Yew Queen Trilogy Read online

  “Hey, you don’t have to answer that.”

  “No, you are owed any and all explanations I can offer. Lucilla was a passionate girl with a kind heart. She didn’t inherit any of her father’s power.”

  “She wasn’t a mage?”

  “No. The power runs in families, but it is like fair hair or a height. The magic doesn’t always come through in the blood. Can you guess where your power originates?”

  “My mother. No way my asshole dad had jack to do with anything like magic. He left us when I was little.”

  Lucus touched my shoulder. “I wish I could avenge you.”

  I whirled to face him straight-on. “That’s really sweet, actually. But yeah, I’m over it. Sort of.”

  “Well, he sounds like a mage.”

  “Oh, because he was a jerk, right. Well, my mom’s sister, Viv, she used to talk about fae and vampires. She knew about magic.”

  “Then why were you so surprised to meet me?”

  “Surprised is a nice way to put it.”

  Lucus cocked his head and had the decency to look ashamed. “I should’ve handled that differently.”

  “Yes. You should have. But with Viv’s stories, well, after a childhood spent believing her, I was talked out of it. No one else believed in magic or fae. But Mom’s side of the family has to be the ones with mage blood.”

  Warmth surged up my legs and poured into my palms.

  “I think my spell is ready. Since it’s for protection, maybe you should come at me, and we can see what happens.”

  “Come at you.”

  “Attack me”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do it. Just, like, stop if I suck at the spell, okay?”

  He walked to the far side of the room. “Agreed.”

  In the shadows, Lucus’s face darkened, and green magic sparked in his eyes. Fear sliced through me at the sudden change. Maybe this had been a bad idea.

  I threw my arms open. Magic crackled across the space between my palms as he lunged. An amethyst shield appeared between us, reaching to the room’s ceiling, and when Lucus hit the shield, he called out and fell backward, shot to the wall like I’d kicked the hell out of him.

  Heart hammering, I dropped my hands and felt the magic fizzle away. I ran to him where he was sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.

  “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to knock you down like that.”

  He got to his feet, apparently not dying from my new fabulous magical skills. “Oh, you enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

  I reached up and touched his head, checking to be sure he wasn’t bleeding. “I did, actually.”

  He met my gaze, his eyes daring me. “Would you like to do it again?”

  I started to answer, but my knees went weak. “I feel lightheaded.”

  Lucus ushered me to a chair by the door. “Your aura is fading. You look pale. Perhaps you should work the first energy spell again before trying this one?”

  “Not a bad idea.”

  While I rested and marveled over that shield, he gathered the henbane from the cabinet. Had my instinct truly shown me which spell to practice? I wasn’t sure. I still felt like I had no clue on the magic thing.

  With henbane in hand, I worked that first spell for the second time.

  Energy surged within me, my palms at my heart. But then the room spun, and I caught myself on the table before falling. The pitcher we’d been using for the fog spell canted and fell, shattering glass and spilling water all over the floor. Before Lucus could grab me, I followed said water, my legs going out. Thankfully, Lucus’s big hand cradled my skull before I could crack open like the pitcher.

  “I’m going to be sick.” I’d had surgery once when I was a kid, something about a hernia, and I remembered the feel of my blood pressure dropping. “My heart isn’t working right.” But before I could puke, my sight blurred and my limbs fell limp.

  Then my magic hit me while I was down.

  Chapter 28

  Pain knifed through me in waves as I gripped Lucus’s shirt, sweat pouring down my face. I could move again, but honestly, I would’ve preferred going back to the limp body thing. Lucus’s wrinkled brow and fevered expression did nothing to calm me.

  “I have to get you to another mage, Coren.” He ran a cool hand over my forehead. “I don’t know how to help. Do you have any intuition on how I can help you?”

  “Kaippa, maybe?” Another wave of agony cut me off, and I panted, trying to will the pain away so I could finish my thought. “He was with the Mage Duke. He might know what to do.”

  The silhouette of a man filled the doorway. But it wasn’t Kaippa.

  “Brother.” Baccio’s eyes glinted as he strolled in like I wasn’t dying right in front of him. “You allowed her to deceive us.”

