Queen of Midnight: A Dark Fae Fantasy Romance (Court of Lies Book 3)

by Olivia Hart

  I raised an eyebrow at that comment. Rose seemed to be right. Most groups in the Dark Realm chose the strongest or wisest to be their leader, but who did trolls fear other than fairies? Why would they need a strong leader when their weakest was strong enough to crush nearly anyone that attacked?

  “When Rose and I were bound, we were given several troll instruments, but none of the people in the Dark Court are large enough to play them. I’ve never had a chance to hear them before.”

  I spoke loudly enough that Sujin could hear, but she tried to ignore me, turning to one of the other trolls near her.

  “What these instruments look like?” Maluka asked. “Drums? Strings?”

  “One was as tall as I am with many strings, but the bottom looked like it had a drum on part of it.”

  She laughed and stood up. Once again, she ran off. She seemed so different than the trolls I had met in the Dark Court. Was this difference so obvious with the other races as well? Was this why they stayed so far away?

  “Maluka have instrument. Not have fairy name. Just troll name. She play you a song.”

  Maluka came running back from the mouth of the cave with the very instrument I’d described. She sat down next to me with her back to the table. The instrument looked like a massive lute with a body as large as a drum. One hand began to strum the strings while the other hand held the strings, changing the pitch of the vibrations, just like a lute would be played.

  The people at the table all turned to listen to Maluka begin to play. The melody began softly, slowly. A haunting change happened soon after, and I felt Jinjin begin to grow sad.

  The rhythm slowed, and Maluka pressed her other knee against the leather, forcing it to stretch. The same notes played, but they were different, harsher somehow. Like voices of the past, they rolled like hills with sharp peaks, breaking before falling again.

  I’d never heard anything quite like it, and for a moment, I wondered if I was being glamoured. The memory of Seraphina’s lightning show played through my mind, and an idea came to me. The only thing I knew about trolls was that their greatest pleasures were beer, food, and music. The elements of a tavern. Except one thing. There was no storyteller for this.

  I reached out to Maluka’s emotions and felt them fully. I closed my eyes and let the music roll through me. This was a song that she’d made for her mate while he was imprisoned. All for a necklace.

  I called for the mists to rise around us. I didn’t know the story, but I knew the emotions. Slowly they crept from the ground, encircling the trolls, many of whom had never seen a mist weaver at work.

  The music rolled on as Maluka’s eyes were closed. A sad, melancholy song full of longing for her mate, for his touch, for his words. Jinjin’s tears fell as the song continued, increasing in pace. Then I felt it, just a shimmer of Queen’s power flowing through Rose and my bond.

  And I saw the images that Maluka saw. Sitting alone in the forest. Sitting alone at the table. Comforted by family and friends. But then they left, and she was all alone again. The stone bed so cold.

  The mists shot out, creating hints at these shapes above the table. One after another, they all saw the pain that Maluka had felt. Then, a happy place in the song. The barest hint of a smile. She was dreaming of her mate running up the hill to her. She could feel his touch, could feel his lips. She braided his beard.

  And then the melancholy again as she awoke. Cold and lonely, wondering what had happened to her love.

  She opened her eyes to see the images above the table, and though she continued to play, she watched as her memories came to life. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched, but her hands and knees knew the song. It had been her life for twenty years.

  And then it ended after a bout of happy dreaming. Except that the dream didn’t end. She didn’t wake up. That was the meaning of the song. She wanted to lose herself in the dreams.

  I let the mists clear as Jinjin moved to her. He gave me one glance before he pulled Maluka away to the cave mouth. I didn’t judge him poorly for abandoning me. I’d have done the same if I hadn’t seen Rose in twenty years.

  “What was that?” I heard murmured.

  Whispers of awe. Then there were whispers of fear interspersed. The danger of using magic amongst people who were not used to it.

  It was time to make my plea. Now, while I had at least the respect of everyone at the table. I stood up and said, “I came here at Queen Rose’s request. War is coming to the Dark Realm, and she needs your help.”

