Yew Queen Trilogy Read online

“You are not him.” Lucus’s voice was a distant drum, his grief weighing down every syllable. “And you are as innocent as those he has slain.”

  I let out a breath. Thank God. “You don’t feel like you have to kill me? What about your brothers?”

  “I will not tell them you are the Mage Duke’s descendant. They would end you.”

  So a non-lying liar was in charge of keeping a secret from his family in order to keep me alive. Good stuff. Fun times. And that phrase: end you. That phrase sucked.

  Chapter 18

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. “Sounds like a fantastic plan that will definitely keep me alive.”

  Lucus spun and glared. “I will allow my brothers and Kaippa to believe that you possess a good amount of shapeshifter blood.”

  “Let me get this straight,” I said. “As a fae, you can use shifter blood to cast spells.”

  “Anyone can work spells if they have a vial or more of shifter blood and they know the words and actions to complete the casting.”

  “Like anyone anyone?”

  “Yes. Even humans. This is how your idea of witches was born.”

  Whoa. A lot to unpack right there. “But we don’t have any shifter blood, so I have to actually just do the magic.”

  Lucus nodded.

  “And you realize I have no idea how to do that.”

  He tilted his head, and the light from the high windows painted his horns gold. “You have the innate ability. Now you must learn how to cast.”

  I rubbed my eyes, feeling super overwhelmed. “You say it like it’ll be simple. What if I can’t?” I met his gaze. “What if I refuse?” The question felt a little bit like jumping off a cliff.

  Lucus’s nostrils flared. “All I have to do is tell my brothers what you are and they will—”

  I waved a hand. “End me. Yes, yes. I know.”

  His jaw worked, and his gaze flicked to the magestone, which sat on its side near the new crack in the casting room floor. “Please, Coren. Help me find a way to break the curse.”

  I was his enemy now, a mage. He’d promised to protect me before he’d found out my blood’s secret, but now? Would he really let his brothers kill me? Thinking of the hatred burning in his eyes when he’d first realized I was a mage, I thought perhaps he would. I rubbed my temples. It wasn’t like I really had a choice here. I had to pretend to try and find a way to break this curse, to go along with all of this until I figured out how to get the F out of here and trap them inside.

  “I’ll do it.” I walked to the magestone and bent to pick it up, pausing with my fingers above the multifaceted surface. “Will it freak out again if I touch it?”

  “I don’t believe so. Once it…meets you, it bonds you to the strength of this room and aids your casting.”

  “Bonds me?” This was a reminder of the bond between us. Surely it didn’t really matter. If I ended the immortals’ misery by trapping them in the castle and allowing the curse to kill them all, the fated mate bond would die too, right? I hated thinking like this. I wasn’t a killer. But was it really killing if the magic did the deed? Magic I had zero to do with?

  “It is nothing to worry over. Mages can link their magic to as many casting rooms as they see fit. And can detach the bond when they choose.”

  Bad deed or not, I had to bring them down. I couldn’t actually help them break this curse. Could I? Would Lucus truly be able to control the rest of them? I imagined Titus at his MMA gym, helping a class of teens learn how to do a front kick. In my head, Baccio blasted through the windows and shoved Titus to the mats. What if Kaippa ran free in Franklin? I imagined him sinking his fangs into Ami’s neck, blood spraying across the cash register. My mind churned up a daymare of Hekla in the kitchen, Aurelio stalking her from the shadows, hunger overwhelming any moral call to keep her alive.

  I shivered hard.

  “Two things. How do you know so much about the inner workings of the mages, your enemy? And what happens if I manage to break this curse?”

  Lucus ran the strip of red silk he kept on his belt between his fingers. Lucus might have been a fae, but he sure seemed human sometimes. “The Mage Duke feuded with us for years. Months upon months, I battled with the mages and vampires, spying, killing, working strategies against their combined forces. The night the Mage Duke cast the curse was the night my brothers and I came here to assassinate him. Someone betrayed us. Possibly even one of our own. As for your second question, the one with the hidden question beneath it… All I can say is that I intend to keep my promise to protect the humans who interact with us if you break the curse. I don’t want more death on my hands, and neither does Aurelio.”

  “But Baccio is okay with it.”

