The Centaur Queen

by Jovee Winters

  I couldn’t begin to explain what it was I felt being with her. Tymanon was safety. She was comfort. She was that feeling of happiness I could only ever experience when I returned home after a long journey away. She was that familiar feeling of contentment that I didn’t truly know how much I’d miss until I no longer had it, but when I did, I understood it was the only thing that really mattered.

  “I could close my eyes right now and picture you: the way your body moves, the way your brilliant mind works, the dusting of freckles upon your lovely face, how you pull your bottom lip between your teeth when deep in thought, how you always twirl a strand of nut-brown hair around your left finger when thinking of glad tidings, how you huff the hair from your eyes from the right side of your mouth only, or how your tail twitches gently back and forth when you are mesmerized by yet another world we discover. I don’t care about this world, Tymanon. There is only one thing that’s real to me here, and that’s you. It’s always been you. I don’t want to leave because in here, I have you all to myself, and I fear I’ve become rather greedy of you.”

  Her eyes widened with each word I spoke. Nearing me, she said nothing as she placed her hand against my lightly-bearded cheek.

  My body quivered, filled with longing of another kind, the type full of heat and fire that whipped like an arrow through my bones, turning them soft and weak and making my stomach quiver and my heart ache to touch her again.

  Sexual desire was mostly blunted in here, though I often wished to kiss her, to hold her again with both hands, chest to chest, heart to heart, to rest my chin atop her head as I breathed her in.

  I closed my eyes and leaned heavily against her light touch.

  “I love you, gída.” She smiled.

  I opened my mouth, ready to respond when...

  “Hello? Is someone there?” The feminine voice was husky and brimming over with astonishment.

  Both Ty and I looked toward the voice at the same time. Eyes wide and blinking in shock, we came face-to-face with Rayale, the Pied Piper.

  She looked no different than she had in the love games. In fact, she even wore the same red-dyed leather outfit. Her long red braids had been gathered high onto her head. Her dark skin, which had been a rich shade of dark cacao, was now unusually pale and washed out. Her eyes were wide, her mouth agape. She was still exotically beautiful, but there was a touch of wariness to her features I’d not seen before. We stared at one another for the span of several heartbeats, quite in shock, before she shook and covered her mouth with her hands.

  “By the gods!” she shrieked, before dropping to her knees and passing out.

  Chapter 16

  Tymanon

  The moment Rayale appeared, the golden thread we held vanished. Time had led us directly to her. Petra and I rushed forward to catch her before she hit the ground. I grabbed her by the shoulders and hoisted her high. Her head lolled, and her body was lax in my arms.

  Petra lightly tapped her cheeks. “Awake, Piper,” he said over and over. “Awake.”

  For Petra and I, it had felt as thought years had passed in this realm. When had Piper come here? When had she been banished? The last I’d seen her had been in the games that now seemed a lifetime ago.

  I’d liked the deadly sorceress instantly, though I’d been determined to incapacitate her. Those had been the rules of the games after all. The only way to escape those damnable challenges had been to subdue the other queens. I hadn’t wanted to injure the Piper, who I’d found to be brash and exciting, but I’d had no choice. I’d taken the shot, landing a perfectly-placed arrow into the meat of her thigh. Granted, it had no doubt stung, but it wasn’t a killing blow.

  She groaned, slowly coming to.

  “Horse face,” Rayale moaned, and I chuckled.

  Petra snorted. Knowing he laughed at me, I said, “Well, at least it’s better than what she called you.”

  That shut him up immediately. I smirked.

  Slowly her eyes blinked open. Her irises were the color of roasted almonds. Thick, neatly-manicured eyebrows brows drew in tight. “Dammit. Did I pass out?”

  Wrinkling her nose, she glanced down at her still dangling feet. I gently set her down, and she brushed off her clothes.

  “I swore I wouldn’t act like such an asshole if I ever came across a sign of life.”

  “You’re embarrassed?” I asked her.

  She shrugged, lips thinning.

