The Queen by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Chapter 15

“He hates me.”

“No, he doesn’t.” Tink patted my arm. He’d followed Luce in, advising that he was on the approved visitation list.

In other words, he was allowed to see me.

I had a feeling that Caden had prohibited everyone else from getting close to me, which was understandable. But Tanner and Faye? Kalen? Ren and Ivy? Fabian? They were the only ones I trusted, but apparently, Caden was taking no chances.

While that should give me some relief because it meant that he still cared, I had a sinking feeling that he was more worried about the baby.

After all, according to him, I wasn’t all that easy to kill. Or whatever.

“You don’t understand, Tink.” I sighed as Luce came over to check my blood pressure. “He feels betrayed, and I can’t blame him. Not really.”

“Neither can I,” he agreed. “But I think he just needs time. He knows you were trying to do the right thing.”

I nodded.

“He was dealt one hell of a shock, learning he was a baby daddy while you were vomiting up your guts and seizing,” Tink pointed out as bluntly as possible. “I imagine most expect to learn that kind of news in any other way than how the King learned it.”

“I know. It’s just…” I could still hear him saying that I hadn’t loved him enough. That wasn’t true. It was the exact opposite. I loved him enough to not be the source of his downfall, and I loved our child enough to do everything to bring him or her up in a world that was stable.

Well, as stable as it could be.

“Is everything still okay?” I asked as Luce placed the cuff on the counter.

“All of your stats look good.” Luce came back to the bed. “I’ll check the hormone levels in the blood I just took, and then I’ll take some more blood tomorrow. If you were to start to miscarry, we’d see those hormone numbers going down.”

My stomach dipped. “Do you think there’s still a chance that I could lose the baby?”

“The pregnancy is considered threatened, so yes, there is a chance. But you’re different, Brighton. You’re not entirely human.” Her pale eyes narrowed on me. “Which would’ve been something useful to know when I first examined you.”

“Hey.” Tink lifted his hands. “She didn’t even tell me.” He slid me a look. “Hussy.”

I sighed once more. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was something I was supposed to share, and in my defense, a whole lot of shit has been happening. I obviously haven’t been making the best decisions.”

“That’s an understatement,” Tink muttered under his breath as he leaned back in the chair.

I ignored that.

“Learning that you were given the Summer Kiss explains why you’ve been healing so well from your previous injuries,” Luce went on. “Since you were given it before conception, it probably aided with that too. That’s got to have something to do with the child being so resilient, but I can’t be sure. I’ve never met a human who’s been given the Summer Kiss.” Her brow puckered. “But you stopped bleeding last night, so that’s great news. You haven’t been experiencing any more cramping or nausea, right?”

I nodded. “I feel normal-ish. My stomach is a little sore, and I feel like I just got over the flu or something.”

She nodded. “That’s normal. It appears your body is…well, repairing the damage. And to be honest, that is not something that would normally happen. Not even for a female fae who’d been given this poison.”

Unease blossomed, but I tried to shut that down. Luce was giving me good news. Just because this was nothing short of a miracle didn’t mean I’d lose the child.

“Luckily, we were able to get it out of your system as soon as possible. A few more minutes, I don’t think even the Summer Kiss would’ve changed the outcome,” she said, and that was hard to process. “I’m optimistic, but a lot is going to depend on what happens in the next couple of days to weeks.”

“What can I do to make sure the baby is okay?”

Luce took a moment and then softened her voice. “In most of these circumstances, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome. It’s often out of your hands. If you were to lose this child, it would not be your fault.”

“I know, but there’s got to be something I can do, right?”

“There are things that can help. One of them is to remain as stress-free as possible, and I know that is going to be hard, but keeping stress levels low is what you need to do,” she advised, and I almost laughed, because I had no idea how I would do that. “I do suggest bed rest for the next week just to be safe.”

Bed rest? “What about our appointment?”

“I think we can delay it a week since I’ve done a lot of the tests that I would’ve been doing, but I will be checking in on you—tracking your hormone levels.” She folded her arms. “I would refrain from any physical activity until you feel completely one hundred percent—no longer sore or tired. That could be a week or slightly longer. No physical activities also includes sex.”

I didn’t think that would be an issue.

“You’re going to need to keep your hands and body parts to yourself,” Tink advised.

“Thanks for the clarification,” I said. “I can do that. Bed rest and no physical activity. I’ll do whatever I can to keep the baby healthy.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said. “It’s good that you’ll be staying with Caden in a secure location.”

“Because once the fae who tried to kill me realizes they failed, they’ll come at me again?” Anger flashed through me, so potent and hot that Luce frowned at the color that highlighted my cheeks. “I can’t believe someone tried that. I mean, I can, but what in the hell did they think they’d gain from killing me? That Caden would somehow revert back to his evil self and open the doorway? That’s not how that works.”