  “Most likely.” Lucus sighed and raised his chin to let the sunlight drift over his face. I tried not to enjoy how pretty he was.

  “What about Kaippa?” I asked. “What happens to him?”

  “We will fight. I’d say I will be able to kill him, but vampires are very fast.”

  “Great.”

  Lucus made a sort of hmm sound. Perhaps he found the thought of quick and evil bloodsuckers as distasteful as I did.

  I had to stop them. Even if Lucus and Aurelio weren’t so bad. I had to.

  Did they ever rest? Maybe I could find a way out if they did. Then I could maybe use some of this new power of mine to bar the castle door. Ha. Like I had any clue how to do anything.

  I was still plotting when Kaippa slid into the room, followed by Baccio and Aurelio.

  The vampire actually looked a little shaken. For once, he wasn’t wearing his smirk.

  “I have some badass shapeshifter blood, boys, so watch out.” I had zero idea what I was talking about, but I didn’t want to leave the lie up to Lucus.

  They all looked to him. “I will begin working blood sorcery with her now. We will need quiet and—”

  Kaippa licked his ruby lips, and his bat-like wings unfurled. I’d only seen them once, so the sight of them, so different from fae wings, was a bit of a shocker. They were fleshy and dark gray. I wondered why he bothered to hide them at all considering his general I give no shits attitude. Maybe it was just part of the immortal culture to keep the wings and horns and whatnot hidden away unless anger or excitement came into play.

  “Wait, my fae lord,” Kaippa sneered. “I’m the one who watched the Mage Duke work his spells in this very room. I should be here to help.”

  I gave him a flat stare. “I’m thinking you want to do less helping and more snacking.”

  Baccio and Aurelio studied the fallen candelabras and the crack at the center of the room.

  “We felt the release of her magic in the courtyard.” Baccio bent to touch the crack in the floor. His gaze went up and down my body like he was looking for clues. “That was shifter blood? I had no idea their power was so obvious at the magestone’s touch.”

  Lucus kept his eyes trained on me, avoiding a lie he couldn’t tell. “We can use shifter blood to break the curse or at least weaken it. I know that much. What I don’t know is which spell to use.”

  Grinning, Kaippa walked closer. His swagger was fully engaged, and he pinned his gaze on my throat. “I think you could pay me a little blood for my casting secrets.” The tips of his wings had claws. I shuddered.

  Lucus flew over and landed between us, a sexy growl building in his throat. “Back away, vampire.”

  Baccio and Aurelio were suddenly on either side of Lucus, horns black and wings outstretched.

  I leaned around Lucus to look at Kaippa. “You’re the one trapped in the castle’s curse, not me. I’m pretty sure you’ll be motivated to let us in on all your secrets. Besides, if the Mage Duke trusted you enough to do magic while you were around, why didn’t he help you out of this place when he realized you had been accidentally trapped with your mutual enemies?”

  Kaippa’s eyes widened, and he launched himself at me. Lucus gripped him and dragged him back.

  “I know it’s tempting, but don’t antagonize him,
Coren,” Lucus said.

  “Why not?” I knew what I was doing. Pissing him off would bring out information.

  Kaippa shook Lucus off, and Lucus let him. “Duke Ludovico was not my friend,” Kaippa snapped. “He was my master.”

  He seemed equal parts angry with the man and saddened by what the Duke had done to him. A twinge of sympathy touched my heart, but I really didn’t feel sorry for him. He wasn’t an accidental murderer like Lucus. Kaippa was a killer through and through.

  “But I know where he kept his casting book.” He rolled the ring marked with an L around his finger. Ah. L for Ludovico Sforza.

  Lucus’s lips parted. “Where?”

  “Let me stay.” Kaippa crossed his arms.

  Why did the vampire want to hang out while we tried to break the curse? Was it only curiosity?

  “Agreed,” I said, then turned to Lucus, who was glaring at me all alpha style. “Look. This is my party up in here too now. Deal with it.” I looked at Kaippa. “Now, spill the beans, vamp, and get that book.”

  But before he could take a step, my body jerked like I’d stuck my finger in nine power outlets at once.

  I dropped to the floor.

