The Queen Revealed (35 page)

Chapter Fifty-Two

“But When the Fire Goes Out”

Rainere watched as the men around him pulled themselves to their feet and made to follow their Queen back to Belvoir. He had designed the portal to land at a point at the border closest to the Belvoir Manor. They would only have a short walk back, no more than a mile.

Through the Mark on his side, Rainere could feel Adelena’s thoughts flash to him and away again. He couldn’t make out her every thought or read her mind, but the Mark let him feel a connection to her so deep that when she thought of him, it was as if she spoke to his face. The connection was fascinating, but, at this point, also very painful.

He could feel that Adelena was confused and bewildered. She longed to take comfort from him, but couldn’t find her way back to trusting him as she had once. He would have to be gentle with her. Though with the danger of the Spider Empress now passed they no longer had to marry with such haste, he could not imagine having her so far from him again. Leaving her alone at the Golden Palace with her children would be impossible. Until Rainere could be sure of what the High Wizard Ohren wanted from Adelena he would be keeping her safely by his side at the Grey Palace.

Rainere was surprised Adelena didn’t even turn to look at him as she walked to the edge of the magical boundary between the Dark Forest and the Belvoir Estate.

She didn’t mean to leave him here alone?

“Adelena,” Rainere called out, not caring who heard the desperate note in his voice.

Adelena froze and though her back was still to him he could feel her feelings toward him churn and swell in her mind.

“Adelena, don’t leave me like this,” he begged, pouring every ounce of passion into his plea. “You have to know everything I did, I did to protect you. If I had had any idea the Spider Empress would betray me like that, I would never have taken Natalie to her. I love you,
cara mia
, and I love your children.”

Adelena finally turned to face Rainere. He drank in every feature on her finely-drawn face. She was exquisite. She was the image of love painted on his heart.

“Love,” she said quietly. “That’s a funny word to use to describe your deception and ambition, Prince Rainere.”

Rainere gasped and grabbed at his side where the Mark burned him with the force of her emotions. “
Cara mia
, please, don’t,” his voice was rough with pain.

“I am not your
cara mia
!” Adele suddenly shouted. “I never was! You
lied
to me and you
used
me, and all you ever wanted was this crown off my head.”

Rainere took a step toward her, crossing the fire. If he could just hold her again, he could make her understand. She had to understand he had done it all for her.

“No!” And his shout was as fierce as hers. “I
do
love you and it was for that love that I have turned my whole world upside down, Adelena. I betrayed my Family name, my vows, and The Blood itself for you, woman. You have no idea what it cost me to protect you from this world!”

“What is it exactly that have you protected me from?” asked Adelena, and swung her arms wide encompassing the whole group of tired men and her sleeping daughter. “We almost
died
tonight!”

Even now, in the shuddering firelight, covered in disintegrated spiders and wet with the filthy water from the tunnels, she still looked beautiful. But the hatred that she felt for him was flooding through the Mark and filling him with despair. Her love was the most precious thing that Rainere had ever been given, and he would not let it go without a fight. After all he had been through to get her into his arms, she couldn’t just walk away from him tonight.

“I might have lied, but you lied, too, Adelena,” he said, and the green tears dripped down his cheeks unnoticed. “After all those years we had together in our dreams, and then finding you here, you told me you had waited for me, then you refused to be my bride.  You told me you had no Magic and then you hurt me worse than I had ever been hurt before. You told me you didn’t think you were a Queen, but you wouldn’t give your Crown to me. I trusted you to tell me who you really were and it turned out that you are one of The Blood and not St. Lucidis at all, and you knew that. You promised to marry me. You vowed that you would love me always…”

“You forced that promise out of me,” Adelena hissed back. “I
never
wanted to marry you, or anyone else ever again.”

Rainere gasped. Finally, he had the truth. She had never wanted to keep him forever. A painful stab of self-loathing slipped between Rainere’s ribs and this time the emotions had nothing to do with Adelena’s.

Of course she had lied. How could she love me when no one else ever has?

Adelena continued screaming at him, but he no longer heard her words. It was enough to know the way she truly felt about him. His eyes dropped to the ground and his knees soon followed.

But how could she hate him so quickly now when he had only ever loved her and risked his Immortal soul to protect her in this world? Rainere closed his eyes against her tirade of pain and hurt. Her language had turned ugly and guttural… she was no longer his sweet Adelena. This night had woken a monster inside of her and he didn’t know this part of Adelena at all. This part she had kept hidden, even from herself. Rainere could feel the undercurrent of mad joy that Adelena took in screaming at him now. The monster was daring him to speak, daring him to retaliate.

