by Zoe Blake
Queen & the Kingsmen
A Reverse Harem Dark Romance
Zoe Blake
Alta Hensley
Copyright © 2018 by Zoe Blake & Alta Hensley
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Editing by the wonderful Maggie Ryan
Cover Art by Dark City Designs
Contents
Find out about Zoe & Alta
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
Dark Fantasy Series
About Zoe Blake
About Alta Hensley
Also by Zoe Blake
Also by Alta Hensley
SNOW & THE SEVEN HUNTSMEN
CHAPTER TWO SNEAK PEEK
Find out about Zoe & Alta
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Alta Hensley
Zoe Blake
1
The shrieks and cries grew louder as the choking green mist twisted and swirled around the princess.
“Grab her!”
“Seize the evil queen!”
“Guards! Guards!”
They were all fools.
Fools to think their little slings and arrows would have any power over me. These fragile mortal beings with their weak flesh were as wisps of air to me. I ruled over the ethereal realm, deep in the forest where magic and mysticism still reigned. How dare they think they could capture me, Queen Zelladine, ruler of the creatures and fairies of the forest? As if their human laws had any hold over me?
Plates of delicate china crashed to the ground as heavily laden tables were overturned. Platters of roast beasts, bowls of sugared fruits and cups of fragrant wine spilled and splattered onto the pristine white marble floor, staining it a gruesome mottled red. The screech of instrument strings and discordant chords could be heard above the din as the orchestra musicians stumbled over one another in their haste to escape. The tinny clatter of metal could be heard as the king’s guard took up position, circling me.
“Oh my,” I exclaimed, raising one black wing eyebrow. “Have I interrupted the feast?”
“Release my daughter, Zelladine,” ordered King Basil.
Curling my lip in a sneer, I pointed one long red fingernail at him. “That is Queen Zelladine to you.”
I watched as his face swelled, the skin turning an ashen purple in his anger. “Seize her,” he screamed as foamy spittle sprayed from his mouth.
The guards stepped closer. Bayonets drawn. With a flick of my wrist, the fire-forged steel of the bayonets, curled and withered as the metal melted. With frightened cries of alarm, the guards took a step back.
“Where are my kingsmen? Send for the kingsmen!” ordered King Basil.
“My, my. You must be positively petrified of little ol me if you are calling for your elite guards. Should I be flattered?” I asked, my lips twisting in mockery.
King Basil took a lumbering step forward. The obnoxious bulk of his body, belying the threat of his movements. Raising his fist, each finger clad in gold and jewels, he sputtered and tripped over his words.
“Tut, tut, Basil,” I warned, my gaze flicking to the center of the great hall. “Careful.”
A whirling tunnel of green mist towered to the vaulted ceiling with veins of black smoke creeping along the sides and across the floor. In its center was the King’s precious only daughter, Briar Rose. All that could be seen were flashes of her blue gown and bright, tawny hair.
“How dare you invade the sanctity of my kingdom,” thundered King Basil.
“Your kingdom. Your kingdom!” Pacing away from his odious presence, I circled the green column imprisoning the princess. “How dare you claim this land for your own? We were here long before your silly stone castles, before you restrained and crippled the wilds of nature about you. As if you had any right!” My hands fisted into the fine silken folds of my cloak as I tried to curb my anger.
The women of my clan had been ruling over the forest and its inhabitants since time immortal. Then the humans came with their weapons of destruction. Ripping the stones from the earth, cleaving them into rigid little boxes to make their castles and ramparts, walling in what used to be open and free. Tearing down trees and ruining the homes of my beloved fairies to plant their vanity crops of tobacco and hops for the further debasement of their kind. With every season, I saw more and more torn from my grasp. With the death of every tree, every flower, every sweet breath of air choked by the smoke from their hearths…my power weakened. Several generations ago, I’d summoned the dark force to at least keep these wretched humans at heel. Yet, the dark force can only contain and restrain, it cannot recapture what I have lost.
Only the light of understanding will heal my realm and offer a chance of peace between my kind and the humans, a light that will never come from the likes of King Basil. Only interested in the tangible displays of wealth—gold, silver, jewels—he was incapable of understanding the true riches of existence, and if left to his disgusting devices, he would stifle and strangle my only hope.
I couldn’t allow him to succeed in his plans. It would be the final ruination of my realm.
I must stop him at all costs. Even if it meant sacrificing the innocent.
Raising my arms high, my head thrown back, I called to the ancients. “Let a curse be upon the House of Basil. No child of his loins will further his withered and impotent lineage.”
A deep howling wind spun into the great hall, whipping the green mist into a tempest. The column rose higher and higher.