  Behind Kaippa, the magestone flickered in time with my heartbeat as another shock of magic ran through me. If the others saw that stone light up like that, would they somehow guess I was actually a mage?

  Lucus knelt beside me and placed a hand on my back. “Coren.” He’d said my name, but it felt like someone else’s name. The sounds were too exotic, too lovely, spoken with a reverence saved for loved ones. A thrilling joy filled me as he said my name again, and I fought the happiness down. It was false. Ridiculous. Nonsense. Lucus’s eyes burned with sincerity even though it had to be impossible that he truly felt worried for me, not after learning what I was. “Are you injured?”

  Pleasurable warmth spread from his touch to curl down my torso. The breathtaking shivers of his lure gathered between my legs. I realized I’d closed my eyes. I opened them quickly and found Lucus’s face, a tender, searching look softening his features. The urge to reach up and take his face in my hands, to press my mouth to his parted lips was nearly overwhelming…

  Was this the lure or was this the fated mate bond?

  I pushed away from him, keenly aware of his brothers’ intent gazes. They obviously couldn’t detect the fated mates bond like Kaippa could, because if they knew, they’d most likely be pitching a really good fae fit up in here. But they were far from being idiots. They would figure something out soon, whether it ended up being the fated bond thing or the mage blood issue. Either way—Coren condition = screwed. No way they’d calmly accept either scenario. Blood would be spilled.

  “Okay. I’m fine. Stop.” I gasped as Lucus’s lure dissipated. So some of that had been the feel of the lure. But his face had said he felt something more than that, something deeper and kinder. How did I feel about that? I wasn’t sure. For now, I was on Team Ignore, so I focused on the current issue of why I’d been shocked and thrown to the ground.

  “What was that about?” I stood and dusted myself off. I felt like crap.

  “It was the magic in your shifter blood.” Baccio always sounded like he was snarling. Was he ever in a good mood?

  Kaippa picked up the magestone, then placed it back on its side table. Had he noticed it flashing? Did he realize I was a mage? He met my gaze and shook his head. Mage, he mouthed.

  Shit. Okay, so he’d seen the magestone react and knew. Would he tell Baccio and Aurelio?

  “The presence of fae wakes magic gently, slowly,” Kaippa said, winking at me. “The magestone shocks it out of you and enflames it. You’re just getting used to the power hidden in your shifter blood.” Neither Baccio or Aurelio seemed to notice the way he’d said shifter, as if it was all a grand joke.

  Lucus and I traded a look that was laced in curiosity, wonder, and distrust. Aside from the fated mate bond thing, I wanted to ask him what was going to happen to me for real since my blood wasn’t shifter, since I was really a mage. But of course, we couldn’t talk about it now. That would have to wait.

  Kaippa returned to the center of the room, the spot where I’d first felt the odd buzzing under my skin. He dislodged the center stone, reached inside, and pulled out a slip of thick paper with lines on it.

  “Not much of a magical tome.” I tried to stop shivering. This magic thing was kicking my ass.

  “It’s a key.” Kaippa took the paper and slid it into the space between two stones on the back wall. Nothing happened.

  “A true mage expert, hmm?” Lucus grumbled.

  I grinned at his sarcasm. Grasshopper was learning. “Yeah, Kaippa, what gives?”

  Kaippa tried another spot. Still nothing. “I have to find the right location, then the room will reveal the spell book’s receptacle. The location is related to the ley line we’re currently traveling between appearances.”

  Lucus pointed a finger at the door. “The earth’s energy runs from there, through here, and beyond.” He indicated a line that cut off a three-fourth slice of the circular chamber.

  Kaippa dipped his head and did a little old-fashioned bow that I would now deem the full body sneer. They certainly hadn’t become friends over the last five hundred years.

  He slid the thick paper between the walls in three more places until finally, there was a click.

  And I could not believe what I was seeing.

  Chapter 19

  “Okay.” I threw my hands up in defeat. “I’ve had enough. Fae. Vampires. Shifters. Magic. Castles. I reject this reality.” I pointed at the alcove that had opened when Kaippa had slid the magical paper in the wall. Resting inside was a skull.

  Of a unicorn.

  “Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m seriously done.” I started to walk out of the room, my mind like a freaking dumpster fire of epic proportions, but Aurelio stopped me, gripping my arm in a gentle but firm hold.