“Adelena,” he whispered, opening his eyes to look up at the twisted demon she had become.  Before him, she was wreathed in shadows, her eyes burning with an eerie mix of green and gold lights. Her face was transfigured with rage and she spat down at him words of hate. He searched her face desperately for the woman he loved. “Come back to me,
cara mia
. Please.”

She finally stopped speaking and dropped her face down close to his. Her mouth was close enough to kiss.

“You need to go and find the deepest pit in Hell. You will crawl to the bottom of that pit and there you will spend every last day of your endless life knowing with absolute clarity just how much I hate you. Right up until the day I stop thinking of you at all.” Adelena placed her hand over Rainere’s hand where it was pressed to his side. He ached for the touch and leaned into her only to recoil from the vicious blow she sent him through the Mark.

Rainere fell to the ground. His ears were ringing and his head buzzed and spun sickeningly. He couldn’t pull a breath into his lungs and didn’t feel Grotto when he dropped to the Prince’s side and started banging on his chest.

Rainere fought to gain control of his neck muscles, just enough so that he could turn and follow Adelena with his eyes. His heart stuttered and burst in his chest and he was aware, dully, of just how frantic Grotto was now.

Am I dying?
But the thought was almost a relief. This way he wouldn’t have to live without her again. He saw the doorway into the Great Darkness beyond and felt his soul reluctantly step toward it. Freedom blew in the doorway and tasted like the North Wind. If he could just pass through, he would be free.

He could make out Adelena’s ruined shoes as she walked away from him, but hot tears kept blurring his vision and burning his eyes.

“Your Majesty, is he? I mean…” Charlie asked, giving Rainere a look that was heavy with pity.

“I said, we are done here,” snapped Adelena, not even sparing Rainere a glance, as she took her daughter back from Captain Lucky.

As she passed through the Magic barrier between the two lands, Rainere gasped as he felt Adelena’s emotions instantly withdraw from his body. He cried out in agony as the Immortality Curse forced his heart to beat again and pulled air back into his lungs. Within moments, he was recovered. The doorway to the Beyond receded and left his vision.

Rainere howled in rage, as the tears slipped from his eyes and cursed his eternal life. If he couldn’t have Adelena, then he didn’t want to be alive anymore. He wouldn’t go back to the hollow, empty Hell that had been his life before her.

He just couldn’t.

Chapter Fifty-Three

“And They All Lived…”

Adele felt the curse of Belvoir this time. The Chime Voices called out and went silent, as the Magic left her, or was covered by something. She couldn’t be sure which. Just as instantly, her savage anger left her and she felt weak enough to need to grab General Ohrig’s arm for support.

Natalie murmured in her arms and shifted her head. Adele gazed down at her little girl and smiled. “Natalie, I love you, my precious girl.” She bent down and lay a light kiss on her daughter’s lips. She held her breath, frozen in that position, until she felt Natalie’s mouth move against her own.

Adele pulled back and watched closely as Natalie’s eyelids fluttered and ever so slowly opened.

“Oh, Natty!” Adele clutched her daughter tight to her chest. “Oh, baby. You are okay. You are okay, my sweet girl.”

Adele let the tears stream down her face, as she relished the feel of Natalie’s living, breathing body in her arms. Her daughter was healthy and alive.

Natalie pulled her face from her mother’s heaving chest and looked around in confusion. She searched the faces of the Queen’s Guard before looking over Adele’s shoulder. She sent Charlie a small smile and an inquiring look.

“Hey, Charlie! Where is Prince Rainere?”

Chapter Fifty-Four

“Outrun the Storm, Little Queen”

Adele and her group returned to find Belvoir Estate in an uproar and though she could understand why, she still had no patience for it.

Tilburn was nursing a horrible case of guilt and could not believe he had left Adele to the mercy of the Prince’s household because of his claustrophobia. He chose to make it up to Adele by following her every command to the letter, with no questions. So, when she asked for the Royal party to be ready to leave by noon, Tilburn ran and screeched about the Manor until it was done.

Adele had marched right up to her suite and after ordering her Queen’s Guard to do the same, she had headed straight for her bath and vigorously scrubbed herself clean of dead Spider dust and the filth that felt ingrained in her pores.

The children were happy to be welcomed into the bathroom and Adele took solace from their conversations and teasing. Stella was clingy after being away from her mother for the day and wouldn’t let Adele out of her sight again.

