Queen of Aparia (Obsidian Queen Book 5), page 7
“Don’t make me command you to stay out of my head.” I press my hands onto his shoulders. “Just kiss me.”
He makes a noise deep in his throat and claims my lips. His hands sear as they settle on my sides, his fingers meeting bare skin where my tank top has inched up. I gasp, startled, and he takes advantage of the position to trail kisses down my throat.
I’m trying to think of a good reason he needs to lose his shirt—a legitimate reason, like it’s suddenly on fire or something—when the sound of car tires on gravel catches my attention.
Like two teens caught making out, we fly apart.
By the time my mom parks, I’ve yanked my tank top back into place and crawled to the passenger seat like I’ve been there the whole time.
We get out of the car. I glance at Jonathan, desperately thankful I was wearing lip balm and not lipstick. As far as I can tell, there’s no incriminating evidence.
Mom greets us, looking preoccupied anyway. “I didn’t realize you two would be here this evening. Are you hungry?” She leans into the car to retrieve her purse. “We could order a pizza?”
I’m about to answer, and then my mouth falls open. “A…pizza?”
My mom doesn’t eat pizza, just like she doesn’t wear lime green or hot pink. What’s going on? There’s got to be some order in the world, or everything just falls into chaos.
She laughs a little, tucking the front of her perfectly cut brunette lob behind her ear. She looks as stressed as I’ve ever seen her. She must be taking the duke’s death a little harder than I expected. “One time won’t hurt us.”
“Pizza sounds great,” Jonathan says. “Would you like Madeline and me to pick it up?”
“You don’t mind?”
“Of course not.”
She nods. “That will give me time to check in with a few patients before we eat.”
Ever since the duke fell ill and Dad started traveling all over the world in his place, Mom hasn’t worked as much. But she still has a few patients with chronic issues that she’s taken care of for as long as I can remember.
Jonathan and I watch her go inside, the picture of innocence. But as soon as she shuts the door, he turns his dark, delicious eyes on me. “Were you actually contemplating conjuring a flame to light my shirt on fire?”
“Only a little fire.” I grin. “You know I couldn’t manage much more than that.”
My mastery of the elements will never be on par with a Dragon’s.
Jonathan lifts a brow, but I drag him back to the Hummer. “Come on. It looks like we’ll have to postpone our date.”
Jonathan’s head falls back as he groans.
“It’s okay. You like pizza, right?”
“I like you more.”
I stop dead in my tracks and turn to him. “Jonathan. You like me more than pizza?”
He nods, wrapping his arms around my back and leaning in for a soft kiss. “I like you better than hamburgers, too.”
“What about cheese fries?” I tease.
“So much more.”
This conversation is legit weird, and it shouldn’t make me all melty…but it does.
“Be still, my heart,” I murmur against his lips.
He chuckles, cupping my jaw and moving in for a real kiss.
Our magic twines around us, our new connection content. For a few seconds, I pretend everything is right with the world.
And then I sense the shadow at the edge of the property.
I sigh, pulling back.
“What is it?” Jonathan asks, instantly on alert.
“A hobgoblin, maybe a gremlin.” Resigned to my fate as a local monster exterminator, I start walking. “Let’s go deal with it before it eats one of the neighbors.”
Jonathan catches my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Eventually, we’re going to get to spend more than five minutes alone.”
I don’t feel very optimistic about that. “You think?”
He laughs under his breath, a frustrated sound. “I certainly hope so.”
I’m not usually a fidgety person, but my nerves are getting the best of me. I clasp my hands in my lap, squeezing them tightly.
My dress is black. So is my mother’s.
I sit with my parents near the front of the chapel in the Royal Guild, staring at the back of Gray’s head. The Wolf is with his family in the front row, between his mother and Finn. Maisy’s up there, too, stoically trying to comfort her fussy newborn.
