“Yes, it was one of my easier and more pleasant assignments. We carried on an affair for some time. I was mostly in the Otherworld, but we could communicate through the flowers, and I would come across to meet up with her. We had plans to take out the bears. That way she would control all the boroughs, and then I would control her.”
The flower in her personal items. The picture of her pregnant with her sister – the shifter I had always believed to be my mother. The Red Queen was not the one who miscarried, it must have been my mother. Or more correctly my aunt.
“So then what happened?”
Clearly they hadn’t taken on the bears, and the fae had left us alone for twenty years after I was born. There had been no trouble until the night the queen was murdered. So what went so terribly wrong after all of those years?
The prince’s face darkened then, his emotions simmering closer to the surface. Maybe he would be the one to lose control. Maybe I could take advantage of that.
“One day she stopped calling for me, and would not answer my summons. When I tried to see her, she refused to come to our meeting place. My mother decided that we should let it cool down, and that the basis I’d formed was still good for an alliance, but I knew something was going on. Against my mother’s orders, I snuck into Rosalina’s private quarters and found her pregnant. She told me it wasn’t mine, and I believed her. She had other lovers, and fae cannot breed with shifters. Still…”
He trailed off, that wistful look back on his face. “I couldn’t let it go then. In the past, if a fae and Earthsider bred together, something crazy always came from it. Like when the fae and humans bred together so long ago … we got shifters. And if any fae was strong enough to overcome previous infertilities, it was me. I went to my mother, told her what I discovered. She was worried that if this child was mine, conceived with the queen of the shifters and basically born of two leaders filled with mecca, it could be powerful enough to take over everything.
“So I waited, and when Rosalina gave birth, I snuck back to Earth, only to find her mourning a dead shifter child. She held the still bundle in her arms, cried over it, and … I knew we had nothing to worry about.”
Cold bastard. That must have been my cousin. The Red Queen had switched babies with her sister, thereby making sure no one knew her child had survived. Her child with a fae. Me. My head was reeling.
“She hid you from me!” The arrogant fae was angry, his cool fa?ade fading away. “Stole your fae essence with the help of magic born and passed off a dead young as her own.”
I’d never particularly known or liked the Red Queen. I would never have guessed she’d carried and birthed me. Even when she’d simply been my aunt, I’d never felt a bond. But I did know one thing, she had done everything in her power to protect me from this man.
“So how did you find out?”
I knew he was only freely divulging this information because they planned to kill me soon – good luck with that. They had no idea how hard I would fight to stay alive to get back to Kade and Finn, to my people.
Luca’s face was blank again, emotions suppressed back into that dark cavity in his chest where his heart should be. “I let her be for a long time. We still hoped to utilize the alliance I had been forming. When the bear king died, I knew it was time to start planning for a revisit. His people would be vulnerable with a new king. So after some time I surprised her with a visit. She was in her library and didn’t smell me coming. She had your fae essence locked in the container, and the moment I saw it, felt the familiar energy, I knew what had happened. She must have spelled you at birth, locked away the fae part of you so I would never sense you if I visited Earth. She had it all planned.”
“So you killed her and took my essence. Why didn’t your queen just break the jar like I did?”
He shook his head. “It’s your essence. You’re the only one who could release it and gift it to another.”
So many questions were answered now, but still I had a million more. “If you wanted my essence, why did you try and have me killed on the night of the queen’s death? You sent a hit out on all the vortexes. If I was dead you’d never get your essence.”
“I panicked. I had no idea what I had created, and I had no idea which of the heirs you were. At that point we thought our magic born could release the essence, so we didn’t need you.”
“So you just want my power?”
My entire life, a very small part of me had yearned for my father, to know him, to wonder if he would care more than my mother had. I didn’t exactly expect he would try to kill me the moment he found out I was alive. I mean … wasn’t that nature? Don’t kill your offspring?
He sneered. “I want my mother to have your power so we can take over the New York City mecca. She has promised that on that side of the veil I can reign supreme.”
Ah, that made sense. Mommy was promising him his own little kingdom to rule on the Earth side while she ruled the Otherworld. How cute. I was totally going to kill them both now.
I had to play this smart. As long as they thought I could and would give up my fae essence power, I could buy time.
“And the shifters in New York City?”
He shrugged. “The ones who survive can be of use to me somehow, I’m sure. I’ll need servants of course.”
I had to swallow hard to bite down the growl that wanted to rip from my throat.
“And if I transfer the magic, your mother will let me go? I’m not queen of the mecca anymore. I just want to get my friends and go. You’ll never see me again.”
I knew from the treeling that fae were incapable of lying, but they were very good at half-truths. He gave me a pitiful smile. “Transfer the magic and we’ll let you out of here.”
Hah. Clever. Let me out of this jail cell and then kill me. I pretended to be entranced by his promise, nodding lightly.
He seemed pleased. “Good girl. Now figure out how to transfer that power by morning or you and that child will both be in a world of pain.”
This time I couldn’t stop the growl from ripping from my throat. Bastard. He had said his piece – had his two minutes to brag about his role in everything – and now he turned his back on me and spoke to the guard.
“If she does anything suspicious, you know what to do,” Luca said. The man whittling his wood simply nodded, letting the light catch his blade.
I knew I could take this guard one on one, but if he alerted the others I would be in trouble. Without another word, the pale-haired fae spun on his heels and walked away. He didn’t look back once. Meanwhile I was in a mild panic. I needed to figure this out, needed to escape immediately. I had no idea where Kade was. Why couldn’t I talk to him or Finn? How the hell was I going to get out of here?
I was so screwed.
Chapter Nine
Freedom always has a price.
Over the next two hours I waited for a sign that the guard was tiring or losing focus. It had to be nearing the middle of the night now. But the stubborn bastard just kept whittling away like he was hooked up to a coffee IV.