The Twiceborn Queen (The Proving Book 2)

by Finlayson, Marina

  Well, that made two of us.

  “If he didn’t want me to be queen, why on earth would he want me to defeat Alicia? Shouldn’t he be supporting her?”

  “It appealed to his sense of fun to let you kill her and think you’d won. It made your defeat even more crushing when it came.” His sense of fun. Right. Sick dragon bastard. “And he needed her dead anyway.”

  “But then there’d be no queen,” said Luce.

  “Oh, no,” said the leshy. “The first proving would be over, but the second could begin.”

  “The second proving?” I must be more tired than I thought. I was having trouble following.

  “Yes. Elizabeth’s little insurance policy. She’s kept it very secret over the years; only a handful of us know.”

  Were the rumours of a sixth sister true after all? But who would she be fighting if I killed Alicia and Thorne killed me? I rubbed my forehead, where the mother of all headaches loomed.

  “Five years after she laid the first queen clutch, she laid another.” He smiled at me as if he’d just given me a great gift. “You have seven other sisters.”

  Holy crap. That was not what I was expecting. Judging by the stunned looks on the faces around the room, nobody else was either.

  My heart sank. Seven more sisters to kill.

  “Of course,” he went on, in that jaunty tone that made me want to punch him, “if a legitimate daughter had won the proving, they would all have been killed. She always thought Valeria would win. The second clutch was only a back-up plan. She and Mr Thorne were arguing about it only a few days ago. She would still have accepted Alicia, but he wanted her to initiate the second proving. He has his own favourite he’s hoping to see on the throne.”

  Of course he did. “And where is he now?”

  “With the young candidates. Whichever one of them manages to kill you will gain a great advantage in the second proving. They’ll all be coming for you, and they won’t stop until you’re dead.”

  Lachie burst into tears. Bloody hell. I’d forgotten he was here. What a mess.

  I went to him and gathered him into my arms. His little body shook with sobs. I stared out the window at the herb garden, where a perfect summer’s day was fading into a perfect evening. A lone cricket chirped somewhere nearby. How come every time I thought I was getting somewhere, things just got worse?

  “It’s all right, Monster. I won’t let anybody kill me.”

  “I thought we’d won,” he sniffed.

  Yeah, me too.

  “We have. I’m queen now, and nobody’s going to take that away from me.” I gestured at the grovelling leshy. “Garth, lock him up. Luce, I need a proclamation to go out tonight. Call in every herald you can find. Tell the world that the Twiceborn Queen claims the throne.”

  If nothing else, that might shake the bounty hunters off Ben’s tail, wherever he was.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Several weary hours later I climbed the stairs to kiss Lachie goodnight. Guards were posted, the house secure. The heralds had been and gone and the prisoners were safely locked away in their silver-barred cells. Tomorrow I’d have to decide what to do with them. Elizabeth’s leshy would probably have to spend a considerable length of time in my dungeon, but Luce seemed to think Alicia’s two could be trusted. I hoped she was right. It would be handy to have two such powerful shifters on staff. I missed Kasumi already.

  I sat on the edge of Lachie’s bed and picked pieces of Lego out of his sheets, moving them to the bedside table. “Time for sleep.”

  “Can’t I read for five more minutes?”

  “Honey, your eyes are nearly falling out of your head already. It’s late.”

  He didn’t argue, which meant he really was tired. He put the book next to the Lego and snuggled down into the pillow. He seemed calm again.

  It was good to be a kid. If the grown-ups told you everything would work out it must be true. How nice to have that faith.

  “Where’d you get the book?”

  “From Mac.” He yawned fit to crack his jaw. “She’s nice.”

  “She certainly is.” I looked up at movement in the doorway. “And speak of the devil—here she is. Come to say goodnight too, Mac?”

  I stood up to get out of her way.

  “Yes.” She gave me a strange look. “Goodnight.”

  Then she plunged a dagger into my heart.

  I staggered, then fell heavily, striking my head on the corner of the bedside table. Lachie’s shrill screams pierced the air as Lego and books scattered. My head exploded with pain. I should get up. I should protect him … from Mac? What the hell? The room spun and my vision darkened.

