The Bastard Queen (Viciously Yours #2)

Ripping out of his hold, my hand shot out and wrapped around his neck in a bruising grip. Just missing the silver axe that cut between us tearing the cuffs from his grip. Digging my nails into his neck, I lifted him until the toes of his boots brushed the ground. Head tilting at his bulging eyes, I distantly felt the hood of my cloak slide down the back of my head.

A strange light lit his face as I pulled him closer, lips pulled tight in a snarl. Raising my free hand, I stopped the large ball of ice coming at the side of my head and shattered it with the curl of my fist. The man’s eyes widened further and he began to struggle manually. Grinning, I whispered, “If we were alone, I’d peel the skin from your muscle and then the muscle from your bones. Like I did with the last man who chained me but lucky for you we have an audience. Can’t reveal the monster beneath you know, people tend to get a little touchy about stuff like that.”

Watching him gasp for air, I suddenly lost all interest in giving him a less painful death, “But then again, people have to grow up some time.” Tightening my hand, I grinned wider showing off all my pointed teeth as my palm heated, “Besides, you said it best. ’This is war, there’s no room for kindness.’”

The flesh of his throat reddened and then blistered against the heat I was pumping into his body. As he burned from the inside out, I watched in morbid fascination at the way his eyelids blackened and fell away. With the entirety of the whites of his eyes on display, I noticed the way they began to sweat. Little beads of white rolled over the orange iris slowly until suddenly, like an egg yolk, it popped and ran down the charred skin of his cheek bones.

Something brushed against my shoulder knocking me out of my trance and I blinked at the blackened skull I was holding up by the neck bones. Like a Samhain themed popsicle. Snorting at my own joke, I dropped it onto the black pile of bones at my feet and turned to see what touched me. Lilly stood behind me whirling and cutting down the small group apparently trying to get to me. His axe clanged against the woman who had been speaking to me before he used his other axe to hack off her head in one clean swipe.

Calling my swords to my hands, I dropped to a knee and slid myself right in front of his crotch in time to drive a sword into the gut of a man sneaking up on his right side. Necessary? No. Entertaining? Yes. Glancing up, I caught his eyes for a split second and winked. Sparing me a moment, he shook his head and then suddenly swung his axe down at an angle that scraped against my back. A loud clang that sounded like it was inside my ears rang out and I looked over my shoulder to see his axe holding back a sword that would have impaled me.

“Thanks, Babes!”

Turning on my knees, I whispered to the earth and launched myself at my would-be murderer with my swords pointed out. My knees hit her hips and drove her to the ground as my swords pierced through the flesh of her neck, one right on top of the other. Jumping to my feet, I pulled my swords free of her flesh with a squelch and started slicing at every visible major artery. Blood flew through the air in time with each slash of my sword until a sharp sting across my back distracted me.

Spinning around, I blocked what would have been a large gash across my gut from a double edged sword. With his hand around the bar in between the long red blades, he dropped and spun to swipe at the back of my knee. Turning with him, I used one sword to block the blow and the other to stab through his thigh. Cursing he kicked out and connected with my left hip, sending me tumbling back into the fray.

Annoyed, I slashed across an enemy soldier’s neck and another’s chest before walking back out to face him. On his feet now, blood soaking the leather of his left leg, he panted painfully with his eyes locked over my shoulder. Eyes narrowing, I risked a glance over my shoulder and tensed in raw panic. He was a metal master. I should’ve realized sooner. A few of my soldiers were now dodging weapons and using their abilities to fight back as their weapons hovered in the air far above them. Scanning the small battle field, I looked for the one soldier who had zero abilities to fight back with.

Fear punched right through my gut at the sight of Cillian on his own with three soldiers in purple tunics slashing their swords at him and pelting him with large chunks of earth. Without thinking, I pulled back my right arm and launched a sword at him like a spear. At the same time, I forced my will over my soldiers’ swords and dropped them back into their hands. The redhead’s will broke against mine easily due to his blood loss and I immediately snapped my eyes back over to Cillian. Stopping the sword over their heads, I broke it into three and shot them down with more force than necessary.

I sighed in relief when the soldiers around him hung limply around the spears holding them up. Cillian’s head snapped up and our eyes met across the distance until his eyes suddenly shot wide. Snatching up his axes, he began racing across the distance before disappearing. Anxiety bubbling to life, I spun around to see what he had when fiery agony ripped through my chest. Gasping, I could blindly feel the blade slide through the middle of my rib cage and scrape against my spine as it broke through the skin of my back.

