The Queen of All Magick: Elizabeth (9 page)

He felt his head explode in pain and felt his nose start to bleed as the woman stood up and walked toward him. She was speaking
, but he was having a hard time focusing on her words.

“You hit her in the head as soon as she walked in the door, didn’t you?
Then I believe you hit her in the face.” His mouth felt as if he had been slapped with a ball bat, and he felt three of his teeth break in his mouth. As the woman went on about each injury he’d inflicted on Kim, he felt the corresponding pain in his body. By the time she got to him breaking his favorite bat over Kim’s legs, he was dizzy sick with the pain. Aaron laughed when all he could think about was passing out.

“I’m not going to let that happen. Why should you miss a single thing when I’ve gone to so much trouble to let you feel it?”
Aaron laughed again as he knelt in front of him to continue talking. “And now we’re going to go for the surgery she had to have to put her back together. The blade they used on her belly to fix the internal damage done to her should be cutting into you about now.”

Josh was begging them to allow him to die.
He would take almost anything over the pain he was in, but they continued to hurt him. He had a moment of clarity when he realized that he might have hurt Kim a good deal more than he should have, but something else cut into him, and he felt his bile rise up again. He’d thrown up on himself so many times that he was covered in puke. Josh heard the other man speaking but didn’t have the strength to lift his head.

“Enough.”
Josh was almost afraid to move. Not only had all his pain disappeared, but he was no longer covered in vomit and sweat. Lifting his head slowly, he looked up at the man who had hurt him and smiled. Josh started to speak but was cut off by a newcomer.

“I see you still think yourself above hurting women.”
Josh eyed this man and decided that while he was bigger than him, he didn’t look like he could hurt a fly. It took him several seconds to realize that both Aaron and Elizabeth were gone.

“Where did the pieces of shit go? I have a bone to pick with them on kidnapping and causing me to hurt like they did. There was no cause for that.”
The man sat down and stared at him. The longer he did that, the more uncomfortable Josh felt. “You just gonna stare or you gonna take this shit off me so I can go on home? I have lawyers to call.”

“I’m sure you do. But I’m trying to decide if I should kill you outright or simply take up where Aaron left off. He was very good at making you understand what you did was wrong
, but I think you didn’t get it. You still think it’s all right to hit my mate. Or any woman for that matter.” The man leaned forward in his chair and looked at him. Josh had a feeling the man was assessing him for something, but didn’t know what. When he smiled, there was something very….

“You have fangs.”
The man nodded and laughed. “How the hell…where did you get them?”

Josh was thinking of all the hurt he could cause with a pair of those.
Damn, but they looked good. He started to ask him to lean forward so he could get a better look, but the man snapped his fingers, and Josh was in pain again. This time when he threw up, he saw blood in it. Christ, he was dying, and there wasn’t a goddamned thing he could do to stop it.

“Oh
, you’re not going die, young human, you’re going to suffer. For a very, very long time if I have anything to do about it. You’ve touched something that belongs to me, and you’ll pay for that.” Pain took his breath away again when he heard the man laughing. “What you should be asking yourself about now is whether or not I bring Kim here to add her own punishment. She’s become quite powerful since I gave her my blood.”

Josh had no time to answer as he was split open again
. This time he saw it, the way his belly was cut open and his organs still pulsed. He was terrified of puking in himself. He had no idea why he thought so, but if he did it, he’d die from it. Laughter mingled with his screams, and Josh knew there was no hope of anyone coming to save him.

Chapter
9

Elizabeth watched Phillip sleep. He had been resting so soundly since they’d come to their chambers that she hated to disturb him. But she really wanted him to rise. The children were coming to the house today, and she wanted to be there to see them as well. When Phillip opened his eyes and turned to her, Elizabeth felt her heart fill with her love of him.

“Do you remember the first time I saw you? You were modeling the new uniforms
, and you stood there so stiff and pissed off.” He nodded and ran his finger down her cheek. “I think I knew then that you were something to me, but as I had no idea what I was feeling other than annoyance toward you, I simply snapped at you.”

“You wanted us to wear a suit of armor all the time. Have you any idea how hot and heavy that was?”
She nodded and smiled. “And the crest was just…well, I’m very glad you changed your mind.”

“You didn’t like the little faerie I had put on your chest?”
She laughed when he did. “It was silly. I was trying so hard to be a good leader that I simply didn’t know how to let others make decisions for me.”

She got up from their bed and opened the door when someone knocked on it.
A small child brought in a rolling cart overflowing with flowers and their breakfast. Elizabeth sat down at the table after she left. Picking up a small flower, she took it to her nose and sniffed the scent and magic into her body.

