Page 83 of Filthy Fae

I winced. “What the fuck?”

“Aren’t you my daughter now?” Titania tilted her head. “I do hope that you’ll do my son the honor of a handfasting after the declaration he made for you before his entire kingdom. We will also have to discuss your dowry.”

“Hold up. What the hell is going on here?” I pointed down at Mab who looked very dead at this point. She lay with her blonde hair spread around her face, soaked in blood. If she was breathing, I couldn’t tell.

“Princess Mab is getting good at planning my assassination, but not good enough. I got wind of her Mage of the Ages plan months before that party. It was one of her more creative attempts, but still, poorly conceived and even more poorly executed.”

I shook my head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Just tell me what the hell is going on. You knew she was going to raise an incubus at the party?”

“Of course. Several of Mab’s staff work for me. I got regular updates on the plan up until the night of the party.”

“No one slipped you a note?”

She gave a wicked smile. “I suppose I was the one who placed the note into Summer’s pocket at dinner.”

This detail had bugged me from the start. It just seemed so unlikely that someone would warn the queen off and then simply vanish, letting everyone else at that party die.

“I got wind that Mab planned to work with both the werewolves and the mages. I even helped her out, telling Oxonos that I wanted to sleep with a werewolf at the party. He came back telling me that he could arrange for me to have sex with your closest kin. This, of course, confirmed in my mind that you and Mab were working together.”

“We weren’t,” I said. “It was a coincidence.”

Titania gave me an amused look. “I have clearly figured that out. I do have ears and eyes.”

“So, you just let this all play out. You knew that everything was going to go down, and you just let it happen? You let your daughter slaughter twenty-two of your own people just to prove a point?”

“I didn’t know Mab would be idiotic enough to cause the deaths of everyone at that party.” She tilted her head back and forth. “Though, I might have still let it happen, regardless.”

“Why?” I demanded.

“I have never concealed the fact that I wanted Heartland—not from you, not from your father, nor from the alpha who came before him. I want it, and, believing that you were conspiring with my daughter to have me assassinated, I saw an opportunity to rid this area of both you and the mage union. After you two left, the humans would soon follow.”

“Were you going to exterminate the trolls and dragons as well?” My anger rose, and my wolf stalked forward, ready to take our enemy down.

“Not them. They are always welcome in the Spring Kingdom. At least, they would have been should this have played out differently. My curse simply states that I cannot take action out of ambition. It does not state that I cannot let inaction serve me for the same purpose. If you had struck the first blow in a war by conspiring in that massacre, I would have been forced to conquer the area for the safety of my fractured kingdom.”

“So, we all just walk away from this like nothing happened? You’re going to call off the hunt?” I swept my hand through the air. “I’m supposed to let all of this go?”

Queen Titania’s brows rose, and a spark lit in her gaze. “Oh, did you want to declare war? If you’d like to, I’m not going to object.”

“No. No war.” I pointed to Mab. “What’s going to happen to her?”

“That’s not really your business.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I hope you have some plan to banish this incubus. He’s feasted enough and is currently sleeping in my bed, well-sated. But I’m growing a little tired of his presence.”

“So your daughter summoned this demon, and now that you’re tired of playing with him, I’m supposed to get rid of him?”

She waved her hand through the air as if she were swatting my idea away. “Obviously I know that you can’t banish him back to hell. He can’t leave until his summoner gives him the instruction. But yes, I’m done with him. It’s fun for a while, but you can’t go giving demons too much of your life energy, or they’ll break free and kill their summoner. I’m sure you know someone who doesn’t want that to happen.”

The queen already knew about Nancy and her brother, too. She knew everything. This really had been nothing but an elaborate murder game.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared at the woman who called me daughter. “Even if I marry Mack, you are never going to be my family in any sense of the word.”

Titania rolled her eyes. “You get to pick your lovers, not your mother-in-laws. And if you and my son have children, if that’s even possible, you’re not going to be able to pick your child’s grandmother, either.” She tilted her chin toward the form on the floor. “Nor their aunt.”

This was the weirdest conversation I had ever had.

“You’re wondering why I’m suddenly accepting you with open arms?” Titania chuckled. “I’m not. I never will. Scarlet, you will always be my enemy. And yet, I have no intention of letting you take my son from his family. He already made it clear that he would choose you. You might not believe this—and I honestly don’t care if you do—but I do love my children.”

Yeah. Sure. She loved her children so much that she banished Mack from his home and family for that choice. Not to mention she’d fed her son Naveen’s lifeforce to a demon just so she could play out some sick fantasy.