The King's Queen: Magiford Supernatural City (Gate of Myth and Power Book 3), page 1
The King’s Queen
Gate of Myth and Power Book 3
K. M. Shea
THE KING’S QUEEN
Copyright © 2023 by K. M. Shea
Magiford Supernatural City is a registered trademark of K. M. Shea LLC.
Cover Art by Trif Book Design
Edited by Deborah Grace White
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any number whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historic events is entirely coincidental.
www.kmshea.com
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Epilogue- Chloe
Epilogue- Noctus
Afterword
If you enjoyed the Gate of Myth and Power series check out Hazel’s story!
Other books by K. M. Shea
About the Author
Chapter One
Chloe
Thunder rolled in the distance. It hadn’t started raining yet, but when I cracked open the front door of Book Nookery—the twenty-four-hour bookstore that I worked at—and stuck my nose out into the inky night, I could smell that it was coming.
“A dark and stormy night, that’s two to put down for my moody atmosphere bingo card.” I closed the door, then shuffled back to my desk.
I grabbed my new favorite hot beverage, a steamer of hot milk with amaretto flavoring, and took a swig. It was so hot I nearly burned my tongue, and it wasn’t exactly comforting since it was so hot outside we had to run the air conditioner, but that was September for you.
Even if the hot and sticky summer was clinging to Magiford, I was determined to welcome fall and slam the door on what had been a chaotic and heart twisting summer.
The front door opened, making the bell connected to the door jingle.
I carefully set my steamer down—Mr. Gleevers had brought it in for me, so if I spilled it I couldn’t get a replacement until my shift ended at five in the morning, and it was barely midnight—then slapped on my employee smile.
“Welcome to Book Nookery!” I chirped.
I only saw ebony darkness through the door, before an unassuming man slipped inside the bookstore.
He was average height, and while he had a sort of liquid grace to him, his shoulders were hunched slightly in a way that I recognized came with spending too many hours sitting at a desk. His hair was black and his skin was pale, but it was the red eyes that marked this unlikely guy as a vampire.
My smile turned sincere. “Josh.” I waved as he stepped deeper into the store. “I saw two of the books you ordered came in—is that what you’re here for?”
Josh was a semi regular, and perhaps the oddest vampire I’d ever met. He almost looked nerdy—like he’d be more at home in an office than in a vampire den. But his crisp, black and white suit was the calling card of the deadliest vampire Family in the Midwest, the Drakes, and he’d paraded a museum’s worth of weapons through Book Nookery over the years he’d visited.
“Greetings, Chloe Anderson.” Josh slightly bowed his head. He set a hand on the pommel of his sword so it didn’t bob when he moved. “Yes, I am here for my books.”
“Great, let me just get them…” I trailed off when the bell rang, and two more vampires skulked into Book Nookery.
One was a beautiful woman with blond hair, a perfectly tailored suit, and a smile that flashed her pronounced vampire fang teeth. The other was a red-haired guy, who was also a vampire based on his red eyes. He, though, was scowling, and looked like he lived life with a perpetually sour expression.
Both vampires—each well over six feet—fell in line behind Josh, watching him with the attention of underlings.
I paused in the middle of pulling the first of Josh’s books from the drawer in the desk where we stored reserved materials.
Wait…is Josh a higher rank than them?
Josh was so competent in the way he carried himself that it wouldn’t surprise me too much. But it was a funny juxtaposition: the shorter, nerdy guy with a thing for books and weapons, would be a higher rank than the model-tall vampires behind him?
“Here’s the special edition volume of Edgar Allan Poe poetry.” I set the book—a leather cover embossed with gold lettering—on the desk. “Do you want to look it over to make sure you still want it?”
“A sagacious suggestion,” Josh said. “But I already know I want it. Edgar Allan Poe was truly capable of capturing the darkness that so often envelops this delicate world of ours and steeps into the hearts of the living.” He sighed deeply. “It is forever my sorrow that I was not in America when he was alive.”
Behind him the gorgeous blond vampire had a benevolent smile on. The sour red-haired vampire mashed his lips together and shook his head.
“He can’t really be that good,” the red-haired vampire said. “France had so many better poets and thinkers. The United States is dreadfully young.”
Josh peered back at the taller vampire. “The age of a civilization is not indicative of the size of its talent pool. But, to your point, I must admit there is very little that can beat a Gregorian Monk Chant. When we get back to Drake Hall, I will play some for you. Perhaps it will help you explore new depths to your soul.”