  Murmurs of shock and even more fear moved through the crowd, but Sujin stood up, and everyone quieted. “We will not help, Prince. We will not have you use us for war. We have no want to fight. We have no want to die for fairies.”

  I turned to look at the rest of the trolls. “I do not come to ask you to fight. I ask you to help us to build. I ask you to carry things. I ask you to make the same sacrifice that Queen Rose has made for you.”

  Sujin spat. “Queen Rose has not sacrificed for me. She has not sacrificed for trolls.”

  I took a deep breath. This was violence. It may not have been with sword and spear, but it was still violence, and the trolls were not violent people.

  “Yes, she did. Let me show you.” I didn’t need to tap into the Queen’s Gift to make this. Mists rose from the ground once again, and I showed, in all of the terrible detail, what Rose and I had seen in that final vision in the Room of Disillusion. Dead dragons. Stillborn unicorns. Dying baby fairies. Dead forests. A world of death.

  “Your Queen did not want the Throne. She tried to turn it down twice, and it was only after seeing this vision did she make the sacrifice to save the Dark Realm. She does not ask you to do the same. She only asks for you to work to protect her. Haul stone that no one else can. Carry trees as no one else can.”

  Murmurs on both sides of the argument began, but once again, they all turned to Sujin.

  “You do not have wings. You can lie.”

  “I could, but I am not. Ask Jinjin. What do the people think of her? What do the people think of me? Do they think of us as liars? Have we done anything but work for the Dark Realm?”

  She turned to look at the cave, and she sighed. “You ask much, Prince. We will talk to Jinjin. We will think. You sleep. We talk in morning.”

  “That is all I ask. Thank you, Sujin.” I hopped off the bench and moved towards the forest. The trees felt safer in this hostile place than the cave did. I didn’t understand that place, but I understood a good forest.

  I lay down on the ground, and Maluka’s song filled my mind. Could I go twenty years without seeing Rose? Just one night away from her made my heart hurt. I sighed. I thought of Seraphina. Now that I knew what Nicolai had felt, I wouldn’t have been able to sacrifice myself like that. I would have let the world burn, and I would have saved Rose.

  It didn’t matter what the “right” thing to do would have been. Maybe that’s why men couldn’t be Queens. I’d sacrificed everything my entire life. All for her. And no matter what happened, I would never let her go. The sacrifices would not be in vain.

  * * *

  I woke to clomping troll feet headed my way. Gods, I was still full from last night. I stood up slowly, holding onto a tree for support as I watched Sujin lead a large group of trolls down the hill towards me.

  None of them looked happy, but that was to be expected. None of them seemed sad, though, and that was what worried me. Everyone stopped at the edge of the hill and only Sujin approached me.

  “Prince, we will go with you. Half of us. I will be who you talk to. No one will hurt trolls. Not to make them move faster. We will sleep outside walls. We will have music. We will work, but we will be trolls.”

  I nodded. “That is very reasonable.”

  “You will pay us what we are worth. Jinjin says you are honest. You will pay honest. And Jinjin will get any necklace he wants.”

  “I would expect nothing less.” Sujin seemed to think for a moment.

  “And you will tell
us stories. With mist. This is most valuable magic. Trolls have none.”

  I raised an eyebrow and asked, “How often?”

  She put her hand to her chin and tapped her tusk. “One night every two weeks.”

  I nodded. “I will do this. Will you allow me to bring people? I’ve never done that before, but I’m sure that other people will want to watch.”

  She started to snarl, but then she stopped. “It is valuable magic. Not right to keep to trolls. You may bring people. I can make them leave if they are rude fairies.”

  I grinned. “I accept.” I approached her and put out my hand. She took my entire hand in hers and shook it once, nearly tearing my arm from its socket.

  “Now you show us magic caves. I am curious.”

  I chuckled. “Warrens, Sujin. They’re called warrens.”

  “Warrens. Show us these magic warrens.”

  I reached out and took one of Sujin’s fingers as I had with Jinjin. Then, I reached out for a shadow and pulled her into the nothingness.

