Mina couldn’t see her, but she recognized the voice of Queen Maeve. The balls of light dimmed, and she could see the queen standing in front of her. Her dark brown dress lacked the finer adornments and was a sharp contrast to the shimmering silver colors she preferred. Her hair was plaited in a long simple braid down her back. King Lucian came up next to her in similar clothes in earth tones.
Mina suspected it was to help camouflage them in the swamps. She wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling that they weren’t here by choice. They were hiding.
The hold on Mina’s body lessened, and without the support of the power holding her in place, she slipped and fell into the muddy water, barely catching herself before her head went under. She stood up to face the Fates and tried to keep her body from shaking with the cold.
“I came to ask for help.”
Queen Maeve barked a derisive laugh. “Help! I blame you for this.” She waved her hand to the swamp around her. “This is our home now, thanks to you. All you had to do was stay on the human plane, never let him cross back over. But now we’re doomed.” Her regal face crumpled, and Lucian slipped his arms around his wife.
“Now, now, darling. Everything will be alright,” he whispered softly to her.
“What happened?” Mina asked. “Why are you in the swamp?”
“Because of our son,” Lucian answered. “He’s too powerful. Even our armies. He controls them all now, the giants, griffins, ogres, trolls. We dare not go up against him and what’s left of our royal guard alone. This is all that is still loyal to us.”
The Fae light around her dimmed. Beyond the Fates, about twenty or so soldiers from the palace stood in the nearby reeds. Their uniforms and armor were covered with mud and starting to rust. They looked tired and worn out. Not fit to storm the palace and fight Teague. Among them, she recognized Captain Plaith. But their numbers were dismal.
“What do we do now?” Mina asked.
“We?” Queen Maeve scoffed. “You’ve done enough.”
“Now, Maeve,” Lucian chastised.
She gave him a seething look. “I wouldn’t trust that human any more than I’d trust a sea witch.”
“Well, she can’t be all human. You saw how the bowl reacted to her in the test. She’s strong, and… ahem… our son has a fondness for the girl. She could be our only hope.”
“You once came to me for help,” Mina reminded the Fates. “When the Grimoire ended up in the hands of a renegade Reaper, you sent me after it to protect a part of your son.”
“That Reaper would have destroyed him—or worse, reunited him with himself.”
“But I saved him, at least a part of him.”
“You were the one who turned him into the beast that he is now! He wasn’t like this until that night in the tower. That night that you poisoned our son against us.”
“You don’t know what happened, do you?”King Lucian turned to her, looking extremely interested. “What exactly happened?”
“He was stabbed with the dagger of Erjad, and he was dying, but I healed him… Only I didn’t know that a piece of the dagger was still inside. It changed him and turned him into…” She trailed off, not needing to say any more about their son.
“And how did this dagger end up in our son? You were the one who was with him.” King Lucian’s eyes glowed, and Mina felt pressure around her throat. She grasped at the power that began to strangle her. So that’s where Teague got his temper.
Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to breathe. She looked at the king’s glowing eyes, and she wasn’t afraid. She closed her own eyes and imagined his power snapping back on the king like a rubber band. She felt the power break.
King Lucian cried out in pain. He gasped, looking at her in awe. “How did you do that?” A small smile formed at the corner of his lips. “You used my own power against me.”
Mina ignored the king, rubbing at her throat. She stared directly at Queen Maeve and said two words. “The Godmothers.”
Queen Maeve sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I wondered. They’ve always had it out for the ruling family. But they used to be mere pests, with the occasional assassination attempt. They believe we are evil dictators.”
Mina raised an eyebrow and scoffed. “Do you blame them? Look what’s come to pass. They acted based on a prophecy that foretold all of this. Do you know what it’s like to watch your loved ones being hunted—toyed with—only to fall victim to mindless quests? In fact, they weren’t quests. They were traps. You never intended to break the curse over my family.”
“Of course not. Teague was set on destroying your family, no matter what we did. We could neither stop him nor close the gates between the planes—not when our son was on the human plane.
Tears of frustration filled Mina’s eyes. “Well, you should have. He would have been happy—at least a part of him would have. I would have seen to that. And then Teague wouldn’t have killed my family.”
“Perhaps there is truth in what you say. But it’s too late for that now,” Queen Maeve admitted sadly.
“What about splitting him again?” Mina asked, her voice filled with desperation.