“I didn’t say I’d take it.” Aurora sat down and poured herself some tea. “Did you hear me? I’m not taking the job. I’m newly married. I have a baby on the way, and I don’t have time to take anything else on my plate at the moment.”
“You’re wearing the crown.” Aurora sipped her tea as CJ cursed, trying to remove the crown that marked her as the queen of faeries. “It wouldn’t have stayed there if you didn’t want the job. Nor if you weren’t going to be good at it. I put that in the spell when I approved it from the faeries. Whatever other things you have going on at the moment will not be nearly as difficult for you if you’d allow someone to help you. I don’t mean any of us, but Don. Did you know he’s very worried about you? That he’s not sure what to do for you?”
“I told him every time he asked—about a million times a day—that I’m fine.” Aurora said she wasn’t. “I am too. I would think that someone as old as rocks and dirt would know to keep out of other people’s business. Christ, don’t you have anything else to do but nib at me?”
“No, not at the moment. I will tell you this if you care to listen. You’re not going to enjoy anything as much as you do being queen, CJ. It will afford you so much power that you’ll never want for another thing.” She told her she wanted them both to leave her the fuck alone. “No you don’t. You’re hurting. I can see it. You feel betrayed, which I would be feeling as well. But most importantly, you feel as if you’ve let down your cousins. You didn’t, child. Their mother did.”
“She killed them both.” Aurora asked if she knew why Pfeiffer had murdered them. “I don’t know. I wish…every hour of every day I wish I’d given them the immortality. Rachel and Sally would still be alive had I only gotten around to helping them.”
“CJ, do you know that when a person is hurt badly—a broken neck, broken skull—that cannot be helped with immortality? A person will live forever but will have those things still with them. Rachel’s head had been bashed in. Pfeiffer had taken an axe to her head. She would have been mentally incapacitated even had she been immortal. I could have taken that from her, but she would have suffered needlessly in the meantime. Sally was much worse. Not only had her head been bashed in, but her spine had been severed. She would not have been able to feed herself. Been able to go to the bathroom. Not anything after her mother had hurt her.”
“I wasn’t allowed to see their bodies. The coroner told me it would be better if I only kept the memories of them when they were alive.” Aurora told her that he was good for telling her that. “It still seems so surreal to know that Pfeiffer had held this grudge against me for so long. Even before I was old enough to figure out I wasn’t really her sister. Now she’s going to be gone from my life, along with her daughters, and I have no family left.”
“That’s not true. You have us. All the faeries. As well as Don and the rest of the kiss. Soon you’re going to have a child that will love you as much as we do. You’ve gained more than you’ve lost. I know it’s a terrible loss. I, too, have lost like this before, but you’re a strong person and will come out all the better for it. At least—and I want you to think about this—at least you’ve been able to find a love who has and will love you unconditionally.” She asked Aurora if she meant Don. “He would be included, but I was talking about myself. And I’m sure Melisandre. We both have taken you to our hearts and will never not be there for you. Also, I know you say you don’t want to be the queen of the faeries, but you really should think of all the good you could do. That I know you will do. You have a brilliant mind, CJ. You also make sure the earth is much better than when you left it.”
“You and I will work well together as well. As I said before, I’ll take the planting seasons part of the job, and you won’t have to worry about that at all. That will leave you all the time you need or want on making sure that all the faeries have what they need. I know Lord Bancroft has set aside a great many acres of land for us to use.” CJ said she knew that. “You will also have the army at your beck and call. More than you do now. All of them will work with you, not just the army you have had. It’s my understanding that Lord Bancroft has given you full authority to take out the bad vampires when you find them. That is such a wonderful thing, my child. To be able to make sure they aren’t hurting the land with their death and mayhem.”
“I need to think about it. And to talk it over with Don.” She eyed her hard. “You’ve already talked to him, haven’t you? You certainly had all your ducks lined up to shoot the shit out of them, haven’t you? Damn it, I don’t want to do this.”
After she left them there to go and speak to Don, Melisandre and Aurora continued to talk as if CJ had already taken the job. It occurred to her that at some point, they were going to have to talk to her about her pay, as well as what was in store for the couple when they did start working with the faeries.
“I have already set