After washing, Adele dressed in her regular travelling clothes and ignored the long gown that Lady Olivia had laid out. She saw the children were dressed the same way and then hustled everyone down to the carriages at Tilburn’s word.

In the entrance hall, Adele saw her Queen’s Guard all wearing clean uniforms and somber expressions on their pale faces. She felt a stab of pity for them. Draining Rainere of so much energy had left her feeling strong, despite the curse of Belvoir, but she could imagine how exhausted they all were. She approached General Ohrig and gave him a reassuring smile.

“We must get back to the Golden Palace as soon as we can, General,” she said. “But I will keep one of the carriages free for the men to take breaks when we are clear of the Estate.”

“It’s kind of you to have that concern for your Queen’s Guard, Your Majesty,” said Ohrig, loud enough for his voice to carry to the men gathered in the doorway. “But if, Your Majesty, can carry on after what you’ve been through this day, then your Queen’s Guard will carry on right beside you.”

Adele smiled as the men cheered their General, and all bowed to her respectfully. General Ohrig gave Adele one of his dry smiles and quietly added, “Or until we collapse. The money is on Pepper as the first one to fall.”

Adele gave Ohrig a pat on the arm as they descended the steps to the waiting carriages to let him know she appreciated the humor, but she wouldn’t ever bet against any of these wonderful men. She couldn’t believe that her Queen’s Guard had been to Hell and back for her in the last twenty-four hours. QGs Leith and Pepper looked older than they had before, and QGs Owens and Bear looked more humble. Only Captain Lucky appeared unchanged, but perhaps his blue eyes were a little less open, and a little wiser now.

“Your Majesty!” A panicked voice called out from the doorway of the Manor. Adele motioned the nannies to stuff the children and their dogs into the carriages. All except Stella, who clung to her mother’s arms.

Prince Bertrand II flew down the steps of the Manor, his riding coat waving behind him like a cape. He was red-cheeked and sweating, as if he had ridden hard to be here now.

“Your Majesty, we were all so worried about you. What happened at the Grey Palace?” asked Bertie. “When you missed the Steeplechase yesterday, I was terribly concerned, but then you arrived this morning, out of the forest and across the fields, only to leave again in such haste. Has something happened to Pere Raven? I haven’t seen him yet.”

“Pere Raven hasn’t returned?” said Adele sharply. “We left him at the chapel, I thought…”

Adele went silent at a warning cough from General Ohrig. He was right to be cautious. With all that had happened and the mysterious disappearance of the priest, they couldn’t know whom to trust yet.

“You lost him!” squawked Bertie before recovering himself enough to lower his tone. “Do you think he is still at the Grey Palace, Your Majesty? If he is there, then I will need your help to recover him. By the Goddess, I had no idea that Prince Rainere was capable of kidnapping a priest. He seemed like such a nice man.”

“Consider it done, Bertie,” replied Adele quickly. She had no idea what Rainere would or wouldn’t do to a priest of the Church, now that he had no bride to marry anymore. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must get back to the Golden Palace immediately.”

But Bertie would not be thwarted so easily. He looked up at Adele as she awkwardly mounted the carriage steps with Stella still in her arms. “Your Majesty, is there is anything I should know? If there is trouble coming, then…well, then, I hope you know that the Belvoir Family will always stand at your back, sure and true. You are a gift to our land, Queen Adelena, and we are your subjects, despite, and I hope you understand me when I tell you this, despite the whims of Wizards.”

Adelena looked into Bertie’s concerned frown and noticed his blue eyes were flecked with green shards. Adele smiled at the old Prince and touched his hand where it gripped the carriage door. “I understand, Bertie, and thank you,” she said quietly. “Keep the Curse of Belvoir safe. We may need your hospitality again soon.”

Bertie nodded, frowning even more deeply, and stepped back from the carriage. He lifted his hand in a half-hearted farewell before returning to the doorway of his manor to watch the carriages leave.

Adelena sat back against the plush cushions of her seat and felt the familiar roll of nausea in her stomach. But now she knew that as soon as they left the grounds of Belvoir Estate, she would be well again. She stroked Stella’s back and noticed her daughter had a slight temperature. The baby was almost asleep in her arms, which was unusual at this time of day, but not if she was feeling unwell.

General Ohrig rode alongside Adele’s carriage window. He looked in, giving her a nod.

“Ride hard, Your Majesty?”

“As hard as we can, General,” said Adele grimly. “I’ve got a feeling that this time, we are bringing the storm with us.”

THE END