A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 4)

Xavier stepped forward. “It seems the foreign dragons have been monitoring the actions of our…former queen.”

I noticed the pause before former, as though he didn’t accept my decision on that front. I also noticed the tone around foreign, signifying the visiting dragons were lesser than the court dragons, regardless of their respective power levels. His impertinence aggravated me, but Finley could sort out the latter and I’d handle the former soon enough.

“And?” I asked, keeping my facial expressions neutral. They couldn’t know how much the issue with my mother pained me.

Micah stepped forward. “Alpha,” he said, driving home the status quo. I offered a curt nod. “The way Ami—Arleth—handled the situation in Flamma doesn’t sit right with me. There were many opportunities for her to meet with your people after they came to our village. They would’ve recognized her, yet she only met with the princess and her brother. She chose to gain information and insight about this place from the only two people who would not know her on sight.”

“And?” I prompted.

“She hid her involvement in the battle for Wyvern,” he continued. “Rather than alert anyone to her presence, she instead snuck in through the back door, so to speak. She joined the forces of one of the villages and further concealed herself.”

“I am aware,” I said. “What does it have to do with these reserves?”

“My room faces the everlass field. I watched her and Finley…and you in the fields. She stayed in that little dwelling beside the field until everyone had left, and then she skulked away with Claudile.”

“The queen does not skulk,” Lucille snapped. “And her name is Delaney, chief of the…former ladies-in-waiting. Show some respect.”

“We met her as Claudile, Angry Lady,” Vemar said, spreading his hands.

“Well, now you know better,” she replied through her teeth. “You’re a visitor here. You should know the names of the royal circle.”

“Enough,” I barked, power riding my command. “Micah, make your point.”

“I left the castle to follow her, and I met Vemar and the others along the way. They shared my concern. The women shooed away the guard who was here and went down into the mines. I confronted them, knowing what is down there, and they tried to fight their way out. We thought it might be best to detain them. If they had no guilt, they wouldn’t have panicked and tried to flee. They have offered no explanations for their behavior.”

“Sire,” Xavier said, his tone angry and his words clipped. “With due respect, the queen and Delaney don’t have any tools. They don’t even have a rock hammer or shovel. What harm could they possibly do? These foreigners need to mind their own affairs. This is a court issue, not—”

“If you say ‘these foreigners’ one more time, Xavier,” I said, my patience fleeing, my stomach twisting at the implications of the story, “I will rip your tongue out. You shared a dungeon with some of them for years, did you not?”

“Yes, sire,” he said hesitantly.

“Then act like it,” I roared, accidentally releasing a peal of thunderous power. “They are your brothers and sisters in arms. The court ideal you’re trying to prop up like a stick man died long ago, and I never much cared for it, anyway. Without this collection of dragons, you wouldn’t have a court to bolster your overinflated ego. Consider that.”

Xavier visibly quailed. All the Wyverners did, and all of the visiting dragons, save Micah and Vemar, flinched and backed away.

I should’ve let Finley handle it, I told my dragon.

Probably. You always sing about decorum and then lose your temper and scare all the village-folk.

Or court, in this case.

“Where is she?” I asked, power still pumping through me, anger and unease coloring my words.

“Th-there, sire. She’s in there.” Lucille pushed Xavier to the side and turned, putting out her arm to indicate the gaping black hole. The other Wyverners stepped out of the way quickly and silently.

I didn’t let my agitation show as I stepped into the mouth of the mine and caught sight of my mother’s stoic face and raised chin. It was the same look she’d always given my father after doing something she knew he wouldn’t like.

A little behind her stood Dee, a woman who had been like a second mother to me. A woman who had beamed at my accomplishments and nurtured me throughout my youth. Her face was screwed up in a ball of anger, the look she would’ve given my father right before my mother was violently punished.

The strength nearly went out of me.

“You don’t need to fear me as you did him,” I told my mother, my heart breaking because they were words I’d never wished to utter. “I won’t hurt you.”

“On the contrary,” my mother said quietly. “I fear you so much more. You have the power to do the most damage.”