The Twiceborn Queen (The Proving Book 2)

by Finlayson, Marina

  “Yep.”

  Apart from the pieces in various stages of construction all over the carpet, there were models on his bedhead, on top of his chest of drawers, and lined up along the shelves of a bookcase that had room for only a handful of books crammed into one corner. Still more lurked unseen behind the doors of his wardrobe.

  “I’ll bring in the boxes then.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The doorbell rang while we worked and Garth leapt up as though stung. He and Steve exchanged a look, and Steve’s hand slipped under the jacket he wore despite the heat.

  “Oh, come on, guys. It’s probably just Tanya.”

  “Stay there,” said Steve. “I’ll check.”

  I followed him down the hall, ignoring his warning glare. Steve’s muscled bulk was intimidating, but I’d been glared at by experts. And I wasn’t having Tanya dropping dead of a heart attack because a giant with a gun opened the door to her. “No assassin is going to ring the door bell.”

  Sure enough, my neighbour stood on the door step, looking like she’d come from the gym, her breasts jammed into a skimpy Lycra top and her dark hair tied back in a jaunty ponytail. Her suspicious frown at being greeted by a hulking stranger cleared when I pushed past him, and she grabbed me with a cry of delight.

  “You’re back! How are you, hon? How’s your mum?”

  She caught me in a crushing bear hug, despite her tiny size, and enveloped me in a cloud of her signature perfume, sweet and floral.

  “I’m good—Mum’s good—we’re all good,” I laughed. “Tanya! I can’t breathe!”

  “Sorry!” She eased off the pressure a bit. “It’s so good to see you.”

  When she finally let go I smelled like the Estée Lauder counter at David Jones and I had a crick in my neck.

  “It’s good to see you too. Thanks for looking after the place for me.”

  “No problem, honey. Any time.” Steve had faded back into the bedroom, but Garth lurked in the background, and she looked him up and down in blatant assessment, a predatory gleam in her eye. It was her dearest wish to see me hook up with someone—anyone, she didn’t care—and she’d taken my prolonged singleness as a personal challenge. “Who’s your friend?”

  I hurried to make introductions. Garth nodded hello then disappeared to join Steve, leaving us to chat. We went into the kitchen, where I discovered she had, in fact, cleaned out my fridge, and emptied the rubbish bin too—on top of cleaning up the shattered mess Garth and I had left after our fight.

  “He seems nice.” Never one to waste an opportunity, she moved straight to digging-for-goss mode. “Nice” wouldn’t have been my choice of adjective, though if muscled-up guys were your thing, he was certainly easy on the eye. “Surly” probably came closer, but Tanya was an incurable glass-half-full kind of person. “Where did you meet him?”

  I smothered a laugh. She’d never believe me if I told her the truth.

  Or maybe she would. After New Year’s Eve, a lot of people were finding it easier to believe in things they never had before.

  Our meeting in this very room had left more than a few gaps in the china collection displayed in the old-fashioned dresser. I moved in for a closer look. As I’d feared, Grandma’s willow-pattern plate hadn’t survived the experience. I ran my hand lightly over the pepper grinder, back on its familiar shelf, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Never underestimate a pepper grinder in a fight.

  “Garth? Feels like I’ve known him for ages.”

  I picked up a mug that sported a big new chip, rubbing my thumb over the rough spot.

  “Now you’re back you can check if anything’s been taken,” Tanya said. “The police will want to know.”

  “Sure.” I turned the mug over in my hands, wondering which was the lesser of the two evils: ignore the police and risk them chasing me up over the supposed burglary, or file a report and draw Detective Hartley’s attention to a burglary complete with random blood stains connected to my already-sullied name.

  “I had to come in when I saw a strange car in the driveway,” Tanya said. “I wasn’t sure it was you. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back? I could have picked you up at the airport.”

  “No, no, it was fine. I had Garth.”

  “Have you?”

  “What?”

  “Had Garth.”