  No! Get up, get up! I tried, but my legs were jelly and I couldn’t draw a breath. My chest burned like fire. I expected every moment to feel the bite of the knife again.

  “Mum! Mum!” I felt, a long way away, Lachie’s hands tugging at me. “You killed her!”

  His voice was shrill and panicked. I struggled to move, to reassure him. I’d be all right. My body could recover even from a blow like that, given time. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

  “Mum! Wake up!” Little hands pulled, desperate. “Don’t die!”

  Then bigger hands replaced them, and I heard Garth’s voice, hoarse with shock.

  “What the hell happened?”

  He lifted me onto the bed and shoved something against the pulsing wound in my breast.

  “She killed her, she killed her,” Lachie shrieked.

  “Mac, what’s going on?”

  “It was Kasumi. She attacked and then escaped out the window before I could stop her. She said … she said it was bane leaf.”

  “Oh, God. Kate! Kate, can you hear me?”

  I could barely hear anything over Lachie’s hysterical screams. I’d missed a piece of Lego; I could feel it digging into my back.

  “Get the kid out of here,” he snarled at Mac.

  No! It wasn’t Mac. I groped for his hand, tried to explain, but my voice came out in a croak. I could barely make out his shape looming over me. His big hand caught mine.

  “Easy, Kate. I’ve got you.”

  “Mum! Muuum!”

  Don’t let her take him.

  The door slammed and Lachie’s shrieks cut off abruptly. Had she killed him? I struggled to get off the bed, but Garth’s heavy hands held me down.

  “Don’t move.”

  “Lachie …”

  “He’s all right. Mac’ll look after him.”

  “Wasn’t … Mac.”

  “What?” He bent closer.

  My vision was clearing. I could make out his face hovering over me. Were those tears? I tried again.

  “Not … Mac.” My breath was coming a little easier. The pain in my chest eased as the edges of the wound slowly began to knit. “Kasumi. Betrayed us.”

  “I know. She stabbed you.”

  As he dashed a tear away Luce burst in. “What’s all the screa—oh, my God.”

  “It’s bane leaf,” he said, a catch in his voice.

  Luce’s hand flew to her mouth. Bane leaf poisoning had killed Leandra once before, and started this whole thing. The agonising stomach cramps, the spastic tremors, the gradual collapse of the whole system, starting with the extremities—been there, done that. I knew exactly what it felt like.

  And this wasn’t it.

  I squeezed Garth’s hand. Come on, Garth, focus.

  “Kasumi disguised as Mac.” I gazed up at him imploringly. “Save Lachie.”

  I knew the minute he caught on—his face was a picture of horror when he realised he’d just sent Lachie away in the care of an enemy.

  “Shit! Luce, that wasn’t Mac, it was Kasumi. Get after her!”

  “Bloody kitsune.” Luce skidded out of the room.

  “Go,” I urged him.

  “No.” He tightened his grip on my hand. His grey eyes were bright with tears. “I’m not leaving you here alone.”

  He thought I was dying. I tried to push him, b
ut he wouldn’t budge. I may as well have pushed a brick wall.

  “Not dying.”

  He rocked back, a cautious hope dawning in his eyes. “But … bane leaf.”

  I felt much stronger. “She must’ve been lying.”

  He picked up the dagger from where it had fallen and gave it a cautious sniff. All I could smell was the iron tang of my blood, but werewolves specialised in scent. To anyone else the infamous poison was odourless, but his sensitive nose wrinkled in distaste.

  “Sure smells like it.”

  I tried to sit up, but I wasn’t strong enough yet. I’d stopped leaking blood, but my chest still felt like I’d been kicked by a Clydesdale. He helped me to a sitting position. Well, half sitting, half leaning on him. I felt a hundred years old, my body shaking with the effort of healing that vicious stab wound.

  “Then it’s good to … be an abomination. Bane leaf’s not fatal any more.”

  Maybe sitting hadn’t been such a good idea. My stomach started to churn in an ominous way.