The red-haired vampire opened his mouth, but the blond violently elbowed his side.
“How very educational!” she said in a sing-song voice.
Oh, yeah. They’re definitely his underlings. But exactly how high is he in the Drake hierarchy?
I retrieved the second book—a much smaller nonfiction book about Japanese katanas—and set it on my desk. It was heavy—the paper was thicker to better render the glossy photographs that filled the book. “And here’s the book on katanas.”
“How perfect.” Josh inspected the nonfiction book, then nodded his satisfaction. “What do I owe you for them?”
“Let me ring you up, and we’ll find out.” I scanned the books in and processed Josh’s credit card payment before wrapping both books in tissue paper—Ms. Booker encouraged me to go the extra mile for our regular customers—and packing them in a brown paper bag that had a book design printed over it.
I passed the bag over to Josh. “I hope you enjoy the books. Can I help you with anything else?”
“I don’t suppose you happen to stock hymnals of Gregorian Monk Chants?” Josh asked.
“Um, no.” I blinked. “I could see if there are any books we could order for you, though?”
Josh checked his watch and shook his head. “No, I’m afraid we are due at House Medeis in a few minutes. It is nearly time for a surprise night training session with Hazel, and I have so been looking forward to it. She makes amusing noises when properly surprised, and that makes His Eminence laugh.”
I struggled to make my laugh even a little realistic and not robotic with fear. “His Eminence” could only refer to the leader of the Drake Family and the vampires of the Midwest, Killian Drake. The “Hazel” Josh referred to had to be Hazel Medeis, the protégé of the top wizard in the Midwest.
The exact kind of people I’ve been avoiding since I told the Curia Cloisters what I was.
After my adopted siblings—Pat and Joy—had been kidnapped by the now ex-Unseelie Queen and ex-Seelie King—I had told the Curia Cloisters that I’d recently discovered I was a shadow.
Initially I’d faced a lot of doubt—shadows had been considered extinct for centuries since the elves had killed them long before the elven war that had taken out the elves.
The Curia Cloisters dragged their feet all summer in researching it, but in mid-August they’d finally concluded that I was what Noctus said I was.
What I hadn’t expected was their sudden renewed interest in me. When I’d been an outcast/freak of nature, the Curia Cloisters had been very little help. Now I was constantly getting invitations to meetings as they were desperate to find out how my parents had survived—as if I knew; they’d dropped me off at a hospital when I was a baby, and a human family had adopted me!
I hadn’t agreed to any meetings for several reasons. First off, I was a little bitter that the Cloisters was magically interested in me now that I was a shadow when I’d spent my entire life desperately trying to get help from them
Secondly, the invitations I kept getting were from supernaturals with high standing in the Cloisters. I preferred a trouble free, quiet life and wanted to avoid political ploys at all costs. Meeting with highflyers would not help me succeed at that goal.
And finally, when I’d left Noctus, the king of the Mors elves who was hiding his existence from supernatural society, I had promised him I wouldn’t let anyone find out about him, or the city of elves that lived in his proverbial shadow.
I was going to keep that promise, no matter the sacrifice.
But I need to focus on work, now, not Noctus, I reminded myself.
I pushed my shoulders back and refocused on Josh the unlikely vampire. “Do you train Hazel often?”
Josh tilted his head as he thought. “Frequently enough, I suppose, as I am her firearm instructor. Celestina trains with her more, but that is understandable given that she is the First Knight of the Drake Family, and I am only the Second Knight.”
“Second Knight?” I repeated, my eyes bulging so much I was going to need eyedrops to hydrate them after Josh left.
The First Knight and Second Knight were terms used to refer to the vampire family’s first and second strongest members after the Family Elder.
Which means Josh is the third strongest vampire in the Drake Family?!
I stared at the even-tempered vampire, who smiled at me, looking very benign even though he had to be deadly beyond my reckoning to have that kind of rank.
Josh checked his watch. “Regardless, we had best leave—being late is a stain I do not wish to add to my soul. Good evening, Chloe Anderson. May the light of life puncture the darkness of this bleak existence for you.”
A wave, and he was gone, his two underlings trotting along behind him—though they shoved each other when they tried to get through the door at the same time.
“Huh.” I dubiously glanced at the accounting software that was open on my work computer’s screen. “I guess that will teach me for judging a book by its cover.”
I finished processing the last few purchase orders for the day, before exiting out of the software.
Since I finished that, I’d better check and see if there are any customers who need to be informed that their orders are in.
