Fae's Defiance (Queens of the Fae Book 2) Read online

  “The queen is bringing your breakfast herself. I suggest you get up and comb that rat’s nest on your head.” Rowena tossed a fluffed pillow on her head and went to make a ruckus in the closet.

  “Which queen?” Brea yawned as she sat on the edge of her bed. What was the point of living in a palace if you couldn’t sleep all day?

  “The queen is always Faolan. We call her consort Queen Tierney to avoid confusion.”

  “Do I have time for a bath first?” Brea could use a cold shower to wake up, but the fae didn’t believe in things like quick showers. At least not among the nobles. They believed a bath should be an event, something to enjoy—which she was all for, but a hot bath in the morning did nothing to wake Brea up.

  “No. Now get dressed. She’ll be here in a moment.” Rowena tossed a blue day dress on her bed. She was a far cry from the triplets at the Gelsi palace. Or even Neeve.

  “Yes ma’am.” Brea stifled a smile for the gruff lady’s maid. There wasn’t anything Rowena wouldn’t do for Brea, but at the same time she didn’t treat her like she was made of glass. Of all the fae she’d met, Rowena had quickly become one of her favorites. Neeve was still her number one, though. She’d give anything to have her with her, not as a maid, but as a friend.

  Brea dressed quickly and ran a comb through her hair.

  “Do you know what she wants with me?” Brea walked into her sitting room, still brushing the tangles from her hair.

  “Just a simple breakfast with my daughter.” Faolan smiled from her seat at the small tea table in front of the balcony. “Please join me, darling.”

  “Oh.” Brea forgot how to walk. Her mother made her nervous, especially when her other mother wasn’t there as a buffer. She managed to set her comb on the table beside the settee and crossed the room to sit with the queen.

  Too many queens in my life.

  Brea swept her long hair over her shoulder. “Wait. Do I smell—?”

  “I hear you enjoy Eldur Brew in the morning.” Faolan poured a cup of the rich dark brew. “What do the humans call it?”

  “Coffee.” Brea inhaled the heavenly aroma. “Oh, this is even better than the kind they serve in the tavern.”

  “What was that?” Faolan poured herself a cup.

  “Oh nothing. It’s delicious, thank you.”

  “I’ll share a secret with you.” Faolan’s eyes crinkled when she smiled—rare as it was. “The only reason I get out of bed most mornings is for a hot cup of Eldur Brew. It’s popular among the commoners for a reason. I’m convinced it’s the secret answer to all the world’s problems.”

  “Your secret is safe with me as long as you share.” Brea sipped from her cup, convinced her mother’s fae coffee was better than the real thing.

  “I owe you an apology.” Faolan buttered her toast. “I owe you a good many apologies. But this morning, I’m here to say I am so sorry I’ve been … such a mess since your return.”

  “I understand.” Brea took a slice of toast for herself. “You raised Alona as your own. I can’t imagine how you must feel since she was taken.”

  “I miss her.” Faolan’s eyes misted with unshed tears. “But that is no reason for me to neglect you when you probably feel like a stranger in our home.”

  Brea didn’t know what to say to that, so she shoved toast into her mouth to keep from saying something she might regret.

  “It never occurred to me that you might be bored. But why wouldn’t you be? We’ve given you nothing to do. No wonder you prefer exploring the city to sitting here in your rooms.”

  “It is kind of like watching paint dry.” Brea focused on the selection of jams rather than meet her mother’s eyes. She didn’t bother to ask how Faolan knew how she spent her days in the city.

  “Alona had tutors up until last year. Perhaps you would like a tutor to teach you all about Eldur and the fae world? We can arrange that for the coming months. Though you will soon need to focus all your energies on your magic when you come of age.”

  Brea nodded, her mouth full of toast she didn’t taste. Clearly the Eldur queen intended Brea to make the palace her permanent home. She wasn’t so sure she agreed with that.

  “Lochlan once told me you grew up on a farm in a small village. He said you seemed to like the horses the most.”

  “We had horses when I was younger, but my father had to sell them after a few bad years and failed crops. My friend Myles lived on the farm next to ours. They always had horses.”