  “What does bane leaf do to humans?” he asked.

  “Makes them … throw up.”

  And then I leaned over the side of the bed and demonstrated.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  How had I not seen it? Like they say, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Kasumi had seemed like an answer to my prayers, so I’d refused to see the truth, in spite of all Garth’s efforts. She’d even told me she wanted revenge for her sister’s death.

  And I had killed her. I had no one to blame but myself.

  It had taken me a good half hour to stop throwing up. I still felt nauseous, but I couldn’t tell if that was the after-effects of the poisoning or nerves. My insides were a roiling mass of barely controlled panic. Kasumi had my son.

  Kasumi had my son.

  She could be doing anything to him right now, while I hunched in a chair in the comms room reviewing video footage. He could be dead already.

  No, I mustn’t think like that. It would paralyse me, and I had to stay strong. Surely if she meant to kill him she would have done it on the spot. Why take him if she only meant to kill him? There must be some other plan.

  I’d questioned that fool Bear. My compulsion still held and he was only too happy to answer, but he knew nothing. No, he’d never heard of a kitsune being involved with Elizabeth’s secret daughters. No, he’d never seen her before. Gideon Thorne might know more, but he wasn’t privy to everything that Thorne knew. Bear had spent most of the past twenty years supervising the upbringing of my seven unwanted sisters, and had only recently arrived at court, which explained why I had never seen him before today.

  So. If I couldn’t find Kasumi, I would hunt down Thorne. The minute I’d been able to string two words together again without vomiting in between, I’d ordered Garth to call in Trevor and the pack. For a hunt I needed hunters.

  Luce and Mac came in, Mac sporting newly pink hair. While Kasumi had been parading around impersonating her, she’d been in her bathroom with her head stuck under the tap.

  “You even told me you were going to dye your hair,” I said now. “Why didn’t I realise something was wrong the minute she walked in with brown hair?”

  “You weren’t to know I was going to do it straight away,” she said. “You had no reason to be suspicious.”

  I shook my head. Kasumi had proved over and over what a consummate actress she was, but I should have known, shouldn’t I? It was a mother’s job to protect her child. Where were my motherly instincts when I needed them?

  “Did you find the car?” I asked Luce.

  Luce had contacts in the police force. She’d passed on the registration of the car Kasumi had left in. I’d watched the security tape of her exit three times already. The black sedan rolled down the drive, waited while the guard opened the gate, then turned right onto the street. Easy.

  “Nothing yet.”

  She didn’t say the chances of them ever finding it were slim. She didn’t have to. Four and a half million people lived in Sydney; there were a lot of cars.

  I didn’t care. I would try everything I could think of. I’d tear the city apart if I had to.

  I hauled myself out of the chair, pain shooting from my chest right through my body. I may not have died, but that didn’t mean I felt great. Even a dragon takes a while to get over a knife to the chest.

  I leaned on the back of Steve’s chair till the dizziness passed. “Keep looking.”

  He nodded, not taking his eyes from the screen. Kasumi’s face whizzed past. In the foyer, in the kitchen, in the throne room. We were looking for anything out of the ordinary.

  Clutching at straws.

  Garth followed me out into the hallway. “You should lie down.”

  “I can rest when I’m dead.” I sagged against the wall and shut my eyes. Bitterness overwhelmed me. “That shouldn’t be long. Seven other sisters. Can you believe that? Seven.”

  Just when I’d thought I was home free. I’d beaten the odds! What a joke.

  He leaned against the wall next to me. I opened my eyes to find him watching me, his usual scowl tempered with sympathy. He’d been right all along about Kasumi, but he hadn’t even said I told you so, which under the circumstances seemed like a superhuman restraint.

  “You know what the stupid part is? I don’t even want the friggin throne. I just want to be left alone to live my life with Lachie.” And Ben. Just the three of us. “A normal life.”

  He snorted. “Normal kind of went out the window the minute you met Leandra. This is it now. It’s not so bad once you get used to it.”

