Queen of Aparia (Obsidian Queen Book 5), page 1
CONTENTS
Also by Shari L. Tapscott
Factions
Prologue
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
Message from Shari
Bonus Collection
Also by Shari L. Tapscott
About the Author
ALSO BY SHARI L. TAPSCOTT
Obsidian Queen
Guild of Secrets
Princess of Shadows
Knights of Obsidian
Creatures of Midnight
Queen of Aparia
Traitor of the Entitled: An Obsidian Queen Novella
Crown and Crest
Knight from the Ashes
Forged in Cursed Flames
Fall of the Ember Throne
Rise of the Phoenix King
Royal Fae of Rose Briar Woods
The Masked Fae
The Gilded Fae
The Disgraced Fae
The Riven Kingdoms
Forest of Firelight
Sea of Starlight
Dawn of Darkness
Age of Auroras
Silver & Orchids
Moss Forest Orchid
Greybrow Serpent
Wildwood Larkwing
Lily of the Desert
Fire & Feathers: Novelette Prequel to Moss Forest Orchid
Eldentimber Series
Pippa of Lauramore
Anwen of Primewood
Seirsha of Errinton
Rosie of Triblue
Audette of Brookraven
Elodie of the Sea
Genevieve of Dragon Ridge
Grace of Vernow: An Eldentimber Novelette
Fairy Tale Kingdoms
The Marquise and Her Cat: A Puss in Boots Retelling
The Queen of Gold and Straw: A Rumpelstiltskin Retelling
The Sorceress in Training: A Retelling of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Queen of Aparia
Obsidian Queen, Book Five
Copyright © 2023 by Shari L. Tapscott
All rights reserved
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Editing by Z.A. Sunday
Cover Design by MoorBooks Design
Special thanks to Christine Freeman and Leah Feltner
FACTIONS
Urocyon
The Foxes
Masters of Stealth and Manipulation
Lupus
The Wolves
Leaders
Gryphus
The Griffons
Masters of Magical Intuition & Insight
Lepus
The Rabbits
Animal Whisperers
Draconem
The Dragons
Masters of the Elements
Cervidae
The Deer
Healers
Passeridae
The Sparrows
Jack of all Trades, Master of None
Taurus
The Bulls
Gifted with Great Strength
Canis
The Hounds
Trackers
Cristatus
The Peacocks
Gifted with Beauty and Grace
Sciuridae
The Squirrels
Tinkers and Craftsmen
Rhopalocera
The Butterflies
Masters of Light and Illusion
Chamaeleonidae
The Chameleons
Shifters
Strigiformes
The Owls
Alchemists
Struthio
The Ostriches
Ungifted
Equus
The War Horses
Metalsmiths and Enchanters
Cathartes
The Vultures
Thieves of Magic
PROLOGUE
APARIA
121 Years Ago
Grief clawed at Carine’s chest as she stared at the lifeless threshold. This was her last hope, but it was destroyed—they were all destroyed.
She could feel Edmund’s fury through their link. It pulsed like a heartbeat, growing in intensity with each passing second. It was a terrible, tangible thing that fed off her power, drawing until she was lightheaded. Around the queen, the midnight beasts responded to her anguish. They writhed in the dark summer night, working themselves into a frenzy.
Teagan, Gabriel—they’d done this. They’d betrayed her.
Corrigan was gone. Forever lost on the other side of the broken gates.
“Destroy everything.” Edmund’s voice was eerily calm despite the storm Carine felt inside him. He wrapped the words in his queen’s magic, neither realizing nor acknowledging that she teetered on the brink of unconsciousness.
The creatures gleefully heeded the knight’s command, cackling, calling, shrieking in the dead of night as they disappeared.
Carine vowed that all of Cavaron would pay for her loss, along with the rest of the kingdoms in the Reyan Alliance. Towns would be leveled that night. Blood would run like rivers through the streets.
“How did Teagan and Gabriel orchestrate this?” she demanded, her voice a shaking whisper. “They not only destroyed every threshold in the Aparian Empire, but beyond as well? How?”
Such an undertaking seemed impossible.
“We’ll travel farther,” Edmund said. “We’ll check every threshold and conquer every kingdom and territory on our way.”
Her beasts would pass over the whole of the known land if need be, traveling like great locusts until they found a live threshold, leaving a wake of death and destruction.
A whisper of her former self wept at the thought, begging Carine to end this madness. But she was fueled by grief, the only thing truly precious to her lost.