  Lucus glanced at me, then at his brother.

  Baccio held up a hand. “No. Don’t bother attempting to arrange more deception, Lucus. She is no shapeshifter.” Baccio’s glare was nearly as sharp as my pain.

  “Yeah, yeah.” My chest burned, and I squeezed my eyes shut to fight the agony. “I’m a mage. If I die, your chances at breaking this curse are nada, so I suggest you get over it, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Annoying.”

  Baccio stared at Lucus. “No mage will ever help us. You know that. They are the enemy. Now and forever. It is our duty to kill her. Has this woman ensorcelled you?”

  If I hadn’t been dealing with pain that was like a thousand grizzly bears gnawing my insides out, I’d have laughed my ass off. “Dying here. Not ensorcelling at the moment,” I coughed out.

  Behind my eyelids, I saw memories of Hekla snorting a laugh and smacking me on the arm, of Titus grinning and chucking a target at me during a drill at his gym, of Mom pressing her fingers to my lips as she tucked me in at night so many years ago.

  I really was dying. This was the whole life-flashing-in-front-of-the-eyes-thing!

  “No!” I shouted. Lucus jolted in surprise as I sat up, forcing my body to comply even as the pain roared in my ears and ripped my ribs apart. “I’m not going down like this!”

  A blast sounded from the doorway, and as dust and rock fell from the ceiling, I looked up to see Hekla with a smoking shotgun. “Get your damn hands off my friend.”

  My heart swelled, but there was no time to say a word.

  The room erupted into action.

  Baccio raised vines from the walls, and they curled around my middle, lifting me off the floor and away from Lucus. Lucus shouted in the fae language, and his hands sparked bright emerald green. The vines drew away from me, and I dropped to the ground as Aurelio stumbled into the room, looking like he was next in line to die after me. Between the brothers, leafy vines and newly sprouted trees crawled from the floor and whipped at heads and legs, their tapered ends snapping with their speed, one knocking Baccio against the wall and another capturing Hekla. The shotgun clattered to the floor.

  I scrambled to my feet and raised my palms like I might be able to do magic similar to what I’d seen the Mage Duke do in Lucus’s memory.

  Kaippa ducked around the chaos of the fighting and gripped me, steadying me. “No, no, no, infant mage. You will definitely perish if you try fighting magic in your state.”

  “How did you get out of your tomb?”

  “I guess Lucus’s power was distracted. The vines let go. Now, take this.” Holding me up with one hand while the others fought around us, he grabbed the spell book and shoved it against my chest. Then he dragged me into the corner, and I collapsed in a heap, the book in my lap. “Open it. Find a Protection spell. If you don’t get a shield up quick, Baccio will murder you.”

  The snakes on the cover twined and slithered and hissed under my hand. “I spelled a shield earlier. But that will only protect me, right? And it nearly killed me doing it.”

  “In about one second, Baccio and Aurelio will defeat Lucus. Aurelio is still strong despite his state of health. Lucus doesn’t truly want to hurt them, and his brothers are enraged with hunger
and fear of you. You must do this. Just protect yourself for now, and then you can help the rest once we get them calmed down.” Kaippa’s eyes were devoid of his usual taunting sarcasm. The depths showed an honesty I hadn’t realized he was capable of. “Look. You’re a good soul. I hate even saying this.” He shuddered. “But really. You shouldn’t have to die today. Not quite yet. If Baccio and Aurelio see the magic you can do and we explain that you have a true shot at breaking this curse, we might be able to calm them down.”

  The fight came closer. A vine lashed out and gripped my ankle. I kicked down on it with my other heel as Kaippa bit the thing. The vine jerked and let me go.

  “But that will leave Hekla and Lucus on the wrong side of the shield,” I said. There was no way I could get over there and cast right in the middle of the fight. Vines would grab me immediately.

  Hekla scrambled for the shotgun, but Aurelio dragged her back, wrapping vines around her wrists.

  What about my instinct? What was it telling me? I forced the chaos of the room to fall away from me and held absolutely still. Nothing. I almost gave up and simply followed Kaippa’s suggestion.

  A twinge of apprehension touched my mind and fluttered in my stomach.

