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All I had to do was not get lost in this game of alliances and lies.
“I knew when you first walked into this room you were a queen who’d be different,” Talen remarked. He put his book away on a shelf over the fireplace. “We fae can’t help loving our Mortal Queens, but you might be my favorite one yet.”
His words ignited the question that pricked the back of my mind. The tiny thorn in this world of roses that I preferred to tuck away but could no longer afford to ignore. Not when the price for a mere wool could mean my life and a painting could steal a piece of my soul. Beneath the star-blinding exterior—perhaps because of it—these fae were dangerous.
Gaia avoided my questions. Carlene refused to answer. Time to see how deep the alliance between Talen and me ran. I asked slowly, “Did you meet the other Mortal Queens?”
“Each one for the past fifty years.”
“Where do they rule?”
“High Queen Gaia is in the east.” He straightened the books, unfazed.
“The others,” I pressed.
Satisfied with the organized shelf, he faced me. “Dead. Anything else?”
My bliss shattered. “Dead?” I squeaked.
The ground fell from beneath my feet. Every memory I’d created in the past several hours now hid behind a veil of horror. We still sent up prayers to the Mortal Queens from the five islands and asked them to bless us, when they never had a chance to hear. They could do nothing for us. We could do nothing for them. I bit down bile that rose in my throat.
The girls we’d sent from home with fanfare, the ones we praised for being so lucky, the children whose mothers thought them married to a fae king and dining in luxury—gone.
“The most recent death occurred two days ago.” Talen wore a placid expression, unblinking as he delivered the news. Gone were the visions of uniting with sisters from my realm, dining together, exchanging stories. All torn away with one simple word.
My knees felt weak. “How?”
“It’s how it has always been,” Talen replied. With two strides, he was by my side. His hand lifted to hover by my cheek, his knuckles brushing the mask. “Such a pretty thing,” he said in the softest of tones. “We rely on Mortal Queens to rule us, and we fall in love with them, every time, no matter how hard we try not to. But the Mortal Queens are not ours to keep—and we seem to have a problem in losing you. However, while you are still ours, it is my duty to provide you with a lifetime of luxury.”
His words soaked into my skin like poison I couldn’t expel. “I’m to die.”
“In exactly two years.” For the first time, I detected pity in his voice. “Such is the fate of being a Mortal Queen.”
I couldn’t breathe. The stars outside the window drew near, suffocating me. Drowning me. The beauty no longer swept me away. Deadly as they are beautiful. I closed my fist around Antonio, but not even he could help me. “I want to leave. Now.”
“There is no way out of this realm unless an ambassador leads you there. Calm down, you’ll pass out if you keep huffing like that. Here, take a piece of chocolate.” Talen removed a wrapped square from his pocket. Normally, I’d be delighted to be friends with anyone who constantly carried sweets on them, but even sweets couldn’t calm me.
“I’m a prisoner here?” I eyed the door. It stood wide open, and he didn’t move to block it. In fact, he spread out his hands.
“Quite the opposite. This is all yours.” That might have been more enticing if we hadn’t been standing in a mere room. “You own this realm. But only the three ambassadors can take you home, and that is something they will never do.”
A knot formed in my stomach like a heavy stone. I tore the jewelry from my arms and let it clatter to the floor. “I can’t stay to die.”
Talen took my hands in his. His eyes no longer soothed me. “My Queen, I hope this realm is anything but insufferable. So far, you are anything but ordinary, and I swear I will find a way to make it feel less like a prison for you.” He bowed while taking small steps toward the door. “I promise. I’ll make it a home you won’t want to leave.” He said it as if the beauty of the realm was the problem and solving it would make everything else okay.
“Who is killing the Mortal Queens?”
He placed a hand on his chest. “No fae would touch them. We love you all with a feeling so deep that nothing could hinder it, and it would be impossible for any of us to do such a thing. Your deaths are beyond even our power.”
I shook my dizzy head. “This makes no sense.” Queens don’t just die. Someone must be killing them.
“Queen Thea, tell me what I can do for you. I can lift my hand and summon winds or stretch it out and calm any beast. Do you want a pet? A lion perhaps?”
I gawked at him. “I want to live.”
His head tipped to the side, the black chains on his four earrings swaying with it. “You get to live. Until you don’t. Same as us all.”
Hot tears filled my eyes, and my breathing was choked. My dress suddenly clenched too tight, and the room squeezed smaller than before. I’d dreamed of this for my entire life. Every girl on my island prayed to be chosen. This was my secret desire above all else. But now? The desk rammed into my side when I clambered back. “I don’t want this.”
