The Bastard Queen (Viciously Yours #2)

My feet touched down with a thump, only to find my fourth stop at a different location in the woods lacking a certain giant. Looking around, my eyebrows began to furrow in frustration. Where the fuck were they? I thought, casting a glance over the small pond nestled in the clearing. A small amount of sunlight was just beginning to peek over the horizon and I still hadn’t found them. I made a trip back to my tent every other travel in case Cillian was there but so far no luck.

Turning in a slow circle, I placed my hands on my hips and tried to think about where they could be. I checked all the main locations of where they could be, so where else could I look? Thinking of a place right on the edge of the Nymphs’ influence, I was about to travel there when I heard something. Freezing in place, I strained my ears in order to hear if the sound came again. And when it did, I snapped my head in the direction I thought it was coming from.

With a small nudge, the ground underneath me began rolling me along the forest without a sound. I slowly glided past trees and bushes as the sound began to take on the recognizable form of voices. A deep smooth pitch spoke harshly followed by a similar one but it was how the first voice raised the hair on my arms that I knew who it was. Head cocking to the left, I tried to squint through the trees in order to see them. What were Dougal and Lilly doing so far out here? Their conversation about Baris was better kept without others overhearing but it didn’t call for this much secrecy.

“-to pull him from Mab’s army, Cillian.”

“Are you serious? Father, there’s no way I could have let him stay.”

“You brother is just trying to make his own way as a man.”

“But he’s not! He’s a boy because you and mother continue to treat him like one.”

Stopping my approach, I kept myself hidden in the morning shadows as I watched them through the branches a few trees away. It didn’t feel right to interrupt right then and there.

“Cillian, Baris is still a child. He has time to grow up.” Dougal replied, calmly.

Cillian shook his head and laced his hands behind his head in frustration before dropping them, “You don’t treat Bria with kid gloves, so what do you baby Baris? He could have gotten us all killed.”

Leaning against the bark of the trunk, I pushed a little further out from behind the tree to see better.

“You have no idea what it’s like to raise a child, Cillian. So, don’t question me and your mothers methods.”

“I’m not questioning mothers. I’m questioning yours.” Lilly snapped, jerking a finger in his fathers direction.

Eyes snapping to his son’s aggressive hand motion, Dougal straightened his back and stepped up to his six foot six son, “What exactly are you trying to say, boy?”

Silver brows furrowed as Cillian glared down at his father, “That I’m sick of you acting like the saint of the family. Despite how you may appear to everyone else, I know ambition rules everything you do.”

“What are you talking about? When have I ever put my ambitions before our family?”

“Divines, where should I start? How about the way you let everyone believe that mother made you chase her for half your lives? When we both know that you didn’t mate her because Mab would have tossed you aside. If you mated mother, your career as Mab’s Commander would have been over because Mab doesn’t trust anyone that cares about anyone but her.”

Dougals face turned from fatherly to cold within seconds and I could only stare at this new side of him in shock. “Watch your mouth. You have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Yea, apparently nobody in this family does.” Lilly spit, bitterly. “What about the time you pushed Syrus to be a warrior? Everyone knew he didn’t have it in him, that he wasn’t built to be like the rest of us. But you couldn’t stomach the idea of not having warrior sons-”

“No-”

Cillian stepped into his father and continued, “So you pushed him and pushed him until he finally killed someone. He cried for months, sick to his stomach with himself. He hates you. He won’t speak to you anymore. Ifreann, he swore he wouldn’t step foot in Tir Na Nog until the day after your funeral.”

An icy feeling sprawled across my chest and over my heart as I listened to the words pouring from Cillian’s mouth. I would’ve thought Lilly was lying, except I could see Dougal’s reactions. Reactions that I would have never thought him capable of. And the devastating feeling that I had no idea who Dougal truly was, brought a painful pinch to my chest.

“I was only trying to push him to be the best he could be!” Dougal suddenly roared, shoving his son backwards. “Syrus is a great warrior because of me! He’s just too lazy to use his skills!”

“Because he’s disgusted by what he’s capable of! And now you’re fucking up Baris!” Cillian shouted back, chest heaving as the veins in his neck strained.

“Baris is fine the way he is! He’s going to be a damn good warrior someday!”

“He is an irresponsible child!”

Dougal threw his hands up between them, “Why are we even talking about this? Do what I say and put him back in.”

“No.”

The men locked eyes for an intense minute until Dougal gritted, “I wasn’t asking you, boy.”