Swords slipping from my grip, I took quick shallow breaths while I carefully tipped my head down. Lifting my hands, I lightly touched the hands holding the blade that was thrusted between my breasts. I meant to push them away or grab onto the blade but the pain lacing my every nerve ending was paralyzing. A light shined off the red handle and glared back at me when a tear drop slashed across the pristine metal.

A hand gripped my chin and forced my head up while they pushed the blade in deeper. Beard bristling the skin of my cheek, he whispered, “Long Live Queen Mab.”

Turning my head, I met his red eyes, “Eat...shit.”

Silver winked above his head and I shut my eyes as blood spattered against the left side of my body followed by the weight of his hand leaving the blade. With the wet slap of his body hitting the ground, I opened my eyes to find Cillian standing in front of me without his mask. Hands raised, he looked like he wanted to help but didn’t know how to.

“Macha.” He breathed, silver eyes flicking between me and the double edged sword sticking out my chest.

I wrestled up a painful smirk as my body swayed, “So...wh-what was that...you were...you were saying about my plan?”

He stepped closer, his face pinched, “You’re going to be fine. I’ll travel you to a healer and you’ll be fine. You’re going to be okay.”

“Divines...you are old. Just s-s-say doctor like everyone else.”

“Yes. I am old. Older than you so I know that you’re going to be fine.” He said, coming to a stop inches from my left shoulder.

Rolling my eyes, I weakly grabbed his closest arm in pain, “We’re not kids…anymore...you-you can’t use that.”

He carefully wrapped his right arm around the top of my shoulders and squeezed my weak hand in his left, “Macha, for once. Please shut up.”

A chuckle left my lips before I could stop it and a sharp pain exploded over my chest once more. Curling in on myself, I spit out the saliva pooling in my mouth with a cough. Though the spit I saw fly in the air was red and not clear. Lowering us to the ground, I cringed painfully while Cillian roared, “Stay back!”

“Don’t...yell. It’s not...fault or...your’s either.” I muttered between coughs.

“Don’t talk, save your energy. I’m going to travel us.”

Lifting my right hand, I placed it against the side of his neck to pull his attention away from the blood pumping out from around the blade with every breath I took. “Look...at me. I’m not-not going to make it if we travel...and you know it.”

“Don’t say that.” He snapped harshly, glaring down at me. “I’ll kill you before I let you die.”

Even in pain, I couldn’t help but furrow my brows, “What the...fuck does that even mean?”

“It means, you’ll die when I tell you you can.”

“Doesn’t...work...that way.” I panted out, blinking away the sudden fuzziness in my vision.

“Don’t tell me how things work.”

“Are-are you really….with me on my deathbed?”

Taking his hand from mine, he gave my face a few taps, “Hey, Hey. I didn’t say you could die.”

Swallowing with a dry throat, I peered up at his blurry face, “Listen...continue with-with the war. Mab…can’t be left on the...on the throne.”

“No, uh. No, I can’t do that.” He replied, his voice hoarse. “I have to get you to the healer so I can’t do that.”

“Lilly...I’m dying. You have too.”

His blurred image shook and he wiped something across my mouth as I coughed again, “No, I don’t because you’re going to be fine.”

“So...stubborn.” I gasped out as tremors of pain rocked through my body. But despite the agonizing pain I was in, I couldn’t help but ask, “Okay. Is-s it just me? Or...is it taking-taking a long time f-for me to die?”

His grip tightened, “What, you want to die on me faster?”

“Re-lax. It’s just that last time I died-”

“The last time you died? What do you mean the last time you died?”

Wincing from the rage I could hear in his voice, I closed one eye and squinted at his blurry face with the other, “I s-see your father didn’t...tell you.”

“Divines damn you, Macha! You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

Sharp pain, like little electrical shocks, shot out in all different directions stemming from the blade in my chest when he accidentally shook me. Wheezing, I tried to tighten my hand on his neck, “That would be you….trying to kill me.”

“I’m-Are you okay? I’m sorry.”

Finally! Some damn sympathy. “Good...do something for...me?”

“Anything.”

“Pull it out.” I urged him in a whisper. My vision had gone completely dark and the pain that had become a new normal was also gone. If I was going to try my theory it needed to be now.

“What? You’ll bleed out in seconds.”

Pulling in a deep breath that my lungs fought to force back out, I said, “If it doesn’t work…I’m dead...either way.”

“If what, doesn’t work? What are you talking about?”

The distant sensation of my hand limply sliding off his neck and falling to my chest, had the urgency of my situation skyrocketing. On three small puffs of air, I forced out, “Pull. It. Out.”