Maybe it’s my imagination, or just plain paranoia, but I swear I feel eyes on me—as if all the Entitled who have infiltrated the guild are staring at me, waiting for me to stand up and rip the crown from the recently departed grand duke’s still-warm hands.
Not that he wore a crown. He didn’t. And he died days ago, so technically, his hands aren’t still warm—
Enough, Madeline.
You know you’re stressed when you start babbling in your own head.
I steal a peek at Jonathan. He sits with his family too. His dozens of nephews and nieces are absent, but his mother, sisters, and their husbands are here—everyone except Morgana and Anderson. She’s a week past her due date and couldn’t travel.
I glance again at Maisy, feeling a sharp pang. Everyone is having babies, and I’m not even married.
They have families; I have shadow monsters.
If only I’d been born a Sparrow like Louisa, life would be a lot easier. Except I’d be dead because I wouldn’t have been able to send the gargoyles away in California. So there’s that.
I look for Rafe in the crowd, wondering how my knight is doing, and suddenly, I feel a strange tug.
I’ve felt it before.
Horrified, my search for my knight becomes frantic. When I find him a row behind me to the left, he’s already looking my way. His eyebrows are drawn low, his lips slightly parted as if he’s listening to something very faint.
He feels it too.
How?
Subtly he jerks his head and rises, quietly making his way to the back of the chapel.
I lean close to my mother, knowing I have no choice but to tell her. Desperately hoping no nearby Wolves will pick it up, I whisper, “There’s a shadow creature. I need to send it away.”
“Right now?” she demands, more concerned with appearances than, you know, death.
“It’s big,” I murmur. “I gotta go.”
She twists her hands in her lap, glancing at my father. “Okay, well…hurry.”
Sure.
“And be careful,” she adds, her eyes concerned.
I slide out of my seat, whispering soft apologies as I pass people, hoping they’ll think I need to use the restroom. Not that their first thought would be, “Oh, Madeline must be leaving to send off one of her monsters again.”
Eric sits with his family toward the back. His younger sister is next to him, tiny next to her massive brother even though she appears fairly tall. She watches me, probably curious why I’m looking at Eric so intently.
I manage a smile, and then my attention moves back to the Bunny.
He must be able to tell that something is wrong from the look on my face. He lifts his phone, a silent request for a text. I nod and keep moving, acknowledging those who look my way with a polite smile.
I know most of these people—the majority of them are Aparian elite, my parents’ friends.
How many are with the Entitled?
I push through the back doors, looking for Rafe in the foyer. I find him near a potted ficus, looking edgy.
Well, edgier than usual.
“How far away is it?” he asks, his eyes on the closed doors we just exited.
“I’m not sure. How can you feel it?”
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head and exhales slowly. “Call Teagan.”
The Vulture isn’t here. He didn’t have to show up for the sake of appearances, plus he’s babysitting the Aparian prince.
I dig out my phone, already going to my contacts. “Text everyone else.”
“Hello, Madeline,” Teagan says when he answers. “Aren’t you supposed to be mourning right now?”
“One of the dragons is nearby.”
There’s a pause on the other side, followed by a long-suffering sigh. “Tenacious, aren’t they?”
“What do I do?”
“Use your magic to find it. Once you do, send me its location. I’ll join you shortly.”
“Okay.” I slide the phone into my purse just as Jonathan and Eric step through the doors.
Gray’s still inside, as he should be.
“All right.” I steel myself for the coming confrontation, desperately hoping the dragon will meet me somewhere unpopulated.
We leave the guild building, stepping into the gloom of late morning. Storm clouds churn overhead, dark and foreboding. It’s the perfect day for a nighttime creature to venture out past its morning curfew. I close my eyes, feeling for the beast. Its midnight magic crackles and merges with the incoming storm, potent but not as strong as the alpha I faced on the beach.
“It’s the second male.” I take Jonathan’s hand and push the magic toward him, hoping he’s better with directions than I am. “Where is he?”
