The Bastard Queen (Viciously Yours #2)

At the sound of the gates creaking open behind me, I turned around and led the charge down the Main Street of the city to meet the surprised enemy soldiers head on. Ten feet away they raised their shields and formed a barricade as their archers rushed to the houses for cover. Mab’s soldiers looked on with stone faces while the distance between us grew smaller and smaller. Their expressions changed though when our attack began to take on a more strategic approach.

Laughing, I crashed through their front line with the Trolls at my sides. Metal screeched against metal as my breastplate made contact with a female soldier’s shield. Red and orange flames reflected in her eyes moments before I slammed a sword straight through the front of her neck with a sizzling sound. Yanking it free, I briefly watched the flaming head roll across the mud and then lunged towards my next victim.

Ducking beneath the swing of an axe aimed at the side of my head, I slashed up across the males chest and hacked off his weapon’s arm. The black haired male swayed slightly from the sight of his shoulder squirting out blood in intervals before he finally fell. Pushing the hair that escaped my braid off my face with a muddy arm, I casted a squinted look around the battlefield. Trolls ripped apart and smashed Mab’s soldiers into the battlefield while wailing Banshees yanked the purple tunic’d Fae into the shadows.

The other Fae members of my troops were going head to head with the others despite the howling wind and rain. In fact, I noticed most of the water and wind ability fae doing their best to direct the harsh weather at the enemy. Bodies splashed with mud and blood made identifying anybody by hair color difficult. But even so, nobody was cutting into their fellow soldiers which I counted as a win. Mab’s troops were beginning to thin and I was beginning to get bored when I spotted them.

Two male Fae in purple tunics with identical mud caked features hacked into and tossed my soldiers around like rag dolls. The twin soldiers towered over the Faekind attacking them and I just knew they had to have some kind of giant blood in them. A sudden weight against my back had me stumbling forward until I pushed back and spun around. Catching the blue tunic’d body, I snapped my head up in time to see a yellow short sword speeding towards her heart.

Using the forearm guard, I blocked the blow and shot a blue spike straight through his forehead. Not waiting to see the body drop, I righted the female in my arms to a standing position and wiped the mud from her eyes. Dull features. She was young. Concerned at the dazed look her eyes held, I gave her a sharp slap, “Hey! Babes, you alright?”

Nodding rapidly, her sky blue eyes blinked as they took me in, “Yes, My Queen!”

Eyeing the fighting pairs in clumps around us, I gave her a hard shake, “Are you sure? Go back to the Estate! We’re almost done here!”

“I can’t leave my fellow bananas, My Queen!” She screamed over the wind, eyes glazing over mid sentence.

Shit, concussion. Gripping her tunic tightly, I took a closer look at my soldiers fighting around me and saw the fighting had decreased significantly in the last few minutes. A few of my soldiers had even gotten up onto the buildings to shoot down the enemy soldiers trying to travel out. The only soldiers giving us any actual trouble now were the twins and I had every intention of bringing them down.

A flash of metal from the corner of my eye had me throwing up a sword to block us from whatever weapon was being swung our way. Vibrations ran up my arm as metal clashed against metal and something made an extra pinging sound. An iron arrow fell to the mud with a squelch from where it bounced off the crossed blue and silver metal.

Eyes sliding up, I shot male’s soaked and mud splattered form a grin, “You come here often, Babes? Or is today just my lucky day?”

Dropping his weapon, Lilly rolled his silver eyes and shouted back, “Sorry, I’m late! I’ll explain later!”

“All is forgiven if you watch her for a minute! She’s got a concussion and there’s something I’ve been dying to do!”

Shaking his head, he looked the girl over with a frown and then Bria was suddenly standing beside us. “Get her out of here! She has a concussion!”

Without a word, Bria latched onto the young woman’s arm and traveled them both out of the middle of the field.

Turning to me, Cillian motioned for me to lead the way.

Giving him a wink, I took off running in the direction of the twins who were still refusing to go down. The mud underneath my boots turned solid at my whisper and increased my speed. Flipping the swords in my hands to point behind me, I snapped out an order making them into short swords and leaving the extra metal to hover around me. One after the other, I ordered the daggers to fly at the twins drawing their attention towards us.

“Get ready to launch me!” I screamed over my shoulder at Lilly.

A second later his large form shot out from behind me and started creating a good amount of space between us. When he got to a good spot between both me and the charging twins, Cillian twisted around in a low squat and laced his fingers. Baring my sharpened teeth in a large grin at his metal covered face, I pumped my arms and legs harder in anticipation. Booted foot slipping perfectly into his hands, he pushed up using his arms and legs. Leaving his grip, I soared through the air at the perfect height directly at the twins.

