Page 89 of Destined for the Fae King

Nothing smart comes to mind, so I keep mymouth shut.

“It denotes your position as queen,” Cora says confidently.

“That it does,” Elaine replies, focusing on her. “But what else? Why does it do that?”

Cora shifts in her seat, her lips pursing. “The shaft is similar to the Spear of Shielding. I assume it’s meant to represent that, since it’s the Queen of Fire who is tasked with guarding it.”

Is it? I sit a little straighter and shift forward in the seat for a better look. I’ve studied the spear, all of the sacred fae relics, but I always focused more on what they did and why they were important, not so much what they looked like.

“Very close, dear.” Elaine runs her hand down the length of the shaft. “Very close. But it’s not I who guard the spear so much as I am meant to use it to guard us all in times in of danger, as the next queen—one of you—will be tasked to do as well.”

The answer she’s leading us toward rears up before me, and I don’t stop to think before blurting, “Your cane is the spear.”

Pride radiates from her as she turns toward me. “Very good.”

“But how?” Adeline asks, echoing the question in my head. “It doesn’t look like it.”

All the women have moved closer, some rising from their seats, others leaning in.

The Spear of Shielding. A sacred and powerful fae relic. Right there. A foot away from me. I hold tighter to the edge of the bench to steady myself as the realization tries to knock me off kilter. I’ve been near it so many times and had no idea.

“The shaft can extend.” The dowager traces her fingers over some of the engravings. “A push here. A twist there. And the spear point itself, the real power of the thing, remains, carefully hidden.” She taps the top of the cane before running her hand along the wider part of the shaft. “As I aged, we had itadjusted so that it could remain with me should I have need of it, but this”—she taps the top—“can be easily shattered, should the time call for it.”

“It’s smaller than I expected,” I admit, still wondering at design of it and the enchanted point of metal that lingers just underneath a carefully crafted cover of sorts.

“Small things can make the biggest impacts,” Elaine replies. “Don’t let its size or appearance make you doubt its strength.”

The gleam in her eye makes me wonder if she’s speaking more about herself than the object in her hand.

“You can still use it?” Adeline has shifted so far to the edge of her seat I’m surprised she hasn’t fallen off. But her question is a solid one. Everything I’ve read says the spear is most effective when wielded by a human bearing a fae mark, or mating bond.

“My mate, my husband, may be long dead, but the shadow of his mark remains upon me still.” The queen touches her abdomen, the likely spot where the remnants of his mark still linger on her skin. For it to have lasted so long after death, they must really have loved one another. “I can still wield the spear and use its power to shield us, but the effect is not nearly as strong or wide as it was in my youth when my mate still lived. But you see, that is why I must remain close to you all in this dangerous time. Should the worst happen and the Unseelie reach us here, I can protect you until help comes for us.”

The admission strips some of the heat from my skin. She must think it a possible outcome, given how staunch she’s been in staying near us. That realization seems to settle in on some of the others too. Grace hugs her arms around herself. Adeline slides back in her seat, Gabriella moving closer to her, her eyes downcast.

“That is why you wish the king to marry,” Gabriella says into the quiet that has formed. “So another can use the spear.”

“One reason. But I also hoped it might center him. Calm his wilder impulses.” Elaine shakes her head, gaze downcast.

“A strong woman can do that,” Gabriella says.

“She can,” the queen agrees. “And he needs it.”

It’s too bad he doesn’t seem to want that. Or didn’t… It’s hard to say, given how he’s reacted to Bailey’s death.

“You could choose for him,” Cora says. She holds her head a little higher, and there’s no question she’s hoping the dowager will select her. Just when I thought we’d truly put the competition on hold.

Thankfully, Elaine is a smart woman. “Not now. Not with…” She waves her hand, not wanting to speak what we all know. “He will return, and we will find a way to move forward.”

“So, what should we do until then?” Katherine asks.

The absolute most painful thing that can be asked of anyone. “We wait.”

Chapter 35

Waiting is agony. ThoughI try to spend every moment with the other women to escape my thoughts, my mind keeps trapping me in one nightmare after another. What if Lysandir’s vision of fire meant death? What if I marry the king because Lysandir dies in this battle, and divulging the truth could have prevented it? Being married and bound to his brother while Lysandir lived would be a torment, but he would be alive. And life… Life offers possibility, whereas in death there are none.

It’s that nightmare, the worries and what-ifs, that have me clinging to Lysandir’s ring almost constantly. It’s the first thing I reach for when I open my eyes in the morning and the thing I’m clutching when I close them at night.

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