Usually the task was left to the day shift, unless a supernatural indicated they preferred to be notified during the night hours.
I fished around in the drawer and grabbed the printed-out list, frowning when I saw it was just one specific customer: Mr. Ferryman.
I’d been trying to contact this particular customer all summer long for the many books He’d ordered—and purchased over the phone with a credit card—but had failed to come in and pick up.
The stack was growing big enough to be a tripping hazard, which I didn’t mind so much, except it made me exceedingly nervous to be holding on to books that technically already belonged to the customer. (It just wasn’t a good business practice.)
But no matter how many times I tried calling this mysterious patron, they didn’t come in. The only identifier they left with the order was “Mr. Ferryman,” and the phone number. Even the internet wasn’t a help with so little information to go on.
I checked the spot under the desk where we were storing the mystery customer’s order. He’d purchased books on short swords, modern fashion, daggers, and a donut cookbook that I had peeked at with jealousy when it had first come in.
It looks like he bought a book about housecats this time. He’s certainly interested in a wide variety of topics.
Still, it upset me that we were failing to give this customer their order and kept taking their money. Besides, Ms. Booker—the owner of Book Nookery—did not abide with disorder, and while this wasn’t causing disorder in the store per se, it caused disorder in the accounting books!
“I left a note for the day shift that they shouldn’t take any more orders for Mr. Ferryman until they come in and get their books, didn’t they see it?” I grumbled.
I fortified myself with a swig of the deliciousness that was my amaretto steamer—which was even tastier now that it didn’t scald my mouth—when the doorbell jingled again.
Struggling to swallow, I glanced at the new customer, and almost spat out my drink.
Shiloh, a pretty blond whom I knew had a thing for lawncare, entered Book Nookery, a smile blooming on her face when she saw me.
“Chloe! Hello!”
I attempted to force my customer service smile, but my nerves were so rattled I’m pretty sure my expression was closer to a twisted grimace. “Shiloh! Hello!”
Shiloh happened to be the neighbor of Noctus—whom I was maybe still pining over even though we’d been forced to face the reality that our priorities in life meant we couldn’t be together. I’d met her while staying at his home, and she’d pushed me to date Noctus, who told her we were as a cover story to explain my constant presence.
I knew that was going to bite me in the butt someday…
“What brings you to Book Nookery?” I set my hands on the desk to stabilize myself. “Or, as I should say, can I help you with anything?”
“I do need a book, but I’m really here to see you,” Shiloh said. “It took me a while to figure out that you work the night shift, or I would have been here sooner. And when I did realize it, I had really bad luck and visited twice when you happened to have off.” She made a face that still managed to look cute with her button-like features.
“Well, here I am,” I lamely said. I started to pick up my steamer, then realized my hand was shaking so badly I was going to slosh the drink, so I set it back down.
“Yes!” Shiloh turned in a circle, peering through the doors and hallways that split off from the main entrance where the desk and I were stationed. “I can see why you’d like working here! I mean, a bookstore would be a fun place to work no matter what, but magic feels extra potent here.”
I blinked in surprise.
Shiloh was human, and humans were typically ignorant to the presence of magic. Magic could be tricky even for supernaturals to process. Vampires couldn’t sense it at all, and while magic caused sensations in me—fae magic tickled my elbow, whereas the presence of werewolves was more of a furry feeling—I couldn’t do more than sense its presence.
Shiloh did pick me out as a supernatural the minute I met her as a human, though. She even figured out Noctus is a supernatural—though with his looks I guess it would be weirder if he wasn’t. Some humans are extra perceptive. Shiloh must be one of those.
“The Book Nookery is a very rewarding and fun place to work,” I slowly said. “I’m very lucky to be able to embrace the supernatural as part of my job, since Book Nookery does specialize in books on the magical, in addition to offering popular fiction and nonfiction.”
“Got any books about cheese?” Shiloh asked with a teasing smile.
I laughed—I’d become acquainted with Shiloh’s love of cheese while living at Calor Villa. “Actually, we do. Though they’re recipe books. Is that what you’re looking for, or were you thinking of something more informational?”
“While I’d love to say I’d take a recipe book, I have no idea when I’d find the time to make any cheese,” Shiloh sighed.
“Busy as usual, are you?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Shiloh rubbed her eyes, and for a moment I saw beyond her sunny disposition to the tiredness she hid with her bright smiles. “Things will slow down now that I won’t have to mow and weed, but I need to get sidewalk salt and see if the snowblower needs a tune up.”
