The Fae Queen, page 1
The Fae Queen
Hidden Legends: University of Sorcery, Book Six
Megan Linski
Copyright © 2022 Megan Linski
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BISAC Category: Fantasy/Romance
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Cover Art by Orina Kafe
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Manufactured in the United States of America
“Thus with a kiss I die.”
* * *
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
Hidden Legends
The Villain Institute - Sneak Peek
Bonus Offers
About the Author
Chapter One
Ethan
The quiet was so jarring it could wake the dead.
Midnight darkened the ruins of Dolinska. There was nothing left of the city besides crumbled buildings and piles of rubble. Amongst it all was the scent of blood, and corpses buried beneath the concrete. We moved as a small group through the disaster, specters congregating at a mass grave as a light snowfall coated the once-perfect streets. Arthur and Finlay roamed beside me, my only companions within this dark night. We’d taken a portal to the forests outside the city, and snuck our way into Dolinska in order to search for our missing friends that might’ve survived the destruction.
I was losing hope that there were any.
As I surveyed the carnage, a lullaby I knew as a child struck me, such a distant memory that it almost seemed like someone else’s recollection.
Droga, Droga, master of night
Came to eat my soul
Slipped in at night to take a bite
And swallowed me up whole.
We remained close together as we continued on our mission. We couldn’t afford to lose each other in this mess. We forged in the direction of the palace, shivering as a winter breeze rushed through the husks of trees still standing in the local park.
There was a depraved snarling up ahead. Hunched forms loomed over frozen bodies, accompanied by the tearing of flesh. As we neared, I took in their bare naked humanoid bodies, soulless eyes and gnashing teeth. They ran on four-clawed paws, bits of jagged flesh hanging off their forms.
Ghouls. Dozens of them. I readied to defend myself, but the monsters merely hissed and ran away, fading into nests they’d created out of rubble.
Ghouls were vile creatures. They were disgusting monsters that fed on carrion. They loved digging up graveyards to devour those who’d been laid to rest. They were always violent. They hadn’t attacked us, which meant there were plenty of bodies for them left to feed on.
I grimaced, and we moved onward. I heard screeching up above, and we ducked behind a fallen building for cover.
Skeletal figures in dark cloaks flew overhead, faces shielded by hoods. They made wicking screeching sounds that pierced the night and turned my blood cold.
Wraiths. I hadn’t seen one in years, since the last time I’d banished one from Dolinska as the Phantom. Wraiths were formed from the souls of those who’d been wronged… and there were many fae who’d been cheated out of life, killed off here during Dolinska’s seige.
“Best to avoid them,” Finlay whispered. I nodded, and we crept as quietly as possible in the opposite direction the wraiths had flown. One wraith we could take, two, maybe, but a whole host of them like that would certainly mean our doom. We’d come here to do one thing only, and dammit, I planned on accomplishing something other than our deaths.
Droga, Droga, stag of wrath,
Took his teeth and chomped,
His antlers smashed my bones to bits
Cut and sliced and chopped.
Monsters were running reckless here. Even if the city managed to repair itself, somehow, it’d take a legion of fae to clear all of them out…
Everything had been ruined.
I saw a thin outline in the distance. Nearly appeared like a crowd. They almost looked like fae, but they were so still, and too far off the ground. I didn’t see any wings.
“What’s that…” Finlay asked, but his voice died with horror as the image came closer into view.
Lining the city streets was a fence made of bodies. The limp forms of sorceresses and shifters hung suspended on pikes. They’d been impaled with stakes, mounted along the city’s barren streets. I recognized them as the same soldiers who’d fought for me and lost their lives at the fortress.
I sneered. Gabby had put the corpses of her enemies on display, to serve as a warning against anyone who dared to rise up again.
The image of the hanging soldiers reminded me horribly of my father, run through and hanging on the leshane’s root.
Droga, Droga, dark lord of death,
Bury him so deep,
Leave him to rot beneath the ground
And put him back to sleep.
I turned my back on them— hard to do, for it felt like a betrayal— and looked to Arthur. “Anything?”
“I don’t see any recent tracks with my shifter sight, and I don’t smell anyone, either. The last person who came through here had to have run by weeks ago,” he said.
“It’s not a sure thing they won’t come by now,” Finlay said.
I shifted into a wolven. “Stay low to the ground. We don’t want anyone to see us coming.”