Cillian’s jaw flexed in response, “I’m done listening to you. All your decisions end up causing more harm than it’s worth.”

“You can blame me all you want but I’m the reason you’re the man you are today. I gave you your career.”

“Career? You practically sold my soul to Mab, the things I had to do…”

Dougals face twisted into disgust as he scoffed, “Quit complaining! I made you the Commander of a God’s army and this is the thanks I get?”

My heart pitched to the bottom of my stomach at the mention of me and the pain in my chest turned into a burning sensation. My fingers broke into the tree from the ever tightening grip of my hand while my eyes snapped to Cillian’s face. Lighting crackled in the sky above causing me to realize that it had started to grow darker instead of lighter.

“That’s all you think about it, isn’t it? Does it even matter what you did for us to get to this point?” Cillian snarled, his fists shaking slightly from the amount of rage his body seemed to be containing.

“Results are the only things that matter.”

“Results?” Lilly spat, taking a hard step forward. “So, seven hundred and fifty years was worth it? For the results?”

My breath caught in my chest as a chill raced through my entire body, What was he talking about?

“You agreed to that.”

“Because I thought you were doing what was best for her. Like you’ve convinced everyone else.”

Heart beat starting to race, I kept my eyes peeled on the pair of men in front of me. The ground underneath my feet cracked like the sky above us as the pain in my chest grew sharper.

“I was doing what was best for her. Look at her now! A Queen and soon to be Divine!”

“She didn’t need to be sent to Slykhelm to become who she is now!”

Shoving his son backwards once more, Dougals face was tinged red as he roared back, “I’ll tell you the same thing I told you then, it was the only way! And if you weren’t so lazy like your brother, I wouldn’t have had to push you so hard to send her there! You think she’d be worthy of her Divine side if she didn’t go through that? You both should be thanking me for what I did!”

“Fuck you!” Cillian roared back before stumbling at the force of his fathers fist connecting with his jaw.

My head cleared of everything but the overwhelming amount of pain that was bringing tears to my eyes. ‘I wouldn’t have had to push you so hard to send her there!’ The words repeated over and over until the meaning truly clicked. With an audible crack, I could hear my once healing heart shattering all over again. But instead of sinking into a deep seeded depression like I thought I would have, I got angry. No, I became fucking livid.

Eyes locking on the man with a predatory focus, I tried to breathe through the hot flashes of pain that shot down somewhere just behind my chest. The pain struck at something that I had never felt before making the pain fresh and brutal. Like I was being burned alive from the inside out and I wanted him to feel the exact same way. The tree in my grip cracked with a deafening sound, splitting right down the middle and revealing my hiding place to the men.

Silver and gray eyes snapped to mine as I placed a bare foot on what was left of the tree trunk and grinned as it exploded underneath my touch, “Hi.”

Dougal’s entire demeanor changed to the kind ‘old man’ persona I knew him as, “Fabht Siúcra, how long have you been over there?”

Pain strong enough to make a lesser woman cry out rocked through me but my will for revenge was stronger. Tipping my head, I pushed through the pain and slowly started walking towards him, “Not long.”

“Macha...?” Cillian asked, taking a step towards me.

Clenching my jaw at the way my chest seemed to be cracking wide open, I stopped and flashed sharpened teeth his way, “Stay out of this or I’ll take you down with him.”

“Fabht Siúcra?”

Giving a harsh laugh, I snapped my eyes back to Dougal, “How long have you been playing me for a fool?”

“I don’t know what your talking about-”

“Do not insult my intelligence anymore than you already have.” I snapped as the sky rumbled, releasing a downpour of rain.

“Just let me explain-”

Rolling my shoulders to try and ease the pain, I purred, “No need.”

The metal of Cillian’s axes slammed into my palms and I set them flying within the same second. One axe flung end over end at his head while I slung the other off to the far right. Eyes flaring wide, Dougal jerked back and slashed his hand over the air to knock the first off course but was too slow to block the second. Silver metal winked briefly in the shadows created by the rumbling sky before it slammed into his left thigh. The sharp blade cut through the flesh of his thigh at an angle, almost cleaving the bloody muscle clean from the bone.

Falling back with a shout, Dougal clutched at his mutilated thigh trying to hold the flap of flesh and muscle against his leg. Blood pumped and seeped out through the cracks of his fingers but I wanted to see more of it. The air crackled in warning before flames spontaneously sprung from the ground despite the heavy rain. In a blaze of red, they raced over the split and crumbled ground towards Dougal. The light of the flames lit Cillian’s face for a second as they passed him but where I expected to see him trying to stop me, I saw concern. Ignoring his injured father completely, silver eyes were trained on me in a way that felt like he was peering straight through to my soul.