  “Did you know we have stables here at the palace? And not just for transportation purposes. We raise draft horses and ponies. Landowners from all over Eldur come to our stables for the best horses in all of the fae realm.”

  That piqued Brea’s interest. “Where are the stables? I’ve explored all over the city and the palace grounds, but I haven’t stumbled onto it.”

  “Behind the palace gardens at the top of the canyon. You may visit the stables whenever you like, but I thought you might like a job there as well.”

  “A job?” Brea’s mouth hung open.

  “Not that you need a job. You’re not obligated by any means,” Faolan rushed to add.

  “When can I start? What will I be doing?”

  “You can start today.” Faolan smiled. “One of the guards will escort you there and back. You’ll meet with Master Arturo, and if you’d like, you may apprentice with him.”

  “Apprentice? With the stable master? I just figured I’d be mucking out stalls.”

  “Master Arturo wouldn’t dare ask you to do that.” Faolan smiled. “He won’t treat you any different than the other hands, but he will teach you horse breeding. He’s a busy man, so he won’t always have much time for you. While you’re there, you’ll exercise horses, watch over the pregnant mares, groom and feed the ponies. They always need extra attention.”

  “Sounds perfect.” Brea couldn’t wait to get started.

  “I apprenticed under Master Arturo when I was your age. The stables are still my favorite place in the whole city. You get your love of horses and Eldur Brew from me.” Faolan took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “And your fair share of my awkwardness too.”

  “Awkward?” The queen didn’t have an awkward bone in her body.

  “Oh, I’ve learned to hide it behind cool smiles and a queenly facade I’ve perfected over the years, but inside, I’m still the girl who spills her tea and forgets how to articulate a sentence when I’m nervous. But I don’t want to hide from my daughter.”

  “Thank you so much for the apprenticeship. I won’t let you down.”

  “You couldn’t if you tried, darling. Wherever your future leads, learning under Master Arturo will be good experience. As your mother, I want you to be happy and make your own decisions about how you fit into our family and our kingdom. I know I am not an easy woman to know, but I hope you’ll give me … us time to work our way into a real mother-daughter relationship. And when Alona returns, I do hope you can be friends.”

  “I like the sound of that.” Brea squeezed her hand back. It was the most unawkward moment they’d shared since Brea arrived in Eldur.

  “I leave you to your morning.” Faolan cleared their breakfast dishes herself and retreated to the hall. “Oh.” She turned just as Brea stepped behind her, and they collided, sending the breakfast tray sailing across the room.

  “Oh, darn it.” Faolan stooped to pick up the broken dishes.

  “Like mother, like daughter.” Brea laughed and went to retrieve the silver tray. They scrambled across the floor to clean up the mess. “I’m pretty sure Rowena would yell at us for daring to clean this up.”

  Faolan rocked back on her heels, laughter dancing in her eyes. “I’m pretty sure we did it wrong anyway.” She stood brushing crumbs from her gown. “I was just going to tell you that you can find me in the throne room most days. You are welcome to visit us there anytime, Brea dear.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  Faolan paused at the door for a second time. “Not a day went by
during your whole life that I didn’t think about you and wish good things for you.” She didn’t wait for a reply before she left Brea standing there with tears in her eyes.

  3

  Brea

  “Finish grooming Raven, and you can call it a day, Lady Brea.” Master Arturo slapped the fat pony on her ample rump. “Good work with the ponies this week. They’re madly in love with you already.”

  “I think fae ponies are extra sweet.” Brea brushed Raven’s long fluffy mane until it sparkled in the sunlight.

  “You spoil this one.” Arturo chuckled.

  “She’s close to foaling. She deserves some extra attention.” Brea smoothed her brush over Raven’s back. “You think it’ll be any day now?”

  “Three or four more days yet.”

  “She looks ready to burst.”

  “I’m guessing this one is twins.”

  “Twins! Oh please send word as soon as she goes into labor. I want to be here with her.”

  “I’ll send one of the boys to get you when the time comes, but I’m under strict orders to get you home before dark, so off you go, Lady Brea.”