  “Don’t be. Petra and I have been traveling through Time for years. You are the first soul we’ve seen. And now, I believe we’ve been sent here for you.”

  A hard look crossed her eyes. There was nothing of the cocky, brash Piper I’d once known. This Piper seemed more hardened and wary.

  “Years?” she scoffed. “Try centuries.”

  Petra frowned. “When did you come here, Rayale?”

  Turning to him her, lips twitched, and I knew what was coming. I grinned.

  “Hairy goat’s arse,” she said, and Petra groaned. “Good to see you again. Thought you’d have died by now.”

  Rayale had such a way with words.

  Petra snickered. “Much as I’m sure you’d have liked that, it seems I’m made of heartier stock than you gave me credit for.”

  Her eyes were wary, but fond when they looked upon him.

  My mind was working. Though it’d been roughly two years since coming here, in truth, we’d only just entered Time. At least, that’s how it would feel when we returned to Kingdom.

  For this to be centuries to Rayale meant she’d come here long, long before us. She would have had to come before the dark magic had twisted Kingdom.

  “Was it during the games?” I asked. “How did you get sent here?”

  Turning back to me, Rayale planted her hands on her hips. “Here? Where the hell is here? All I know is I’ve been trapped forever in this godsforsaken hell hole and—”

  “Your mate, Rayale?” I frowned, glancing around us, looking beyond her to the statues littering the hall. My mind was awhirl with possibilities. The Gorgon had given me a tear. Everything meant something.

  “Where is your wolf?” I asked.

  She sucked in a sharp breath, body trembling violently as she hugged her arms to her chest. My heart lurched because I suddenly understood. That tear hadn’t been for me, but for her.

  “You lost the games? You did not tell him you loved him. You were trapped in Time.”

  So in the end, it had been Rayale and not I who ultimately lost. The ramifications of what that meant were hard for me to process. Petra and I had been kicked from our games before a finale had taken place—not counting my time loop, of course. But Rayale had gone all the way. Had she suffered a time loop too? Just how much meddling had Harpy done?

  Rayale bit her lip, looking angry and furious as she pointed to Petra. “You weren’t in love with him. You weren’t. How did you escape this fate? I saw you both. I loved Lleweyn with all my soul. But I was angry and bitter, and it took me too long to admit it. Now I’ve lost him forever.”

  Tears squeezed out the corners of her eyes. She looked like a woman on the verge of collapse, a woman with no hope left. There was a frantic gleam in her eyes, manic and desperate.

  As much as I wanted to answer her question, the answer wasn’t simple or easy to digest.

  Why had Harpy saved me and doomed her? That kind of deceit didn’t mesh with the Harpy I’d befriended. There had to be a reason for all her meddling. So what had it been?

  I dropped my gaze and noticed a blue soul stone threaded through by a leather thong dangling between her breasts. Walking up to her, I pressed my fingers against the stone. It was cool to the touch. There was no soul trapped inside. But soul stones were said to have other properties of the more spiritual nature. Soul stones were grounding stones, able to help keep a mind from fracturing under stress.

  I’d not seen her wear it inside the games, which meant she’d found it here. So she’d been traveling the stairs just as Petra and I had.

  Jerk
ing out of my reach, Rayale eyed me cautiously. “I still bear your scar. I do not trust you, horse face. I trust no one anymore.”

  Petra turned to me with a question on his face. What is the challenge here?

  The pieces of this puzzle were starting to slide into place and I sighed. “Rayale, you know nothing of what’s happened in our world. I fear when you return to it, you will be shocked.”

  She scoffed, rubbing her arms and saying in a soft voice. “I can never return. I’ve tried. There is no way out of here.” A tinge of madness clung to her laugh.

  “There is always a way. But you should know that Kingdom has fallen under a dark spell. I do not believe you were sent here by accident. And you are right. Petra and I did not declare our love to each other until long after we’d left the games.”

  She clenched her teeth, and pain burned through her so brightly I grimaced and clung to my chest. To be separated from Petra in this manner would be a slow death to me.

