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Tianna used the sweet scent to glamour the putridity beneath, but my mates couldn’t discern it, just as they hadn’t seen through the glamour of the Forbidden Forest and the black sea. It worried me. What if Tianna used glamour on them when we faced her? How could I protect my mates from her?
I could see through glamour, but not only because I had royal Fae magic. Sihde couldn’t hide from me—its true queen—what it hid from others.
As we were halfway into the hall, the dark, oppressive magic made me gag. Yet I felt it wasn’t completely dark Fae magic. Could there be foul demon magic in the mix? Tianna had close ties to the demons. The demon captain we’d killed back on Pandemonium had called her his queen, and twice she had sent a demon army instead of a Fae army to assassinate me.
My grandfather had said that Tianna had gathered dark, evil forces around her and engaged herself in all sorts of foul, forbidden practices.
The court—all of them dark Fae—stood on either side of the hall and murmured to each other as they watched us. The men wore armor and swords; the women, all willowy and beautiful, dressed in elegant gowns. Yet, according to the rumor, their queen was the most striking and no other being could surpass her beauty.
Perhaps she had killed those who were more beautiful than her.
I felt the heavy gaze of the crowd crawling along my skin, their eyes evaluating and appraising. I didn’t send my magic out to probe them since they weren’t my target. But I knew they pondered what I could do for them, what it meant for them that I’d come, and how long I would survive.
Some sneered at my mates and me.
We ignored them, not caring if it offended them.
We were here for two things only: to kill Tianna and rescue Elvey.
As for how to kill Tianna, no one really knew.
Many said that she couldn’t be killed.
But we would get close to her, observe her, and find her weakness.
Anyone could be killed with the right tools. Even the gods and goddess faded.
I masked my face with disinterested iciness. Cold, cruel, calculating, vengeful, and power-hungry were all dark Fae were, as Rosalinda had kept reminding me. She’d also informed me about the Fae’s brief history.
The two Fae races—dark and light Fae—were in constant competition, yet they couldn’t erase the other altogether because of the required balance in the Fae realm. Light Fae were more benign. They didn’t hate dragons and humans that much. Nevertheless, all Fae loved to manipulate and play games.
My eyes found a raised dais with a gold throne adorned with black diamonds at the far end of the hall. And Tianna—my immortal enemy—sat on it.
That was the woman who had orphaned me, cursed me, and tried to kill me for nine centuries. I’d done nothing to wrong her, but it didn’t matter to the evil incarnation. My birth and continuance were the bane of her existence.
I saw red at the sight of my enemy. Her golden hair cascaded to floor of the gold dais, swaying like snakes, and my heart pounded so wildly it could barely contain the violence inside.
A black veil concealed her face, and her red, low-cut gown flaunted half of her bone-white breasts. The black stripes twirling from her left breast on her gown to her right thigh highlighted her slim waist and curvy figure.
A chained charm nestled between her deep cleavage, and I figured it contained a potent spell.
Eight males—probably her guards, playthings, Fae nobles, or a mix—surrounded her on the dais, gazing upon her with devotion and lust.
Her perfume of rose and death drifted toward me. The closer we approached her, the stronger the stench. It added to the air of bloodthirst, decay, and foul hunger not of this realm, as if there was something else—alien and terrible—living inside her.
Blaze sniffed, his nostrils flaring.
What do you smell?I asked in his mind.
Rose and night and sky, Blaze said.
It smells nicer here. Rai agreed.
Better than that sweet scent from earlier, said Iokul with appreciation.
I felt a rush wave of disappointment that they couldn’t discern the horrible odor, but then Fae had glamour magic that dragons weren’t familiar with. Even other Fae couldn’t distinguish the dark Fae queen’s twisted glamour. Only Elvey and I could.
Elvey’s first lesson for me on Pandemonium had been to make out the dark queen’s glamour.
