The Twiceborn Queen (The Proving Book 2)

by Finlayson, Marina

  “I know you will. The four of you will be my first and most loyal subjects.”

  I caught them all in my gaze till they nodded stupidly. The compulsion wouldn’t last long, but for a few hours at least I could trust them not to stab me in the back. By the time it wore off Garth and the others would be here, and these would be safely locked away behind silver bars.

  Once they were secured, I ordered Bear to bind Thorne in my discarded silver chains. Maybe that would harm Kasumi—I hoped not—but I couldn’t risk leaving him unbound when her grip on him was so weak. With that done I felt safe enough to shift back to human form. While the selkie went running for some clothes for me I moved among Elizabeth’s shattered thralls, catching them all in my web and enthralling them to me. It sickened me to have to do it, but the alternative was a slow, lingering death. Their bodies were no longer capable of functioning without the bond. Once I’d woven my strands into their minds they returned to their senses, all except one. Either he’d been enthralled too long to make the switch or he was particularly weak-minded, but I couldn’t call his mind back from where it wandered. I tried for some time, knowing the alternative, but by the time I gave up I was exhausted, and he was close to death.

  I accepted a simple shift dress from the selkie and shrugged it on. The four shifters watched me closely, eager for some way to serve, while the new thralls waited impassively for orders. I hated that mindless obedience. Ten new thralls. Sickening.

  Judging from their reaction when Elizabeth died, they must have been enthralled for years. Not that it made me feel any better. I slumped down on my mother’s throne and stared at her headless body, collapsed in a graceless heap at my feet, still sluggishly leaking blood. A normal person would feel bad about that. Mostly I felt relief.

  Like it or lump it, I was a dragon now. This was normal.

  Bloody hell. How could anyone live like this? I closed my eyes and let my head flop against the padded back of the seat. I should just tell Alicia she could have it all and run away to some tropical island with Lachie.

  Yeah, right. And the first thing she’d do would be send assassins after me, just to be sure. Dragons didn’t like loose ends.

  “All or nothing,” I reminded myself.

  “Pardon, my lady?” Bear asked, coming forward eagerly. His skin had faded to a respectably human brown now, and he looked much happier.

  “How many others are in the house?” Probably should have asked that earlier. God, I was tired.

  He did a quick scan of the bodies in the room. “Ah … there’s usually two thralls in the comms room at all times … another one, maybe two, in the kitchen …”

  “Bring them to me.”

  He nodded at the two goblins and they ran off.

  “Any other shifters?”

  Again his eyes roamed the bodies. Kasumi had killed four before I stopped her, all shifters. Smart woman. She knew the fewer hostile shifters I had to deal with the better.

  “Only the gate guard.”

  I nodded. He could wait. I beckoned two thralls forward. “You know how to work the comms room?” When they said yes I sent them off to man the monitors. The last thing I needed now was any surprise visitors crashing my party.

  I held out a hand to Bear. “Phone.”

  Hastily he pulled out a mobile and gave it to me. I dialled Garth’s number and felt my whole body sag with relief when his gruff voice answered.

  “It’s me. We did it.”

  “Halle-friggin-lujah. You okay?”

  “I’m fine.” He didn’t ask after Kasumi, though. “I need you guys to come in. Make sure you bring the hoshi no tama with you.”

  “You sure you want to give it back to her?”

  “Don’t be a jerk. She was brilliant—and now we need it again.”

  “If you say so.” He didn’t bother hiding the doubt in his voice. I’d never have to worry about my ego with Garth around. He was more than capable of telling me, in great detail, whenever he disapproved of my choices.

  “How’s Lachie?”

  “Having a ball. Mac’s been playing some game with him. He keeps killing all her ninjas. There’s Lego shit everywhere. You want me to leave him here with her?”

  I hesitated. I purposely didn’t know where they were, so that if things had gone wrong on this end I couldn’t have given away his location. Would he be safer holed up somewhere with Mac, or here where I could protect him?