  I choked. I hoped he hadn’t heard that. Werewolf ears were pretty sharp. “God, Tanya, don’t you ever stop? He’s just a friend.” And thanks very much for putting that idea in my head. As if my dragon libido needed any encouragement to start thinking inappropriate thoughts about my employees.

  She pouted. “You always say that. What about that gorgeous hunk of man flesh you work with? What’s he going to think when he sees you running around with this Garth guy?”

  “Actually—” I could feel my cheeks warming as the image of a naked Garth persisted. “Actually, Ben and I are, um … together now.”

  “Really?” She clapped her hands and jumped up and down on the spot like a little girl. An oversexed little girl. “Ooh, that’s fabulous. About time!”

  “Yeah.” I grinned. It was pretty fabulous, despite everything. And what I felt for Ben went much deeper than any random dragon attraction to a well-built werewolf. “You won’t be seeing much of me any more. I’m moving in with him.”

  “Wow! That was quick.”

  “Well, we’ve been friends for such a long time—we know each other pretty well already. Now that we’ve realised how we truly feel about each other, there doesn’t seem much point waiting around.”

  “True. Didn’t I tell you you’d be perfect for each other? You should have listened to Mama Tanya ages ago.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you were right.” I rolled my eyes. “So how’ve you been? How are the girls?”

  “They’re good. I can’t wait for school to go back, though. They’re always fighting!”

  I nodded in sympathy, though I knew she didn’t mean it. She adored those kids. She liked nothing better than having them home where she could stuff them with some good Italian home cooking.

  “We’ll miss you. What are you going to do with this place? Rent it out?”

  “I haven’t had much chance to think about it yet.”

  “Well, don’t make a decision too fast. Just in case, you know? And keep your bank accounts separate! A girl can’t be too careful these days.”

  “Yes, Mum.”

  “I’m serious!”

  “I know, I know. Don’t worry.”

  “Can’t help it, hon. I’m a mum. That’s what we do. And I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt again.”

  Her usually mobile face held a rare serious expression, and I felt an unexpected wave of emotion, glad that somebody cared. But relationship problems were the last thing on my mind at the moment. Well, maybe not the last thing—but they were pretty far down the list. First I had to keep Ben alive to have a relationship with—and then I had my own issues to deal with. The proving didn’t end till either Alicia or I was dead. Like Highlander: there could be only one.

  Garth popped his head into the kitchen. “Do you want the rest of the stuff, or just the Lego?”

  “Ah …” There wasn’t much beside Lego. A couple of boxes worth of books, maybe, some board games. Would last summer’s clothes still fit Lachie? Boys grew so fast at this age.

  “What are you doing?” Tanya asked.

  “Packing up Lachie’s stuff. I decided you were right, it’s silly to keep hanging on to everything.” God, I felt so bad. If only I could tell her the truth—but it was too dangerous. “I’m going to donate it all to charity.”

  I guess that answered Garth’s question.

  “So pack it all up?”

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  Tanya put her hand on my arm as he left the room. “Good for you, hon. I know it must be hard, but I think it’s the right thing to do.”

  I gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Thanks. Well, I guess I’d better get back to it. Give Garth a han
d.”

  “Sure. I won’t hold you up. You’re probably in a hurry to get back to that gorgeous feller of yours. I know I would be!” She grinned suggestively, then her face fell. “Can’t believe you’re moving out, though. We’ll miss you.”

  She pulled me into another fierce hug. Certainly no one could ever accuse Tanya of hiding her feelings.

  “I’ll miss you too.”

  She swiped at her eyes. “Oh, look at me, my mascara’s probably all over my face. I can’t believe how quickly things can change.”

  “I know.” God, did I know. This time last week I’d been a grieving mother, living a lonely, broken life, with Tanya and Ben my only friends. This time last week I’d been human.

  Now I had my beautiful boy back—an amazing, life-altering plus in the great scales of the universe. On the downside, I was no longer fully human, but some strange dragon-human hybrid, with my life at stake in a deadly game to see who would inherit the throne from my mother the dragon queen. Or maybe that was a plus too? It was hard to tell. I found the whole people-trying-to-kill-me thing far too distracting.

