The Twiceborn Queen (The Proving Book 2)

by Finlayson, Marina

  I looked around at the others as I spoke. Did anyone else find this surreal? This kind of conversation was probably going on in hundreds of other households around Sydney right now. But none of them were waiting on the results of a leshy torturing a dragon in their dungeon.

  Apparently not. Steve was in the comms room, but the others were here, looking as if they did this every day. Garth paced, as usual, and Kasumi and I sat at the table, while Mac and Lachie scrounged for snacks in the kitchen cupboards.

  And Dave looked the picture of domestic bliss standing at the stove, chatting with Lachie like the perfect househusband.

  Except he wasn’t my husband. My real ex-husband was a dragon, and my new partner had disappeared on a wild goose chase somewhere. He could even be dead, for all I knew, since the bloody man wouldn’t turn on his phone. How did shifters stand this life?

  Life was so much simpler back when I was plain old Kate. Happily divorced and living with my beautiful son in the suburbs, working at a preschool, my biggest worry how to be both father and mother to Lachie. I shoved my chair back, impatient with myself. I had no time for self-pity—or any kind of pity. That was why I’d just sent someone to torture a man.

  We were so close now, it was killing me. But the ordeal wouldn’t be over until Alicia was dead.

  Garth looked up, alert to my mood. “You all right?”

  “Fine.” I got up and joined him at the window. Some of the herbs sagged in the heat, their limp green heads nodding above the dried-out dirt. “You haven’t heard from Ben, have you?”

  “Nope. Could be anywhere by now.”

  He certainly could, damn him. I checked my watch. Over two hours since Elizabeth died, and no time to fret about missing boyfriends. Time was not on our side here. “We need that combination.”

  “You want me to go check on that leshy guy?”

  “No. I’m just … impatient.” Among other things. Worried, stressed, exhausted. If Alicia had been standing in front of me I could have torn her apart with my bare hands, just to have it over with.

  Garth laid a warm hand on my shoulder.

  “It’ll be all right. Your problem is you think too much. You’re all knotted up.” His fingers began working at my shoulders, loosening the tension there. A thrill shot through me. Oh, Lord. Add “oversexed” to that list. I stepped out from under his hands. When was Ben coming home? My dragon blood was up, and I needed action—of one sort or another.

  “It’s not the thinking that’s the problem. It’s the feeling.”

  His face softened. “Well, you need to become a heartless bastard like me, then. Solves everything.”

  I snorted. I’d seen the way he watched over Lachie, fretted over me and watched the backs of Mac and the others. There were plenty of uncomplimentary words to describe him, but “heartless” wasn’t one of them. I sat back down, determined to keep my cool while we waited for Bear. But if he didn’t come back soon, I’d have to crash the party in the dungeon and hurry things along.

  Thankfully he was only a few minutes more. His speed surprised me, though I was hardly an expert on the usual length of torture sessions. All eyes turned to him as he entered the kitchen, and his beaming smile left us in no doubt that he’d succeeded.

  I stood, nearly knocking the chair over in my haste. “You’ve got it?”

  He shot a victorious glance at Garth. “Told you I would.”

  He led the way to Elizabeth’s office. Another unwelcoming room, furnished in austere style. If I was going to live here there’d have to be some big changes. Her desk chair looked so uncomfortable it was hard to believe anyone ever sat in it.

  Perhaps they didn’t. Elizabeth was big on leaving work for the minions, while dragonkind wallowed in the fruits of others’ labour. This whole room could be all for show—or perhaps Thorne parked his pampered butt in that chair. He had enough padding to make it bearable, and someone had to oversee the workings of the empire, after all.

  Bear had written the combination down for me, but I got him to open it, in case of goblin booby traps. Garth placed his body between mine and the safe in a seemingly casual way that fooled nobody, but our precautions were unnecessary. The safe unlocked with a satisfying click when Bear punched the numbers into the keypad, and he swung the heavy door open without any fatal effects.