The Griffon’s eyes go distant as he reads the magic. “He’s up the forest service road.”
“Tell Teagan,” I say to no one in particular, already heading for Jonathan’s Hummer.
I’m thankful the dragon didn’t pick an urban area, but I’m not eager for another forest fire.
We pile into the vehicle. It doesn’t take long to leave the town behind, and soon we’re driving up a dirt road that’s riddled with washboards. The jarring vibrations match the chaos in my head.
Jonathan glances at his rearview mirror. “Teagan’s caught up to us.”
I look back and find the Vulture’s green Subaru, and relief—slight though it might be—washes over me. He’ll know what to do. He had better.
I have no idea how I’m going to send the dragon away without Rafe’s help. But Teagan said I don’t need him—he said I’ve been using the knight as a crutch.
“We’re close,” I say, knowing Jonathan won’t be able to sense the dragon’s location when we’re not touching. “Find a wide spot to pull over.”
The knight does as I ask, and I throw open the door, hurrying to Teagan. One of my winged cats appears from the nearby brush, meowing a happy hello as if she’s been waiting for me.
Dawson and Wallace exit the car with Teagan.
“You brought them?” I ask the Vulture under my breath.
“It’s not like I had a lot of say in the matter.” He shoulders his crossbow and gestures for me to lead the way.
“What are we going to do?”
Looking virtually unfazed, Teagan says, “You overcame the alpha, proving you’re more powerful—”
“I didn’t, though. He left, yes, but I never felt like I had true control over him. That’s why they attacked that cargo vessel and the cruise ship.”
“Still, for some reason, this one has broken away from the others to challenge you on his own. Perhaps he wants to join you.”
I stop mid-step, tripping over a low branch in my makeshift path. Before I end up on my butt, Jonathan grabs my arm, steadying me.
“Join me? How can a dragon join me?” I demand, and then I glance down at the winged cat. “And even if that’s his intention, I don’t need any more pets.”
As if on cue, the cat yowls.
When Rafe and I were suppressing our link, I couldn’t tell if the cat that was visiting me was one or many, but now that my magic is unhindered, I know there are dozens of them. This little female, though. She shows up the most.
Teagan doesn’t bother to grace me with an answer, and we continue.
“I need to leave a pair of hiking boots in your Hummer,” I mutter to Jonathan, my stilettos sinking into the soft ground. “Why do we always end up traipsing through the forest?”
“It’s not always the forest,” Rafe says darkly. “Sometimes it’s the desert.”
I can feel a wisp of his lingering anger, remembering my most recent—and hopefully last—kidnapping.
Slowly, Jonathan turns to Rafe, frowning.
“What?” I ask him, suddenly wary.
“Nothing,” the Griffon answers immediately, shaking his head.
His answer hits a cord of déjà vu, and I look between the two knights. Something unsettling plagues me, but I push it aside, deciding it’s best to focus on the dragon right now.
I feel the beast pacing before I see him. He’s as large as an elephant, lingering in the dim shadows of a thick grove of old spruces. He lifts his head as soon as I enter his space, his amber eyes meeting mine and his magic pushing against me. It’s a weak challenge, just a test.
“Go home,” I think, not bothering to say the words aloud but pushing a hefty dose of persuasion into them.
The dragon stares at me, the light in his eyes unsettling. He’s in my head, yet I can’t figure out what he wants.
But he doesn’t fight me. He merely takes to the sky, almost knocking me over with the power of his wings. The forest cowers around him, grass and trees bending under the force of the wind he creates. And then he disappears into the storm clouds.
I let out a slow breath, feeling unsettled.
“What did it want?” Eric asks, the first daring to speak.
“I don’t know.”
“You did well,” Teagan says. “He left without causing trouble—you overpowered him.”
I glance at Wallace and Dawson, uneasy. They look adequately impressed, if not a little dumbfounded.
But I know the truth—the dragon only left because he chose to.