“Carine,” a man said from behind her, his voice gentle.
She turned toward her older brother, the general of her great military. With a sob, she threw herself at him, fisting her hands against his chest. “I’ll never see him again.”
Edmund watched for a moment and then gave the siblings space to grieve over the loss of Carine’s son.
Leo stroked his younger sister’s hair. “It’s over,” he said gently. “We must accept our defeat. Call back your monsters, and let’s return home.”
She looked up, her face wet with her misery. “Never.”
“These people don’t deserve your wrath.”
“How can you say that? They aided Teagan and Gabriel. My son, Leo. My son is trapped in the human realm thanks to these people!”
“Will this never end? What is your goal, Carine? The human realm is lost to us—admit your defeat. Do you truly mean to conquer all of the allied kingdoms next?”
“Why can’t I?” she demanded, pushing him away.
“We don’t have the manpower to stretch ourselves this thin.”
“I don’t need your men.” She tossed her hands toward the pitch-black sky. “I have all the army I need.”
“And what land will we claim for Aparia?” Leo argued. “A burnt shell, littered with corpses? Is that what you want—to rule over an empire of death?”
“Leo.” She pressed her hand to her heart. “You have remained loyal all this time. Will you betray me now? When the loss of my child is a fresh, burning wound?”
Her brother stepped forward. “Carine…”
She dropped to her knees when she didn’t have the strength or will to stand any longer, sobbing openly. “Destroy it all—I don’t care. Burn the towns, scar the land, kill everything that breathes. Let the world feel my pain.”
Leo kneeled in front of her as if to offer comfort. But comfort is not what he gave.
Shocked by the sudden, searing pain, Carine stared at the dagger in her stomach. She looked at her brother, unable to comprehend it. “Leo.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his rugged face haggard with grief. “Forgive me, Carine. I never wanted it to come to this.”
“What have you done?” Edmund roared, shoving Leo away and falling at Carine’s side. He pulled the dagger from her belly, but it was too late.
Carine’s Obsidian Knight clutched his queen as life seeped from the mortal wound. “I’ll avenge you,” he vowed, kissing her one last time. “I swear it.”
But he wouldn’t, and Corine knew it as her world went dark. Once her death severed their link, he would die too.
Pain.
It had been Teagan’s constant companion since Carine and her knight linked their magic when their affair began, and it reached its apex now.
The Vulture fisted his hand as he watched Edmund hunched over Carine’s dying form, barely resisting the urge to venture from the shadows and go to them. But they wouldn’t welcome him, nor want him to intrude on their last living moments. They certainly wouldn’t believe he still loved them after what he’d done to put their reign of terror to an end. But he did. His love for his cousin and the dear friend he’d known since childhood was unconditional—even if relief mingled with his heartache when Edmund fell lifeless across Carine’s already still form.
It was over.
He scrubbed his palm over his face as he turned his back on the scene that he would surely relive in nightmares for the rest of his life.
Gabriel waited for him at the threshold, a gate hidden in Eiristat over seven hours away on horseback. The night’s journey was long. Guilt gnawed at the Vulture—guilt, sorrow, and a fair bit of anger.
None of this would have happened if they’d listened when he’d warned them. Every laugh shared between the four friends when they were young, every bright moment, played through his mind. He missed Edmund and Carine, had for years now. Not the monsters they became when they allowed themselves to be corrupted by lust and power, but the people they were before Carine was married to Prince Byron of Ballantyne and Edmund went mad with jealousy.
Finally, the trip—and the memories that plagued it—came to an end. Dawn lightened the horizon, the sky now a shade of slate blue.
The waiting Griffon pressed his mouth into a thin line when he saw Teagan. His dark eyebrows drew low over equally dark eyes. Gabriel was a handsome man—Edmund never failed to rib him about it when the four of them were still close. But that was before the knight and Carine gave in to the pull of their magic.
Carine was a married woman, Teagan seethed, belated fury hot in his stomach. She had a child.
None of that was enough to stop his cousin. Edmund’s desperation for a woman who wasn’t his, and the thirst for power that followed, nearly destroyed the Aparian Empire after six hundred thirty-seven years of glory.
“What happened?” Gabriel demanded when Teagan dismounted his horse and removed her bridle and saddle.
Teagan didn’t answer, focusing instead on tending the mare, brushing her down and leading her to a patch of soft grass. There was a farm nearby. They’d find her, or she’d find them. Either way, she’d be taken care of.
