Beguiled (31 page)

“This is amazing, Aunt Maggie,” Eileen said, trying to look at everything at once as they walked through the palace.

Thanks to Culhane, Maggie had made quite a few more changes to the crystal castle. The walls were now different hues, from pale blue to green, to yellow. Instead of empty, cavernous spaces, rooms were inviting now, with comfy furniture, and paintings on the walls. Fires blazed in every hearth and even the Fae who worked there seemed pleased by the changes.

There was a warmth to the place that it had probably never known before. Plus, this way it didn’t give Maggie the creeps.

She didn’t know if she’d ever get used to the way the palace staff were forever bowing to her, but that was a worry for another day.

“So,” she said, with a glance at her niece, “you’re speaking to me again?”

Eileen scowled, remembering that whole situation with Devon. “Well, you are the Queen and everything. . . .”

“Gee, thanks. Feel the love.” The two of them entered the main dining hall and Maggie looked at her gathered “family”—Nora and Quinn, of course, Culhane, Bezel, Mac and Claire. Along the wall, a brand-new doggie bed held a snoring Sheba. And naturally, Jasic had insisted on joining them.

Since Maggie hadn’t been able to find out anything specific about her grandFae just yet, she’d figured it was a good idea to keep him close enough to watch. But he’d settled into palace life more easily than any of them. It had only been one full day and already, she’d heard that he was keeping the palace staff hopping with his demands. That wasn’t going to fly for long, she promised herself.

Once Maggie and Eileen were seated, dinner was served. Conversations rose and fell around the table as they ate and Maggie tried to listen to everyone at once.

“The baby’s moving around a lot,” Nora whispered to Quinn.

“My son is strong,” he answered.

“I don’t see why Devon can’t come to the palace,” Eileen said to anyone who was listening.

“Female warriors are not a good idea.” McCulloch was lecturing Claire.

“Afraid of a little competition?” Claire countered, making Mac sputter in outrage.

Maggie hid a smile, then listened to Bezel boast. “Gotta get Fontana over here to see me. That crimson tree out back is gonna be perfect for my new house.”

“The pudding is warm,” Jasic complained, tugging at the sleeve of one of the serving Fae as he passed.

Maggie frowned at Jasic, made a mental note to have a chat with Grandpa Faery and looked at Culhane. Now that dinner was mostly over, she asked, “What do you think? Do we tell them now?”

He smiled and nodded.

“Excellent,” Maggie said, “that’s what I thought. Okay, everybody, listen up.”

Instantly, a hush fell over the table and the male Fae servants began to back out of the room.

She waved them back in. “No, you guys stay here, too. This is going to involve everyone who lives in the castle.”

The males looked dumbfounded that not only had their Queen noticed their existence, but had spoken to them directly and included them in whatever it was she was going to say. Maggie sighed.

Culhane had been right about one thing. The males of Otherworld had been treated way too crappy for way too long. She had the distinct impression that good ol’ Mab had never once considered her male subjects’ wants or needs.

Well, Maggie was coming at this from a whole different viewpoint. She was from a world where until the last hundred years or so,
women
had been getting the shaft. Sure, now everyone said that equality had arrived, but women were still overlooked for jobs, paid less for doing the same thing men did
and
they managed to give birth to more men determined to keep them at bug level.

So she was just a touch more understanding about the whole even-steven rule. And she was going to take care of that, fast.

First things first, though. She waited until everyone was looking at her and then she said, “I know you thought we were here just until we settled this thing with Mab. But . . . we’re here in Otherworld to stay, people.”

Everybody spoke at once.

“What about school?” Eileen demanded.

“What about our house?” Nora asked.

“Holy
Ifreann,
it’s about time,” Bezel shouted.

“What about my painting?” Claire wondered aloud.

“Ahhh . . . ,” Jasic sighed with pleasure.

Maggie frowned at him, but let it go for the moment. Instead, she looked at her sister first. “Nor, you know this is where we belong now. Not just me,
you
.”

Nora inhaled sharply and held that breath trapped behind lips clamped tightly together.

“Come on,” Maggie chided. “You float all the time. You’re pregnant with a Fae and you breathe Faery dust almost constantly these days. Somebody’s going to notice if we stay in the human world.”

“But it’s home,” Nora said, with a guilty look at Quinn. “Sorry, honey. Otherworld is nice and everything, but it’s not home to me.”

“It will be,” he assured her.

“It has to be,” Maggie said quietly, reaching out to take her sister’s hand. “Look, I know none of us asked for this. But the truth is, we’re not human anymore, Nora.”

Bezel snorted.

Maggie sent him a glare, then continued talking to her sister. “Not completely human, anyway. Everything’s changed and it’s time we accepted it. You’re turning into a full-Fae and so am I.”

“When do I get to?” Eileen demanded.

Maggie sighed. “The point is, we’re in Otherworld for good.”

“I’m not Fae, Maggie,” Claire put in, and Maggie looked at her friend.

“No, you’re not. But Claire, you’re my best friend. The Fae know that. You wouldn’t be safe in the human world alone.”

She looked as if she might argue for a second or two; then she simply slumped back into her chair. Claire didn’t seem to notice that Mac was grinning like a big dork.

“And we just abandon our house? Our things?” Nora demanded, shifting the conversation back to her.

“You can bring them all with you,” Quinn told her.

“It’s not the same thing,” she said, with another look of apology for him before turning her gaze on Maggie again. “We just walk away from the house Grandpa built practically all by himself?”

Culhane spoke up. “Time runs differently here, remember that. You can be months in Otherworld while a single night has passed in the mortal world. You can return whenever you like.”

