To Catch a Queen (19 page)

He placed his hands on her shoulders and gazed at her. “It may be the same spell,” he said with a nod. “We should find the enchantresses.”

Releasing her shoulders, he caught her arm in a firm grip and cut a path through the crowds almost as well as Sophie might have, heading unerringly to the two old women.

Amelia checked her watch when they approached. “You’re back early.”

“This can’t wait,” Emily said.

“You should avoid the Hunt when it passes,” Eamon said. “They appear to be able to see past glamour, and they are aware that there are humans present.”

“Yeah, and we have to get inside that palace, as soon as possible,” Emily added.

Somewhere in the Realm

Meanwhile

Sophie had expected to have to defend her crown against the usurper. She hadn’t expected to be kicked out of the Realm by the impostor’s guards because she was human. The impostor had already managed to establish quite the bureaucracy if her various factions of minions were working at cross-purposes. In other circumstances, it might almost have been funny, but she really did not have time for this nonsense.

“You’re making a big mistake,” she said, figuring it was only fair to warn them.

One of them moved forward to grab her, and she instinctively released Michael’s hand so she could generate a shield and fend off the guards. The wave of magic sent him and his colleagues reeling backward. “What trickery is this?” a guard asked.

“Have you considered that it’s not a trick?” she asked. “Obviously, you have me mistaken for a human. I’m willing to forget your error if you’ll let us go on our way.”

She thought for a moment that it might work, but then the lead guard gestured at Michael. “You may go, but he must leave the Realm.” He raised a slightly slanted eyebrow. “Unless he also has hidden fae abilities.”

“He’s a wise one,” she said, reaching for something that might hold sway.

“They do their work in their own realm.”

“Unless they’re needed here. He’s here to deliver a baby.”

That took them by surprise, and they glanced at Michael with something that looked almost like respect. “Has the baby been delivered?” the lead guard asked.

“Yes,” Michael said. “Mother and baby are healthy. At least, I think they are.”

“Then his duties are done and he must leave.”

“I’ll take care of escorting him home,” Sophie said, taking Michael’s hand again.

“We will see to it that he leaves,” the guard insisted.

“He belongs to me.”
I wish,
she added mentally.

“Human servants are no longer permitted in the Realm. They corrupt us.”

The guards closed in, and Sophie calculated the odds. She wasn’t sure she could fight them off all at once while protecting Michael. It was possible that her fairy queen powers could trump all of them, but this wasn’t the time to test the limits of her abilities. On the other hand, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to start turning the false queen’s minions against her, and if she turned this one group, there would be that many fewer guards available to throw Jennifer out of the Realm while Sophie was busy dealing with the impostor.

With a deep breath and long, slow sigh, she dropped all the veils she’d put up against her identity and let her royal glory show. The guards took a step back, but they didn’t seem to grasp what she was showing them. Then again, she reasoned, how could they, if their only experience with fae royalty was with an impostor?

She was still trying to think of what her next step should be when the ground around them seemed to come alive with light. Hundreds of tiny voices speaking in not-quite unison cried out, “My lady! Your majesty! You honor us with your presence!”

Sophie couldn’t help but smile. Her little friends, the smallest and, when seen up close, ugliest residents of the Realm, had come to her rescue yet again. They’d helped her win her throne in the first place, and now they just might be key to helping her keep it.

The guards looked at the ground, then back at Sophie. “What is this?” the lead guard asked.

“
They
seem to have figured it out,” Sophie said, trying hard not to sound too smug, although that was a real challenge. For the finishing touch, she took the crown out of her bag and placed it on her head.

In case there was any doubt, Michael knelt before her and brushed his lips across the knuckles of the hand he still held. That took her breath away for a moment, until she forced herself to snap out of it and noticed the glint of mischief in his eyes.

The guards took the cue and fell to their knees. “Forgive us, your majesty,” the leader said. “But how can this be? You are not at your palace.”

“The queen at the palace is an impostor, and that palace is a fake,” Sophie said, trying to ignore the tingling that lingered on her hand from Michael’s kiss. Fake kiss, she reminded herself. “I am on my way to oust her from her false throne and declare myself before the Realm.”