I waited for a few moments but when I started to lose the sensation of my body, I mentally grabbed hold of the Oath he took a month back. The Oath like a live ribbon hummed as I whispered to it about Cillian disloyalty, about how he was going to let me die.

“I can feel what you’re doing and if you’re that serious about it, I’ll do it. Just...don’t force me to kill you. Please.”

With my lungs refusing to move and no other way to communicate, I sent the Oath images of his loyalty these past few months and hoped he felt some kind of comfort.

For what felt like forever, I couldn’t feel, hear, see or smell anything at all. It was like I’d been sucked into the void I had traveled through thousands of times before. I was in complete darkness with only my thoughts for company and a sense of bone deep understanding. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be understanding but when I glanced down it was like I was looking into the life of every individual Faekind. Awestruck, I ran my gaze over every inch of the realm that I could see.

“You’re even more gorgeous in person. That’s obvious, though. You get that from me.”

The deep melodious tone swayed my eyes from the realm below to a pair of familiar blue eyes a shade darker than my own. His tall form was wrapped in a pair of black leather pants, mid-calf length boots and a dark gray long sleeve. Though he was practically larger than life, I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the almost identical features of his face. Identical, because I was basically staring back at the male version of myself minus the tattoos.

Folding his arms behind his back, he tipped his head to the right, “You’re quite entertaining to watch, did you know that? Burning that man from the inside out? Very creative.”

“You, your-” I sputtered. “The motherfucker who tried to smite me!”

He grinned and I nearly crawled out of my skin. Is that what people saw when I smiled? It was disturbingly...like disturbingly unhinged. “A parent has to punish their child when they act out, you understand.” He shrugged.

I nodded politely and then cracked my knuckles, “Oh, I understand. I understand that I’m going to kick your old ass all over this galaxy.”

“You could’ve, probably, most likely not, if you hadn’t gone and gotten yourself killed before your transformation.”

“Trust me. I’ll manage.”

He shook his head, sending blue curls bouncing around his face, “We don’t have forever for you to win.” Rude. “That giant of yours has already pulled the blade from your chest so I’ve got to tell you this now.” Stepping closer, his blue eyes began to glow, “Your transformation is coming soon. When it’s complete you will be the most powerful being this realm has seen in eons. You’ve cried, bled and died for this power and there is no one more worthy of it than you.”

Uncomfortable with this conversation, I broke away from his gaze to look over his shoulder. But his voice yanked my gaze back to his, it was like I couldn’t not listen to what he was saying.

“Listen to me, Macha. This is very important. The boy, you can trust the boy with everything you have. He’ll never hurt you. Are you listening to me? Divines aren’t like the other Fae when it comes to mates, we don’t get a choice. The boy is everything you lack and you’re everything he lacks. Two halves of a whole, do you understand? He can help you during your transformation.”

My brows drew together as my chest started to throb, “What are you talking about? All Fae have a choice.”

His hands gripped my shoulders tightly, glowing blue eyes drilling into mine, “No. Not us. Your mother wasn’t my mate but a necessity to bring you into existence. Everything between me and Mab was an act, a lie. My true mate died long long ago. Get it?”

“No- I- what?”

“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.”

And then suddenly, his grip fell away and I was falling as everything rushed up to meet me at once.

Eyes snapping open, I shot up with a huge gasp of air and slapped a hand over where the blade used to be, “Holy fucking shit!”

“Macha!” Hands gripped my shoulders before they slid up to the sides of my face, “Macha, can you see me? Can you hear me?”

Panting, I blinked rapidly and reached up to grab onto his thick wrists.

“Come on, Cell Bait. Say something, anything. Let me know you’re in there.”

Vision clearing, I took in his handsomely chiseled face and his redlined silver eyes. Finally able to speak, I told him what had been on my mind the entire time I was dying, “You are thee most unsympathetic son of bitch I have ever met.”

Eyes shooting to the sky, he murmured, “Thank, Divines.” And then smashed his lips against mine. The kiss was so brief that my eyelashes were still touching my eyebrows in shock when he pulled away and started yelling, “Are you fucking stark raving mad, woman? What the hell were you thinking? No, I’ll tell you what you were thinking. Nothing. Absolutely nothing!”

Ears ringing from his roaring, I scowled and screamed back, “This is how you thank me? I saved your ungrateful ass, I saved everybody’s ass!”

“Yea? Well, nobody asked you to!”

“Oh-ho-ho-ho!” I snapped, feeling my eye start to twitch. “Throwing that back in my face, are we? Need I remind you the last time I was stabbed, it was by your hand?”

“That was practically harmless-

“It was iron!”

