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“You bloody fool! We’ve been meeting down here for months, and no one has been the wiser. Cade has all but forsaken the dungeons now. We could build an entire community here if we pleased, and no one would know about it. Shut your holes and do as you’re told. WAKE HER UP!”
A breeze of wind indicated that someone had neared my place, and I longed to peek and see who else was with us, but I didn’t dare. An unexpected slap struck my face, and it took every fiber of my being not to react.
“Again!” Stralia barked.
“You do it!” Coraline yelped. “If she wakes up and sees me hitting her…”
“What is she going to do about it, Coraline?” Stralia asked mockingly. “She’s going to be dead in a matter of minutes, remember?”
“Well… she’s still the Queen…”
“I AM THE QUEEN! ME! I AM THE ONE WHO PUT IN THE YEARS AT CADE’S SIDE! She doesn’t have the luxury of swooping in here and reaping the rewards of all my hard work!” Stralia bellowed madly.
All around me, I heard a collective drawing of breaths.
How many are in here? Five? Ten? Twenty?
The understanding that so many had plotted against me for all this time churned my gut. It wasn’t just a jealous former lover who had it out for me but staff who had served me, pretended to care for me.
“I can’t do this, Stralia,” I heard a male whimper. “Did you see what she can do? She has a way of controlling the weather. It was snowing in the middle of summer!”
“More the reason to end her, Ricard! She’s dangerous! Unpredictable!”
“I’m sorry, Stralia. I’ll join you once you’ve claimed the throne, but until then—”
“I will strike you down, Ricard!” Stralia screamed, but racing footsteps echoed her words, and I exhaled slowly as others began to murmur around me.
“He’s not wrong, Stralia.”
“She’s very powerful.”
“Did you know she could do that? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I didn’t know what we were up against.”
“YOU COWARDS!” Stralia roared. “We’ve planned this for weeks, months! You all agreed that I was a better fit as queen!”
“That was before we saw what she could do,” a timid female mumbled.
“And she sacrificed herself to save the staff. A queen, saving servants like that? I’ve never seen anything like it, Stralia. Maybe she’s not as bad as we think—”
A gasp cut off the latest speaker, and I kept my chin down to hide my expression. I silently willed them all to stop contradicting Stralia for their own safety. I couldn’t protect them, even though I wanted to. Some of the faeries speaking had put me in this very position, but I didn’t want any being in my kingdom harmed.
“She’s pregnant with the King’s child, Stralia. We can’t hurt her.”
This last statement hung over the dank cellar like a lead balloon, and I desperately wanted to swallow but didn’t dare.
“That child should have been mine.” Stralia’s tone was oddly flat now, emotionless, as if she had lost all feeling. “Cade was mine first. That baby belongs to me.”
Terror shot through me, and without thinking, I strained forward to touch the swell of my belly, forgetting that my hands were bound.
“She’s awake!” someone cried out, my position revealed, and I gritted my teeth, throwing my head back to open my eyes.
Our gazes clashed, but I refused to show Stralia how afraid I was.
“You’ll never be queen, Stralia. He is my mate. You will never have his trust or his love!”
With my eyes open now, I could count those who had betrayed me and the kingdom, their faces paling as I set my stare upon them, backing away as if they thought I might light them on fire with a single look.