  * * *

  It was evening when I finally brought the last troll out of the warrens outside the Dark Court. I was home. Finally. As soon as I had explained to the guards what was happening, I raced to the tower and stopped as I saw something I hadn’t imagined.

  The No-Walk in operation.

  A goblin stood next to a strange box beside the No-Walk. Another stood inside the odd little ring of guard rails. “Is this working?”

  “Yes, Prince,” the goblin at the box said with a grin. “You stand next to Trix and I get to use magic to carry you all the way to the top. Hear that, Trix? I’m gonna use magic that the Prince hasn’t ever seen before.”

  “Yeah, I know,” the female goblin said annoyed. “You’ve said that about every single fairy that’s ridden the No-Walk. It’s not like you built the thing. You just flip a lever when I tell you to.”

  “Trix, don’t start with me. You and I both know Kral got this idea from me. That’s why he left me in charge of working it.”

  “Oh, shut up Hoggle. Hit the damn switch, and let’s get the Prince to his rooms. I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear your nonsense any more than I do.”

  I chuckled as I stepped onto the platform. Trix put her hand out and the No-Walk began to shake and groan slightly. Then it lifted into the air. I grabbed the railing and hung on. The floors moved by faster than I’d ever imagined. It felt like I was flying.

  Then, Trix put her hand out, and the whole thing jerked to a stop. I felt like I could breathe again. When I looked at the landing I was standing in front of, I realized I was outside our hallway. Somehow, in less than two minutes, this strange magical invention had brought me all the way to the top of the Dark Tower.

  I couldn’t wait to get off the terrifying thing, but as soon as I did, I turned around with an ear-to-ear grin. Trix smiled at me and waved before the whole thing began falling to the ground.

  I looked down, and as it got close to the ground, it slowed until it settled back to its starting location. Rose had said that she knew that it would work, that they were common in the Mortal Realm. I hadn’t believed her.

  I was wrong. This was a glorious invention. It took at least thirty minutes of running to climb all those stairs. I wasn’t even tired now. This must be what a fairy felt like.

  I turned around and Rose was standing behind me already. Dressed in a simple nightgown with messy bed hair, she was the most beautiful woman that I’d ever seen. I didn’t remember ever being so glad to see someone. I ran to her and pulled her into my arms. I needed to touch her, to smell her, to remind myself that she was still mine.

  When I bent down to kiss her, it was like the world was finally right, and the way she kissed me back told me that she felt the same way.

  When I finally pulled away long enough to catch a breath, she grinned and said, “Guess you found a way to outdrink the trolls?”

  “Nope. I told them a story.”

  Chapter 18

  Rose

  “Are you sure you can’t wait just a few days until I can go with you?” Sebastian asked.

  I looked down at the dragon and sighed. “I could, but I’ve already put off learning about him for so long. We need to figure out why he’s here and maybe who sent him.”

  “You’re right, but I really want to be there with you. What if your grandparents tell you that it was a mistake, and you need to leave him with them? I won’t even get to say goodbye.”

  I understood what he was saying. He loved our little pet dragon, but I had a little bit of time right now, and I didn’t know when that would happen again. “We’ll be able to make a portal back here if that’s the case. I’ll drag you through the portal and you can give him a hug before we let his parents take their wayward child back.”

  Sebastian grumbled, but he knew I was right. I was finally ready to figure out what his reason for coming to us was. Seeing my grandparents was actually the terrifying part. I didn’t know what they’d be like. I didn’t know how they’d react to seeing their granddaughter for the first time. I hadn’t had very much luck with family so far, but I couldn’t just ignore them now that I remembered them.

  “I guess that’s true. I just feel like I’m going to miss out on things.” He sat down on the bed in our room. “At least make sure you’re safe. You have the maps I drew for you, right?”

  I looked at Amra who already seemed to be tearing up thinking that they might take her best friend. The dragon had spent more time with her than us, and she loved him. “I’ll be safe, Sebastian. Don’t worry too much. You need to get things started with the goblins and the new Assassin’s Guild.”