  “I’m listening,” I whispered to my mage blood, to the power that had run through my mother’s veins, through Aunt Viv’s veins, the link I would always have with the first two women in my life. I saw Mother’s wide smile as we made cookies and felt the touch of her hand on mine. My ears picked up the sound of Aunt Viv’s mellow voice at night, telling me all the stories that would someday become my reality.

  A rush of knowledge swept over me, the feeling Lucus had been trying to get me to notice all this time. Two words from the memory Lucus had shown me of the night the Mage Duke cursed them ran over my thoughts—unforgiven heart. But what did it mean? My instinct said to think of everyone I cared for, all of them. Hekla and Lucus too. My ancestors, a thousand voices in a thousand languages, whispered into my head and heart and told me to search out more mages, to find help, a mentor who would teach me how to release my power so it didn’t overwhelm my physical body.

  “Think of your loved ones, now and long ago,” the voices whispered, “Take the fae, the human, and the vampire to those who would aid you.”

  Glancing around the chamber to take in every person’s face, I threw the spell book open, the scent of salt and charred herbs rising, then slammed my palm against a wrinkled page.

  A new voice—feminine and oddly accented—whispered through my mind. “Tell him he is forgiven. He is released.”

  Amethyst lightning exploded from the book and branched across the room in jagged arcs, gripping me, Kaippa, Lucus, Baccio, Aurelio, and Hekla.

  The castle shook. A crevice split the painted ceiling, separating the winged fae and ruddy-cheeked humans. A sharp, sickening pain dragged through my bones, twisting my muscles and tendons, trying to break me apart. A scream ripped my throat. Lightning crackled across the room as my magic battled the piercing agony.

  I knew this pain. This was the darkness of the Mage Duke’s curse.

  Shaking, snapping apart, being torn in two by the curse and my magic, I envisioned my Aunt Viv, Mom, Hekla, Titus. And Lucus. Words of power pealed from my lips, alive and sonorous with magic.

  “Break the binding my kin has cast! Let the past be in the past!” My body thrashed with power, lightning and thunder cascading through the chamber around me, pounding the walls in time with my heart. “Blood of my blood, I break you!”

  Magic washed the room in bright lavender, blinding me, blinding all of us, I was sure, as a wind coursed across my face, tangling my hair and stinging my cheeks. The last thing I saw was Lucus’s fierce gaze, locked on me. As my heart drummed the syllables of his name, Lucus’s lips formed three quick words. Stay with me.

  Chapter 29

  I woke on a bed of dewy grass, a henge of stones and a dozen oaks circling me. Wiping cool water from my face, I stood on shaking legs and found Hekla.

  “What happened?” she mumbled into the tall grass smashed by her face.

  I pulled her up, hating that her shirt was ripped open at the shoulder and checking her for wounds. “I guess I did a thing.”

  She looked around and rubbed her arms. The pearly light of sunrise glittered across the dew and cast shadows around the towering stones. “Yeah. I’d say you did. Where are we?”

  “Unsure.” I stopped pestering Hekla because I wasn’t finding any obvious injuries.

  Lucus got to his feet beside Aurelio, Baccio, and Kaippa. “Coren?” He looked around wildly. “What spell did you cast?”

  Hekla’s eyebrows disappeared under her blunt cut bangs. “You have so much explaining to do,” she said to me. “That castle…” She shook her head. “I looked again, in the place you asked me to look that first day, and it wasn’t there until suddenly it was. A purple light glowed over the castle, and I could see it. Seriously though, you have a truckload of explaining to do.”

  “Yeah, well, where did you get a shotgun?”

  She waved me off.

  Baccio stared at me, his gaze branding my skin. “She is a mage, and she has cursed us again. What have you done, witch?”

  I flexed my fingers, willing my magic to show up for a second even though I felt like I’d run a marathon on nothing but snack cakes and hope. Amethyst light sparked from my palms.

  Hekla jumped. “Super cool! Also, I might pass out.”

  “Same here.” My magic was going to zap me soon. My blood pressure was dipping.

  “No,” Aurelio said, urging Baccio out of the henge. “I don’t think she cursed us, brother.”