  “I just want him back, Garth.” My voice shook. “I need him back.”

  He pulled me into a hug. He smelled of wolf: of hot blood and dark moonlit nights, of fresh air and moist earth. I buried my face in his brawny shoulder.

  “Uh … Kate?”

  Mac’s voice. I wiped my eyes, sniffing. She held her mobile phone out to me.

  “What? Is it Trevor?” The pack leader should have been here by now.

  “It’s Lachie.”

  “What?” I snatched the phone. “Lachie?”

  “Mum?” He whispered into the phone, as if he was trying to hide the call from someone.

  “Oh, my God, I was so worried. Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Where are you?” I could hardly get the words out, my heart was hammering so hard. “Can we trace this?” I whispered to Garth.

  He dragged me back into the comms room and began a whispered conversation with Steve, who skidded his wheeled chair across to another computer and began typing furiously.

  “I don’t know,” Lachie said. “Some hotel.”

  “Is there a name? On a menu, or a notepad or something?” Come on, baby, tell me where you are so I can come and get you.

  “I’m in the bathroom,” he whispered.

  “Good thinking. How did you get Kasumi’s phone?”

  “It’s not hers. It’s Dad’s.”

  I froze. Jason’s?

  “You’re with Dad?” Every face in the room turned to me. I felt for a chair, and sank into it, my knees suddenly weak. Last I’d heard Jason was overseas. Had he been in Sydney the whole time? Had he somehow discovered Lachie had been kidnapped and rescued him?

  No, that was ridiculous.

  “Is Kasumi there too?”

  “No, she left to go back to Japan.” In the background I heard a man’s voice. “Mum? I’ve got to go—”

  There was a crashing sound on the other end of the line, like a door being thrown back against the wall.

  “Lachie?”

  No reply, just muffled noises, then a voice raised in disbelief. “Your mother?”

  “Kate?”

  I knew that voice. I was tempted to hang up, but Steve was gesturing at me to keep the conversation going.

  “What are you doing with my son, arsehole?”

  “I can’t believe it.” He sounded genuinely shocke
d. “What does it take to kill you, for God’s sake? That bitch told me you were dead.”

  “Hope you didn’t pay her much for the job, then. Guess you can’t trust anyone these days. Don’t tell me you killed one of her sisters too?”

  “What are you talking about? She doesn’t have any sisters.” What the hell? “She did a good job though, getting rid of Elizabeth and Alicia. Such a shame she didn’t finish the job properly. My lady won’t be pleased.”

  “Oh? And who are you brown-nosing these days?” My new sisters must be fools if they trusted this guy, after what he’d done to me.

  “My new queen. Kasumi’s gone to bring her over. I’d offer to introduce you, but she really will be very disappointed if you’re not dead when she gets here. So I guess I’ll be seeing you soon.”

  “Give me back my son, you worm, and I might let you live.”

  “Sorry, no can do. And now I bet you’ve almost got this call traced, haven’t you? Shame about that.”

  He hung up.

  I turned to Steve, heart in my mouth. “Did you find him?”

  Steve shook his head. “I needed another few seconds.”

  I threw the phone across the room. There was a distinct cracking sound as it hit the wall. No one said a word.

  Then I remembered it wasn’t my phone. “Sorry. I’ll get you a new one.”

  “No problem,” said Mac, her big eyes wide. With that new pink hair she looked even more like an anime character than ever.

  I swivelled the chair back and forth as I thought. At least my immediate fear for Lachie had eased. Jason was a dirt bag, but he loved his son in his own twisted dragon way. Lachie should be safe for a little while at least.

  Garth came and perched on the desk beside me, but no one spoke. The only sound in the room was the hum of computers. The banks of screens flickered in a constantly changing display, showing the life of the house, but in here nothing moved.

  “Apparently Kasumi has no sisters,” I said at last.

  Luce raised an eyebrow. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Everything.” I shook my head. I almost had to admire the woman. It was Machiavellian. “The whole thing was a lie. She set me up.”

  “Did Jason tell you she had no sisters?” Garth frowned. “He’s probably lying.”