  “Bring him.” I needed him here, needed to know he was safe. And if I couldn’t protect him here, in the heart of Elizabeth’s stronghold, there wasn’t a safe place in all the world. “I’ll tell the gate guard to expect you.”

  The goblins returned, each supporting a shuffling, blank-faced man. Was this where the legend of zombies had come from? Thralls who’d been mind-wiped by the death of their master or mistress?

  I sent two of the more recovered thralls down to the gate to subdue the shifter there and watch for Garth and the others. Then I forced myself to enthral these, and the next two as well, though by now I felt about as compelling as three-day-old fish. All I wanted to do was sleep, and leave the world and its problems behind.

  So long I’d dreamed of this moment, imagining the triumph I’d feel. I glared at Elizabeth’s body. I had nothing left but hate and exhaustion. Stupid bloody dragons and their medieval bloodfest of a proving. And all for what? A dragon crown I didn’t even want.

  Thorne started to stir, and I had the selkie woman prop him up. She leaned him against the wall, careful not to touch the silver chains that bound him. I knew he’d been born before Australia was even settled by Europeans, and he’d been one of Elizabeth’s inner circle for most of the last century, but he looked no more than forty. A comfortable, well-padded forty, like somebody’s favourite uncle. He wasn’t a tall man, and looked even shorter slumped awkwardly against the wall, his fat belly resting in his lap, like a particularly ugly puppet whose strings had been cut.

  He’d been the only dragon apart from my mother I’d known through my long, isolated childhood. He looked no different now than he had the night he’d brought me home in disgrace from my failed attempt to see my sisters, and told me I was a disappointment as a dragon. The silver chains must have been hurting him, but he watched me calmly. That probably meant Kasumi was still in charge.

  “Garth’s on his way,” I said, and he—or she?—nodded.

  I went outside and paced the terrace, anxious for Garth and the others to arrive. The view was spectacular and the day perfect, but I was in no mood for either. What did Kasumi need the hoshi no tama for? Was she all right in there? And what the hell had happened to her body? My knowledge of kitsune only covered the basics. Could she be trapped in Thorne’s body forever?

  Two of the thralls brought me the gate guard, another goblin, and I laid a compulsion on him almost without breaking stride, still caught up in my worries. I set some of the thralls to disposing of the bodies and cleaning up the throne room, but then there was nothing to do but wait. A long half-hour passed before I heard Garth’s voice in the hallway and Lachie’s piping tones replying.

  My son burst through the door with his usual energy, Garth and Mac hard on his heels, and his eyes widened at the size of the room, then practically fell out of his head when he saw the array of weapons displayed on the wall.

  “Nice house, Mum. Are we going to be staying here now?”

  He hurried toward me, eyeing the little group of shifters and thralls warily.

  “Probably.” I’d given up making promises. If the last week had taught me anything, it was how quickly plans could change. I hugged him tight and breathed in a lungful of that unique Lachie-smell, all apple shampoo and little-boy sweat. His curls were plastered to his forehead in the heat.

  I expected the next question to be Is there a pool? but he caught sight of Thorne and changed tack.

  “Who’s that?”

  “Kasumi, I hope.” I greeted Garth and the others. “Where’s the hoshi no tama?”

&nbs
p; “Here.” Garth handed it over. “Where’s Kasumi?”

  I indicated Thorne and he frowned. “Why’s she chained up?”

  “Things got a little crazy. I think she’s possessing him.”

  “So that’s actually Thorne? I thought she was playing dress-up again.”

  Thorne shot him a cold look. Now that looked like Kasumi.

  “I do not play dress-up, wolf.”

  He shrugged. “Whatever.”

  I crouched down beside her. “How do we get you out of there? What happened to your body?”

  “You’ll have to unchain me. I have him contained for the moment, but be ready. As soon as I leave his body you must chain him again.”

  Or else we’d have a rampaging dragon on our hands. Definitely not something I needed to see again so soon. Or ever, really.

  “You should have time. He’ll be disoriented when I release control.”

  I nodded. “The rest of you stand back.”