  Inside were stacks of money in various currencies, including a thick wad of Australian hundred-dollar notes, and an even thicker one of greenbacks. A pile of documents and several jewellery cases sat neatly beside them.

  Bear pulled out the largest, a red velvet number of the kind that usually housed a necklace or a string of pearls. He opened it to show the three black discs resting inside.

  Thank God for that. Kasumi’s plan wouldn’t get very far without one of these babies. I took the top one and waited while Bear put the others away and closed the safe again.

  “Thank you, Bear. You may go.”

  He bowed and left, not without a last triumphant glance at Garth.

  “I see you’ve made another fan there.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not in the business of making friends.”

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

  “What are you going to do with that now?” he asked, ignoring my weak attempt at humour. “You need to take trueshape?”

  “I think I can manage.”

  There was plenty of space in the throne room for a dragon, as Thorne and I had already demonstrated, but it was always good to practise new skills, and I was becoming adept at this one. I reached for my essence—the barest trickle—and willed my forefinger to a new shape. The tip of a dragon claw sprouted: not my usual slashing blade, but something much more subtle. Control was difficult and it wavered in size before settling into the form I wanted.

  Then I laid the claw to Elizabeth’s scale. Garth watched, no doubt curious to see if I could pull it off in this hybrid form. Dragon claws weren’t designed as writing implements. It wasn’t a physical act that put words on our scales but a mental effort, similar to a compulsion. Words were a dragon’s best weapons, though flame came a close second. I probably could have done it without changing my finger’s essence, but something about the tap of claw on scale just felt right.

  I reached for my will and urged the words to appear, holding Alicia’s image in my mind as I did so. As I moved my claw across the scale fiery letters blazed into life. Garth leaned forward to read them before they faded. They wouldn’t reappear until Alicia’s touch brought them back to life.

  I have the abomination in chains. I feel sure that you would wish to administer the coup de grâce yourself. Come to me at once.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  We crowded around Steve’s chair in the comms room, Garth, Mac and I. Lachie was still in the kitchen with Dave, who was probably seizing the opportunity to stuff him with treats. Dave looked set to become his new best friend, though Mac’s willingness to play games of make-believe with Lego was hard to beat.

  The monitor that held our interest showed Elizabeth’s study, with Elizabeth herself seated in that uncomfortable chair behind the desk. Or so it seemed. Kasumi’s abilities were uncanny. I could hardly bear to look at her. Mommy Dearest had come back to life, and I wanted to kill her all over again.

  There was no sound, but we saw the door open as one of the thralls ushered a herald into her presence. In true Elizabeth style she continued to read the document in front of her and ignored him for several minutes. He stood perfectly still in the middle of the carpet, staring at the drab brown wall as he awaited Her Majesty’s pleasure. Bear had called in the herald who did most of Elizabeth’s jobs, so he was probably used to it.

  At last Kasumi looked up and spoke, though we couldn’t hear anything. Elizabeth wouldn’t have wanted anyone eavesdropping on her private conversations.

  “I wish we could hear what she was saying,” Garth said.

  “Probably ‘Why aren’t you bowing, slave?’” said Mac.

  I shot her a surprised look, but she
was still watching the screen. Guess nobody liked my mother much.

  “She could be telling him anything,” Garth persisted.

  “Garth.” I injected a warning note into my voice. I was sick of his suspicion of the kitsune. Yes, her ability was freaky. Yes, her power in the wrong hands would be a nightmare. But she’d proven herself loyal time and again. “It’s a simple enough job. All she has to do is give him the damn message.”

  On screen Kasumi handed the scale in its wax-sealed envelope across to the herald and waved him away. He bowed, but she was no longer looking, absorbed once more in her reading.

  “She really looks like her,” Mac said, brushing her shaggy fringe out of her eyes with a slim hand. “It gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

  Me too, though I wasn’t going to say so. And it was more than the physical appearance. Kasumi captured the way each subject moved, their habitual gestures, even the way they spoke. Her own speech was formal and rather clipped, but as someone else she could sound relaxed and colloquial or haughty and long-winded. Every imitation was an Academy Award-winning performance. How she could get all that from one little hair was beyond me. Kitsune gave new meaning to the word “magic”.