  Kaippa was oddly quiet as he joined them, striding into the bright light of the sunrise.

  Aurelio and Baccio traded a look, Baccio’s face smoothed of anger for once and Aurelio’s lips parted in surprise at this new locale.

  Kaippa clapped his hands, making Aurelio snarl. “She did it! Coren released us!” He took two, then three, then four more steps away from me. The sunlight seemed to shrink from him, and shadows gathered around his feet.

  Lucus locked gazes with me, fire lighting the dark depths. “Did you break the curse?”

  Kaippa unfurled his bat-like wings and flew high into the hazy morning sky. His laughter sounded evil but also happy as hell. “We are free!”

  Baccio and Aurelio walked farther away, their steps slow and careful as they tested the curse’s limits, to see if it was true. They inched toward two large oaks with limbs that brushed the earth.

  Had I broken the curse?

  Lucus swept me into his arms and whirled me around. He kissed me fully, and heat roared through my body as his teeth nipped my lower lip. Setting me down, he faced me, eyes wild. “How did you do it?”

  As I watched Kaippa fly and Baccio and Aurelio talk excitedly under the oaks, a light flared inside me. It had worked. I had done this.

  “I listened to my instinct.” I touched Lucus’s hand, still wondering if this was real, if I truly had broken the curse. “I saw Mom.” I glanced at Hekla, who was obviously freaking out but also smiling. “I saw Mom in my head, and I heard Aunt Viv, and then I just…I let the magic happen.”

  “It was in your blood.” Lucus kissed my wrist softly. “Her blood is in your blood. This curse was cast in Lucilla’s honor, and with her blood, you have completed its purpose.”

  My instinct spoke again, urging me to remember the pain Lucus had felt when he’d killed Lucilla. A face shimmered in my mind. Red hair. Sensuous mouth. It was her. My ancestor. And she was smiling. It was true. The Mage Duke’s blood ran through my veins. With his magic, I had rescued his daughter’s first love. Tears burned my eyes.

  I gazed at Lucus, at the fierce gratitude in his eyes. “You are forgiven. Lucilla forgives you, Lucus. She never blamed you.”

  Lucus pulled me into a hug, and I pressed his head against my neck, wishing we had a moment to ourselves to explore this in, well, a lot of ways.

  I pulled
back and gave him a smile. “Should we figure out where we are?”

  Hekla raised a hand. “Y’all are cute, but my brain is exploding. Can I get all the explanations, please?”

  Lucus and I laughed as Aurelio and Baccio melded into the nearby oaks to feed on fresh trees. Kaippa appeared to have fled. Hmm. That was a bit disconcerting. He’d have to be found and reined in.

  A foreign voice snapped through the morning air.

  A woman with blonde braids, ice-blue eyes, and clothing fit for a queen walked forward, spewing clipped words in the fae language. Why was she speaking fae? Who was she?

  Lucus blinked at her, seemingly shocked at her appearance. He touched the ground, whispered something, and then I could understand the woman. He’d worked his language power.

  The air around the blonde wavered, and wings unfurled from her back. “Who are you and why are you in my mother’s kingdom?”

  Lucus and I gaped at one another. He and his brothers weren’t the last of their kind. Somehow I had found more fae. But where was the mage my casting was meant to find? How was I going to train and learn how to deal with my power?

  Hekla tugged my sleeve twice. “I’m only getting more questions from you people. Can someone please explain what the hell is going on?”

  “Take them.” The blonde fae waved her long fingers, and five fae swooped from the sky and bound us with vines. “My mother will know what to do with you. Alpha or not, you will bend the knee.”

  If I didn’t get some training on how to deal with this magic roaring through me, this new crop of fae would be spared the trouble of what to do with me, at least. I’d be dead.

  On cue, my magic surged inside my blood, and I screamed as pain lashed across my chest, dropping me to the ground. Amethyst lightning flashed over my vision, dots trailing the jagged phantoms of illumination.

  The blonde fae stood over me, holding Lucus and Hekla back. Both of my allies looked ready to rip the new gal’s head off, but they were wisely restraining themselves—not fighting the blonde fae—and waiting to see what was going down.