  Sadness gripped my soul, because soon this would be me. Now that I was here, I knew what must be done. Tonight or tomorrow, we’d return to the garden of Gnósi, and there would be only one trial left. I suddenly wished very much that Petra and I could have continued to walk through Time eternally.

  “Something happened to the time continuum. By rights, neither Petra nor I, or even Baba and Freyr, should have left the games, not according to the rules. But there was a time slip. We were forward and Baba and I were running through a maze, the final two to tell our mates we loved them. Of course, I knew I could not honestly say it since I wasn’t sure of my feelings then. But Petra and Freyr were locked in their cages, and I knew the penalty would be far too steep a price to pay if I couldn’t free him.”

  Rayale shook her head, a troubled look on her features. “No. No, you weren’t. That was Baba Yaga and me. You were—”

  “No,” I cut her off. “No, it wasn’t.”

  I took a deep breath and glanced at Petra, who wore the same confused look as Rayale.

  “Tymanon, that never happened,” Petra said.

  “Yes, my love, it did.”

  “No,” Rayale pressed.

  I held up my hand. “It did, and we lost. Baba freed her mate and Petra was stolen from me. I was cast into this place.” I gestured with my hand and pursed my lips, before turning to look at my Petra.

  His eyes were wide and staring at me with confused denial. I should have told him sooner. Not that it would have mattered either way, but I could see he still did not believe me.

  Not truly.

  “You were taken from me, Petra, lost to me for all time. I was stuck in this place—” I pointed the ground “—sobbing and alone. That’s when time froze, looped back, and then I was back with you in our pasture with no clue how to explain what had happened to me.”

  I brushed my fingers over his beloved face, and he shuddered.

  “I’m sorry I did not tell you sooner.”

  “I remember you looking at me like you didn’t really see me. I remember thinking you looked far, far away from me that night.”

  I nodded. “Yes. That was when I returned to the timeline we are now in.”

  Rayale continued to shake her head, catching my attention. She held up her hand when I opened my mouth to speak.

  “So your time looped, and instead of you being trapped in this place, I was.” Bitterness dripped off her tongue. “Why would you do that to me, horse face? Lleweyn is stone now, and I am forever trapped.”

  Petra sucked in a sharp breath, no doubt realizing, just as I had, how the Gorgon’s tear would come into play.

  “I didn’t do it. I didn’t choose it, Rayale.” I shook my head forcefully. “You must believe me. I do not know for certain why our destinies were switched, but I have an idea. I think it has to do with all the lives that have been lost or altered in Kingdom as a result of the curse.”

  Her jaw thrust out, but she was staring at me with obvious hope that I would say something to make this better for her, to make it make sense.

  “Why? Just tell me why?”

  I glanced quickly at Petra.

  “Lleweyn’s family is gone, Rayale—his mother and father, all his siblings. Odds are good that had Lleweyn been back on Kingdom, he too would have vanished.”

  She gasped. “You don’t know that. You can’t know that. Where’s his family?”

  I shrugged. “I do not know. But we are all looking for them, that I can promise you. Because Lleweyn is stone now, he’s been saved from the curse.”

  “How do you know?” her words shook, trembling with unshed tears.

  “Because of Fable.” I was not the one to speak this time. It was Petra, and I smiled, heart full of love and pride for my male.

  Rayale looked at him. “Fable? What about her?”

  “Calypso and Hades no longer know each other,” he said, “which means they do not recognize their own granddaughter anymore. Calypso cursed her own blood, but because of that, Fable still remains in Kingdom. She’s stone, but she’s there.”

  Rayale covered her mouth with her hands, and I could clearly see the hope blazing like flame in her eyes. A single tear trekked down her cheek.

  I nodded. “He’s right. The curse is the only thing that has saved your Lleweyn. I do not doubt it.”

  Swallowing hard, she slowly lowered her hands. “But I’m still stuck here.”

  “No, there is an escape, and I believe I’ve found it already. I also know why you were our challenge.”