“How may we serve you, my lady?”

“Tell me what you know. Have you seen this so-called queen?”

“No, my lady. We receive her orders from our commander.”

Sophie glanced at Michael. “Hmm. That makes me wonder if there even is a queen.”

“They’re planning to crown someone,” he said.

“Maybe that’s what the trap is—get the real queen, and get me under their thumb somehow.”

“What would you have us do, my lady?” the lead guard asked.

“Could you reach any of your colleagues and let them know they’re serving an impostor?”

The leader glanced at one of his men, who stood, took a few steps, and then disappeared in a blur. “The word will spread.”

“The rest of you should come with me to the palace.” With a glance at Michael, she added under her breath, “Maybe showing up with bodyguards will make it harder to spring the trap.” She gestured for the guards to rise, but before they made it to their feet, shouts rang out from the surrounding woods.

Wild fae streamed from among the trees, surrounding them. “Unhand these people,” their leader shouted at the guards.

“We’re not really being handed,” Sophie muttered to herself as she tried to figure out the new situation. She knew the wild or free fae were opposed to the idea of any overall ruler of the Realm, but she’d hoped that being a hands-off ruler who merely served to keep the Realm alive would keep them from opposing her. Naturally, they’d be against the kind of queen the impostor was proving to be. “It’s okay,” she said out loud, holding out her hands in a calming, appeasing gesture. “They’re helping us. They’re not kicking us out.”

More of the free fae had arrived, and now they had a chance to take stock of the situation. Sophie could only imagine how it looked to them. She was radiating royal glory and had the queen’s guards and the wee ones kneeling before her. She quickly tamped down her royal aura, remembering too late that she still wore the crown, which was a dead giveaway.

“It’s the queen!” one of the free fae shouted. “Take her!”

Sophie grabbed Michael’s hand and shouted to the guards, “Meet at the palace.” Sending a surge of enchantress magic at the nearest free fae to scatter them, she made for the gap that formed in their ranks and tried to envision the grounds around the fake palace as she ran.

She wasn’t sure where they ended up. It didn’t look at all familiar, and the guards were nowhere in sight. One thing she was sure of, however: The free fae had followed her.

Outside the Impostor’s Palace

A Moment Later

“Why would you want to go into the palace?” Amelia asked.

“I imagine that’s where the action will be,” Emily replied.

“She’s under a compulsion,” Eamon said firmly.

“A compulsion?” Athena said with a horrified gasp. “What kind?”

“The same thing that was happening to her earlier, when she felt compelled to enter the Realm,” Eamon said.

“This was why you were behaving oddly?” Amelia asked.

“Yes, but I got better,” Emily insisted. “It went away entirely. Until now. But think about it: Once the queen comes out here, it’s a done deal. She’s been crowned. She’ll just be having the Buckingham Palace balcony moment out here. We need to get inside. They seemed to be picking people to go into the VIP area. I’d bet my compulsion would get us on the guest list. Someone must want me in there.”

“Which is a very good reason for you
not
to go in there,” Amelia insisted. “They may want to use you in some way. Remember how Maeve used you against your sister?”

“How do you plan to stop this impostor from out here?”

“That is your sister’s job.”

Athena glanced around. “Funny, we haven’t heard from Sophie in a while.”

“I’m sure she’s okay,” Emily said. “And she’d need us to get in position. Maybe that’s where this compulsion comes from.”

“It doesn’t.” Eamon snapped. “This has no trace of Sophie in it.”

Emily noticed one of the guards moving through the crowd nearby, picking out people, presumably to go into the palace. She moved away from the group and put herself in the guard’s path. His gaze flicked past her, then he stopped and turned. “You,” he said. “With me.”

Putting on her best Sophie impression and dialing her charm up to maximum, she said, “Can my friends come, too? I don’t want to leave them.”

“Bring them along,” he said, clearly too busy to be bothered.

Emily gestured to the others. “Come on!” When they hesitated, she said, “I don’t think he’s going to let me back out, and you don’t want me going in there alone, do you?”