  Garth ignored me, of course, but Steve and Dave drew back, forming a protective shield with Mac around Lachie. Lachie leaned against her like a dog looking for reassurance, and she slipped an arm around his thin shoulders. With her huge childlike eyes and demented haircut, she could have been his big sister.

  I unwound the chain, alert for any sign of Thorne’s ascendance. If it was anything like my own experience with Leandra, control of the body could change hands in a heartbeat. Kasumi might not even know it till he’d already beaten her down. But Thorne’s face remained calm, his movements slow and deliberate as he took the hoshi no tama and raised it to his face.

  He breathed in deeply, and yellow tendrils of mist curled up from the luminous pearl and disappeared into his nostrils.

  “Can you see that?” I asked Garth, without looking away.

  “See what?”

  “Never mind.” So it was definitely her aura I saw, that strange magical essence that every shifter possessed but only dragons could see. Thorne’s eyes closed, and the mist billowed as he breathed in and out, its glow intensifying till it seemed impossible that no one else could see it. I had to squint against the glare.

  So it took a moment to realise his face was glowing too. For a second Thorne’s rough features took on an angelic shine, before all the light rushed away. I blinked.

  Then it exploded out of the shared body, flooding the hoshi no tama with radiance. The pearl fell from Thorne’s hand and his eyes rolled back in his head. I leapt forward and wrapped him in the silver chain before he could recover himself, so I missed what happened next, but I heard the collective gasp.

  When I turned my head, a fox stood next to me, its pointed face lifted enquiringly. Its white-tipped tail curled above its back like a question mark. At first I thought it was especially bushy, then I realised there were actually three of them.

  Good God. She’d said she had three tails, but I thought that was a metaphorical thing, signifying rank—not that she actually had three physical tails. It was the weirdest-looking bloody fox I’d ever seen.

  Before I’d had a chance to do more than gape at her tails, the fox shimmered. Yellow light fountained and the fox grew into Kasumi’s familiar shape.

  “Hot damn!” Garth’s voice dripped with envy. “You get clothes too?”

  I hadn’t even registered it but yes, Kasumi was fully clothed in her normal all-black ensemble. Now that would be a neat ability. No more running around naked or borrowing other people’s clothes. I’d never heard of a shifter who could do that.

  “You’re a bigger fool than I thought.” A new voice intruded—Thorne, chained but no longer voiceless. “You’re mad if you think you can ever come out ahead in dealing with a kitsune. Unless you hold their damn star ball there’s no power on earth that will stop them.”

  Reflexively I looked at the hoshi no tama. Kasumi slipped it into her pocket.

  “I seem to be doing all right so far,” I said.

  Kasumi, a relative stranger, had been more loyal to me than I’d had any right to expect, while my family and all their associates did nothing but try to kill me. I knew which one I preferred.

  I ordered two of the thralls to take him away and lock him in the dungeons. They’d originally been wine cellars, but Elizabeth had had them converted years ago with shifters in mind. Silver-coated bars and goblin spells made it impossible for even a dragon to escape. At least he’d have Bear and the other surviving shifters for company soon—I couldn’t trust my compulsion to hold them much longer.

  When the door closed behind them I let out a relieved breath and regarded my little band of supporters.

  “So. Here we are, then,” said Garth. “What next?”

  I shrugged. “Somehow we have to find and destroy Alicia.”

  Before Luce destroys us.

  Kasumi cleared her throat. “I have an idea that might help.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “She’d never fall for that.” Garth, of course, was instantly dismissive, just because it was Kasumi’s idea. Despite everything she’d done for me, he still didn’t like her. He stood at the kitchen window, looking out at the raised herb garden, as if he couldn’t even bear to look at Kasumi while we spoke.

  I wasn’t so quick to jump to conclusions. Okay, it was ambitious, but we’d already pulled the same stunt on Elizabeth. Why shouldn’t it work again?

  “I don’t know,” I said, turning the idea over in my mind, looking for flaws. Alicia was the most cautious of the sisters, which was why she was still alive, but she did love a good gloat. Someone else’s downfall? Yep, she’d be all over it. “No one knows what’s happened here except us. No one’s left the building. Everyone with access to a phone is under our control. As long as we can keep word from getting out, she’s got no reason to suspect anything.”