  “Thank you, Master Arturo.” Brea took her grooming tools back into the massive stables and went to wake her babysitter.

  “Emmet.” Brea shook the boy who was supposed to be her chaperone while she was working at the stables. He couldn’t be more than fifteen, and she was pretty sure she could take him.

  “Yes ma’am, Lady Brea.” He scrambled to his feet. “You ready to leave, my Lady?”

  “How many times have I told you to just call me Brea?”

  “Yes, miss.” Emmet trotted along behind her. She found it utterly ridiculous that she spent her days caring for horses, but when it came time to leave for the palace, she had to wait for Emmet’s inept fumbling to saddle their horses for the ride back. He refused to let her help because ‘a lady should never saddle her own horse.’

  “I could walk there faster,” Brea muttered, rolling her eyes when Emmet tried to give her a boost.

  With her new job at the stables, Brea also had a new wardrobe much more to her liking. Today she wore tall black boots, comfortable trousers that could almost pass for leggings, and a linen tunic belted at the waist. With her long hair in a messy bun, she almost felt normal.

  “Race you back to the palace.” Brea mounted her horse and trotted across the stable yard.

  “Lady Brea, I won’t fall for that again. Please let me do my job and escort you home.”

  “Fine. But try not to ride like my eighty-year-old granny. I’d like to get home before I die of boredom.”

  Emmet’s cheeks flushed. “I was always told when escorting a great lady I should travel at a comfortable pace so as not to tax her.”

  Brea snorted in a very unladylike way. “Well, I’m not a great lady, so that’s your first mistake.”

  “Of course you are a lady, ma’am.” He shook his head like he thought she might be crazy. She knew that look well.

  “Well, I’m not made of glass. Do you have sisters, Emmet?”

  “Four, my Lady.”

  “Then treat me like one of your sisters.” She glanced back at him, but she’d made it worse. He looked utterly scandalized.

  “I couldn’t. It wouldn’t be proper.”

  “Oh very well, Emmet. Ride ahead and make way for the Lady Brea.” She waved him on like the grand marshal in a parade. There was no way this kid thought she wasn’t weird.

  They took the back roads to the palace. The queen insisted on it. She didn’t want it to become common knowledge that a guest of the palace also worked in the stables as an apprentice. It was supposedly for Brea’s own safety, but Brea thought it was more about keeping the whole switched daughter thing a secret.

  Brea followed Emmet through the orchard. Large pods hung from the massive tree trunks. They looked a bit like coconuts, but the seed pods inside were more like Brazil nuts.

  “Brea?” A familiar voice sounded from among the trees.

  “Who’s there?” Emmet put himself between her and the voice.

  Brea threw her leg over the saddle and jumped to the ground. “Finn?” Her heart lurched into her throat at what she saw. “What happened?” She dropped beside him where Lochlan rested against a tree.

  Finn sank down next to her, clearly exhausted.

  “Talk to me, Finn.” She moved to drape Lochlan’s arm across her shoulders. He was injured and burning with fever.

  “We were ambushed, and Loch was hurt bad. We’ve been trying to get home for days.” Finn reached out to lean against the tree.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No, but Loch needs help now. Take him and go. I’ll just rest here.” He sank to the ground in a faint.

  “Emmet, help me get Loch on my horse.” She heaved his weight, barely managing to get him to his feet. He groaned in protest. Emmet supported his other shoulder, and they moved him toward her horse. Loch’s shirt hung in tatters around his lean frame and filthy bandages covered his middle.

  They finally settled his dead weight across the saddle, and Brea climbed up behind him, careful of his injuries. “Get Finn and bring him back to the palace. I’m taking Lochlan ahead.”

  “No my Lady, you must wait for me.”

  “I’m not asking for permission.” Brea reared her horse around and took off through the orchard toward the palace.

  “Don’t die on me, you stubborn fool.” She held on to Lochlan tightly as she charged down the dirt path that led into the canyon and the palace courtyard. She normally went home through the rear palace entrance where the kitchens were, but she needed help getting Lochlan to the healers.