  “Challenge?”

  “Mm.” I nodded, nodding toward the silvery flute dangling off her belt.

  Seeing my look, she dropped her hand to her instrument and shook her head.

  “Your power isn’t merely in one flute. Your power is innate,” I said.

  She gasped. “How did you know that? I’ve never told anyone el—”

  I grinned. “I saw you whittling a wooden one in the seeing disk the goddess had given me. I figured no one would go through the trouble of creating quite so many flutes if the magic came from only one source.”

  Rayale thinned her lips. “So you want one of my flutes in exchange for my freedom?”

  I nodded. “Essentially.”

  “I can find Lleweyn.” A beatific smile stole across her pretty face before she scowled down at her feet. “Not that it matters. Even if I did find him, there’s no way to undo his curse.”

  Petra reached into his pouch, extracted the vial the Gorgon had given us, and handed it to her.

  Rayale looked at the silvery, perfectly-shaped tear within, and her jaw trembled. “This is the tear of the Gorgon.” Her words were choked with astonishment.

  He nodded. “Gifted to us by her.”

  Almond-colored eyes rose to meet his before turning to me. “You are right, Tymanon. The power is within me. But any flute other than this one can only be used once. What is it you seek?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not quite sure yet, but I suspect that without your lure, I would never discover it.”

  Clutching the vial to her breast, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. I was happy for her, but I also felt it prudent not to give her false hope.

  “The Gorgon’s tear turned your lover to stone, and only the Gorgon’s tear can heal him. But understand this, Rayale. The curse has come and gone, but the effects linger still. Many of the couples the fairies put together are now no more. Some are dead. Some are missing, the repercussions of which have been—”

  Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. “If the couples are no more, then their children cease to be.”

  I nodded, knowing she fully understood. I knew I’d liked the Piper for a reason. Blunt and brusque she might be, but the female was fiercely intelligent.

  “And Lleweyn’s family? What of Red and Wolf?”

  Petra was the one to shake his head. “Last we heard, they’re both missing. The other children are gone. Lleweyn was petrified in stone, essentially locked in place and overlooked by the curse. He lives only
because he was rock.”

  Minutes ticked past, and she didn’t move. But I knew she’d heard us. Her throat worked hard as she swallowed repeatedly.

  “For so long,” she began slowly, “I cursed the gods for sending me here, vowed vengeance on them all, knowing there was nothing anyone could say to me that could ever make this right.” She thrust out her jaw as she rubbed her upper arm.

  I nodded in understanding. “Being turned to stone was the only thing that saved him from his family’s fate. And you being here, for us, is monumental, more than you could possibly know. We need your flute to succeed, and you need the Gorgon’s tear to awaken your mate.”

  “And there is the irony,” she snorted. “Without our suffering, I’d have lost him anyway.” Another tear dripped down her cheek, which she swiped at with an angry, jerky movement.

  “I am sorry for your suffering, Piper.” I reached out and gripped her shoulder, squeezing once.

  She sniffed, but didn’t move out of my grasp as I expected her to. “If you get me out of here, then I’ll make you your damn flute. I’ll make you as many as you want.”

  “One will do.”

  She nodded.

  I turned to Petra.

  “Time to go,” he said, but his words echoed with a hollow sadness. He had no idea what I planned, what came next, but I wondered if maybe deep down, he sensed that everything between us was about to change.

  I nodded and walked toward the one statue that was unlike the others. Made of dark black stone, it wasn’t a depiction of a sentient creature, but the image of an hourglass.

  The gateway to Time literally stood before us.

  I pushed at its center, and the sculpture crumbled at our feet, turning into a swirling tunnel of endless yawning and spiraling darkness, a Milky Way galaxy brimming over with starlight and nebulous clouds the colors of the rainbow.

  Petra held onto my arm and shook his head as I made to move forward.

  “We’ll go through together.”

  He was right. We should stick together. It was entirely possible the tunnel would lead us nowhere, or toss us all to separate planes of reality. So long as we held on tight, we’d stay together.