“The swords were a better idea for a lot of reasons.” She looked at Phillip as he pulled on his robe.
“It showed we were strong…and it was a good deal less girly, as well.”

“I know. And we so needed an army then.
I remember the first fae I created. Did you know that it was Tess’s great grandfather and brother who served with you?” Phillip nodded. “Creating that first couple was the best thing I could have done. Look at our Tess now. The fae are doing so much for this world and the ones beyond.”

Phillip handed her a cup of tea
, and she sipped it. She was thinking about her first days as queen and how many things she’d simply not understood. The rules were there, the ones that Rythen had given her to guide her, but they were, for the most part, simply too rule-like. She looked at Phillip when he cleared his throat.

“Rythen thinks I’m too soft.
He believes that I have given in more than I should and that I never ruled like he had wanted me to.” Phillip said nothing but sipped his own tea. “I needed their respect. And as Logan is so fond of saying, it must be earned before it can be given.”

“You’re thinking of the first time someone came to you with a problem, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “And tell me, love, what would you have done differently now that you know the complete outcome of the situation?”

The man had cut down a tree.
Not just any tree but one she had only just planted in the garden. He’d been caught by the guard chopping it into smaller, more manageable pieces when they’d found him. Before he’d been brought to her, he’d nearly been hung and had been beaten within an inch of his life. His family, a wife and three small children, were all brought in as well. According to the rules in her head, when she woke, they were all to die for killing something on the kingdom’s land.

His name had been Luc.
His wife and three children were supposed to die by her hand, and then their bodies, small and bedraggled as they were, were to be hung from the castle walls until the birds had picked their bones clean. But Elizabeth looked at them, really looked at them before she spoke.

The man was fit
, but his body looked ravaged by hunger. While his muscles were toned, his face and belly looked gaunt. He was clean, cleaner than most who worked for a living, and his clothing had been stitched over and over until it was difficult for her to tell if it wasn’t more patch than original. His lady wife was no better. In fact, her clothing looked worse than his, but at least his were clean.

The children were what had her attention. All three of them stood with their parents and didn’t whine or cry.
The babe, only about two at the time, had watched her with eyes that looked hollow and tired. No child, she’d thought then and now, should look like that. Elizabeth had stood up and walked down the three steps to stand in front of the children.

“When was the last time you had a full meal?”
They didn’t answer, of course. They were raised to never speak to someone like her at all. When she looked at the mother, she pulled them closer to her as if Elizabeth would cause them harm. She’d called her guard to her, and it just happened to be Phillip.

“Take them to my kitchens and make sure they are well fed. And give them milk if we have any.”
The man was standing next to Phillip, and when he nodded, three more guards came forward and reached for the children. The mother stood up to her, and that was when Elizabeth realized that she was going to be a better queen than ones that simply followed the rules.

“You should not fatten them up before you kill them to make their bodies last longer on the chain.”
Elizabeth wanted to cry then. There had been so much hatred in her voice that she’d taken a step back. “I would rather you kill them now than give them something so kind, only to be taken from them.”

“Why did you cut down the tree?” She looked at the man when he didn’t answer her but kept pulling his lady wife to him.
“I asked a question, and I want it answered.”

“We were cold, my lady. There was no more fallen trees where we lived. The others, the ones that serve you
, said that we were no longer able to have it and took it all and burned it. It seemed such a waste to me, but my family…I would do it all over again to keep them safe.”

Elizabeth looked at Phillip again
, and she could see the horror in his eyes. “Did you know about this? Did you know that men were wasting our resources so that others would starve?”

“No
, my lady. But I will see to it they are brought before you today.” She nodded and watched him walk away. She looked at the two men still there with her waiting on their next order. “Take these people home. Fill their pantry and make sure that they have meat daily.”

“My lady, I would ask that you…would you mind if we shared what you give us? It would seem to be too much for one family when so many are suffering.”
She stood in front of him and asked him to explain. “We’ve been without a ruler for so long that others, men and woman who think they are fit to keep us in line, have taken over. They take and take from us until there is very little for even us to have for our sup. When our gardens fail, we are still required to give them three quarters, and it leaves us to starve. The village is…we will be no more if I cannot share what you have given us.”

Elizabeth looked up when five men were brought in. They looked like they’d been well fed and were dressed in finery that made her think that these people took much more than just crops.
She looked at the man, and he nodded. She moved toward the people that Phillip had brought her and smiled.

“You’ve been working the people and gathering some of their c
rops for the kingdom, I see.” The first man only nodded, but another puffed out his chest.

“We have
, my lady. Just for you. We had a thought that you’d need it.” He looked at the family just behind her and curled his lip at them. “If we didn’t need such people like them to make us rich, then I would feed them to the dogs.”

