“Perhaps your dragon mark isn’t a random slip of just any shifter, unable to contain his cock to suitable subjects,” she mused, and my heart sank. “Maybe the shifter who pumped himself into your mother’s maw is a rebel, and we are both unlucky enough that magic took root along with his seed.”
Her gaze studied mine. “Do you have any inklings about who your father is? Even a stray wandering thought as you meet older shifters?”
“No.” There was no need to dissemble now.
“Disappointing,” she murmured, which made my heart sink all over again. Could I get Tay out of here with me? “Well, we will have to work together to find him.”
Those words filled me with a fresh sense of dread.
“My son is foolish enough to think you’ll make him strong enough to defeat me with mortal allies. As if they would ever turn on me when I can grant their dreams.” She didn’t sound as confident as her words.
“I’m not going to help him.”
She gave me another knowing smile, her gaze seeming to encompass both me and Tay. “I know you won’t.”
She seemed as if she were turning away to leave. Tay didn’t fall into a bow, though, and I was sure he read her intentions better than I did—he just didn’t make sense of them.
Then she paused, and I felt myself go still as a rabbit being hunted. “Does he plan to marry you, foolish little mortal girl? To make you queen of mortals and himself king of shifters?”
“I wouldn’t marry him,” I blurted out.
“I didn’t ask what you would attempt. I doubt you’ll resist his impulses very well,” she said. “Does he intend to marry you, in your opinion?”
The sense that things were careening out of control—that Fieran’s plans, mysterious though they were, were becoming more tattered by the moment—loomed over us like the statues.
And I couldn’t hold back my confession.
“Yes.”
“I see,” she said. “How terribly unfortunate for us all. Especially you. Come, Tay.”
Panic seized me. “No. Tay?—”
“Cara.” He gave me a bright, warm smile, and I was distracted by him from the look that had just crossed the queen’s face at the wordno. His hand on my shoulder was steadying. “You can’t expect me to wait in the stands and clap at your adventures. You won’t even let meinthe stands, for that matter. I want to have my own adventures.”
“I need you.” I’d been driven all this way for Tay and Lidi’s sake as our twined lives unwound, out of control.
And now I felt as afraid I’d lose him as when he was gripped in death’s maw.
“No, you don’t,” Tay told me firmly, wrapping me up in a hug. “You’ve never needed me. You’ve sacrificed so much for Lidi and for me. You’ve always looked after us, and I love you so much for it, but you’ve always deserved more. Now everything is fine, and you’re free to chase your own dreams.”
He pulled away, giving me another smile, as I tripped over my words, trying to make him stay.
He followed the queen away into the night.
Fifty-One
Istood there for a heartbeat longer than I should have, waiting for the shadows around me to resolve into shapes that made sense. The garden seemed to breathe around me, and the seconds ticked by, and I still didn’t know my way.
I hadn’t come all this way to lose my brother.
The memory of my loose tongue under the queen’s enchantment and the way I’d followed my brother into the labyrinth haunted me.
Fear had been right not to trust me with his secrets. I should have put his damned ring on my finger.
If I trusted Fear, I might be making a terrible mistake.
And if I didn’t trust him, I might be making another.
