AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She waved those too-long arms over the crowd. “My! What an extravaganza we have here!”
Cerri shoved off my chest and barged through the crowd. I followed, hot on her heels and commanded the Sluagh to gather behind me. The crowd parted for our push, and the glow of the Sluagh illuminated our path.
“Get out of my party!” Cerri stomped her foot on the floor and a tree burst out of the stone.
The tree became a sharpened stake that jutted into Beryl…at least that’s what it seemed like. I blinked and realized that the tree had missed. Beryl glanced back at the sharpened stake and laughed at us. Cerri wobbled on her feet, her head tilted ever so slightly.
Beryl bent and put her hands on her knees like she was talking to a child. “You can’t defeat me. Not even on your own grounds.”
Cerri, to her benefit, didn’t shake. She raised her chin and stared Beryl in the eye. “Out.”
Beryl clicked her tongue. “That is no way to speak to a guest who came here to offer a gift.”
I knew that Beryl didn’t want to give us anything other than trouble. This was a scene right out of a twisted fairy tale. The evil witch crashed the party to lay down another curse. I had to fight every instinct in my body to keep from pushing Cerri behind me.
I could handle another curse if it meant keeping my queen safe. Instead, I had my Sluagh spread out and circle Beryl. She barely even acknowledged them. These were the greatest fighters in history. To Beryl, they were nothing more than flies.
To be fair, we never wanted to fight Beryl with the Sluagh. I’d offered their strength in the fight against the Unseelie Court, not the queen herself. And tonight, she’d come alone. Which made no sense to me. I didn’t understand why Beryl would dare tread on Cerri’s turf all by herself.
I narrowed my gaze and searched Beryl for any signs of an aura. It seemed to be gone. I would have blamed that on the red smoke still billowing behind her, but now I wasn’t so sure. To me, there was no aura on this woman.
It could only mean one thing.
Cerri
I’d been having a good time, damn it. There was nowhere in this world where I could escape my aunt, even for a moment. She invaded my dreams and my waking life like they were one in the same.
Rage turned hot in the pit of my stomach. For a moment, it almost felt like I would get my sunshine back. Hope fluttered in my chest, and the heat died. I fought to keep from sighing in defeat. I couldn’t show that kind of frustration in front of Beryl.
I had to keep a straight face. If I let her see any sort of opening, it was over.
The plan had been to attack her on her own turf and steal it from her. I’d planted the seed of power in her underground court exactly for that purpose. It would have been a surprise assault.
While I had more power here, in the fae realm in my own domain, I didn’t have any time to prepare for this battle. Damned woman kept throwing me off, and she knew it. That was her plan from the start.
A hand brushed my ear, and I flinched. It was only Rhoan, leaning in to whisper to me.
“She’s not really here.”
When I looked back up at Beryl, I could see all the telltale signs of a glamour. I admonished myself for not seeing it sooner. She’d made a grand display in a room full of powerful people. Vi and Luca stood off to the side with Tal nearby. Crashing this party with the antichrist, a vampire, and Tal present seemed like a bad idea.
But Beryl wasn’t in any real danger because she wasn’t here. This was like a holographic phone call.
I turned, strutted back to the table, grabbed the tray of buffalo dip and went back to throw it in Beryl’s face. Everyone gasped in unison until the tray went right through the Unseelie queen’s face and splattered on the floor beneath her.
That’s how my attack missed her earlier.She must have moved her glamour a fraction of an inch to make it seem like I’d missed when I should have hit her fair and square.
A whomp-whomp sound filled the room over the loudspeakers. “And the dip is down! I repeat: THE DIP IS DOOOOOWN!”
I almost laughed at Hilda’s antics. I had to bite my lip to the point of almost drawing blood to keep it down.
“Why are you here?” I asked over the din of the crowd.
Beryl rose to her full height and flourished her hand in the air. “Like I said, I bring a gift.”
Before I could move, Beryl’s hand descended upon my head. Rhoan roared with rage. The Sluagh rushed the glamour of Beryl. I…well, I stood there like a deer in the headlights because I was trying my damnedest to find a way to shield myself.
I pulled up a wall of wood, but Beryl’s glamour went right through it. Her hand touched my head, and her fingers curled around my skull. A scream filled my lungs. I didn’t feel the pain at first. It was like my brain was trying to save me from the horror of it.