7
My parents are at the guild, attending a formal dinner for all the royal officials—preparing Finn for his upcoming inauguration, no doubt. Until very recently, I thought I would have to fight him for the top position in the guild. But now I know better. I don’t have to take Finn’s title—I need to leapfrog over him altogether.
I sit at the kitchen counter, watching Lillian clean. My mind wanders to yesterday’s dragon visit.
Whether I passed his test or failed, I don’t know.
“Why are you looking all forlorn?” Lillian asks. “Where’s Jonathan?”
“His sister and brother-in-law had car trouble,” I answer. “He’s helping them.”
He wasn’t going to go, but I told him he might as well. I haven’t decided if it’s a good idea to follow Wallace into Aparia yet, though I certainly need to make a decision soon. I’m running out of time.
Lillian nods like that’s reasonable. “I’ll make cookies.”
As if cookies fix everything. (Okay, they help.)
Eric has babysitting duty—which basically means a playdate with Charles. He and the cat are in the living room, “learning tricks.”
I suspect the cat is teaching the Bunny and not the other way around, but maybe Charles will surprise me.
“How long have you worked for my parents?” I ask Lillian.
“Since you were a baby.” She smiles as she scrubs a spot on the counter that looks perfectly clean. “I was sixteen when your parents hired me to babysit you.”
I’ve never asked her about her faction—or her lack thereof. It’s not considered polite, and she’s never offered the information. My mind wanders to Louisa. “I’ve never seen you use magic.”
She lifts her eyes, one eyebrow raising in question.
“Sorry,” I mumble, waving my hand. “I’ve been a bit frazzled lately.”
“I’m a Sparrow,” she finally says. “Nearly an Ostrich, to be honest.”
“Oh,” I say stupidly, wishing I hadn’t initiated the conversation.
“Go on.”
I lift my eyes. “Go on what?”
“Ask me about my family’s magic type—I can tell you’re dying to.”
I huff out a breath. “Sorry.”
“Light.”
“You’re a Butterfly?” I ask, nearly laughing. It’s a perfect fit for Lillian. She’s always brought light and color into our boring house.
She nods. “A worthless specialization, even at full strength. No matter their faction, most Aparians can manage a simple candle charm.”
“Light’s not worthless. It chases away the dark.” I smile to myself, though I’m feeling a bit sullen. “I wish I were a Butterfly.”
“Being the Obsidian Queen isn’t so bad, is it? You can command the darkness to do your bidding. Surely that’s better than scaring it into hiding with an illumination spell.”
I whip my eyes back to hers, my mouth gaping. She tosses her cleaning rag on the counter and crosses her arms, smiling.
“How long have you known?” I frown. “How do you know?”
“There’s only one reason the Obsidian Knight would hang around you as much as he does.”
“You’re with the Entitled,” I breathe. She must be, or she wouldn’t know who Rafe is.
“Now, don’t look at me like that,” she says with a scowl. “You think I’d turn you in? Never. I haven’t said a word.”
“Lillian,” I whisper, my heart pinching.
How many people are clinging to my secret to protect me?
“It’s all right for Rafe, but it’s not for me?” she demands. “He can be Entitled, but I can’t?”
“No, it’s not that…”
She comes around the counter, hugging me. “I should have told you.”
“I’ve kept things from you, too,” I mumble, thinking of Jonathan and his gaggle of relatives.
Families shouldn’t keep things from each other like we do. They should be open—honest.
I have to talk to my parents.
Lillian nods, heading back to her side of the counter and pulling baking ingredients from the cupboards. “You’ve never asked about my magic before. What’s troubling you?”
“There’s another Obsidian Queen on the other side of the thresholds. She’s a Sparrow.”
Lillian nearly drops the flour and whips back to look at me. Apparently, she doesn’t know everything.
“You’ve crossed the thresholds?” she demands.
I nod, pressing my lips together.
“What’s it like?” Her eyes light. “What did you see?”