Eamon was the first to join her, dragging a reluctant Beau. The sisters looked at each other, shrugged, and came along.

Emily’s heart pounded with anticipation, and it swelled with the joy of coming home at last as they approached the towering arched doors of the palace.

The Forest

A Moment Later

Sophie wasn’t prone to panic, but she figured if ever there was a time for panic, it would be now. She desperately needed to get back to a place she’d left when she needed to retrieve something, but obstacles were popping up to keep her away. If she were barefoot and wearing her nightgown, she’d be living out her most common recurring nightmare.

The free fae fighters closed in on Michael and Sophie. She could feel the magic coming from them and knew her enchantress trick wouldn’t work again. “So, now we have our little queen,” one of the fae said with a sneer.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Sophie said with all the bravado she could muster. “I know everyone expects me to be taller.”

Michael stepped in front of her, his bulk eclipsing her entirely. “This isn’t the queen you’re looking for,” he said. “Don’t you see that she’s with me, a human? The queen who’s been causing you problems would never tolerate me. This is the true queen, the one who brought the Realm back to life.” He dug in his satchel and came up with the favor the earlier fairies had given him. “Here’s proof—not long ago, I delivered a fairy baby. How often does that happen here? Would it have happened if the rightful queen hadn’t taken the real throne?”

Sophie was glad that he was facing away from her and couldn’t see the glow she was sure was spreading across her face. She forcibly told herself that he wasn’t praising her out of adoration, but as a very clever way of making a case that might get them out of this fix alive. He really must have done his homework, she thought, if he’d managed to associate the renewed life of the Realm with new birth. Even she hadn’t made that connection, though it did make sense. She sighed at the realization that there was yet another reason she was obligated to actually hold that throne.

Reluctantly, she stepped out from behind Michael and said, “I know you don’t want a queen, and I understand why. To be honest, I don’t
want
to be a queen, but the Realm needs someone on that throne if it’s to stay alive, and you’re better off with me than with this impostor who’s actually trying to rule. I won’t make anyone bow to me, so long as you leave me alone and harm no one else.”

She glanced around the circle of warriors, trying to gauge their reactions. Most of them appeared hard and cold, unmoved by her and Michael’s arguments, but she thought she saw a softening in a few of them.

Michael placed a hand on her shoulder, and Sophie tried not to flinch or lean against him, even as his light touch took her breath away. “She won that throne through trials and by blood,” he said. “I was there. I saw it. She had the knowledge of how to do it and the right bloodline because she’s descended from the last real queen. You need her.”

“And if I get rid of this impostor, you’ll barely notice me unless you drop by the real palace, which you’re welcome to do,” she added.

Two of the warriors lowered their weapons on one side of the circle. Two more bowed their heads slightly. Their leader, however, didn’t falter at all. “We want no ruler. We answer to no one,” he said. “Since you are human, you may leave the Realm, but you must never return.”

“Yeah, and then be ready for lots more impostors who’ll be much heavier-handed than I am,” Sophie snapped, losing patience. She tried to judge the ones who didn’t seem to be in line with their leader. Was it merely moral and philosophical support, or would they actually help her?

She made eye contact with the two who had lowered their weapons and hadn’t raised them again even when their leader spoke up. They met her gaze, held it, and nodded ever so slightly. She wasn’t sure what they had planned, but she felt fairly certain that they would help her with whatever she did.

Reaching to take Michael’s hand in a show of unity with him, she said, “You can stand with me or against me, but you won’t force me out of my Realm.”

While the leader of the opposition was opening his mouth to reply, she generated a magical flash and a smokescreen before tugging Michael toward her likely allies. They made a hole for her and turned to fight off any who tried to follow Michael and Sophie. She prepared to make a long stride into the distance, but wasn’t quite sure where to go. Of all the places she knew in the Realm—which wasn’t too many, as she hadn’t explored widely—she didn’t know of any that were guaranteed to be safe. In desperation, she took them to the ruined temple where she danced for Tallulah.