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.
“She is a mage.” The female fae raised one fair eyebrow, her grin ringing alarm bells in my head before vines exploded from the ground and swallowed me whole.
Fae World Yew Queen Book Two
Preface
Thanks for starting book two of the Yew Queen series! I’m having such a blast writing Coren and Lucus’s story. It’s been fun to create a fantasy set in my own hometown of Franklin, a little spot south of Nashville. I get to imagine the cursed castle on the road I take home after teaching my MMA classes, and I write at Frothy Monkey, a coffeehouse near where Coren and Hekla’s bakery would be if it were real. As I walk to my car, I can almost hear them talking about chocolate croissants and how hot Lucus’s horns are. ;)
I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did writing it!
I’d like to take a second to thank my editor Laura Josephson, my Typo Hunters and ARC readers, the Noble Order for online support and so much more, my lovely friends who motivate me in real life, my sister for reading the naughty bits, and my amazing family near and far.
May you find your very own unicorn of darkness,
Eve
Copyright © 2020 by Eve A. Hunt
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book
