Page 27 of Faerie Hunted

“How…old are you, Barbara?”

“Old enough to know you never ask a woman her age, girl. Haven’t you learned anything? But to slake your curiosity, I’m nearly 500 years old. And I’ve spent the last three hundred or so of those years doing whatever it took to hack my way into this cursed fucking palace.”

The pieces fit together, finally clicking into place. My mouth rounded in an O and a small groan of distress got past my defenses.

“Queen Laina is your daughter.”

No. Way.

A low moan escaped my thinned lips.

Barbara sighed. “I know what you’re thinking. Your thoughts are as loud as you are. You’re wondering how she can be so beautiful and I look like this? Well, it takes a whole lot of magic to get into this realm. Magic comes at a cost. Didn’t I tell you that once?”

So she’d given away most of her beauty to gain the power to get to this point.

I dropped my head to my knees. “I’m so sorry.” It was my turn to apologize. “I can’t imagine how it must feel to be separated from your kid.”

Hadmymother tried, like Barbara, to get to me even when things felt hopeless? I had to hope.

“I wanted Tywin to pay for taking my child, not only the marriage but for accepting the absolutely ridiculous trade my own husband made, may he rest in eternal fucking misery, in the first place. That’s why I did what I did. And I almost succeeded.”

Barbara sounded wistful.

“You wanted me to give you theImperiumso you’d have enough magic to get to Tywin,” I said.

Barbara sighed again. “I’m the Scooby Doo villain in this case, girl. I’ve lived in the mortal realm for too long.”

“Five hundred years old and you still weren’t powerful enough to actually kill the king.”

Which meant no one would be able to. If she couldn’t accomplish it with theImperium?—

“Hey, I got through the wards and put that son of a bitch in a coma. Not nearly far enough, as far as I’m concerned, but I’ll never stop trying. My daughter is worth more to me than anything else. She’s everything.”

It made so much sense now. Laina was a half witch and had to hide her truth from everyone. Tywin of course knew exactly who he’d married and all about Laina’s past.

He must have constantly been on guard expecting an attack. That Barbara had managed to get into the castle and reach him was nothing short of a miracle.

TheAugundae Imperiumshould have been able to do so much more, though. It had been heralded as one of the most powerful weapons in existence. Yet it failed to kill Tywin, and Cosmo Foxfall destroyed it easily.

So what had happened?

“Now we’re never getting out of here and I still haven’t been able to reach my daughter. That’s the rub, isn’t it?”

“What about your doomsday prepping?” I wanted to know.

“Wouldn’t you prepare for the end if you knew an entire kingdom would be coming after you? I had enough supplies for me and Laina.”

But what about her grandson?

The knot in my chest began to twist and writhe as though it was alive. Mike was Barbara’s grandson. Holy fuckballs. Oh, god, why did it make me feel so strange to consider?

The lights suddenly flashed on with such intensity that pain shot through my skull from front to back. The world exploded and dark spots danced in front of my eyes until I got control of myself.

Footsteps sounded, and seconds later a familiar form swam into view.

“Mike?” I scrambled up and gripped the bars, using them to haul myself up to my feet. “Mike, what are you doing here?”

He stared at me without sparing a glance at the prisoner in the other cell.

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