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Queen Sienna cupped the globe of her staff in her palm as she looked down her nose at the remaining suitors. She wished it could give her answers. Who would please her people? Who would make her court happy? Who would make her happy? There were too many things to think about.
She took her time standing from the throne. The black silk dress she wore glided down her legs, exposing her thighs with two high slits. She took a step toward the crown. Her staff tapped against the floor. She took another step, her heels and the beating of her heart the only sound in the small rectangular room.
The metal was cold against her hand as she lifted the crown from its pillow. Diamonds shone next to large sapphires, all of the stones making the crown heavy as she balanced it with the staff.
Her dark eyes slid from the crown to the three men. They'd come in their finest suits, even their hair had been perfectly placed. Sienna tried to picture the crown on each of their heads. They were certainly attractive enough to stand next to her.
Stepping from her dais, the entire room inhaled and held their breath. No one knew who she'd crown, least of all her.
"Please rise," she announced.
Jack, Leo, and Hollis stood. Sienna could feel how their gazes moved from her face to the power she held in her hand.
Her heart skipped a beat and when it started again it thudded all around them.
The ground under them shook. Another boom sounded and the chandelier above them chimed as the hanging stones collided. This time she was certain it wasn't her heart.
There was thunder, a rumbling, that built from the ground up, making everyone stumble forward. The crown slipped from the queen's fingers, her hands gripping her staff to steady her. Dust fell from the ceiling and sprinkled down over the queen, marring her gown.
There were shouts out in the hallway, one ear splitting scream, and a wild war cry. A couple of guards spilled into the throne room, all sporting large bloody wounds. They clung to the doors to keep themselves upright.
"Get the queen out of here!" One of the guards managed to bellow. Red drops oozed over his lips.
Queen Sienna turned to the room. All guards had been posted outside leaving her court and her suitors alone. The court was shrinking away like the spineless cowards they were, the group already sprinting for the opposite exit.
A current of air lifted the hair off her shoulders as she pointed her staff at them. It became a bittersweet taste on her tongue and then it was gone.
No one in her court moved. Magic seized their muscles and held them firm.
They blinked helplessly, any words they wanted to say already caught in their throats. Sienna never liked them anyway and the spell would wear off…if that was before or after the Fae got to them, she couldn't be sure.
When she looked down at her suitors a hand was already stretched out for her to take. A choice she no longer needed to make. She looked at Leo and Jack each in turn as she took Hollis's hand.
"Run." One word. A single command that sent the men in motion.
They should all be running. Sienna shouldalreadybe running.
"Let's go!" Hollis shouted as another deafening boom made the castle quake. She followed Hollis as she had all those years ago. She let him lead her away, knowing deep down that he'd taken her heart as a child and never given it back. She knew this now with a certainty that only the clarity that near death could give her. Death was chasing them now like it had their entire lives.
Because Queen Sienna was certain about one thing.
The Fae were here.
Ace
All morning Ace had feltwrong. The gods were in her head but were remarkably quiet. The small hole Shelby had left in her shirt had grown bigger because she'd fiddled with it the entire walk to the castle.
They hadn't spoken since last night. Shelby was all furrowed brows and a tightly clenched jaw. His silence only gave her more time to think and then think some more. Gods, Ace wished that she could just quit thinking!
There was only one gate at the castle they had to worry about and it stopped at the forest's edge. It only blocked the road that led in from the city leaving the rest of the grounds exposed. Guards patrolled outside watching the tree-line but mostly it was a cocky showing of the queen's power to leave herself so unprotected. Because who could take her on and win?
For the last event, they'd traveled past the castle and come right through the gates. There was no getting past those locked gates today. The pair crept up to the edge of the forest, scanning the empty courtyard. All signs that a fair had once been here had been erased except for where the grass remained flattened. Ace could still make out the shapes of the booths and tents that had been put up and the pathways people had walked.
"I don't see…anyone," Shelby whispered, though he didn't bother to look her way.
He was right. No patrol. Not a single guard in sight. That terrible feeling in the pit of Ace's stomach sank deeper as it twisted into her gut.
"We'll stay on the edge of the forest and if we still don't see anyone let's take the garden entrance. From there we can split up." Ace paused expecting some sort of objection but Shelby just kept staring out into the courtyard. "That way you can be ready to help me escape with your magic."