  And of course there was Ben: the change in our relationship was definitely a plus.

  “The world’s a funny old place sometimes, isn’t it? I mean, look at that business with the dragons on New Year’s Eve. What do you reckon? Think there really are supernatural creatures hidden among us?”

  “Don’t know. It seems a little hard to believe, right?” My eyes flicked to the damaged cupboard door, still hanging by one hinge. The door that I’d slammed into the snarling werewolf’s face. “Like, if it is true, how come we’ve never had any hints till now?”

  That’s probably what I’d be thinking if I was still plain Kate. And Lord knows, if anyone should have suspected, I should have. For crying out loud, I’d been married to a dragon for five years—how could I have missed it completely? I mean, sure, it’s not the first explanation that springs to mind if your husband starts acting a little strange, but not even a hint? In five years?

  No one would think it possible. No one who wasn’t in the know, that is. To other shifters it seemed entirely reasonable. Dragons had powers of persuasion bordering on total mind control. In the right circumstances they could convince a human black was white. Leandra had managed to entrance me into cutting her open, extracting the channel stone that controlled her magic and swallowing it—all while she was dying of poisoning. And I hadn’t been able to remember doing any of it afterwards. Covering up any little indiscretions or diverting suspicion in a wife would have been child’s play for Jason in comparison.

  “I know, right? That’s what I think too, though Roy’s a believer. I always said he read too many of those stupid fantasy novels. Have you seen that new video?”

  “What new video?”

  “It came out this morning. YouTube crashed, they had so many hits. It shows you how they did it. Just search dragons and CGI.”

  “CGI?” Even though it was in my own interest to act convinced, I couldn’t help sounding incredulous. Who the hell would believe that? “That was done with computers? Says who?”

  “Oh, they’re not saying it was done with computers. They had remote-controlled models. They used CGI on the video to make them look bigger and hide the engines.”

  I opened my mouth to argue. Surely anyone who’d been there wouldn’t buy that story. Those dragons were huge—way too big to be remote-controlled craft. And the way we’d moved, so organic, so clearly not robotic.

  Still, even though it was New Year’s Eve and thousands of people had seen it in person, there were still millions who hadn’t, who might possibly be persuaded by this new “truth”.

  “There’s more than one video on the Internet, though. Are they all supposedly doctored like this?”

  Tanya shrugged. “Most of them are a bit blurry, you know, or taken from too far away. It makes it look more convincing if there’s more than one, from different users. But there’s only that one that the news programs have been replaying where you can actually see much. Someone spent a lot of effort planning this.”

  Someone certainly had spent a lot of effort—but on this new cover-up, not on the original “stunt”. It had to be either the government or Elizabeth, and my money was on Elizabeth.

  “Makes you wonder why they bothered, doesn’t it?”

  “Probably some massive publicity stunt. Bet you someone comes forward in a few days and it’ll turn out to be part of an advertising campaign for a new beer or something.”

  “Probably.” I moved toward the door. She’d talk all day if I let her.

  Thankfully she got the hint. “Well, I’d better leave you to it. Call me, okay? Let me know how you go.”

  I promised I would and she finally left, though not before waving goodbye to both Garth and Steve. I went back into Lachie’s room and found the guys had stripped it nearly bare, so I grabbed a suitcase out of the hall cupboard and packed a few of my own things too. Leandra had the best of everything, and her clothes fit me pretty well, but we’d been two different people. Her taste in music, for instance, sucked. And she didn’t appear to own a single pair of running shoes. Too busy prancing around in designer outfits.

  Lucky we’d brought the big car. Even with the back row of seats laid flat we barely managed to squeeze everything in. Poor Steve had boxes piled up all around him. I felt a wrench as we pulled away from the kerb, and had to resist an urge to wave goodbye to the old house. Who knew when I’d see it again? But Garth already thought I was mad enough.