“Hear me now, oh ancients. Obey my command!” I called forth, my voice rising.
The green column spun faster as it closed in on itself. Squeezing tighter and tighter.
“You evil witch. You will pay for this,” spat King Basil. “I will see you punished.”
“You? Punish me? I’d like to see you try,” I said, chuckling at the man’s impudence.
I had yet to see an impressive human. They were all weak of mind and limb, more eager to engage in drink and sloth than anything of meaningful purpose. In my world, strength and power, the emotional embodiment of nature herself, were valued. Even this King’s guards hid behind their armor and weapons of tin and wood. Pathetic.
Curling my fingers into claws, I slowly brought my hands together. By my command, the green column of mist began to compress. As my hands were brought closer and closer together, the column became shorter.
“No!” cried out the king as he fell to his knees.
The green mist was now a spinning ball of dark light.
Clapping my hands together with a resounding snap…the green mist disappeared.
Along with the princess.
Glaring up at me from his prone position, the king growled, “You will pay for ruining my plans.”
Scraping my nails down his cheek, I laughed. “Do your worst.”
With a flick of my wrist, I was gone. Leaving the shattered remains of the feast in my wake.
2
“You cannot ask it of me, my queen.”
Smi
ling indulgently, I stroked the silky feathers of my faithful servant, Hrafn. A raven of extraordinary size and intelligence, he had been by my side since I’d rescued him when I was no more than a sprite.
“It is the only way.”
“It will leave you defenseless.”
Chucking him under his golden beak, my lips twitched at his concern. “Defenseless? My, my. When have you ever known your queen to be defenseless?”
“Everyone has a weakness, Zelladine. When you learn yours, I fear it will be doubly weak for you will have no knowledge or power against the emotion.”
His words sobered me. Hrafn only used my given name when he was especially concerned.
“I had no choice. You know I am bound to grant any request asked of me by a pure soul. Plus, it served my purpose.”
My plan was fraught with risk and danger, but it was the only way to stop King Basil from razing the forest to the ground in his hunger and greed for more land and power. If unchecked, he would combine his kingdom with another on the other side of the village. The two powerful men would crush all that was left of the old ways. There would be no sanctuary left for my kind or the ancient magic. I had hoped the dark force would chase these bothersome humans away, but it has been too many seasons and they are still here…still imposing their will on all they see. The humans were even smart enough to send enchanted wolves to guard them. Hrafn has informed me the wolves have added to their pack. A female who seems to have special powers of her own. It was only a matter of time before they realized how to defeat the dark force and my realm would truly be left unprotected. No, it must be this way.
“Must all the fairies go? What of your own protection?”
“Hrafn, I will be safe. No, you must go. King Basil must not suspect what we are about.”
As I stroked his back feathers with affection, we both heard the thundering rumble roll through the forest. An anxious look to Hrafn was all it took for him to launch into the air, high above the treetops. I watched him circle the clouds, his wide wings outstretched. Returning to my arm, he clattered and cawed in agitation.
“It is the kingsmen! The kingsmen!”
“How can you be certain? Mayhap it is only the king’s bumbling guards,” I reasoned.
“My queen, I tell you these are not the slight and weak humans who amble about the king. They must be the kingsmen.”
A shiver of apprehension raced down my spine. No one had ever seen the fabled kingsmen, not even my sources could learn of their whereabouts or numbers. I only knew what the whispers in the forest said, that they were to be feared, that unlike the other mortals, the kingsmen had some knowledge of the ancient magic.
“You must be mistaken, Hrafn. How could they possibly have found me? The forest has enchantments and protections. The dark force would have risen from the mist and stopped them.”
“All the more reason to fear them, Zelladine. I tell you, they have found you.”
Biting my lip, I turned my head to focus and think.
Turning back, I raised my chin in resolve. “This changes nothing. If anything, you must hasten your departure.”
“My queen!”
“Go! I command it.”
My eyes misted with tears as I watched my friend and companion lead the others to safety. No matter what may befall me, I knew Hrafn would not fail me. He would see my plan through.
The ground began to shake and quake beneath my feet. As if it too was afraid of what approached. Refusing to flee like a coward, I stood my ground…and waited. In short order, I could hear brittle branches snapping as the undergrowth of the forest was crushed under their horses’ hooves.
Then it happened…the kingsmen broke through the trees.