A huge part of me couldn’t believe how easy I’d made it for them. I almost always drank soda when I was here. Any number of fae could’ve paid attention to that. I really needed to change up my routine.

“Perhaps they thought that by killing you, it would simply distract and weaken him. Which it would,” Luce advised. “It could have nothing to do with their attempts to free their Queen, but more so to level a blow that our King would find difficult to recover from. Choosing a poison that affects pregnancy so adversely was extremely lucky for them—and most unfortunate for you.”

I tried not to be offended by her word choice. “Do we have any idea who could’ve done it? Were the other bottles contaminated? Any other drinks?”

“So far, only about a dozen tested positive,” she said.

“Are any of the fae here at risk?”

“We’ve notified those who are pregnant, and it doesn’t appear that any have been put at risk,” she answered.

“That’s good news,” I whispered, hands curling into the thin blanket.

“Caden has been holding an inquisition, questioning all the fae who had access to the drinks that were in the cooler,” Tink said. “Which is pretty much every fae here.”

It almost seemed like an impossible task, but Caden could compel the truth. Something that I doubted he wanted to do to every member of his Court without due cause. He was smart enough to know that he’d create more enemies using glamour to find the one who was responsible, but now he had a reason.

I just hoped it didn’t hurt his relationship with his Court.

But I wanted whoever was responsible dead. Actually, I wanted to be the one to kill them myself. That would probably violate the whole bed rest thing, but I also thought it could be fairly therapeutic.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Tink said. “And I know that usually means I’m about to say something completely irrelevant, but I promise that’s not the case right now.”

My brows rose. “What have you been thinking about?”

“Why do we think it’s someone who didn’t know you were pregnant?” Tink asked as he glanced between the two of us. “Because there are a lot of ways they could have tried to kill you—well, poison is definitely a quieter way, but there are other poisons they could have used. Right, Luce?”

“Right,” she replied, drawing out the word.

“All I’m saying is that it seems way too coincidental that the poison that was chosen, was the one that has that kind of effect on a pregnancy.”

A trickle of unease skirted through me. “But there are only a handful of people who know I’m pregnant. None of them would’ve done something like this.”

“I don’t think they would’ve, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t say something,” Tink reasoned. “That everyone kept their mouth shut.”

“You’re suggesting that one of us jeopardized her safety?” Luce demanded. “I can tell you that those who know never would’ve done that.”

“I’m not suggesting that anyone did it thinking it would jeopardize her safety,” Tink responded. “Look, everyone talks. Even the fae. You may be special, Luce, and you’re a fortress of secrets, but there ain’t a single race of beings out there that isn’t infected with the need to gossip.”

“I get what you’re saying, but those who know would never be so careless with such information.”

“Maybe not.” Tink sat back. “Perhaps they weren’t so careless at all.”

My gaze sharpened on him, but I didn’t say anything until Luce finished up and left the room. “What are you really thinking? And don’t say nothing. You were being purposely vague. Maybe Luce didn’t see that, but I did.”

Tink glanced at the door. “Okay. I was being a little vague, but Lite Bright, something doesn’t seem right about this.”

“A lot of things don’t seem right at the moment.”

“Yeah, but I just think it’s strange that out of all the poisons—and there are many that have been brought over from the Otherworld—that would’ve killed you with just one taste, that one was used.” His gaze slid back to me. “Sure, you were given a large dose that would’ve taken you out if you were completely human, but why take that risk when there are far more effective ones? Think Game of Thrones level of quick and messy death. It’s almost like killing you wasn’t the priority.”

“If I wasn’t the priority, then—” That was something I didn’t want to even think. Because it would mean that the baby was the target, and that meant Tink was right. “Who would you think would’ve talked?”

“I don’t know. I want to say none of them, but…”

“But you just said everyone gossips.” There was a great sense of dread. “And you said maybe they didn’t speak carelessly. I’m thinking you meant someone shared the news with intent.”

“But I do agree that none of those who knew would’ve done anything to harm you. Kalen stopped you from drinking. Tanner wouldn’t do something like that. He’s too dignified. And what reason would Faye have?”

“And Luce?”

“She’s had plenty of opportunities to end you or the baby.”

True. She could’ve poisoned the prenatal pills, and no one would have known. “Then who could it have been?”

“Do we know that no one else was in the courtyard? No. We don’t. Someone else could’ve been out there,” he said. “Whatever fae is working with the Winter Court could’ve followed you, or it could be someone else.”

“Then that would mean we have not one but two fae we need to locate.”

Tink nodded. “And that Caden is definitely going to kill.”

“Caden?” I coughed out a humorless laugh. “I’m going to kill the sons of bitches.”