Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

surveys the empty halls with a small smile.

It was as it had been, before the gods and the fey. Back when this land of magic had been pure and lush, ripe with possibilities.

Before the Fates, those retched hags, had interfered.

“My lady.” Rodrick, the ingratiating worm, strides to intercept her. He looks nervous, unsure of how he should address she who rules them all. She isn’t a queen, the way he is accustomed.

No, she is something more.

“Walk with me,” she commands the idiot. “Don’t waste any more of my time standing around. There’s work to be done.”

“It’s about the dead, my lady.” He begins after taking up a pace to match hers.

“What of them?” The Draugar are her army, the bodies of the fey, the ultimate weapon against the living vermin she is working tirelessly to extinguish.

“They seem…. restless.”

“They are fine.” The easiest army in the world to maintain. They can’t die of starvation or exposure and the more they decompose, the more frightening her army is for the living.

Fear is a powerful motivator.

“Tell me about the city.” She commands the fey lord.

He clears his throat in that annoyingly self-important way he has. “Queen Gretchen says there is no shield of air. We’re closing in.”

The city in question was the last stronghold of the fey, protected by the newly crowned Lord of the Land and the living members of The Wild Hunt.

Rodrick shifts, clearly uncomfortable.

Underhill shoots him a sidelong look. “That city must fall. No fey will escape this land.”

“Understood, my lady.” He hesitates.

She makes an impatient sound. “Is there something else?”

“I was just wondering...what are your plans for the prisoners?”

The beings who had worked to overthrow her new regime. “The prisoners are my concern. Felling the fey city is yours.”

“Yes, my lady.” He flinches as he sees the Fire Throne ignite at the snap of her fingers.

“Leave me.” Underhill paces the room, waiting for Rodrick to disappear. He isn’t a stupid man and he has a vested interest in keeping her happy.

She moves to stand beside the fire throne. Fire is one of the elements she can wield. In her possession is the heart of the last queen of the Fire Throne. She holds her hand out and touches the burning chair.

So close, she’d been so close to having them all.

“Lady?”

She turns and spies a ghost hovering just out of reach. A demonic-looking thing that is part bird, part human. A Valkyrie, at least it had been when it was alive.

“What is it?”

The shade drifts closer. “I was wondering if you would be releasing us.”

“By us, I assume you mean the souls of the Wild Hunt?”

The creature nods. “Queen Nicneven trapped me into service and I’ve done her bidding, but we wish to rest.”

Underhill considers for a time. “Your rest will be earned.”

“How, lady?”

“You can cross the Veil. I need someone to monitor my daughter. Tell me what she’s doing, what she’s planning. And most importantly, if she is in contact with any fey. Or that wolf. I need them all.”

Unlike Rodrick, this creature doesn’t ask pointless questions. “As you say, Lady.”

I jolt upright. Nightweaver, that treacherous slag. She’d been spying on me the entire time.

If the Valkyrie wasn’t already dead at my hand, I’d kill her.

If the dream was real. Could it be? Harmony Goldfeather, the seer, said I might not be able to see the future the way she could, that my talents might manifest in different ways.

Like spying on my mother. The shrew.

The car bumps along a dirt road and I realize it wasn’t just the dream that woke me.

“Where are we?” I ask as we drive up to a rickety costal-style home. It has three decks facing the sound side of the sandbar. The giantess parks in the open space next to a rusted out pick up.

“The pocket realm,” Angrboda dips her head to the side until her neck cracks.

“There are houses here?”

Chloe turns to face me. “Think of it as a mirror for the real world. Anything there is here.”

“Except for the pesky mortals.”

“Now you’re getting it.”

“What is this place?” I glance around.

The two exchange glances as Angrboda pops the driver’s side door and chucks her thumb toward the house. “I’ll just go check on Jedda.”

“Whose Jedda?” I face my aunt. For some reason her scent has shifted to nervous lemon-lime soda.

“Jedda is Wardon’s progeny and the new Master of the Waves, thanks to Aiden.”

My heart pounds. “Is Aiden here?”

“No, sweets.” Chloe puts her hand on my arm.

“Oh.” Disappointment fills me but I squish it down. I still haven’t figured out how I am going to break the news to my wolf about being knocked up. Gods, what if he thinks it isn’t his.

No, he wouldn’t.

But then we didn’t exactly…

Ugh, I can’t think about this.

“Whose house is this? I don’t suppose they have many rentals in the pocket realms.”

Chloe turns to face me. “Nic, I’m not sure how to tell you this….”

I huff out a sigh. “Can it wait? I really need to pee.”

She shakes her head, red-gold curls slipping free from her bun. “No, you need to know it now. This place was constructed specifically to protect her.”

“To protect who?” She must be a big deal if the giants and the Fates had banded together to shelter her. Hell, I was the Risen Queen and they hadn’t even gone to such lengths for me.

Chloe takes a deep breath and the words come out in a rush. “Your biological mother.”

Surprise

I stare at her for what feels like an eternity. All the meat I’d consumed forms a giant ball of icy ick in the center of my stomach. “My mother is dead. Aiden told me.”

“Aiden doesn’t know,” Chloe says. “We faked her death using a changeling.”

“Who faked her death?” Had Aiden been lying to me?

“Me, Addy, a giant who owed us a favor.”

I huff out a breath. “When was this?”

“Years ago. After the first time, the fey appeared to her.” She holds my gaze. “The fey Underhill sent to capture her.”

“I don’t