  Flying over the cobblestones, she raced for the palace entrance. “I need help!” She called ahead, not prepared for the palace guard to stop her.

  “Halt!” Several soldiers crossed their spears barring her entrance. “What business do you have at the palace?”

  “I live here, you fool! Stand aside.”

  “Lady Brea,” the soldier’s tone changed. “I didn’t recognize you without your finery.”

  “Let me pass. I have Lochlan O’Shea, and he’s injured.”

  The guards rushed out of her way, ushering her inside the courtyard and calling for assistance.

  Brea jumped off her horse and stood back out of the way while the guards carried Lochlan into the palace. “Take him to the healers now! You four, go look for Finn and Emmet. They shouldn’t be too far from the orchard.” She ran inside and headed straight for the throne room.

  “Your Majesty!” she shouted. The guards moved to stop her, but she shoved past them. “Let me through. I found Lochlan.” The guards stepped aside and opened the doors for her.

  “Your Majesty!” Brea stumbled into the room. The rich plush carpet at her feet tripped her up and she fell.

  “Brea?” Tierney and Faolan rushed to her side. “What’s wrong?” They searched her over, looking for injuries. “Where is the blood coming from, darling?”

  “Not my blood.” She gasped. “It’s Loch. He’s back and injured. Finn was with him too.”

  Both queens left her on the floor and raced from the throne room. Brea glanced around at the line of commoners waiting to meet with the queens. Lords and Ladies sat in the balcony above, looking down their noses at her.

  “I’ll just be leaving now.” She cast her eyes down to her feet and followed her mothers from the room.

  She found them in the healer’s quarters near the queens’ residence.

  “Lochlan, can you hear me?” Faolan’s frantic voice rose above the din. “Do you have news of Alona?”

  “Your Majesty, please give us room to help him,” the healer insisted.

  “How is he?” Brea peeked inside the crowded room.

  “We don’t know yet.” Tierney joined her in the hall. “Hopefully he will wake soon and have news of Alona.”

  “Alona, of course,” Brea murmured, but she was more worried about Lochlan. He was deathly pale, and she swore s
he could feel the heat coming off him from across the narrow room. She’d always seen him as invincible. Nothing could shake the obstinate man with the iron will. But now, he looked weak. Broken. Like a shell of himself. Brea worried he might not make it.

  She turned away when the healer bared his open wound, casting the dirty bandages aside. Blood and infection oozed from his abdomen. Someone had run him through with a sword.

  Brea was reminded of her own injuries and the infection that could have killed her if it wasn’t for the man lying on the table now. He’d taken her to Loch Langt to cool her fever. She just prayed the healers had everything they needed to treat him half as well as he’d cared for her.

  “Finn.” The Queen consort ushered her out of the way to make room for Finn who was relying heavily on Emmet to get him into the room.

  “What news do you have?” Faolan demanded, turning to the second injured man who was supposed to be as good as family to her. But the queen only had ears for Alona.

  “She’s in Gelsi.” Finn collapsed on the bed in the corner of the room. “Queen Regan holds her in the dungeons.”

  “The dungeons? How dare she put a princess in the dungeons!” Tierney’s face turned red to match her hair.

  “How are you, Finn?” Brea asked over the queens’ tittering about their lost daughter. “Are you injured? What do you need?”

  “Water, food, and sleep. In that order. And maybe a bath.” He groaned as he laid back on the cot.

  Brea moved to sit beside him, pouring a cup of water for him. His lips were cracked and bleeding from too much time under Eldur’s unforgiving sun. “Sip slowly.” She cautioned him. “I’ll find you some food soon.”

  “Where in the dungeons? Can we get to her?” Faolan demanded.

  “I’m afraid not, your Majesty. Regan has her held deep within the bowels of her palace. I’m told none can reach her from outside the palace.”

  “Well, we will have to find someone inside to help us.” Faolan’s shoulders stiffened with resolve. “That woman will rue the day she dared lay a hand on my daughter.” Faolan swept out of the room, not bothering to ask the healers how Lochlan was doing.