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When she’d wept long enough and felt more at peace, she shut off the shower and took her time drying herself. She spent the next twenty minutes using her blow dryer in an almost haphazard manner. She didn’t even care that her disinterest resulted in a huge, frizzy mass.
When she went to her closet, however, and saw the long row of beautifully wrought gowns, each one specially designed and hand-stitched for the Queen, she grew very still. They were all elegant, a few in silk or velvet, but most in the woven fabrics common to the Nine Realms, though heavily hand-embroidered.
Much to her surprise, she realized she couldn’t put any of them on, not anymore. They no longer suited her and she closed the closet door.
Once she’d become Aralynn, she’d started down this path, good or bad, right or wrong. She’d loved the freedom of embracing her wolf side, whether running through the forest in fur and four paws or battling beside Stone with her hair held back by a woven clasp, but essentially set free from the Queen’s intricate braids.
She turned to face into the room, to the large, heavily carved, four-poster bed, to the ornate dresser and overly tall, upholstered chairs. The drapes by the window were velvet. The carpet on the floor was an expensive antique Turkish rug imported from the U.S. The hardwood floors had been recently refinished so that they gleamed.
Paintings by the most famous elven artists of the past several centuries adorned each wall. The frames alone cost a fortune. The room was … opulent.
She wasn’t. She never had been.
She fingered her frizzed-out hair.
As a child, she was happiest when she was outside playing with her goats.
The decision that came to her was so simple, she hardly knew what to make of it. She decided in that moment she would abdicate as queen and leave the castle for good. Her extensive staff governed Ferrenden Peace as it was. She’d truly been a figurehead and little better than a prisoner all these years.
Aralynn’s life, on the other hand, was one of action and doing. Rosamunde’s nature leaned to these qualities. She’d loved the weeks she’d served as Stone’s battle partner well before they’d become lovers.
Bottom line, she couldn’t go back. She couldn’t live in the castle any longer.
A new path opened up suddenly, one that Stone would fight her on, but she didn’t care. And, she had nothing to lose.
She teleported to the cottage then transformed into Aralynn. By now, it was no doubt well know
n that she was both the queen and Aralynn. She didn’t even care about that, not really. It was time to move on, to be who she was meant to really be, no matter which woman she brought to the fore.
She dressed in battle gear, but focused on her faeness and channeling the elf-lord power. When the earth began to rumble, she didn’t wait but teleported just outside the Tannisford Communication Center.
She took a deep breath and pushed open the glass door of the building then moved to the end of the hall to the room where Stone had his main display of screens.
The moment she crossed the threshold, her hand on her sheathed dagger for support, Stone’s deep voice boomed. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
All the screens began to crackle and every head turned first in Stone’s direction, then in hers.
The room fell deathly quiet.
Delia levitated to face Stone at eye-level. “Ease down, Mastyr! You’re going to explode the electronics!”
Stone, however, clearly couldn’t hear Delia. He levitated swiftly through the room, heading toward her. As he flew over the heads of his Com Center operators, several leaned or ducked to keep from getting clipped.
Rosamunde had enough sense to back into the hall.
Once he reached her, he shut the door to the center, then grabbed her arm, his mossy-green eyes lit up like a bonfire. “You are not welcome here and don’t ever come back.” He glanced down at his feet no doubt feeling the earth rumbling as well. “Shit. You’re kidding me. The elf-lord power? What’s going on?”
She offered him a wry smile. “It’s time to rock-and-roll, Stone. You with me? Because I’m not giving up serving Tannisford as Aralynn. I’m sorry for the way things fell out—”
“Fell out? You call that kind of deception and indifference to the plight of your fellow realm-folk a simple ‘falling out’. Fuck you, Rosamunde.”
She flared her own nostrils. “And fuck you right back because I know in my powerful fae heart that you’re wrong about how you’ve interpreted the Margetta visions.” This time she glanced down at her feet then grabbed Stone’s arm to channel the power into him. Whether he liked it nor, he was going to participate. She was tired of his temper and his rage. He needed to get with the program no matter what he thought about her.
Stone started to protest, but the vision rolled so fast that she watched him clamp his lips shut. His eyes widened as he stared back at her, so she knew he was receiving the vision at the same time.
Stone summed it up. “A bunch of wraith-pairs have got several troll teens trapped out at the grotto.” He blinked a few times as the vision faded then met her gaze.
He narrowed his eyes and remained silent for several potent seconds. “Fine. This once, then we’re going to set some boundaries because I can’t function like this. We’ll get Vojalie to help us out if we have to.”