  We waited until the monitors showed the herald leaving the house, then left the comms room.

  “What if he can’t find her?” Garth said. “You know what Alicia’s like. She’s probably cowering in a hole somewhere waiting for the fighting to be over.”

  “Or she might even be on high alert because of Ben stumbling around out there looking for Blue. Who knows? We still have to try. Do you think you could possibly bring yourself to stop questioning every single decision I make?”

  “I’m not—”

  “Yes, you are. You and Ben are as bad as each other, always arguing and thinking you know better. I get that you don’t like Kasumi, really I do. You’ve made that perfectly clear. Can we move on now?”

  “Okay, okay.” He held up his hands and backed away. “Just trying to help.”

  “Well, don’t. I trust Kasumi, and I have no idea why you can’t seem to.” My turn to hold up a hand. “No, don’t tell me. Between you and Ben, I’ve had plenty of your kind of help. I just hope Ben’s latest effort hasn’t stuffed up our chances now of luring Alicia.”

  He scowled down at his feet. “Ten to one he hasn’t even found Blue. He’s probably crawling round a lot of empty caves finding nothing but bat shit.”

  “Maybe. But he’s a herald. They have their own ways of finding people.”

  “Do you want me to go look for him? Then you could stop worrying.”

  Coming from Garth that was a peace offering. “Why should I worry about a defenceless one-armed man with a price on his head wandering around out there on his own?”

  Garth grinned in a sudden change of mood. “Young he is. Reckless is he.”

  He was a different man when he smiled. Far more attractive. The way his smile lit those blue-grey eyes …

  “The herald says he can deliver the message,” Kasumi said.

  I jumped. Even with my dragon-enhanced hearing I hadn’t noticed her coming up behind us in the long tiled corridor. From the scowl on Garth’s face he hadn’t either. I sighed to see that grumpy look back in place. He hadn’t been happy since Kasumi joined us. It’d been nice to hear his Yoda voice again.

  At least Kasumi wore her own form. Having my dead mother sneak up on me would be too much.

  “That’s good. You looked great in there.”

  A rare smile lit Kasumi’s usually serious face. “He didn’t suspect a thing.”

  She fell into step beside me, while Garth stalked on ahead, anger in the rigid set of his shoulders and neck. I was almost tempted to send him out looking for Ben, just to be rid of the storm cloud of resentment that poisoned the atmosphere whenever he and Kasumi were in the same room. And maybe to give me room to focus without my hormones getting in the way.

  “We will have you on the throne before the day is over,” Kasumi said.

  “Let’s hope so.” That was the plan, anyway. I eyed her speculatively. “What will you do then? Would you consider staying on with me?”

  Garth made a choking sound, but I ignored him.

  “I would like that,” she said, “but I’ve been away too long already. My children will be missing me.” Her dark eyes softened. “Almost as much as I am missing them.”

  I would be the last person to stand between a mother and her children, much as I might regret the loss of such an ally. “I understand.”

  My own child shoved something behind his back as we entered the kitchen.

  “I can tell from the way your cheeks are bulging you’ve got something there, buddy. Don’t bother trying to hide it.”

  He gave me a crumb-spattered grin and held up half a homemade chocolate muffin. “Dave said I should try one to make sure the batch was all right.”

  “Oh, did he?” I gave Dave a mock-glare and he grinned back, as unrepentant as his co-conspirator.

  “Lunch is nearly ready,” he said. “Have you got time now?”

  “Sounds great,” I said, though I was too keyed up to have much appetite. This was it: the end of the road, one way or another. After all this time, the proving would finally reach its bloody conclusion. How could I think about food? But if we were facing Alicia in a couple of hours, it made sense to refuel. We needed every advantage we could get. Besides, it gave Garth something to do besides pace and scowl at Kasumi. We were all on edge.

