That seemed to satisfy the queen, because she nodded to the tall man carrying the case. “Keep the girl overnight in case Arianna suddenly forgets her idea by morning.”
The magic born was glaring at me, and I hoped she didn’t have the power to read minds, because the only thought I was having was how to break out of here and find Kade. After a tense pause, the magic born nodded and they all disbanded. Tall man carried out the case and the girl, but the stocky man stayed. He still had his blade.
He pulled up a chair and sat right in front of my cell. A low headache started to throb at my temples as I listened to their retreating steps. What the hell was I going to do? This new power inside of me was shooting around like a live wire, and I had no idea how to use it. It felt like my mecca power, but also different, like it was angry and needed an outlet. Which made me hesitant to tap into it. I’d had problems with new powers and the mecca in the past, and this time Kade wasn’t here to help me.
Knifey reached down to a pile of wood at his feet, grabbed a piece, and then using his knife started whittling away like he didn’t have a care in the world. I slid down and just sat there, going over all of my options. My best chance was in taking this guy out, hoping he had a key on him, and escaping. Or alternatively, taking him out, and if he didn’t have a key, then taking his knife so I would at least have a fighting chance over the next people to open my cell. I’d wait for him to lose some focus though. Right now he was definitely on guard. Even though he was feigning disinterest, he was keeping a firm eye on me.
With the magic born gone, I attempted to contact Finn and Kade again, utilizing more and more mecca power as I tried to project my voice. Nothing. They’d better be okay. I would know if either of them were dead, but otherwise there was no way I could tell their condition. Not blocked like this.
After an hour of sitting in complete silence, footsteps broke the stillness. Knifey didn’t turn his head, but I was immediately tensed, preparing myself. So far there had been no welcomed visitors to my cell, and something told me this time would be no different.
A tall and regal looking man, around his mid-thirties in age, turned the corner, and as I got a clear view of him my stomach knotted. His long white-blond hair was braided at the sides, fae ears sticking out. But what had me frozen to the spot were his eyes. The very same shade of turquoise had stared back at me in the mirror my entire life. The high-born fae was silent as we took a moment to stare at one another. The moment I realized who he was, I stood slowly. I would not be looked down upon by him.
He might be my biological father, but he was no family of mine.
He pressed himself closer to the bars, like he couldn’t help but close the distance between us. His scent wafted toward me and it was familiar, a smell that had my wolf howling deep inside of me. It was the floral fragrance that had been in the Red Queen’s library the night she died. Rage built in my chest as I clenched my fists at my side, fighting down the shift. My words were low, laced with every ounce of hatred I could muster.
“You’re a murderer. You killed her, didn’t you?”
His voice was light and airy, not at all what I expected. I was used to the gruff tones of shifters – especially Kade. This fae’s voice was almost wispy, weak.
“Who? Rosalina? Of course I did. It was my duty to end that traitor’s life.”
His blatant admission caught me off guard, but if he was in a sharing mood, I wanted to know everything. He was my enemy, and information might help me escape.
“Why would you kill the Red Queen?”
He looked at me as if I were pathetic, sneering with a curled upper lip. Dammit, he looked so much like me. It was disconcerting and I kind of wanted to rearrange his face.
After all of this posturing, he finally said, “I expected more brains from someone like you. Your lineage is … outstanding. I guess breeding doesn’t always win out.’’
He was seriously overestimating his lineage, that was for sure. Before I clued him in on this, he continued: “I murdered that betraying waste of monarchy because the Red Queen was your mother. She hid your existence from me, which she should never have done, so I had to end her.”
Blackness crept in at the edges of my vision as his confession reverberated through my mind. The Red Queen … my mother. No! No, that couldn’t be. She had never carried a child to full term…
My breathing was coming in and out in short bursts as I fought to control my emotions. The power inside of me was spiraling out of control, but now was not the time to lose it. I needed to know more.
“So the Red Queen was my mother, and you’re my father … how? Tell me how this all happened!”
My attempt to contain my emotions was not going well. I had to curl over on myself to stop the wolf bursting free. As I leaned forward I caught a glimpse of knife guy. He had abandoned all pretense of whittling and was staring wide-eyed at me. No idea what he had to be so shocked about. This was my life out of control here.
Once my wolf was locked down again, I straightened, and standing as tall as I could, let my gaze rest on Luca. That was what Violet had called him, right? I refused to give him a title, either familial or royal. He had his head tilted to the side, the slightest smirk on his face, relishing in my shock and discomfort. He was enjoying telling this story. I wished I could just tell him to screw himself, but I needed to know. Not just for myself, but for all of my people who were suffering from the Red Queen’s actions.
But one thing was for sure, I would give him no more satisfaction with my emotional turmoil. I schooled my face, showing him only what I wanted to. Cold eyes, hard features.
He faltered for a moment before continuing his story: “Twenty years ago, Earth time, I was working as a liaison for my mother. We wanted to control the mecca power on the Earth side, and to do so we needed to form a relationship with the shifter king or queen. The bear king was an untrusting and wily sort of man, tough to crack, so we started with the wolf queen.”
Those turquoise eyes went a bit misty, the way mine did when I was reliving pleasant memories. At one point or another he had liked the Red Queen, but clearly not enough to spare her life.
“Anyway, she was guarded at first, but soon became open to an alliance between her court and the Winter Court.”
“You seduced her,” I said, cutting through his bullshit.
He laughed, and I fought the urge to cross the room and yank the knife away from evil-eyes so I could stab this horrible fae to death.