“This was not! You died in front of me, Macha!”

Rolling my eyes, I tried to yank his hands from my face, “Yet, here I am! Alive!”

“You died.”

“But I’m alive.”

“I watched. You die.”

“How? If I’m alive?”

His silver eyes narrowed, “You made me. Watch. You. Die.”

“Don’t be so dra-”

“Gaelic.”

Head tilting, I looked up from trying to pry his hands off my face to look at him, “What?”

“You switched to Gaelic half way through our conversation.” He clipped, the muscle in his jaw fluttering.

“Psh. Impossible.” I immediately denied, trying and failing to shake my head in his grip. “I never just slip into the old language unless...” I’m in a serious amount of pain, like a dying amount of pain.

Cillian raised an angry brow.

“Fuuuuuuuckkkkk. I died. Again.”

Voice a deep angry rumble, he spit, “You did. And we’re going to talk about how and why this is the second time you’ve died later. Right now, I want to know how.”

“Well, when a Fae’s heart stops beating…” I replied, playing dumb.

He shook his head sharply, “How did you know that pulling the blade out would save you?”

Oooohhh boy. I couldn’t even try to lie my way out of this one, the redness of his lower lash line forcing the truth from my lips. “I had a feeling.”

“A feeling.” He parroted, going dangerously still.

Glancing out the corner of my eye for help, I narrowed my eyes at the soldiers loitering by the tree line looking everywhere but at us. Useless, every single one of them. Just useless. “I can’t explain it.” I told him. “It was like I just instantly knew that I needed to pull that blade out.”

Cillian eyes raked over my face coldly before he nodded and finally released my face, “It’s your god side. It’s been peeking out ever since we arrived at the O’Sullivans and Murphys. I don’t know how since you haven’t transformed yet but it has.”

“How do you know?” I asked, pressing my hand around my chest.

“Your eyes. They turn a very luminous blue, like a pair of torch lights. And I’ve met her.”

Now it was my turn to go still, “You met her?”

“A few hours ago, right before you woke up. We talked.”

“You talked.”

“Yes.”

“Well? What’d she say? Is she a bitch?” I pressed him.

“If you don’t remember it’s for a reason and she’s still you, it’s not a different person.”

Smirking, I leaned back on one hand, “So she was a bitch.”

Flat out ignoring my statement, he went on to say, “When I pulled the sword out of your chest, nothing happened for what felt like a long time. You just layed there not breathing or moving, I even put my ear to your chest and I couldn’t hear a heartbeat. And then just before you jerked up right, a brilliant blue light shined brightly behind your eyelids and chest.”

The blue reflection in the man’s eyes, the blue light on the sword, it all made sense. Looking down, I used two fingers and pulled the rip the blade had caused wide and felt the blood soaked skin beneath. The swirling silver tattoos decorating my skin were harder to see under all the blood cooling over my chest but the skin itself was tender to the touch.

Wincing, I dropped my hand, “I believe it.”

“What about you? What’d you go through in those moments?”

“It was insane, Lilly.” I responded, instantly . “I was- I saw-You’re-” Blanking, I tried to remember what I had seen and heard but every time I tried it slipped further and further away. “I don’t remember, actually. I thought I did but I don’t.”

“That’s alright, Cell Bait. You probably weren’t meant to remember anyways.” He replied, getting to his feet. Holding out a hand, he said, “Let’s go.”

Looking around, I tried one more time to remember what had happened when I was dead. Something was hovering around the edges of my mind, something that felt important but it evaded me every time. Rubbing at my temple, I slapped my hand in his and let him pull me to my feet. Immediately, I lost my footing as a thick dizziness swarmed over my mind and fogged my vision briefly.

Quick to move, Cillian wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled one of my arms over his shoulders while I shook my head to clear it. “What is it? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Giving a heavy blink, I replied, “I’m fine. It’s just blood loss, I’ll be as good as new in a couple of hours.”

“You’re riding with me.”

“No way. We can’t show up to the MacDuffys sharing a saddle.”

“I really don’t fucking care, Macha. You made me watch you die and if you ever do something like that again, I will punish you.”

Head jerking back a little, I gave him a look that he returned and then I gave him a shit eating grin, “You’re really starting to come out of your shell, aren’t you?”

Lilly rolled his silver eyes with a grunt and pulled me forward.

—

I would love to hear your thoughts about these chapters! The pace of the book is going to speed up slightly so I’m hoping these were a good way to transition in. Also, it turns out Macha really was talking to her father! Lol.

As always, feel free to comment you thoughts!

Smooches, Verbage💋