My eyes turned back to Dougal so I could watch the flesh melt from his bones when a sudden flash of raw agony stole my breath. It was a sharp spike of heat and pain that seared right down the middle of my body with enough force to cause my shoulders to bow inwards. Every nerve ending I possessed felt like it was being split and then burned to ash. Taking in deep breaths through the small gaps between the fire in my chest, I knew that this had to be it. I had to be transforming and it couldn’t have started at a worse time. I was going to burn my soul.

Grinding my teeth, I bared them with a short roar of rage and pain that escaped my throat. I needed to finish. He needed to be punished. Chest heaving, I took heavy staggering steps towards the man that had betrayed me in the worst way. My body tightened up mid-step as the inferno in my chest increased to an unbearable degree that I couldn’t fight anymore. Pain racked through me like surges of electricity causing my muscles to jerk and twitch out of my control. It was too much, the pain-the pain was-I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take it.

Collapsing to my knees as my legs gave out, I gripped the crumbling ground around me to avoid being completely blinded in agony. But it was pointless, my back arched high as another round of soul burning pain ripped through me at an unbelievable speed. Muscles spasming, I released a scream of pure torture that seemed to shake the very realm around me. Trees caught fire while the earth rolled beneath the pounding rain and metal twisted and warped into random shapes. Mind and body going numb to everything but the sensations contorting my body, another blood curdling scream broke through my raw throat.

Lighting cracked down from above, striking the ground near enough to feel the heat rush over my skin. The bright flash of light stole my vision and left me in complete darkness. Breath rushing out from between my lips, I sunk my fingers deeper into the earth to keep me grounded. Everywhere I looked there was nothing, I was alone with only the dark and the pain as company. Flexing my fingers, I heard the crack before I felt it.

The bones of my left pointer and middle finger snapped followed by the rest of the delicate bones in the back of my hand. Falling onto my right shoulder, I rolled to my back and cried out while clutching my left hand to my chest. Son of fucking bitch! Something dripped down the sides of my temples as I panted and fought to breathe past the pain. But like before it was pointless, the bones in my right knee grinded together before they shattered and sent my eyes rolling. Pain was a constant and just when I thought it would end, the agony increased. Back arching in a soundless scream, I felt the base of my neck and back strain before snapping with a sickening crack.

I had to have blacked out because when I came to, there was a sharp pain in almost every millimeter of my body, inside and out. Shallow breaths squeezed past my aching rib cage as I layed there staring up at the darkness unable to move. I wasn’t sure how long I layed there seized by the pain of my transformation but I jerked in surprise when I felt a hand brush the wet hair from my forehead. I groaned deep and low as a fresh wave of pain rolled through me at the movement.

“I told you to remember, child. You’re a bad listener.”

Blinking at the smooth melodious tone, I groaned again when darkness faded enough for me to see him, “Why is everyone so unsympathetic when I’m dying?”

Dark blue eyes rolled, “You’re not dying. The boy couldn’t help himself and rushed to you as soon as you began screaming.”

“Maybe not but I definitely burned my soul.”

“Your tattered rag of a soul is still there. The boy touched you before the entire thing could burn. I’m not even sure you’ll notice the parts that burned away. I’ve never seen a soul so small.”

Coughing as a nauseous sensation overcame me, I tried to roll to the side, “Such an asshole. You’re such an asshole.”

“Don’t call your father an asshole.” He replied, gently rolling me to the side.

Wincing, I gave another cough before throwing up a good amount of blood. Panting, I chuckled, “Don’t give yourself the fucking honor of having me as a daughter.”

“You’re right. The honor is yours for having me as a father.”

“You’re such a narcissist.” I snorted and then immediately started hacking something up. Face twisting in disgust, I looked at the small dark red and blueish lump, “What the fuck is that? I thought you said I wasn’t dying.”

“Part of your lung, I think. Don’t worry about it, you’re transforming. Remember how I said it was different for every Divine? Well, apparently yours is reliving every injury you’ve ever received.” He said, carefully wiping at my mouth with some kind of cloth.

What felt like a dull punch to my back had me grimacing more than his words would have caused, “Divines. I would love it if just once, I wasn’t fucked raw by the fates.”

