“What do we do now?” Mina asked.
“We?” Queen Maeve scoffed. “You’ve done enough.”
“Now, Maeve,” Lucian chastised.
She gave him a seething look. “I wouldn’t trust that human any more than I’d trust a sea witch.”
“Well, she can’t be all human. You saw how the bowl reacted to her in the test. She’s strong, and… ahem… our son has a fondness for the girl. She could be our only hope.”
“You once came to me for help,” Mina reminded the Fates. “When the Grimoire ended up in the hands of a renegade Reaper, you sent me after it to protect a part of your son.”
“That Reaper would have destroyed him—or worse, reunited him with himself.”
“But I saved him, at least a part of him.”
“You were the one who turned him into the beast that he is now! He wasn’t like this until that night in the tower. That night that you poisoned our son against us.”
“You don’t know what happened, do you?”King Lucian turned to her, looking extremely interested. “What exactly happened?”
“He was stabbed with the dagger of Erjad, and he was dying, but I healed him… Only I didn’t know that a piece of the dagger was still inside. It changed him and turned him into…” She trailed off, not needing to say any more about their son.
“And how did this dagger end up in our son? You were the one who was with him.” King Lucian’s eyes glowed, and Mina felt pressure around her throat. She grasped at the power that began to strangle her. So that’s where Teague got his temper.
Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to breathe. She looked at the king’s glowing eyes, and she wasn’t afraid. She closed her own eyes and imagined his power snapping back on the king like a rubber band. She felt the power break.
King Lucian cried out in pain. He gasped, looking at her in awe. “How did you do that?” A small smile formed at the corner of his lips. “You used my own power against me.”
Mina ignored the king, rubbing at her throat. She stared directly at Queen Maeve and said two words. “The Godmothers.”
Queen Maeve sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I wondered. They’ve always had it out for the ruling family. But they used to be mere pests, with the occasional assassination attempt. They believe we are evil dictators.”
Mina raised an eyebrow and scoffed. “Do you blame them? Look what’s come to pass. They acted based on a prophecy that foretold all of this. Do you know what it’s like to watch your loved ones being hunted—toyed with—only to fall victim to mindless quests? In fact, they weren’t quests. They were traps. You never intended to break the curse over my family.”
“Of course not. Teague was set on destroying your family, no matter what we did. We could neither stop him nor close the gates between the planes—not when our son was on the human plane.
Tears of frustration filled Mina’s eyes. “Well, you should have. He would have been happy—at least a part of him would have. I would have seen to that. And then Teague wouldn’t have killed my family.”
“Perhaps there is truth in what you say. But it’s too late for that now,” Queen Maeve admitted sadly.
“What about splitting him again?” Mina asked, her voice filled with desperation.
“We never wanted him split. Just his powers bound.”
“The first who attempted and failed now sleeps in stone at the bottom of the lake.” King Lucian’s voice carried an edge of anger, and Mina couldn’t help but wonder if he referred to the siren.
“The second Fae split him into two. Although she didn’t fail, she didn’t do what we asked. That sprite was not who she said she was, and we banished her to the human plane,” Queen Maeve said.
“Oh,” Mina said sadly.
“Even if we were able to split him again, there’s no guarantee that Teague’s personality would divide down the same path. You could end up with two different personas of the current Teague,” the queen said sadly. “And as dangerous and unpredictable as he is, I’m not sure that’s worth the risk.”
“Plus he would never let us get that close to him again,” King Lucian said. “We barely escaped with our lives at our last encounter. You on the other hand…” His voice trailed off as he studied her thoughtfully.
“How?” Mina asked. “You’re the ruling Fates. How did one boy overpower the both of you?”
Queen Maeve looked pained at the question. She brought her finger up to her lips and made a shushing noise. “Follow us.”
She beckoned Mina to follow her through the reeds. A few feet away, the grass parted before the Fates, mud slurping out of the way, reeds bending backward to clear a path so they could move to an area outside of the swamp. They walked to a grove of willow trees.
King Lucian pulled the low hanging branches apart and let his wife enter the shelter of one, and then Mina. As Mina passed through, she could hear the faint sound of crying.
Apparently, in the Fae plane, the willows really did weep. Mina had never seen a weeping willow so large or beautiful. Its long, hanging branches appeared more white than green as they formed a swaying rooftop.
Within the protection of the boughs, King Lucian waved his hand, and gold magic wove up and around the tree, encasing them within a cage of power.
“No!” Mina rushed to the side, but King Lucian stopped her.
“Don’t touch the ward. You will be instantly killed.”
Those words didn’t make her feel any safer. She pulled away from the king and stood awkwardly in the center of the cage.
“It’s only a sound barrier to keep prying ears from hearing,” Queen Maeve waved her hand, and silver willow branches slowly dropped from above to form a small swing for the queen to sit in. She smoothed out her skirts and watched her husband expectantly.
King Lucian rubbed his beard and nodded. He prepared to sit on air, when a large purple mushroom formed beneath him, creating the perfect stool.
Mina felt a little bit perturbed that no one offered her a seat, but why should they? They were the Fates. They created their own seats. Using anger more than common sense, Mina focused on a small blue flower. Envisioning what she had in mind, she felt the prickle of power come to her and pushed it toward the flower.
She couldn’t hold back the smirk when the flower grew and morphed—not into just a larger version of itself. Three of the petals grew exponentially larger, one creating the back and two others forming armrests. Mina didn’t just create for herself a chair to sit on in front of the Fates. She went so far as to challenge them by fashioning herself a flower throne. She was about to sit on her throne when she noticed how covered in mud she was.
Well, that wouldn’t do. She pushed the power and made the mud disappear from her clothes. Then, crossing her legs, she settled back in the throne and waited.
King Lucian laughed. “Well done. Well done, girl. I see you have not only power, but sass. I like that. I like that very much.”
Queen Maeve just shook her head at her husband’s verbal adoration.
“You were about to say?” Mina prompted them with a nod of her head. Her smile did not dim in the light of the king’s laughter.