  He kept glancing in the rear vision mirror as he drove, a preoccupied look on his face.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “We’ve got someone on our tail. No, don’t turn round!”

  I froze guiltily, then tried to pretend I hadn’t had any such intention. Not that I would have been able to see past the piles of boxes.

  “Who is it?”

  “Don’t know. I don’t recognise the car. They’re sitting two cars back.”

  “Are you sure they’re really following us?”

  I don’t know why I should feel so surprised. People had followed me all the time when I’d worked as a herald delivering messages for shifters, though at the time I’d had no idea of the real nature of my job. I thought there were just a lot of secretive people in the world who were prepared to pay well for keeping their messages private—and a whole bunch of other people busy trying to find out where those messages were going. Delivering the messages undetected had been like a kind of game.

  When I thought about it now it didn’t make that much sense, but at the time I’d been in a very different headspace. With Lachie dead I didn’t give a crap about anything else, and I moved through the world in a kind of fog of despair, detached and completely lacking in curiosity. In fact I’d liked the thrill of adrenalin being followed always brought. It was the only time during those dark months that I’d ever felt alive.

  “Of course I’m sure.” Garth changed lanes and took a random left turn. In the rear-view mirror on the passenger side I caught a glimpse of a white sedan making the same turn. The driver had dark hair, but I couldn’t make out anything else in the tiny reflection.

  “Is that them? In the white car?”

  “Yep.” Garth checked his mirror again as we drove through a roundabout. “It’s a woman. Seems to be alone. She’s hanging back now—she’s let that guy in.”

  A car entered the roundabout from the right and slotted in behind us. The woman in the white car now sat two cars behind again.

  “What do you want to do?” I asked.

  He gave me a toothy grin. The big werewolf seemed to enjoy the adrenalin rush as much as I used to.

  “What would Luke do?”

  In the back seat Steve groaned. I shook my head. Garth and his damn Star Wars obsession. “Probably blow them up. Sadly for you, this is a Mazda, not an X-wing.”

  “Faith you must have,” he croaked in his best Yoda voice. “Show you I will.”

  I groaned
too, but in truth I wanted to grin back. Garth so rarely showed a playful side. Always worrying. Always scowling. He looked about ten years younger when he smiled. Maybe he wasn’t as old as I’d thought. I was glad he wasn’t freaking out.

  For a time nothing happened. We continued along Epping Road. The sun shone and a catchy tune played on the radio. Around us the traffic flowed normally. The woman in the white car never got closer than two cars behind.

  We’d stopped for three red lights before we found ourselves the first car in line at the next one. We were in the middle lane. Garth stopped the car. The cars on either side pulled up too.

  Then he floored it, charging through the intersection as the cross-traffic started to move. Horns blared, but no one hit us. We were through and the intersection behind us filled with cars from the cross street. The woman in the white car couldn’t follow, trapped behind stationary cars.

  Garth roared down Epping Road, doing at least fifty over the speed limit. Two intersections later he picked his gap and ran the red arrow, turning off into a residential area. I clutched at my seat as we skidded through the turn. Then he ducked and weaved through side streets, still heading in the general direction of the city, as Lego rattled and slid around in the back. I held on tight and hoped there were no police around.

  Finally he slowed to a more sedate pace, a smug look on his face.

  “We won’t be seeing her again.”

  “I may not be seeing my stomach again any time soon either. Where’d you learn to drive like that? A dodgem car ride?”

  He grinned. “You talk too much. I definitely should have killed you.”

  I grinned back. “You and whose army, Skywalker?”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lachie was overjoyed to be reunited with his beloved Lego. Even Garth had to smile at the squeals of delight as each new set was carried in from the car. I left them to it and went to Google “Sydney dragons CGI”.

  I found Tanya’s video straight away. Was this supposed to be the same CGI program used by the big special effects studios? But those big movie effects took months. How could people believe this had been done in a matter of days?