  “Fine. Get out of here. Try to get back by tonight, but if you can’t, I’ll understand.”

  I grinned and moved to my husband. “I won’t make you worry too much, my love.” When he looked up, I bent down to kiss him, and he pulled me tighter to him, not wanting to let me go.

  God, I missed kissing him. He’d been gone for two days, and now I was going to be gone all day. I missed how freely we could appreciate each other before all of the madness of binding myself to the Dark Throne. Those had been good days. Soon, everything would be better. At least, I hoped it would be. We needed some time together without all the stress and crazy.

  When I finally managed to pull away from those too red lips, a blush rose in my cheeks as I realized that Amra and the dragon were staring at us silently. “Be safe while you’re gone, or I’ll smack you,” he said.

  “I’m always safe, Tinkerbell. See you tonight or tomorrow morning.” I pulled the straps tighter on my pack, tapped my sheaths to make sure they held my daggers, and moved back to where Amra stood.

  I reached out to her with the Gift of Sacrifice and tapped into her power to create portals. Raising my hand, I watched as shadows wrapped around my arm and moved towards my fingers. They left my finger and began to swirl in front of us, a vortex of blackness until a vision of the dragon caves appeared.

  “Ready to meet my grandparents?” I asked Amra, expecting her to be excited. Instead, she shook her head, and I felt the sadness she was leashing tightly. The dragon was her friend. Her best friend. The only one who played with her anymore. And there was a very real chance that he was just being a wayward child who needed to go back to his parents.

  It broke my heart, but we needed to get this figured out. If he was supposed to be with us, we needed to know why, and we needed to know more about him. If he had to go back to the dragon caves, Amra could visit any time she wanted. I would make sure of that. I took her hand and stepped through the portal. The dragon followed us.

  Like stepping through a doorway, we appeared from the air in the small patch of forest that I remembered from my trip to visit them with the centaurs. The portal closed behind us, and we were left in the silent forest.

  Memories of the trip flooded my mind, and I felt haunted knowing that eventually, those same guards would end up on the opposite side of the battlefield. I cared for them. They wer
en’t bad people, but they couldn’t refuse to fight.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I needed to focus on this trip right now, not take trips down memory lane or worry about things I couldn’t change.

  “The village is an hour’s walk north of the caves,” I said. “We’re not just dropping him off at the caves and walking away. You know that. We’re trying to learn more about him. We’re trying to do the right thing, Amra.”

  “I know that it’s the right thing. But if they take him away from me, I’m going to lose my friend. You say that I can come to visit, but I’m always busy now. I couldn’t even go visit Asli very often. It won’t be the same. He won’t be able to cuddle with me.”

  I took Amra’s hand and gave it a good squeeze. “We’ll figure it out. I’ll make sure you have time to visit him. Maybe you could spend some nights in the dragon caves.”

  She nodded, but the sadness wasn’t going to leave. She put her hand on the dragon’s head, and he stuck out his tongue and tried to lick her. Her fingers scratched along those little ridges that would one day become the spiked whiskers that only male dragons had.

  He made an odd sound and pushed his head against her hand, urging her to scratch harder. I may have been wrong in calling the dragon an idiot, but sometimes, he really did remind me of a puppy.

  We started walking, and I heard a roar from deep inside the cave. I wondered if there were more dragons than just the two that I’d seen. How many could there be? That was a question for another day. For now, we just needed to walk.

  I was going to see my grandparents for the first time.

  * * *

  Amra had been quiet the entire walk. It had been hard to keep going knowing that she was so sad, but this needed to be done.

  The village was far less civilized than I was used to. There were no town walls, no stone buildings. The roads were simply dirt paths, and many of the cottages had small gardens outside them, simple things to grow herbs in. It reminded me of the village Sebastian had built, and Amra’s eyes lit up when she saw the central fire pit. There was no fire there now. These people were not family as the village I’d lived in had been. They didn’t have a unifying past or a unifying fear.