The ruins weren’t heavily guarded, if at all— there wasn’t anything left to guard. All that remained of Dolinska was rubble. Over the past month, Gabby and Droga had made their residence at Arcanea University, and their most devoted followers lived inside the school walls. Their soldiers and other general supporters lived outside the university, in elaborate new complexes that had been built in the woods beyond. Thus, all the action was on the other side of the city. Here, everything had been mostly deserted.
That didn’t mean the occasional soldier didn’t wander by every now and then, and the last thing we needed was him sounding the alarm and alerting Droga to our presence. The dark god still wanted Emma— I would not allow myself to be taken as a hostage and used as a weapon against my wife. If we were caught, we’d all agreed to end our lives first before we allowed ourselves to be captured. I had a dagger to do so, though I sincerely hoped I didn’t need to use it.
We came to the sight of the collapsed palace. Sorrow overcame me like I’d never felt before. The jewel of the city had been smashed to rubbish. Heaps of stone lay where the fallen towers were. The gardens that had been enchanted to be forever spring lay black and dead, spells broken beside ruined courtyards and demolished rooms.
The three of us changed back to start sifting through the wreckage. We were looking for anything, really. Traces of the living or dead, scraps of clues. I’d promised Arthur and Finlay we’d get their girls back, whether that be alive or just to give them a decent burial.
I wasn’t sure if there was anything out here to find. We’d found a couple of bodies amongst the rubble, kept preserved by the extreme cold, but nothing else. Finlay overturned a couple of boulders while Arthur and I moved a large beam, searching for hints underneath. We kept finding corpses, corpses, and more corpses. Nobles and servants alike lay in a stone grave beneath the fallen castle. I located a couple of my council members amongst the stones— Lord Gray, Lady Raelinn. The Circle had been at the palace when it fell inward. I doubted any of them were alive now, and if they had managed to escape, Gabby had probably run them down and killed them.
“Vara could be anywhere,” Arthur said in an aching way.
“She might not be here at all,” I said, though I doubted it. “We won’t return until we find something.”
“Can’t you feel through your bond if she’s still alive?” Finlay asked.
“Our bond is weak. We’ve been so far apart for so long, I can’t tell.” Arthur gave a saddened sigh.
I walked to the east, to where I believed our quarters had been. I shifted through the rubble. I found some of our old clothes, and a couple of books I d been reading before our wedding.
Somewhere near the top of the pile, I located our handfasting cord, along with the gold rose I’d given Emma as a wedding present. I pocketed them in my cloak before sifting through the rest of the bricks. I wanted to find Emma’s grimoire, as it had been in her office when the palace collapsed.
I didn’t locate it. It was probably buried at the bottom. I gave up searching, and sighed as I stood over the remnants. If anyone had survived the collapse of the palace, they’d either suffocated or starved to death in the meantime waiting for help. Dolinska had been flattened over a month ago. There couldn’t be anyone who still remained in this—
There was a buzzing by my ear, like insect wings, and a soft mewling. Astonishment flooded through me as a tiny faekin levitated out of the stones.
“Tygrys! You made it out.” I opened my hand, and the malyudwy landed on my palm. He purred as he rubbed himself against my skin.
“Emma’s going to be thrilled,” Arthur said, peering at Tygrys. “How did you survive?”
Tygrys gave a little growl before he let out a sneeze. He fluttered his wings impatiently and soared off my hand, doing little circles before he tugged at the edge of my cloak with his teeth.
“I think he wants us to follow,” Finlay said.
“Lead the way, Tygrys.” We maneuvered around the wreckage and followed Tygrys. He buzzed ahead, bringing us to a pile of boards lying on the ground.
He flew in manic circles, and Finlay said, “Must be something underneath here.”
Arthur and I moved the boards aside. Below us was the familiar sight of the spiraling staircase that went down into the basement of the palace. It was still standing.
“The Hall of Wonders,” I marveled. I shifted aside the rest of the rubble and took the stairs downward. Arthur and Finlay followed me. They creaked under our weight, and I worried the whole structure might collapse.
We finally got to the bottom floor. The door to the Hall of Wonders stood before us. I opened it cautiously, wondering if the magic still worked.
The Hall of Wonders had been transformed into some kind of shelter. The walls were fortified metal. There was a group of small beds inside, as well as a radio sitting on a nearby table. A group of four people were huddled around a lantern for light. Tygrys zoomed forward, whizzing over their heads, and they all looked up.
“Vara!” Arthur cried. He rushed forward to embrace his mate, weeping tears of relief. Vara hugged him back, clutching her stomach. She was heavily pregnant now with their twins.
“Fin!” Amantha screetched his name as she tore across the length of the hall to throw herself on him. He squeezed her tight and rocked her back and forth, muttering something in Gaelic.
