The Queen's Flight (Emerging Queens)
Page 24
“What is this we hear?” Niall boomed out. Viola shrank back from his immense presence. She regretted shifting to human, but she wanted to hold Sergei in her arms.
“It is with great sadness, All Knowing,” Sergei bowed his head in reverence, “that I must tell you Cassandra is dead.”
“Who killed her? And were you her Protector at the time?”
Viola felt ice chill her all over. She had forgotten that part.
“She was killed by the Cult of Humanity. But I was not her Protector. She had asked for me, merely to prove a point to Viola. She had flown on ahead, and when they attacked, I was too late to save her. I stopped them before they could take her body to perform the ritual one.”
“Did you purify the scene with fire?” One of the elders, a red Celtic asked.
“I did.”
“Viola, is what he says true?” Niall turned his golden stare on her.
Viola closed her eyes and waved her hands around. She didn’t gaze into the weave, but she could still feel a pair of eyes looking at her from the beyond. The gaping hole she sensed was stitching itself back up. Soon Cassandra would be absorbed in the weave, now that the Cult’s spell that had trapped the Queens was destroyed.
“Yes, and Kira says that justice is done. Cassandra killed her.”
The elders frowned and talked among themselves. Only Justice glared at her. She waited for him to call her out on her lie. To name Sergei as the murderer. But he didn’t. Still she felt judged and accepted the guilt. While she didn’t directly command Sergei to kill Cassandra, she knew what he would do if given the opportunity. Did that make her as bad as Cassandra? Not yet, but a part of her felt she made a turn that she could never return from. She could live with that, if it kept Sergei by her side and her eggs safe.
Epilogue
One year later
Viola was ready to knock on the door to her parents’ house when the door was flung open.
“Where are my grandbabies?” Her mother cooed, plucking the two little dragons out of Sergei’s arms.
“Francine, let them come through the door first,” her father said and opened the door wider to welcome them in.
But her mother had already left them on the doorstep while she brought little Ivan and Tatiana up to Viola’s old room. A room that was now redecorated into a dragon nursery.
“You know, for someone who hates dragons so much, she’s definitely come around.” Viola peered up the stairs, listening to the sound of her mother singing a lullaby.
“She still hasn’t warmed up to me,” Sergei said.
“That’s because she still hasn’t forgiven you for whapping her upside the head with your tail in the hospital room.” Viola followed her father into the kitchen and sat down.
Sebastian was making a turkey dinner, for no other reason than it was Sunday and she was coming to visit. It hadn’t been all roses and candy for her mother and Viola these last few months. But it was nice to get to a point where there weren’t any more accusations and general nastiness going on—thanks to the transformative power of grandchildren.
“Did she ever sing to me like that?” Viola asked.
Sebastian took a great interest in basting the bird. “I’m sure she did,” he hedged.
“I didn’t think so.” Viola’s head reared back as a vision suddenly over took her.
Help me.
Another Queen was in danger. But Viola had her own team now, and with the help of Kira, Amaranthe, and Justice, this Queen, like all the others, was as good as rescued.
“Uh, Dad, we’ve got to go,” Viola said, gathering Sergei up with a look. “Is it okay if we leave the twins here for a few hours?”
“Your mother will be thrilled,” he said. “Do you need any help?”
“Nah,” Viola said, clasping Sergei’s hand. “We’ve got this.”
The End
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About the Author
USA Today bestselling author, Jamie K. Schmidt is a hybrid author who has over thirty short stories published in small press and ezines, and a variety of novellas and books online. Her Club Inferno series from Random House has been in Amazon’s Top 100 ebooks sold, Barnes and Noble’s Top 10, and has over 200 four and five star reviews on Goodreads. Jamie has collaborated with celebrities on books and novellas, and her work is available in several countries. Her hard cover debut was with adult film star, Jenna Jameson’s SPICE, the third book in the Fate series. A past president of the Connecticut Romance Writer’s of America, Jamie conducts several writing workshops a year and has a social media Klout score of 62.
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