in her full glory. No Labrador illusion for her today.

  “It’s okay. She’s a friend … I think,” I said to Blaine as I began to walk toward the lioness.

  I wished I had Finn with me now. Maybe he’d be able to communicate with this other familiar, find out what she wanted from me. I heard Violet mutter some words behind me and then she was at my side, eyes clear, ready to throw down if needed. All of my guards had fallen into line. It was a shame my night of fun had come to a halt so soon, but it was far more pertinent that I ask that fae from the park more questions.

  Once we were five feet from the lioness, she began to prance away. I walked fast to keep up and we ended up in a high-hedged labyrinth. Baladar was either the best mecca user in existence, or he had, like, a hundred million dollars in property here. This place was beyond huge.

  The second I stepped into the entrance of the labyrinth, the music vanished, leaving behind silence. Not a single sound could be heard, not a bird, bug, or bee.

  “I don’t like this,” Victor said from behind me.

  “It’s okay, there’s no reason to be alarmed at this stage,” I said. My guards knew I had met a fae with a lioness familiar before, but they still didn’t like it.

  We wound through the labyrinth, until finally turning a corner to find a tall and striking male. I had a moment’s pause. I’d been expecting that
same woman from before. But as the lioness walked to the male, nuzzling into his side, it made perfect sense. The female fae had said she wasn’t very powerful; she couldn’t have been an heir. The lioness was not her familiar. It was this man’s.

  He looked to be around my age, but age was probably impossible to judge on a fae. He was well over six feet tall, with a strong, wiry build, and long silky blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, except for a few braided strands that hung at the side of his head. He had deep green eyes, slashed through with gold threads. He was probably one of the most beautiful males I’d ever seen, but there was no mistaking his otherness. His ears were slender and pointed; he wore no illusion to hide his fae heritage.

  Crossing his left arm over his chest he gave me the slightest of head nods. “Your Majesty.”

  I didn’t know this man, but I didn’t want to offend, so I decided a slight nod in return was appropriate. “Pleasure to meet you,” I said.

  My guards were at my back fanned out in an arc and the fae eyed them. “I’m Caspien, one of the princes of the Summer Court, and I would like to speak with you in private.”

  “No!” Blaine stepped before me and gestured to the prince’s weapon. “There is no way we’ll let our queen go off alone with an armed fae.”

  Prince Caspien nodded and unsheathed his blade, placing it on the ground before his familiar. “You have my word that no harm with befall her at my hand.”

  Violet stepped in beside me. “I’ll accompany the queen,” she said, clearly not convinced.

  It looked like my best friend didn’t completely trust this person, and I thought that was wise. This could be a ploy to kill me and weaken the mecca, weakening the shifters so they were ripe for the killing.

  Caspien did not look worried. “As you wish, magic wielder.”

  Violet and I shared a look at this unfamiliar term. Blaine, Victor, Ben, Jen, and Monica looked less than happy as we walked away, leaving them to stand guard over his weapon and familiar. I was calm though. Few beings could rival Violet and I together, and I sensed Baladar would also come to my aid if needed.

  Violet was at my left, a few paces behind me, and the prince was on my right. “Dalia sends her warm regards,” he said formally.

  Dalia? Oh … that must be the name of the woman I met in Astoria Park.

  I nodded. “Thank you. Please return those regards. So what brings you here?”

  He didn’t hesitate, which I liked. “Things are reaching crisis point in the Otherworld. We sent Dalia across to try and warn you after your queen’s death. This was the catalyst that has set the Winter Court off on a destructive path. Why, we do not know, but they are determined to take over both sides of the veil.”

  “Why send Dalia before and not just come yourself?” The prince was clearly far more powerful, and a leader in his own right.

  “The less powerful the fae to cross over, the less ripple effect. We were hoping the Winter Court would not know she had come. But, as this escalates, we felt it was imperative that I seek your council in person. My father is the king of the High Court of Summer. From here on I’ll be the direct liaison between our two courts. Now more than ever we need this alliance. We have information to share, and hope you’ll do the same.”

  Whoa. The son of the king of the Summer Court. I felt a little in awe, even though I was an actual queen. Something about the Tuatha de Danann had that effect on me, an ethereal otherworld energy and power. I nodded that he should continue.

  “The mecca is weak in the land of fae. Ever since your late queen fell, our world has begun to die.”

  I was no longer walking. I didn’t want to miss a single word. “Dalia did mention there was an imbalance. What happens if the Otherworld dies? Would Earth also perish?”

  His expression shuttered. “Right now we have no idea. Everything requires a balance, so there is a very real risk that your world will fall with us, but we cannot know for sure. Maybe, because the mecca is stronger here now, Earth would survive.

