Page 64 of The Fae Menagerie
"She won't," he said. "Grandmother refused the crown, and she can't give it to me, so she's stuck as the lowest royal of the light court."
"Lowest royal?"
He sat up and leaned his back against the viewing couch. He waited to answer until I was seated beside him with a blanket wrapped around me. "Anthousai used to have their own pixie court, but we have always been part of the light court. There are too few pixies to run our castle, at least, there were after the wasp war. Mother moved us to the light palace, home of the summer court. Instead of an entire castle, she now has a suite of rooms and a courtyard throne."
"Is she happy there?"
"She's happy to be away from Grandmother, who still lives at the castle alone."
"Your grandmother, the surrogate for the king and his consort."
He nodded. "My grandmother, who refused her fated mate."
"Did she ever tell you why?"
"No." He sighed. "She only told me to beware the curse of the fated mates."
Something about my frown made him snort a laugh.
"Don't be angry with her. My grandmother is a sweet old lady who lives in a rundown castle with a bunch of pixies."
Maybe that were true, but Doyle also looked haunted every time he mentioned her, which wasn't often. He'd been suspiciously quiet when I'd read her history, as well. While the book had been full of flowery words fit for a flower fae queen, it had been vague. The more I'd read, the more questions I'd asked, and the book had answered none of them.
"Who is her fated mate? Are they still living?"
Doyle nodded, and then he pointed toward Horace's enclosure. "Locked in here, same as me."
"Horace?"
"Oh, gods no. Horace has a beautiful cuddlebug wife and all these adorable children. No. The next enclosure over."
I knew there were other enclosures in the menagerie. He pointed in the direction the giant basilisk had come from. I didn't know how many enclosures, or the creatures in them. "You mean there was another enclosure between us and the basilisk?"
"There's an entire row of enclosures between us and the basilisk. Most of the other prisoners were too small for the basilisk to care. Phiste can give just as good as the beast. She must have been sleeping. She's also more active at night."
"What is she?"
He shrugged. "Gorgon."
"Wait. You have basilisks and gorgons? One creature that can turn you to stone isn't enough?"
"She can't turn people to stone." Doyle shook his head as he laughed. "She's half woman, half snake, and more beautiful thanany fae has a right to be. Unfortunately, she only has eyes for my grandmother, which is why she's trapped in here."
"For what crime?" My pulse sped up, certain I already knew the answer.
"Being Grandmother's fated mate."
"That's awful."
"She wouldn't take no for an answer and blockaded Grandmother in her castle for a year. She somehow forgot we can fly. When Grandmother ate through all the stores in her larder, she marched up to the second floor and flew out the window, right over Phiste's head. A court of pixies convicted her and sentenced her to life in the menagerie."
"Life."
"She'll live as long as grandmother, thanks to their year together. They were on the opposite sides of the castle walls long enough to form the mate bond."
"Why isn't that in the books?" I asked. That would have been a much more interesting story.
"I'm sure there are books. I prefer the romances to the historicals." He sighed. "That's why Grandmother will never step foot in the menagerie. Mate bonds could destabilize the magic."