  Dave’s cooking was a marvel. Even Lachie liked it, and ten-year-old boys are notoriously hard to please. I picked at some and pushed the rest round my plate while the others ate. Garth and Mac, predictably, went back for seconds.

  “I want to be there too when she comes,” Garth said, shoving his plate away at last.

  “Well, you can’t.”

  “Why not? You could put me in chains too.”

  “No one would believe Elizabeth would go to the trouble of a formal execution for you,” Mac said. “Wolves are no better than animals as far as she’s concerned. She’d put a silver bullet through your head and be done with it.”

  Garth glared at her. She continued mopping up her gravy with a piece of bread, totally unconcerned.

  “Don’t pull that face, you know she’s right,” I said.

  “But Luce will be here.” A note of desperation crept into his voice.

  “And? You’re no match for Luce anyway, even if I wanted you to take her on—which I don’t.” I made my voice coaxing, the way I had when Lachie was little and I was trying to get him to drink the yucky red medicine. “Come on, Garth, just a little longer. With Alicia dead, Luce will be back with us and you can finally relax.”

  The last couple of weeks had been hard on him. He was used to having Luce take charge, and bearing all the responsibility for my safety without her had taken its toll. He certainly used to smile more in the days when Leandra was Leandra and he’d never heard of Kate O’Connor.

  Not that the last couple of weeks had been easy on any of us. Even Lachie, poor baby. He had his mum back, but he’d seen Alex die in front of him. At the tender age of ten, he’d been thrust into the dangerous world of the shifters, and found himself surrounded by monsters.

  I glanced across at him, busy collecting dirty plates under Dave’s direction. How would he feel knowing his mother was planning to murder someone in cold blood? For that matter, how did his mother feel about it?

  Not as calm as Leandra would have. I hated being forced into this position, loathed the proving for setting up this whole hateful bloodbath. Kill or be killed. In millennia of so-called civilisation, this primitive hack and slash was the best dragon culture could come up with? Hadn’t they ever heard of elections, for God’s sake?

  The whole shifter world was rotten to the core, with its violence and its feudal hierarchies. It was everything a human in a free democratic society abhorred. Yet even those at the top of the heap weren’t safe. You want to be queen? Fine, just kill off you
r whole family.

  Was any amount of power worth that much?

  Now Dave had Lachie at the sink, drying dishes. He’d always tried to wriggle out of that job at home. I wondered what Dave had promised him for his help. Or maybe he’d learned to do his share of chores living in a boarding school.

  That was one family member I’d do anything for. Even kill. Alicia’s life didn’t even budge the scales when weighed against his. It was more than kill or be killed. It was kill or see Lachie die, and that made all the difference.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  In the end Garth accepted the inevitable. When the thrall on the gate called in to say Alicia’s party had arrived, he and Mac and Steve retired to the comms room.

  “Don’t forget to search them before you let them in,” he told the guards in the foyer as he passed. “No weapons of any kind.”

  “Garth. They know what to do. Get to your position.” I shook my head. “You worry too much. I thought I was bad but you make me look reckless.”

  “You are friggin reckless.”

  I laid a hand on his cheek, by now rough with stubble. It had been a long day, and there was still a huge hurdle to leap before it was over. He scowled down at me, but I was used to his scowls by now, and I could see the fear that lurked behind his surly front. It shone in the yellow wolfish glint in his grey eyes. Fear for me.

  He reminded me of Ben in many ways. Maybe that was what drew me to him. And it probably explained why they didn’t always get on so well. They were both a little too alpha and determined to have their way.

  “Cheer up. It’s nearly over.”

  He caught my wrist in his big hand. “Well, excuse me if I don’t start partying yet.”

  “Just stay out of sight. Kasumi and I will handle it.”

  I tugged on my hand but he didn’t let go.

  “Be careful.”

  “Always.”

  I pulled harder and he released me. Geez, why did I always seem to surround myself with control freaks? First Ben, then Luce, now Garth. Kasumi was the only one that took orders without arguing.