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The queen sat her throne. Beneath the arc of purple flowers, she was statuesque and strawberry blond, her long, wavy hair nearly reaching her waist. Her dress was layers of a gauzy material that left little of her body beneath to the imagination. Her feet were bare.
She was guarded by a line of fairies who looked like the others we’d seen: tall and fit and paranormally beautiful, with strong cheekbones and wide eyes. They had pale skin and wore black pants and tunics; their subdued clothes were a strange contrast to Claudia’s lush throne and wispy gown.
Lulu stood in front of them, pixie petite, shaking with anger, and covered in the magic I’d felt outside.
Lulu’smagic.
I knew she’d been trained when she was younger, and I’d felt her magic as a child. But she’d made the decision not to use it more than a decade ago, and I had no real idea what she was capable of as an adult sorceress. I wasn’t sure she did, either.
“Lulu,” I said behind her, lifting my sword from its sheath just enough to show steel. “We’re here. Step back.”
“Bloodletter,” Claudia said by way of greeting, then cast her gaze slowly over the shifters who’d come in with me.
“Claudia,” I said, inclining my head in what I hoped was a respectful manner. “My apologies for the interruption.”
The queen’s brows lifted.
“They did this, Elisa,” Lulu said. “Petra said it was portal magic—the house was moved through a portal to some other world. They’re the only Sups who can use portal magic, so they must have been involved.”
“It was demon magic,” I said. “We could feel it. We could smell it.”
“I can smell it on you now,” Claudia said mildly, her ring-laden fingers glinting in the firelight.
Lulu lifted her chin. “Then they must have worked with the demon.”
Claudia’s brows—perfect arches—lifted elegantly. “We do not consort with demons.”
“Who else can do portal magic?” Lulu insisted. “Who else could have done this? Did you send Cadogan House away?”
“Why would we have done so?” Claudia said. Her tone was still mild, but I could tell her patience was waning.
“Enough of this,” Lulu said, voice rising. “Bring back the House and my parents. Immediately.”
Claudia rolled her eyes, waved Lulu off. “I have done nothing with your parents.”
Then I felt the hot spark of magic coming from Lulu. “Then one of the fairies did it,” she said, the words lower and more serious than any I’d ever heard from her. “Like Ruadan.”
I heard Alexei’s murmured “Oh, fuck” and agreed with the sentiment. The reminder of the fairy who’d violated his loyalties wasn’t going to go over well.
Claudia’s eyes went hot, and the room began to fill with stifling magic. “You are lucky that I do not disappear you where you stand.”
“Try it,” Lulu murmured, and then her hand was up, and there was a glowing orange fireball in her hand.
She’d start a war, I thought again, and she’d never forgive herself.
So I launched myself between them... and the fireball she threw toward Claudia hit me square in the back.
The pain was terrible, remarkable, and all-consuming. Like every bone had been simultaneously broken, as the magic spilled from nerve to nerve. My knees buckled, and I hit the wooden floor, tried to suck in a breath. But I couldn’t remember how to make my lungs work, and it was a terrifying thirty seconds before my lungs inflated again.
“Elisa!”
Someone called my name, the sound of it staticky as magic echoed around in my head. I felt the trickle on my face, swiped beneath my nose, found blood. Maybe she’d actually rattled my brain.
I heard someone move forward, saw the offered hand. I ignored it, looked up and into Claudia’s eyes, and climbed shakily to my feet.
Then I glanced back at Lulu. She looked shocked, afraid, defiant.
Lulu didn’t just have magic. She hadpowerfulmagic. And she’d used it on me.