Jasper rose from his seat, grasping Ozzie’s hand. “About time you showed up.”
“Yeah!” Ozzie said. “I thought we’d be waiting down here forever.”
I could hardly believe it. We’d found Vara, Amantha, Ozzie and Jasper, and what was more, all of them were alive. They were filthy, covered in cuts and dried blood with clothes that looked near rags, but they’d survived the collapse.
“It’s good to see all of you made it,” I said with a sigh of relief. “But how?”
“When Gabby’s troops infiltrated the city, we knew we’d never get out, so we decided to hide,” Jasper said. “Vara had the idea to go to the Hall of Wonders, and it was a good thing she did. Once Droga destroyed the palace, the Hall turned into a bomb shelter, and the magic that Lady Magdalina used to built it made the illusion real. It protected us from the building caving in.”
It didn’t get past me that Vara had made the suggestion to hide in the Hall of Wonders. It’s like she knew the attack was coming, but I held my tongue… for now.
“How did you make it this long?” Finlay asked, squeezing Amantha to his side.
“We’ve been sneaking out every so often to gather food and water,” Amantha said.
“When we came back we put things over the staircase, so no one realized it was there,” Ozzie said. “That was my idea.”
“Jasper has been using the radio to try and get in contact with someone, or at least to find out what’s going on out there,” Vara said. “The only broadcast we could tune in to was one run by Gabby’s supporters.”
“I can’t imagine they’ve been saying kind things,” I said sarcastically.
“No.” Vara shook her head. “The broadcast has been repeating for days that you and Emma are both dead and Gabby’s the last rightful ruler of the Arcanea. We feared they were right and you were all gone.”
“But we had hope that you weren’t, when she failed to display the bodies,” Jasper added. “It’s the only thing that kept us going.”
“Did the broadcast say if Droga has undergone the ritual to turn Gabby into a goddess?” I asked.
We’d been worrying about that for weeks. We had no sort of intelligence anymore. We couldn’t spy on what Gabby or Droga were doing.
“They didn’t say anything of the sort,” Vara said. “Though that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.”
“Has the broadcast mentioned what they’re planning on doing next?” I asked.
“We don’t know what he’s up to. Things have been quiet since they took over,” Jasper said.
“I mean, what is there left to do anymore?” Ozzie said with a shrug. “They won the war. What more do they want?”
“Droga always wants more,” Vara said, haunted. “He’s just enjoying his time back in the mortal realm after being trapped for so long, ordering fae around and consuming their souls. Once he gets bored, he’ll start conquering again.”
“Why didn’t you try to escape the city?” Finlay asked.
“We thought about leaving, but weren’t sure where everyone had gone.” Amantha dropped her gaze. “None of us are strong enough to create portals like the rest of you.”
“Doesn’t matter now. We’re together, let’s make a portal and go,” Finlay said roughly. He hadn’t removed his arm from around Amantha’s shoulders since we’d gotten here.
“Portals won’t work inside city walls. Droga’s put a ward around Dolinska to prevent them,” Amantha said. “Another reason why we couldn’t leave. We agreed that it’d be better to wait for a rescue instead of trying to get out of the city ourselves, but so much time passed, and no one showed up…”
Tears marred her gaze, and guilt sucked me inward. We’d been recovering in Ireland, but the four of them had been barely surviving out here for the past month. Weeks had gone by with no sign of us returning. I wish we’d come sooner, no matter how dangerous it had been.
“I’m sorry we took so long,” Arthur apologized. “Gabby’s troops surrounded the perimeter of the city until just a few days ago. We weren’t able to break through the line without getting caught.”
“It doesn’t matter. I always knew you’d come,” Vara insisted, and she kissed Arthur. “You wouldn’t leave me or your babies behind.”
“We portaled in outside of Dolinska. Looks like we’ll have to make it back to the woods if we want to escape,” I noted.
Sneaking a group this large out of the city stood a great risk of attracting attention, but what choice did we have? We took the spiraling staircase upward, and returned to the ruined streets. Arthur and Finlay shifted into wolves, boosting their sorceresses onto their backs. Jasper shifted into an alicorn.
“Gods, I haven’t gotten to stretch my wings in about a month,” Jasper moaned. He let out a groan as his wings unfolded at his sides.
Ozzie tried to change into a dragon, but couldn’t manage. He stumbled forward and said, “Jas, I’m weak. I haven’t eaten in—”
“I know. Get on my back,” Jasper ordered. Ozzie pulled himself onto Jasper by use of his mane. I counted quickly and scowled.