Squinting against the wind, I flipped the short swords in my hands and twisted my body to flip mid-air. Feet coming at them first, I grinned at the way they raised their swords only to have them ripped away by a calm demand from me. Mouths open in a roar the closer I got to them, I squeezed my feet together and tilted back the tiniest degree. Perfectly positioned, I rammed into them just how I imagined I would.

My short swords slammed all the way up to the hilt between their eyes as my body slid right between their charging forms. Arms pulling straight, I released my metal to bounce and slide somewhat gracefully through the muddy body laden street. Tumbling to a stop with a laugh, I gazed up at the sky panting out in sheer adrenaline of how amazing that had felt.

After a moment, I sighed out in joy and grabbed onto the hand that was thrusted in front of my face. Straightening up with a groan, I bent side to side and felt relief as my back cracked. Wiping off some of the mud really caked onto my leather trousers, I looked up when I suddenly felt the ground disappear. It lasted only a moment and then I was submerged in a cocoon of warmth.

Blinking, I swung my eyes around the fire lit room until they landed on Cillian’s masked form, “Why’d you bring me here? The battle’s still going on.”

“It’s over, you won. The rest of Mab’s soldiers who were still standing started running when they saw what you did to the O’Conner twins.” He chuckled, pulling off his cloak and mask.

“But I left my-”

He tossed all of our bloody weapons into the corner of the room with a crash, “You were laying in the mud a lot longer than you think.”

“Oh. Well, in that case…” I murmured, skipping up and wrapping my arms around his waist. “How about we get dirty?”

Wrapping his arms around me, Lilly stared down at me for a moment before snorting, “How could we get any dirtier than we are right now? Macha, you have blood on your face.”

Chuckling, I pulled back to look myself over, “What’s wrong with that?”

“You hurt my head when you say things like that, Cell Bait.”

“Since when are you a clean freak? You know now that I think of it, I’ve never really seen you dirty...what’s with that?”

Giving me his back, he pulled his tunic up and over his head before gesturing at the steaming tub I had failed to notice, “Do you want to stand around chatting all day or do you want to soak in hot water? After the way you threw yourself, I know your muscles are crying.”

“Divines. Don’t remind me.” I groaned as the breastplate melted to my feet. Lifting my arms to yank the tunic over my head it became clear that I should’ve released the short swords sooner.

Untying his trousers, Lilly shook his head, “You could have ended that battle in seconds instead of showing off.”

Pointing a finger at him, I said, “That’s where you’re wrong. I could have but the new soldiers needed something to cut their teeth on. I’m also not the only soldier out there who loves fighting so ending it quickly would have been unfair to them. And lastly, I wasn’t showing off. I was dusting off my skills.”

Flashing me a smile, Cillian turned and slid his large naked body into the steaming tub, “It’s showing off because you can’t actually show off.”

“It’s scary how much you know me.” I laughed, shimmying out of my soaked mud covered leather. The second they hit the wooden floor with a slap, I stepped over them and walked over to the tub.

Another round of laughter left me when I saw how cramped Cillian was in the tub. His knees poked up high above the water and his hands resting against the sides were practically beside them. If I tried to climb in there with him...no. No way were the both of us going to fit in that tub. Pressing a hand to the tub, the metal instantly started to stretch and warp causing a sigh of relief to leave Cillian.

Smiling, I walked around to the other side and grabbed the extra pot of hot water. Hefting it up, I waddled two steps forward and dumped it into the tub. A rush of steam rose up and wafted over my face, instantly relaxing me. On autopilot, I stepped into the hot water and sunk down chest deep right across from Lilly. Tipping my head back, I closed my eyes and slipped my feet over his thighs with a groan of pleasure.

“Why are you all the way over there?”

Keeping my eyes closed, I replied, “How else are we supposed to finish what we started last night?” When I felt something brush up against the inside of my calf, I cracked an eye open with a grin, “Not that, you fell asleep before we could finish that. I’m talking about our unfinished game.”

“We didn’t finish either because you got me drunk.”

“I didn’t know you were a lightweight!”

“I am not a lightweight. I just haven’t had sugar in a while.”

Pulling my head up to look at him fully, I raised a brow, “I know, Babes. But drunk off chocolate wine? I’m mean that’s kind of-”

“Don’t call me Babes.”

“What’s wrong with Babes?”

“You call everyone, even people you don’t know, Babes. Don’t call me that.” He responded with a shake of his head.

Taking in his serious expression, I shrugged, “You’re right. You’re too good for Babes. But it’s a habit so I might slip from time to time.”

“Bad enough I have to share you with chocolate, I will not share a nickname with the entire realm.”

I gave a nervous laugh and waved my hands, “Let’s not talk about chocolate, Lilly. Now, if I’m remembering correctly it’s my turn to ask a question.”