  “Even more pressing, the Winter Court has stolen a precious item of ours, a power object that promotes energy and fertility. Without that object or the mecca empowering our lands, our food, and eventually our people, will die off. This means that time is running out before war spills into your land. We are weakening. We cannot hold them off for much longer.”

  “What can I do to help? How do I fix this?” I would not let an entire race die because of some imbalance my queen had created.

  I knew it had started with her. I just had to figure out what she had done to make it so. Plus we needed all the allies we could get, especially since the Winter Court was gunning to take us out.

  The prince’s skin glowed then, almost as if happiness was bleeding from him. He gave me a slight nod. “Thank you. Very few leaders offer to help. My father made the right decision in trusting you. The Winter Court believes the only way to survive this imbalance is to destroy all shifters. Then they’ll return to Earth and reclaim the mecca. My father believes you can fix it, that you can send the mecca back to the fae lands and restore the balance. If the mecca is returned, we’ll gain much-needed strength to not only retrieve our object of power, but push back against the Winter Court. We have more numbers than them; the Spring Court is on our side, and they are numerous. We need the power back though.”

  Well, great. “Okay, and do you know exactly how I am supposed to do this?”

  Of course, give me another impossible task when I already have ten to get through this week.

  He nodded. “You’re the queen of mecca now. You have the full force of the Earth side power at your disposal.”

  “I don’t understand what happened, what my late queen did in the first place to offset the balance. To be honest, I was raised without any knowledge of the fae or your world, so the chance that I can somehow send the mecca back there is very slim.”

  “Slim?” He looked confused.

  I tried not to groan in frustration. I needed to brush up on my Shakespeare.

  “Not happening,” Violet clarified. “Difficult. Impossible. A true pain in the butt.”

  The prince frowned. “Oh, right.”

  Some of his glow dulled. I had to offer some hope. I needed them to keep fighting the Winter Court until we figured this out, because he had just all but told me that if I didn’t fix it, his kind was going to make my kind go extinct.

  “I know an expert in the mecca and I’m training with him. So I’ll do everything in my power to find a way to fix this. I make no promises, but if there is a way, I’ll figure it out.”

  It was the right thing to say, because his eyes softened and his posture relaxed. “How much time do I have?” I asked him.

  Please don’t say a week or something crazy like that.

  “If I can get the Sword of Light back from the Winter Court, it could buy us a few weeks.”

  “A few weeks!” I said loudly, losing all queenly composure.

  He put out a hand to calm me. “In fae time. That would be … one or two seasons here.”

  One or two season. So three to six months. Okay, I could deal with that timeline. Right? Violet must have noticed my panic, because she stepped in to finish the conversation.

  “How can we contact you to see how things are progressing?” she asked him.

  Prince Caspien looked at Violet, his brow furrowed. “You’re a magic wielder.”

  Violet let out a frustrated wolfy growl. “We’re not taught your ways or your magic.”

  This was the exact reason I was going to open up that locked room of fae magical books. We would know everything by the time my reign as queen was done.

  Prince Caspien reached out and gently caressed a nearby flower. “When you’re lost, always look to nature. You’ll find you can communicate with us through the plants and other things of this kind. It’s the reason we can cross in bodies of water. Nature joins our two lands.” In a flash, he plucked two of the bright purple flowers, bringing them close to his face. Then he pulled
out one of his hairs, laying it inside of one of the flowers, before handing it to Violet.

  Her face lit up. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”

  She reached for one of my hairs, but must have decided it wasn’t completely safe to link me to the Otherworld, and pulled out one of hers instead. Laying the hair inside of the other flower, she held both in her closed palms. Then she pressed her lips to her hands, spoke an incantation, and her palms glowed purple for a few moments.

  The prince watched her closely. “You’re powerful,” he said. “Most fae have some mecca affinity, but for the more complex spells we use specialized and highly trained magic wielders. Lucian, the palace magic wielder, could not have linked those flowers so quickly.”

  Violet shrugged off his compliment and handed him the flower that once held her hair. He nodded and placed it in his pocket. I was immediately reminded of the flower in the Red Queen’s trinket box. It had to be the same thing, a communication device. But for who? Who had the queen needed to communicate with in the Otherworld? I wondered if there was a spell Violet could do to trace the link.

  Prince Caspien faced me and I was blasted with the full force of his beauty, and that subtle glow which seemed to dim and brighten on and off.

  “We are well met, Your Majesty,” he said formally. “If a war begins, you have an ally in the Summer Court.”

  “Yes, we are well met,” I offered back, unsure of the protocol. I had so many more questions, but he seemed to be in a rush to go. As if he read my thoughts, he gestured behind me.

  “If I spend too long in this realm, my people weaken further. In my world, royalty are linked to our people. We feed them in a sense, with power, magic. If my father, brothers, or I leave, the court weakens. With the mecca already fading, it’s best I return quickly.”