  “Coren, please stay.” With his blond hair swept away from his face, his pointed ears were plainly visible. They were a bit longer than Baccio’s and Lucus’s. He’d glamoured his wings and horns away. “For the first time, I feel a small amount of hope. With your shifter blood, you could free us from this prison.”

  “And if I do, will humankind suffer for it?”

  “We will do our best to control ourselves.”

  “He claims he can keep you all reined in.” I jabbed a thumb in Lucus’s direction.

  Baccio snatched the back of my shirt and whirled me around. “Do as we say or you die.”

  “You’re such a perfect bad cop, Baccio. Do you all rehearse this? Tell Lucus he needs to work on the good cop side of things. He’s still an asshole.”

  Lucus took a step toward me, his mouth tight, but he stopped himself from coming to my rescue.

  I ripped my shirt from Baccio’s hand, knowing he let me do it, because damn it, he was far stronger than me. “I prefer Aurelio’s approach to prisoner negotiations, jerk neck.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Such a darling, you are.” I blew him a kiss. “Listen, I know you all can kill me if you want, but you aren’t going to do it. You need me to break this curse, right?”

  “Yes,” Lucus and Kaippa said in unison.

  Kaippa continued. “We must have your living blood for the casting. You can’t be dead if we want it to work.”

  Baccio glared at Kaippa. “Truly? I thought we could work magic with cold shifter blood as well as living blood.”

  Kaippa shrugged. “You can do some magic with dead blood, but not the more complicated spells.”

  Was the vampire lying for me? From the wide-eyed look on Lucus’s face, I guess Kaippa was indeed lying to Baccio and Aurelio for my sake. Kaippa wanted to be free as much as the rest of them, and he knew that because I was actually a mage that I had to be kept alive to do the casting.

  I sighed, feeling like my magic was about to snap on me again. “Fine. Let’s crack open that unicorn skull and see what magic spell
is hidden inside. You know, the spell we’re going to cast with my shapeshifter blood. No big.”

  Shaking my head, I followed Lucus and Kaippa to the formerly hidden alcove. Kaippa removed the skull, keeping one hand on the horn. It looked a lot like a single antler, bone-white and tapering to a deadly point. The skull wasn’t large. Maybe the size of a miniature horse.

  Hekla would’ve loved to see this thing. The thought of my best friend sent a wave of homesickness through me. I missed Hekla’s happy gossip, pumpkin muffins, croissants, jokes in the kitchen…

  Kaippa handed the skull to me. The bone was cool to the touch and smooth. But it appeared empty, no spell book anywhere.

  “What gives?” I looked from Lucus to Kaippa.

  Kaippa’s eyes seemed to blacken even though they were always dark. Now, they seemed to soak in the light from the windows, dimming the entire room. “It needs your blood,” he whispered.

  A chill crept over my back. “Right. Of course. More blood.”

  Kaippa bared his fanged incisors.

  A barely audible growl emanated from Lucus’s throat. “Baccio and Aurelio, leave us. I will feed the trees before the sun is down, and then you can sleep.”

  I glanced at Lucus’s brothers. Baccio opened his mouth to argue, but Aurelio shook his head and led him out of the chamber.

  “Where is that handy dandy knife?” I tried for a joking tone, but my voice shook a little too much to pull it off. I was actually surprised the tiny slice on my palm had already sealed itself shut. That must have been a really sharp blade.

  “No need for a knife.” Kaippa grinned.

  Lucus shoved him backward, and I almost dropped the skull in surprise. Kaippa landed on the floor under the alcove. He laughed, but it came out almost like a sob, and I could see the hunger in his gaunt face.

  “Here, Coren.”

  Lucus handed me the knife, and once again, I cut my palm open. Gods, it hurt like hell. Going on instinct, I smeared the blood over the top of the skull. The buzzing under my skin intensified. I gripped Lucus’s arm in reflex, worrying I was about to get a kapow from my magic and go flying across the room. His skin was hot under my fingers, a hint of his lure sliding across my senses. My mouth felt his gaze like a brand. The bond between us pulsed once, searing, breathtaking. I wanted him. Now. My body surged with desire, my stomach tightening and my mouth going dry.