Malachy’s face pulled up in distaste at my words even as the corner of his lips twitched, “It’s almost over and because that boy is touching you, the effects are dull.”

“Almost over? How-” I paused to hack up a bit more blood before continuing, “How long have I been out?”

“Almost two hours, your body couldn’t handle all that pain at once so it shut down. That’s how we’re able to talk right now and once you become a full Divine, we’ll be able to communicate through your dreams.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic. Just what every woman wants. Her father, digging around in her dreams.”

He gave a cheeky grin before turning serious, “You’re going to wake up in a few minutes and this time you will remember everything. In fact when you wake up, you should be brimming with energy. It’ll go away once you use one of your abilities. Being a true Divine you will notice that your abilities will go past what you believed to be your limits. Things will come much easier to you now but be careful, it can be easy to take advantage of your new power.”

My eyes rolled silently in response to the somewhat dull pain I had been feeling suddenly getting intensely fresh. My stomach rolled and my head became foggy as my vision started to go in and out. Feeling hot and completely unwell, I choked, “Yeepie.”

“Are you listening to me?”

“Yes.” Oh, Fuck. Gagging a little, I forced down whatever was trying to spew past my lips. There was no way I wasn’t dying.

“Good because I have one last thing to tell you, Daughter.” Malachy murmured, brushing the hair from my sweaty face. “Putting metal in your body is idiotic and you should check to see if it’s even still in your wrist.”

The disbelief pushed the pain away for a second but it was long enough for me to spit, “Spying, Son of a-”

The sensation of falling was the same as when I had spoken to Malachy the last time. Free falling through what felt like a fluid and tangible form of time, my lungs filled with air and my eyes popped open. Jerking upright without warning, my forehead slammed into something with an audible smack.

Head bouncing back, I slapped a hand to what I knew was going to form into a bruise, “Fucking hell, what are you made out of? Iron?”

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?” I grumbled, rubbing my poor forehead.

Grabbing my wrist, he pulled it away to stare into my eyes, “How do you act like you didn’t go through an unnatural amount of pain?”

Brows furrowing, I did an internal mental check of my body. Nothing was throbbing, stinging, burning or numb and then that’s when it happened. Like a flip of a switch, a flood of raw energy coursed through my body raising the hair on my arms and I could no longer sit still. It was like I had slept for a thousand years and then chugged a gallon of sugar mixed with caffeine. My eyes flicked over my surroundings wildly while my muscles twitched with the need to move. Move, move, move, I needed to move.

Rolling off Lilly’s lap, I hit the ground and kept rolling until I came to a large crevice, “I feel fantastic! Like-like-whatever you’re imagining but on crack.”

“Crack?”

“It’s a human drug. It’s horrible really you shouldn’t try it- except I don’t know how it affects Faekind.” I hummed, kicking my bare feet in the air behind me as I pushed myself a little over the side of the cavern. “On second thought, we should try it.”

“Macha...no.”

Ignoring the sound of his approach, I eyed the cavern in growing excitement as an idea formed. Scrambling to my feet, I whipped around to face him, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Silver eyes took on a cautious glint, “I am?”

“Yup!” I grinned, taking a peek over my shoulder before snapping my head back to him. “You’re like a living embodiment of my sanity. What would I do without you?”

“Probably do everything you shouldn’t while killing the maximum amount of people on your way.” He responded dryly.

Laughing, I pushed the hair out of my face, “You know me so well! I’ve been dying to start another war in the human realm, could we do that after we take on Mab?”

“I don’t see why not.” He shrugged, giving me a closer look. “Are you okay? You seem...jittery. You’re never jittery.”

Bouncing on my toes, I tipped my head and asked a question of my own, “Never been better. Do you want to see something?”

He took a step closer to me and eyed the cavern behind me as I took a step back, “That depends…”

“On?” I replied, grinning at the way my heels hung over nothing.

“If whatever you’re about to do is going to give me a heart attack.”

Winking, I purred, “Poor, Lilly. Always so responsible.”

“Cell Bait...” He warned, getting closer.

Our eyes locked in a battle of wills.

My lips twitched.

He lunged.

And then the ledge I had been tittering on, catapulted me straight into the sky.

——

Holy fucking shit, it happened! Macha finally transformed into a Divine. Please let me know what you guys thought about it. There was hella build up to this so hopefully I didn’t disappoint!

As always, leave a comment if you feel like it or a like.

Happy Thanksgiving, Verbage🦃