“You wished to see me, my Queen?” I asked, watching as her only friend, Malazan, made her way from the dining table to perch on the edge of the bed. Her stare was intent on me as she leaned back on her hands, attempting to present a seductive figure.
It elicited the opposite reaction from me, making everything wither and shrink at the possibility that it could be either of them who had wanted me to join them in their private quarters.
Mab waved her hand and the snakes that remained in my direct path slithered to the side, creating an aisle that I could navigate carefully to approach the two Fae women. I took the first step, knowing that it would do me no good to delay the inevitable.
The unfortunate reality of the situation was that it did not matter if I did not desire either of them; to reject them would be a death sentence. The only line they did not cross and did not toy with was the one created by a mate bond, and even that was simply because a man’s body could not and would not react in such a way that they would find useful.
The bond prevented it entirely, though I had no doubt there had been a time when they did it purely for torturous purposes. They’d found other ways to engage those interests, though, other ways to make their victims scream.
“How long has it been since they brought memy daughter?” she asked when I finally stood at the foot of her bed. The topic of conversation made everything in me both still and surge with relief, and I hoped that she had not brought me here to fill her bed.
“A couple weeks, if I had to guess, my Queen,” I said, attempting to keep my voice calm. Half interested.
I was completely unable to count the nights I had spent sleepless and wondering what I could do to help us both get what we wanted—what weneeded. Fallon needed freedom from the overbearing, controlling, and outright abusive mother she’d found herself imprisoned by.
I just needed her.
“And yet she has proven herself to be entirely useless. Tell me, Etan,” she said, gritting her teeth through her disappointment. Malazan reached out and stroked Mab’s knee over the top of her dress, and while the movement wasn’t sexual in the slightest, it hinted at the intimacy between the two of them. Out of everyone in this world, Malazan was perhaps the only person Mab would miss if she were to disappear from her life. “Do I seem like the kind of queen to trifle with?”
“Of course not, my Queen,” I said, bowing my head slightly to indicate my respect. “Do you have any reason to believe that Maeve is defying you intentionally?”
Mab tilted her head to the side, as if it had not occurred to her that there could be any reason other than defiance that motivated Fallon’s actions. “You thinkmy daughteris truly unable to access her magic?” she asked, releasing the snake who had cuddled up with her. It slithered onto the floor, gliding its way off the high, opulent bed and joining the rest of its kind in a pile on the floor for warmth. Most children of the Gods were born with only a sliver of magic in their veins, and the only reason Mab believed that Fallon would be different was her own hubris.
“I do not pretend to know Maeve at all, so I cannot make any statements about what may be her motivations. But what I do know is that I have watched you break the strongest of men to your will. Your methods are effective, even if messy at times, and for Maeve to be able to resist that would be most unexpected when she does not seem to have lived a violent life in Nothrek,” I explained, allowing that to sink in. The next part would need to be handled carefully, because Mab would not take well to me insinuating that her daughter could be anything other than powerful. She did not see herself as just another of the many Gods and Goddesses that had been born to the Primordials.
She saw herself as the Queen of them all. Even going so far as to ignore the fact that the magic that gave her the ability to overpower the rest of her kind wasn’t the magic that flowed through her veins.
It was the product of the crown that had cursed her to the darkness.
“At the very least, her magic should be acting defensively without her even willing it to happen. While she may be fully grown, her magic is new to her. I have a difficult time believing she has mastered control like this in a matter of weeks, when it takes most Fae decades,” I said, keeping my words as vague as possible. If Mab knew I’d been watching Fallon too closely, even as I tried to avoid her, if she knew how I listened to every whisper that carried her name, she would never allow me to influence her choices regarding her daughter.
She’d see me as biased, rather than an impartial advisor whose opinion she could trust.
“What other explanation could there be?” Malazan asked, her singsongy voice deceptively sweet as she eyed me up and down.
I swallowed back my discomfort, hoping that the other woman wouldn’t express desires to Mab.
If this court held one rule, it was that Malazan got whatever, and whomever, she wanted, outside of those who were already mated. A gift from her Queen for her unwavering loyalty.
“Perhaps Maeve’s powers could reasonably lean more toward her Summer Court heritage than her Shadow Court heritage, and her lack of exposure to those elements could be restraining her to some extent,” I said. I hoped more than anything that Mab couldn’t see through the bullshit that I fed her, but even if I had no precedent to make me believe that the words I spoke were entirely true, they didn’t feel like a half-truth.
It was entirely possible that Fallon’s inability to sit in the sun or bask in the heat of the Summer Court beaches was weakening the magic that she should have had at her fingertips.
You could not play with what you did not know.
“You think going to the Summer Court will strengthen her hold if she does follow in her grandmother’s footsteps?” Malazan asked, raising a brow. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise if she did lean toward her grandmother’s magic, given that both of Khaos’s children with Diell had done so, oddly enough.
“I don’t think it could hurt to find out. But given that Rheaghan cannot be trusted to guide Maeve in a direction you would approve of, I am uncertain how it would be at all possible under thecircumstances,” I said, knowing that Mab would never allow such a thing. She was far too paranoid to give Rheaghan any kind of control, believing that he would do whatever it took to undermine her from a distance.
“No,” Mab agreed, rising to the occasion as I’d thought she might. “Rheaghan cannot be trusted with Maeve.
“But perhaps there is another way I could send her to the Summer Court,” she mused, turning her attention to where Malazan waited at her side. The other woman smirked, as if reading Mab’s thoughts.
“I would of course be happy to watch over her for you, my Queen. But as I am not related to her, I would have no control over her once we left Tar Mesa. She would fall under her uncle’s jurisdiction by blood right,” I said, resisting the urge to fidget with my fingers.
“Though, Maeve has proven to be an effective way to motivate Estrella to do as I wish, so I must admit my hesitation to lose her as a bargaining chip,” Mab thought out loud, standing from the bed to pace the floor of her bedroom. Her snakes moved out of her way with each step she took, moving with her in a fluid, natural dance that shouldn’t have been possible. “I would need for her to be supervised by someone I could trust to bring her home at a moment’s notice.”
“What about a husband?” Malazan asked, shrugging her shoulders as Mab turned to look at her with wide, mocking eyes. The thought had already occurred to her. “Her husband would be responsible for her even above an uncle. Rheaghan may still be the King of Summer for the time being, but even he wouldn’t interfere with marriage. Betroth Maeve to a Summer Court Fae and send her home with him after the Tithe. She’ll get to experience the magic of the Summer Court and still be under your influence. Maybe we’ll be lucky and she’ll return with magic so she can be of use,” she added, making Mab’s lips purse in thought.