“Or bring the blasted house here plank by plank,” Jasic muttered, and motioned for a server to pour him more nectar.

“Huh.” Maggie looked at Jasic for a long minute and realized he was right. They could bring the house here. Set it up in the backyard of the palace if they wanted to. With a little Faery magic, they could make it so the neighbors didn’t even remember the Donovan house having once been there.

Then she shook her head, and added the question of the house to her mental list of things to look into as soon as she had time. For now . . .

“So anyway, you should all know that Claire’s going to be doing a warding spell on the palace tomorrow.”

“It is already warded,” Quinn pointed out. “No enemies of the Queen may enter.”

“Yeah, but that was Mab’s warding,” Maggie told him, and picked up a slice of what looked like a pear. She bit into it, smiled and said, “We need some new ones. With a different kind of punch. Spells Mab won’t be expecting and won’t be able to get around.”

“You can do this?” McCulloch asked.

“I can,” Claire told him, smiling at Maggie.

“Besides,” Maggie added, “it’s not just
my
enemies we have to worry about. Eileen’s in danger. So is everyone who even knows me.” She groaned internally at that. She’d somehow become like Typhoid Mary or something. She was just the center of some big black tornado that sucked in everyone she cared about.

To protect them, she was going to have to seal them up inside a Faery palace. Oh yeah. This was going to be fun.

“It’s not your fault, Maggie,” Nora said, trying to smile through her fears.

Wasn’t it? Maggie wasn’t so sure. This had all started because she’d killed a demon and inhaled the Fae dust it was carrying. If she hadn’t gone to her ex-boyfriend’s place that day, none of this might have happened. Or, another voice in her mind pointed out, Culhane was right and this had all been destined from the beginning of her life. This was where she would have ended up no matter what.

The trouble with destinies, she thought, was that they were continually being rewritten. She had no guarantee that she was going to survive all of this. Nothing was written in stone about how
long
her reign was supposed to be.

So she had to do the best she could with the information she had at the time. And suddenly, she had a lot more sympathy for presidents and kings and queens. They were probably all stumbling around in the darkness, hoping to make the right decisions.

“Anyway,” Maggie told everyone seated at the table while she plastered on a happy face and a bright smile so brittle it felt as though it might crack her face, “that’s the story for the short term. New spells. New home. New way of life. Everybody excited?”

That question was met with glowers, complaints and hushed mutters filled with worry.

“Yeah,” she muttered, reaching for her wineglass, “right there with you all.”

Hours later, Culhane held Maggie close and buried his face in the curve of her neck. Her scent filled him, wrapped itself around him and held him in a grip as gentle as it was tenacious. Behind the locked doors of the Queen’s chamber, the two of them came together on the luxurious bed as soft breezes drifted through the open windows to slide across their skin and the scent of flowers filled the air.

“You were magnificent, Maggie,” he whispered, hands skimming along her naked body, loving how she arched into his touch. “You are the Queen I always knew you would be.”

She blew out a breath, sighed a little, then rolled over to lie on top of him. Flesh to flesh, heat to heat, she rubbed her body along his and Culhane hissed in air through gritted teeth. His cock swelled, his body ached to join with hers.

“It’s not your Queen who needs you at the moment, Culhane,” she said, going up on her knees to straddle him. She reached down, curled her fingers around his thick shaft and smiled at him. “It’s just me. Maggie Donovan.”

“You are she and she is you,” Culhane told her with a groan as she rubbed and stroked him until he felt as though he might explode. “The Queen and Maggie are interlocked now. One does not exist without the other.”

She frowned and in the soft lamplight, she looked more beautiful to him than she ever had before. Golden light spilled over her, making her skin appear luminous. Her blue eyes shone and glittered with an inner pride.

She had finally accepted her duty. Her destiny. She had come to the palace and already was turning everything in Otherworld on its head. This would not be an easy transition, but he knew she had been born for this.

And he had been born to be at her side.

For so long, he’d expected merely to serve as her consort. To rule Otherworld through her. But he knew now, there would be nothing at all without her. That he would be empty without her. She had become the best part of him.

Shaking her thick dark red hair back from her face, she looked down at him and whispered, “In this room, Culhane, we’re not Queen and Warrior, okay? Here, we’re just
us
. Here, what we have together is all that matters.”

“You are right, Maggie,” he told her, watching her breathlessly as she rose up on her knees. “Here, we are two lovers caught in our own storm.”

“Now that,” she sighed as she slowly, inch by tantalizing inch, lowered herself onto him, “sounds wonderful.”

Culhane groaned, arched up, pushing his body into hers, forcing her to take him faster, harder than she’d planned. He watched her face as he filled her. Watched her tip her head back in pleasure as his body claimed hers completely.

She moaned and swiveled her hips atop him, grinding her center against him, twisting and writhing, making them both fight for air, fight for release.

Her breasts swayed with her movements and he lifted his hands to cup them, his thumb and forefingers tweaking and pulling at the hardened nipples until she gasped and offered herself more fully into his touch.

She was all. Everything. Whether she wanted to believe it or not, even in this room, she was a queen.
His
Queen.

His hands dropped to her hips and he guided her as she moved on him, rocking her body in a timeless rhythm. Releasing his body only to reclaim it again a moment later. The smooth slide of his body into hers tore at him, rending his heart, his soul.

He felt her inner muscles bunch and tighten, fisting around him, squeezing him as she rode the first thundering wave of her climax. She called out his name and he tightened his hold on her hips, holding her down, pinning her to his body as she quivered and shook with the force of their joining.

Groaning, Culhane pumped up and into her until the same wash of sensation took him over and he surrendered to the pleasure of emptying himself inside her heat.