Gabriel watched Teagan, knowing better than to push. They understood each other, worked well together as well. If they didn’t, they couldn’t have accomplished all they did.
Teagan examined the camp. The Griffon had made himself comfortable near the mouth of the cave that housed the threshold. Steam rose from the kettle that sat on a large, flat rock in the fire. Teagan gestured to it and sat on a nearby boulder.
Usually, Gabriel would tell him to pour his own blasted tea. But not today. With one eye on Teagan, the Griffon spooned loose, dried leaves into a metal cup, poured steaming water over it, and thrust it into the Vulture’s hands. Then he waited.
Teagan stared into the cup, watching the leaves swirl and eventually sink to the bottom once they were waterlogged. “They’re dead.”
Gabriel exhaled like he’d been punched in the gut. Surprise, loss, and anguish all played across his face in turn.
No one would mourn Carine and Edmund’s deaths like the pair who feverishly worked to bring them down.
“How?” he managed after a long minute.
“Leo killed Carine,” Teagan told him. “Edmund followed when the link was severed.”
Gabriel sank to a crouch in front of the fire, dropping his head into his hands. The men sat in silence for a while, remembering better times. It was as good a memorial as Carine and Edmund would receive.
“We’ll bring Corrigan back,” the Griffon finally said. “The child is our king now.”
Teagan slowly shook his head. He saw the look on Leo’s face when he’d killed his sister. There was grief etched in its deep lines, yes. But there was an eagerness too. If they returned the young prince to Aparia, he would die.
Let Leo fix the mess Carine created—let him even sit on the throne and pretend he belonged there.
Teagan stood and poured his untouched tea over the fire. The hot coals sputtered, and smoke and steam spewed ash into the air. He turned toward the last open gate. “Let’s go.”
He would honor Edmund’s dying vow—he would avenge Carine’s death by seeing her line restored.
But not yet.
“Lock the threshold,” he commanded Gabriel once they had entered the human realm.
“Why? Carine is dead.”
“To protect Corrigan.”
A shadow passed over Gabriel’s face, and without another question, he began knitting the threshold’s magic.
Eventually, one of Carine’s descendants would return to the throne, and the Aparian people in the human realm would regain access to their homeland—but not until the magic produced another queen capable of opening the thresholds.
Hopefully, by then, it would be safe.
1
Fun fact: becoming a reigning monarch doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re serious about world domination, you must prioritize your time, set a realistic plan, and create attainable goals. Also, it helps if you’re from a long line of evil queens gifted with magic that can control legions of nightmarish monsters.
And it certainly doesn’t hurt if you have a quartet of handsome, highly capable knight marshals at your beck and call as well.
But even then, plans don’t always go as, well, planned.
Like when you finally cross into the world your people came from more than a hundred years ago and you realize you transported yourself atop an impassable ledge.
I blink as I step through the veil of the threshold, shivering as the magic tingles over my body. Aparia stretches before me, vast and barren under a black velvet sky. Shadowed monoliths tower in the distance, and jagged, eroded hills rise behind them.
To be honest, it looks a lot like the landscape we just left. Except we weren’t on top of a cliff a moment ago—we were in a narrow slot canyon, embraced by the towering slick-rock walls. And it certainly wasn’t cold.
Thanks to my keen deductive skills, I’m confident we’re not in Utah anymore…even if the terrain is bizarrely similar.
“This is inconvenient,” Teagan sighs, making a tsking noise as if the gaping canyon in front of us is no more than a minor nuisance. “I believe there used to be a way to cross.”
He nods toward two stone columns that stand at the ledge. They eroded long ago. Perhaps a rope bridge spanned the fifty-foot drop to the cliff across from us at one time, but that doesn’t do us a lot of good now.
My eyes drift to the sky above. Millions of stars shine overhead, brighter than I’ve seen in my life, yet there are no familiar constellations to make the vast world feel like home.
And here, there is silence. The kind of silence I haven’t heard since before the midnight creatures started tugging at my awareness, demanding my attention at all hours of the day.
I close my eyes, breathing in deeply.
Whatever lives on this side of the threshold doesn’t know me. I’ve never used my magic on these animals, never called them or sent them away.
For the first time in a year, I am no one.
“Are you all right?” Jonathan asks through our link, speaking directly in my head as our new connection allows. His hand is warm against mine—reassuring, solid.
