Queen of the Fae (Dragon's Gift The Dark Fae #3) - Linsey Hall

1

The Thorn Wolf stared at me from his place in front of the fireplace, yellow eyes glowing.

“You doing all right, pal?” I stirred a droplet of blood into a potion that simmered in a small onyx bowl.

Bacon.

“Hmmmm. I can tell by your tone that you’re peeved.”

He harrumphed.

“I don’t think he’s all that keen on Wally,” Aeri said from her position on the other side of the table.

I eyed the little hellcat who had curled up on top of Burn’s thorny back. Wally was a creature of the underworld, a little black cat with smoking fur and fire for eyes. He was Aeri’s sidekick, and he was just as murderous as Burn when he felt like it.

But apparently, what he felt like now was using my wolf as a mattress.

And the wolf was not pleased.

Or at least, he was pretending to not be pleased. I thought he secretly liked Wally.

“Maybe you can bond by murdering demons together,” I said to him. “It works for me and Aeri.”

“And if all else fails, have a cocktail.” Aeri grinned at the two creatures, never letting up on the perfect rhythm with which she stirred the potion in front of her.

It’d been only a day since we’d fixed the massive crevasse that I’d blown into the earth in Magic’s Bend, and we were back at it in our workshop, brewing some potion bombs for the fight to come. My mother was after me, and she wasn’t going to be nice about it. I’d tried to use my new Unseelie power of premonition to see exactly what she was planning, but it wasn’t that easy to control.

Basically, I was still in the dark. And it was frustrating as hell.

“How are you coming?” I asked her.

“Almost done. We’ll be up to twenty acid bombs in no time.”

“Excellent.” It was nice to have a short break from the fighting. A very short break, given that I only had today. For our little potion-making party, I’d worn one of my usual black plunging gowns, and it felt good to be dressed like myself again. Not that my fight wear wasn’t me—it could be argued that it was even more my style—but I liked the break.

I eyed the clock. Just two hours to go.

“You’ve looked at that clock five times in the last ten minutes,” Aeri said. “That excited?”

“I’m not sure that excited is the word for it.” My heart fluttered, betraying my lie.

“Sure, sure. The hot Fae king is coming over, and you’re not even a little excited.”

“He’s coming over to help me hunt down my murderous mother because he is bent on getting vengeance for his dead brother.” I grimaced, fairly convinced that his quest for vengeance was the main reason he spent any time around me. Especially since I’d spent basically all my time lying to him about something or other. Usually something giant. “So yeah, not exactly a great start to a relationship.”

“No one said being fated mates is easy.”

“Truer words,” I muttered, setting down the obsidian blade with which I stirred my potion.

Despite our issues, the fated mate bond was hard to resist. We were like two trains hurtling toward each other. No brakes. The path was getting bumpy, but we weren’t slowing down.

At the hearth, Burn started to growl. The low rumble was a sound I only heard in battle. Wally lifted his head, too, flame eyes blinking. He hissed, back arching.

“What’s wrong, guys? Do you—”

A massive explosion from behind threw me forward, cutting off my words. I slammed into the table, the hard wooden edge gouging my stomach. The potion in the stone bowl soaked the front of my dress, burning slightly. Aeri was thrown back against the wall.

My heart thundered and pain flared in my stomach as I shoved myself upright, whirling around.

The entire side wall of our workshop had been blown away, revealing the back garden through a haze of rubble and smoke. A slender, unfamiliar figure approached through the mist. I darted right to get some cover, drawing my bow and arrow from the ether.

“Who the hell are you?” I raised my bow and fired, but the figure darted to the right, easily avoiding my shot.

Shit.

From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Aeri, groaning as she dragged herself to her feet.

Burn and Wally lunged forward, snarls erupting from their throats and fangs bared.

The figure threw out his hand, and a blast of wind slammed the two animals back into the wall.

Rage lit in my chest.

“You bastard.” I raised