AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Love is not ours to keep, daughter. You know this, and I know that his seed is in your body now, eager to implant."
Selene's wings dropped, but her shoulders stayed rigid. "We didn't have sex. He… he did other things to me instead."
The queen laughed, vicious, cackling. "Don't think I can't smell him on you. I'm familiar with the scent of sperm, the taste of a man's release. And now he must die. You know that is our way."
Her words shot through me, and I snapped my gaze to Selene. She'd half turned toward me, sorrow etched into her face.
It was true.
And she had known it all along.
Selene
"I am sorry,"I said as I turned to face him. I knew that my mother was watching us, no doubt loving the tension that she'd created. "I could say nothing because she spelled me. Believe me." I stepped closer to him, my heart aching when he took one step back. But I closed the distance, not willing to let him go, to let him believe that I wanted him to die.
I felt different now, more. I could not explain it, but I needed him to know. To feel it too.
"Why?" he asked, his breath a mere whisper. I clutched his hands, held him tight as I looked directly into his eyes.
"This is her way. The old way. It is not mine, and I will not let her kill you. I won't let anyone. I promise you."
Please, I begged him with my eyes, begged him to believe me. My heart was thudding in my chest, and I didn't think it could cope if he stepped away, if he ran. But, surely, he knew that if he ran, my mother would swoop down on him and kill him before he could exit the forest.
I could practically see all those thoughts cross his face, so I reached up and cupped his chin with one hand. "Stay with me. Please." I stepped closer, relieved when he let me. "I need you." My hand shook. He reached up and gripped it with his, stepping in to kiss me.
In front of my mother.
It wasn't something I ever thought would happen, though I'd known that eventually she would pair me up, to mate me so that our line would continue. But something else had happened when she had laid that geas, and the feeling between Brody and I was stronger than I could have anticipated. My feathers ruffled as he kissed me, as I kissed him back, and the magic that had been released each time we broke part of the geas flooded into my chest.
"Trust me," I whispered against his mouth, hoping that he would.
No.Knowing that he would.
I could feel the change as I turned, knew what it was about me that had changed. Could see it in my mother's eyes as she realized as well.
I was no longer her subject. I was a queen in my own right.
And she had every reason to fear.
"The old ways must die," I said, my voice ringing through the trees. "We are here with Nico's blessing, but only if we harm no humans. You know this."
"What I know is that the man who tainted your flesh with his, who has fathered the eggs that even now are forming, must die. His blood must salt this earth, his body must provide nutrition for you as you grow the future queens and princesses of our line."
"No," I said, shaking my head. All the fear I used to feel was gone now. I knew that this was the way things used to be done—the same thing her mother had inflicted on her. But times had changed and we must change with them if we wanted to survive in this new world. "I am a queen now. You can tell, can't you?"
And my words were true. She couldn't deny them, either. I was the fertile one, the one who held the future of our line in my womb, and as much as she might loathe that, she couldn't do anything about it. "As queen, you'll respect my mate, or you will leave these lands."
My voice trembled then, ever so slightly. She caught the whiff of my hesitation to claim my title and she dove.
"No!" Brody pushed me to the side, foolish and lovely in his attempt to keep me safe, but I turned and wrapped my body around his, wings covering him entirely. Mother's claws sank into my wing, tearing feathers and flesh, aching fire burning through my body. Thank the winds that our claws held no venom, or I would be writhing in pain.
We landed on the ground and rolled. I released Brody, unable to hold him any longer with the damage to my wing. Tears formed in my eyes, but my heart hardened as I realized I had one tool in my power now that she did not.
The geas.
"You have wounded a queen, and so I place a geas on you." I yelled the words, the screech of power behind them making Mother crash to her knees and peer up at me.
"No," she whispered, the colour draining from her face. "You may do no harm to a human, and you will not speak until you can find it in your heart to love one."