“It is.” He replied, eyes squinted in suspicion.

Wiggling a little in excitement, I asked, “What’s your favorite color?”

“Silver. What’s your favorite ability?”

“Mmmmmm.” Wrinkling my nose in thought, I said, “I’d probably have to say either metal or fire. There’s just something so destructive about them that calls to me.”

His eyes rolled, “I should’ve known.”

Dipping my hand into the little basket hanging off the side, I threw a wash rag at him, “Whatever, so what kind of chocolate do you like?”

“I...I don’t actually care for chocolate.”

“Excuse me?”

He grimaced, “Yeah. I’m more of a sugar free caramel guy.”

“Do you at least like chocolate coated caramel?” I demanded, appalled.

“If it’s milk chocolate, yes.”

Releasing a breath, I relaxed, “Thank, Divines. For a second I thought I fucked someone who didn’t like chocolate. Could you imagine?”

Laughing, he threw the wet wash cloth at me, “Wipe your face. I can’t take you seriously when you’re covered in blood.”

“You sure you’re the sane one in this relationship?”

“Definitely.”

“That’s so sad.” I snorted, scrubbing at my face. “So sad.”

…………………...

A slight chill followed by the shifting of the sheets roused me from my sleep enough to look around groggily. Seeing nothing, I rolled onto my back and threw an arm around Cillian only to completely awaken when my arm hit the cold mattress. Eyes snapping wide, I quickly pushed up onto my elbows and swung my gaze around until I spotted Lilly quietly getting dressed.

Brows furrowing, I shot a glance at the window to see it was still dark out, “What’s going on?”

His shoulders jolted slightly before he turned to look at me, “Sorry, I was trying to be quiet.”

“I can see that but why is what I’m asking.” I replied, a little more snappish than I would’ve liked.

A slow smile crept across his disgustingly attractive face, “You sound upset for someone who just tried walking out on me the other night.”

“Yeah, well. That’s because I’m annoyingly dramatic. You are not.”

“That you are.”

Rolling my eyes at how funny he thinks he is, I pushed back the furs and crawled to the end of the bed, “Soooooo…”

“It’s about Baris again.” He replied, spitting his brother’s name like it was acid.

“What happened now?”

Shaking his head, he yanked his tunic over his muscular chest, “He’s a Divine damn idiot, Macha. I woke up to my father yelling in my head that Baris wants to tell that girl why he’s really in Mab’s army.”

“What?” I exclaimed, brows flying to my hairline.

“Yea and after I just got done telling him to end it with her. That’s why I was late to this battle which will never happen again by the way.”

Waving my hand dismissively, I crossed my legs and leaned forward, “Don’t worry about it, so what are you going to do?”

“What can I do? I can’t pull the little shit out of the army yet because Mab will notice almost immediately. And I can’t watch him every second of the day. I just don’t understand why he doesn’t understand how dangerous our situation is!”

Raising a brow at his flared nostrils and pinched expression, I tried to calm him, “Do you know if the boy plans on mating her? Maybe-”

“Exactly! The boy. The boy, Macha. He wants to tell her everything! There is no acceptable reason for him even thinking about that!” He snapped, angrily collecting his things.

“I know but...” Voice trailing off, I froze in place as his words ricocheted around the inside of my skull.

The boy, Macha. Why did that sound so familiar? Had I heard that somewhere before? The boy, the boy, the boy....Ugh this was going to irritate the shit out of me. The boy, the boy, come on Macha. Where have you heard that before? The boy. The boy, Macha. And that’s when everything came flooding back like an unforgiving tsunami.

Hardly breathing, I stared wide eyed and unseeing at Cillian. “The boy, Macha. Remember that Cillian is your destined mate. He can help you transform by touching you when it happens. Remember that you have already found your mate.”

A pair of warm lips pressed firmly against mine before pulling away, “I need to go but I’ll make sure we see each other before I officially have to go back to Mab’s army tomorrow.”

“Wa-I-no-I have tah-you-we’re-” I fumbled out, trying to speak through my mind numbing shock.

Grabbing onto the hand I was weakly pointing at him, he gave it a kiss before stepping back, “See you tomorrow, Cell Bait. Promise.”

Seeing him close his eyes, I snapped out of my shock and jumped off the bed shouting, “Wait! Fuck! You’re my destined mate!”

But it was too late. He had already disappeared by the time my feet hit the ground. Slumping back against the bed, I blankly looked at the wall while whispering, “Destined. We’re destined mates.”

—

AHHHHH! She remembered! So close! She was so close and he was so close to hearing it! Fucking hell, people. We were soooooo close.

Btw, am I the only one who thinks Baris is messssy? Lmao.

As always, feel free to leave a comment or a like!

Smooches, Verbage💋