His Red Queen

Chapter Thirty-three

The window casts shadows across the floor. Maven is sound asleep beside me, his bare chest white in the light from the moon. Even beneath the blankets, its freezing.

Pushing back the covers, I slide out of bed silently. It's five before midnight; the Scarlet Guard is waiting for me.

I sneak out of the room, tying a black dressing gown over my nightgown. The floor is cool beneath my bare feet. To my relief, there are no sentinels outside guarding us and I slip away easily.

Venturing into the hall and turning a corner, I ball my hand into a fist, cutting out the power. It's only a few minutes before it's back on. My ability can only go so far.

In the shadows, someone is lurking. Lightning hums at my fingertips, waiting to be used. The figure steps out of the Shadows.

"You're late," Farley says.

I don't know whether to run to her or sigh in relief or ready my lightning for attack. "Hi," comes out instead.

"We broke Kilorn out of prison, Mare." Instead of looking happy, she looks as if she is going to cry. Her scarred face is soft, blue eyes watery. "But there were people like you there. Red and Silver and powerful than both."

More people like me. Locked up. If I wasn't married to Maven I would have been there with them, or worse. I traded one cage for another.

"Did you free them?"

Farley nods grimly. "We tried. Only one survived. Her name is Cameron. She stopped the silver guards' ability. Even killed a few of them." Farley rests a hand on her stomach and sighs. "She's powerful, Mare. Incredibly powerful."

"Can I meet her?" Once I say it, I realize that even entertaining the thought of that is ridiculous. As if Farley would let me, the queen of a silver nation, near any of her new recruits. For all she knows, I could turn this Cameron girl in to Maven and he'll kill her.

A shiver runs down my spine. "Never mind. You should keep her and the Scarlet Guard as possible from me."

"Yeah. That's what I figured."

She hasn't mentioned Cal or an attack from the Lakelands. I don't want to explicitly ask what happened to him so I beat around the bush a bit. "Has there been a problem with the Lakelands?"

"Yes, that," she grounds out. "They threatened to destroy our bases, half of the locations—which, for some reason were fake—if we did not give them Cal."

So Maven was not lying. He did give them fake locations. But Cal... "They took Cal?" I clear my throat. "What did they do to him?"

Farley shrugs. "Don't know, but I sacrificed him willingly." Her voice takes on a bitter edge that I find myself unable to blame her for. I know what it is like to grow up fighting to stay alive. To be hungry and angry at everyone and everything.

The next thing she says does not shock me. It does hurt immensely, though. "He's not worth losing my people. And neither are you." She places a hand on her belly again and looks down.

I fumble over words, my chest tight."You're pregnant?" I gasp.

Shade. Farley and Shade. They had been together so much at the safe house and by my colors, who knows how long before? The two of them have history, that much is true. But, a baby! A baby she wants me to stay away from.