She had to take several deep breaths before she could speak. This was what Rythen had wanted her to be
, but she found that she couldn’t do it. She could not reward these pompous asses. She realized he was speaking, so she asked him to repeat himself.

“I said that it’s a good thing that you’re so willing to make an example of people who do this. It will show the others that you mean business and that things will be better with you as queen.” He laughed. “I had my doubts if you want to know the truth. A woman at the helm could have been terrible
, but I can see that we might have judged you too harshly.”

“
You have no idea.” She had put out her hand and killed the lot of them. When she turned to the family now cowering on the floor, she called Phillip to her side. Without taking her eyes from the small family, she spoke. “Find a group of hunters and have them take meat and whatever else they can find to the village. Make sure they all get anything they need. Also, see that there is enough wood for their fires as well as for their cook stoves. If anyone is ill, bring them back here and have my physician care for them. Why I have one is beyond me anyway.”

“My lady.” Phillip did what she’d said
, but he never left her side. “If you wouldn’t mind, my lady, might I suggest you send another group to the homes of these…creatures and have their homes ransacked? I do believe that the village could use some of what might be stored there for themselves. It’s safe to assume that they will need it no longer.”

When she nodded
, she heard Phillip bark some other orders, and she was left with the family and him. The middle boy pulled from his mother’s reach and came to her. Elizabeth knelt down to speak to him.

“You killed them.” She nodded
, and he looked at Phillip, then back at her. “You’re our queen and you didn’t kill us either. You still going to?”

“No.
You were not at fault for what happened here today.” He had nodded and looked at his family. “I will see to it that you will never suffer like this again. I swear to you.”

He looked back at her and
bestowed to her the most beautiful smile she’d ever seen. “I know that. You have a good heart like my mom. She told me once that if someone does you a good turn, you do it right back.”

He had knelt before her and swore his allegiance to her.
Right then and there, Elizabeth had decided that she was going to be the kind of queen this boy thought she should be.

W
hen her assistant walked into the room, she smiled at him. “Hello, Luces. I was just thinking about you.”

He
smiled the same smile he’d given her all those centuries ago and bowed. “My lady and lord, the children are set to arrive at Master Aaron’s house. Mistress Lizzy has gone to get them.” He left her then, and she looked at Phillip.

“You know what?” He smiled and shrugged. “Rythen can go and fuck himself. I’m going to be the best I can be for whatever time I have left.
”

“Good for you.” He stood then and reached for her hand. “My lady, shall we go and see our grandsons?”

She smiled and took his hand. It was going to be the best ten days she could squeeze out of it. Even if she had to make a few heads roll while she was at it. Laughing at her own private joke, she and Phillip went through the portal and into the kitchen of the house of Aaron.

~~~

Aaron was nervous. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt…itchy. He looked up when his Sara came into the room. When she shook her head, he let out his breath he’d been holding and pulled her into his lap.

“Lizzy just called. They’re having a little bit of a problem with the
youngest. He thinks that he’s going to be punished, then killed. She was crying when I spoke to her. Poor baby.” Aaron held his mate as she cried too.

“It was what happened
to his parents, if you remember what we were told. They were all gathered in a room, and they were taken away, leaving them behind. Not that I blame the courts, but the children should have been better cared for.” He thought about what abuses the parents had put upon their children. “I wish they were here now. I’d like nothing more than to tear them apart myself. Staking them to the ground was too good for them.”

“So Lizzy said too.” When they heard their little man coming down the hall, neither of them spoke.
They knew that Mathew had been told about the abuse, but they didn’t talk about what they would have done had they known. When he saw them sitting in the same chair, he stopped to smile.

“Mom and
Dad do that a lot. She said someday I’d have to do it too. I don’t think so.” Aaron laughed, and Sara made room for him to sit with them. He shook his head. “I just wanted to come and tell you that Mr. Duncan is upset with me again.”

Now what
? Aaron started to ask what Duncan had done now, but the look in Mathew’s eyes had him stop. This was more than a broken glass or a bruised knee. This seemed very serious.

“What happened
, Mathew? Did he upset you or the other way around?” Sara moved off his lap to sit beside him as they waited for Mathew to answer her. He moved to the window instead. Aaron felt the hair on his arms dance.

“I didn’t mean to do it.
But there was…I used my magic.” They looked at each other before he continued. “He said that I couldn’t have the dessert, and I was fine with that, but I thought it needed to be doubled. I know the boys are vampires, but Tristan told me they could eat stuff now.”

Aaron reached for Duncan to see if he was all right. He said that he was
, but his tone said that he was truly upset. “
I did not mean to yell at the young master, sire. But he startled me so. I only meant for him to leave so as he would not be covered in the…mess
.”