A deep and primal preservation instinct had me taking a few steps back. These men could not possibly be normal humans. The humans I had observed were either slight and weak limbed or copious from drink and overindulgence. These men were neither. Astride their horses, they seemed to embody the ancient myths of the giants who once roamed this earth. Each of the four had thick arms with wide shoulders and heavily muscled chests. Instead of the effeminate, tightly coiffed curls of the men of King Basil’s court, these men let their hair grow wild. It hung in thick waves down to their shoulders in the deep, rich colors of the soil. Dark brown, chestnut, a light sand and one who was even as gray as stone at the temples.
Eschewing the hammered tin armor of the king’s ineffective guard, these men wore leather breeches with a linen shirt, both dyed an ominous black. It was as if they wanted to send a message to their enemies that they did not require armor to vanquish anyone in their path.
I now understood the true reason why the kingsmen were feared but never seen. Surely King Basil had them conjured from the depths of some black magic hole deep inside the fiery Earth’s belly.
No, these men could not possibly be human.
Yet, for all their brawn and bravado, I was still the powerful fairy queen.
Tilting my chin high, I asked, my voice deep with regal indignation, “Who dares enters my realm without permission?”
While my withering look would have sent most scurrying, these men responded with only a chuckle.
Throwing my shoulders back, I tried again. “I command you to leave my forest.”
The one with the graying temples, leaned forward in his saddle, resting his large hands on the horn. His stance was casual and unafraid, which tweaked my anger.
“Queen Zelladine, you know who we are and why we have come,” he said.
Only partially pacified by his proper use of my title, I responded sharply, “You presume too much. I have not the faintest idea why you have disturbed my peace.”
All four men leaned back in their saddles, each exchanging a cryptic look. They then turned their gazes back on me. Each had piercing eyes of either azure blue or emerald green. It was unsettling to see such bright intense eye colors on men such as these. My stomach twisted and tightened but not entirely from fear.
“That is your one and only lie, your highness,” said the largest one with hair the color of dark red clay and disturbingly blue eyes.
“How dare you call me a liar?” I exclaimed as my hands fisted nervously in my black robes.
“How dare you lie,” the one with tawny blond hair quickly responded.
“If you don’t cooperate, you are going to find we will dare quite a bit more,” threatened the one with gray hair, his voice dark and low.
Shifting my eyes from one to the other, I could feel the energy radiating from them. Power and anger. Especially from the one who had yet to speak. From the moment they entered the glen, his eyes had not wavered from me. It was unsettling and oddly stirring.
These kingsmen were setting me back on my heels and I did not appreciate it one little bit. I was unaccustomed to feeling overwhelmed and, strangely enough, almost powerless. Usually, I was the most commanding presence, but these men…with their assured confident manner and displayed brute strength, were making me feel almost…submissive. Breathing heavily through my nose, I nurtured the feelings of outrage such a weak thought brought to my breast. Submissive indeed. Over my dead body would I ever submit to anyone…even the kingsmen.
“I’d like to see you try,” I ground out through clenched teeth.
“Zella, you don’t want the torment we can bring. Lift the curse on the House of Basil. Return the King’s daughter’s body to her family for a proper burial and we will leave you in peace.”
So, the dark, quiet one had finally spoken. His words were soft and evenly measured, giving them an ominous sound. The threat undeniable.
Bristling at the familiar sound of my given name being used in such an informal manner, I snapped back, all the while ignoring the fluttering in my stomach that the almost endearment caused, “Never. King Basil shall never have another son or daughter. His lineage of hate and greed dies with him.”
“Remember when you are begging for mercy and yet receive none, you chose this,” responded the
dark quiet one.
They swung down from their steeds in unison. If possible, they all seemed even more intimidating off the massive horses. Each one was easily head and shoulders taller than myself, a rather remarkable feat since I was both slim and tall.
One more reason why I found these four men unsettling. I was accustomed to looking down upon my subjects and others. Always having the advantage of superior height. Why even that insipid King Basil was barely taller than my elbow.
Yet these men. All tall…threateningly so.
Enough was enough. While they may seem otherworldly, they were still mere mortal men. They would be no match for the dark force once I called it down upon them.
Raising my arms, I prepared to summon the dark force to do my bidding.
Just then, each one of the men reached into their saddle bags and pulled out a large black crystal, the likes of which I had never seen. Curious, I watched as they slowly circled me, tossing the black crystals into the air and catching them easily.
So distracted was I by the obsidian prisms as the sunlight danced off their polished glass-like sides, that I failed to become alarmed as they surrounded me.
By the time I noticed, it was already too late.
Raising my arms again in haste, before I could even chant the special call, they raised their own arms and sent the black crystals smashing into the ground.
Each one splintered into a thousand black shards as a violaceous cloud emerged from the wreckage. I watched in confused fascination as the smoke snaked and twirled upwards. The tendrils interlaced to create a cage around me.