  Kasumi remained silent. She sat at the kitchen table, an island of calm as people moved around her. She’d said her piece; now she merely awaited instructions. I got the impression she thought I shouldn’t tolerate argument from the underlings. Guess they did things differently in Japan. It was enough to make me want to emigrate.

  “Well, where are we going to get one of Elizabeth’s scales?” He was determined to find fault with the plan.

  True, that could be an issue. If we’d been the same colour, I could have used my own, but mine were golden where Elizabeth’s were black. Like Gideon Thorne’s. Maybe we could take one of his if we got desperate.

  Good God, what a hideous thought. Imagine trying to control him once he’d taken trueshape again! “Desperate” didn’t begin to describe it.

  But if we were lucky …

  “Some dragons keep a stash, so they don’t have to keep changing every time they want one.” Particularly if they were like Elizabeth, who always seemed more comfortable in her human shape. I sent one of the thralls for Bear.

  He scurried in, eager to please. Obviously the compulsion hadn’t worn off yet.

  “Did Elizabeth keep a supply of her scales on hand?” I asked.

  “Yes, my lady.”

  Well, that was good news. “Where?”

  “In the safe in her office.”

  “Do you know the combination?”

  “No, my lady. Only the queen herself and Gideon Thorne had the combination.”

  Dammit. There was always a catch.

  But Bear wasn’t finished. “If my lady wishes, I could try to get it out of him.”

  “Oh yeah?” Garth cocked a sceptical eyebrow at him. “You and whose army?”

  Like most leshies, Bear was tall and slim almost to the point of scrawniness. He certainly didn’t look capable of beating a secret out of anyone, if that was what he meant.

  Bear drew himself up to his full willowy height and shot Garth a disgusted look. “Thorne has no access to his powers. I do.”

  Leshy magic was earth magic. Though it was more effective outdoors where the leshy was in touch with his natural element, they were still strong shifters. I’d seen a leshy turn into a grizzly and rip a man
apart. I had no doubt Bear could prove very persuasive if he wished. He hadn’t earned that nickname for nothing.

  “Take a thrall with you.”

  It never hurt to have backup, and they were all armed. Even though a silver bullet wouldn’t kill Thorne, no one liked being shot. Bear nodded and gestured for the thrall who’d fetched him to follow him out.

  After he’d left the only sounds in the kitchen came from Dave clattering around with pots and pans. Dave was a firm believer in the ability of food to make everyone feel better, and he’d wasted no time in firing up the oven. The most delicious smell of meat slow-cooking in red wine now filled the room.

  Elizabeth’s kitchen was smaller and more old-fashioned than the ones our crew was used to. One smallish window by the back door looked out onto a raised herb garden. A glance showed mint, parsley, coriander, dill, rosemary and many others I didn’t recognise, enough to provide a chef’s every need. But that seemed to be its best feature. There was only one commercial-sized oven, four hotplates and a preparation area not much bigger than the one I’d had at home in my modest suburban kitchen. Her cooks must have had a hell of a time catering for such a big household from such a small and poorly thought-out space. Not that Elizabeth would have cared.

  Even with only a handful of us in it it felt crowded. Still, we always seemed to gravitate to the kitchen when there were decisions to be made. I’d poked my head into her dining room on the way past. Though it boasted a dining table long enough to seat thirty its formality made it unwelcoming. Give me a scratched and battered kitchen table any time. It made a place feel like home. This one certainly fit the bill, covered in dents and marked with coffee rings and other, less identifiable stains.

  Mac and Lachie came in. Lachie sniffed appreciatively.

  “Something smells good!”

  “That’s your lunch, mate,” said Dave.

  “Can I have something to eat now? I’m starving.”

  “You’ll have to ask your mum about that.”

  He gave me his best imploring look.

  “Have a piece of fruit. You don’t want to spoil your appetite.”