The Queen of All Magick: Elizabeth (13 page)

“She’s nothing like I thought a mate would be.”
She was more, but he wasn’t going to tell Elizabeth that. Her head was too full now of what he’d done wrong about his mate. “She told me last night that if she wanted to, she could go to the Fates and have them take this away from us. What right does she have to even think those sorts of things? Is her life not for the better?”

“I would say it’s not.” He looked at Elizabeth when she spoke.
“What does she know about herself? Nothing. Does she have a home? A place to call her own? Nope. Does she have any idea what she is? She’s asked that of several people, and none of us know just how to answer her. Telling her she is everything only gives her more questions to ask. She wanted to go shopping with us today. Did you know that she refused? Now ask me why?”

“Aaron had said she had no money. He said he was going to give her some. He had no right to do that. I have plenty of money if she wanted to buy several stores. She needed only to ask for it.” He looked at her when she snorted. “That is a nasty habit you have. What does it mean?”

“It means that you’re full of shit. And why should she have to beg you for money as if she were a beggar? Should you not have provided her with all she wanted or needed? Did you know that she has no clothing? Not a stitch. This morning Sara lent her a blouse to wear. There is no telling what she is doing for underclothing.” The thought of her underclothing made him shift on his seat. He wanted her, and she’d refused him twice now.

“She is making this harder on herself than she needs to.
Why doesn’t she just listen to me? I will make her life perfect.” Elizabeth laughed, and he decided that he was going to never talk to her again. Then he was brought up short, knowing that in a few days he never would. For the first time in all this, he thought about her as his friend.

“Kim is being threatened
, and she is going to take care of it on her own. And when she does, what do you think she’ll think about you and your rules then?” He knew what she thought now, and was afraid of what might happen if she could prove to herself that she didn’t really need him.

“I have been a fool.” Elizabeth nodded. “
Well, you could have given me a second or two before you agreed with me. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“No
, you don’t. And you’re going to lose more than a mate if you don’t figure it out.” He knew that too. Once Elizabeth was gone, he’d have to stay for a time, as it was written, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t be welcome anywhere if he did. Not even with his mate. She would be well cared for, but not by him.

“I would
ask that you help me.” She nodded. “I’m…I need to earn her trust and her love. I don’t love her now, but I do…she is a spitfire, is she not? How did I miss that when I first met her?”

“You were too busy making demands.
And I cannot help you.” He started to protest, but she cut him off. “I’m going to spend my last days with my family, and you are not included. You might have been at one time, but I, like your mate, cannot stand you.”

Shamus appeared a few minutes after Elizabeth left.
He had been thinking about what he’d been doing and looked at the proud king sitting before him.

“I think in order to understand my own mate, I have to understand Elizabeth.”
Shamus leaned back on the couch as he got up to pace. “I’m not very good at women, as you might have guessed, and since she is the only female that I actually know, mayhap you should tell me what you know about her.”

“She is the greatest woman I know. And she has a heart of the purest gold.
Elizabeth will support you in ways you cannot believe, even if it’s to let you fail, but she will be there to pick you up when you do. She’ll dust you off and show you how to start again.” Shamus smiled. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything.” Shamus nodded and started talking.
Rythen wasn’t at all surprised by the amount of respect and love he heard from the younger man. But he was surprised by how much she did daily to keep them all together.

Chapter 13

To say she was afraid would have been funny. Kim
was terrified. And not only that, she was sure that she was going to die. She felt someone move across her mind like a soft touch and waited, tense.

“You’re not going to die.
Why would you even think that? Didn’t I show you how to do some pretty awesome stuff? And your sword work is pretty fucking amazing too.” Kim smiled at Tess. The woman was like this amazon on steroids. “Thank you.”

“I don’t know why I let you talk me into this. He’s going to come in here with guns blazing
, and I’m going to end up a puddle on the floor.” She looked around. “You know if I do live through this, I think I’d like to buy this building.”

“Why is that?” She thought it was Lizzy this time
, and she told her it was. “What would you do with this building that makes you think of that now?”

“I can see a bunch of shops in it. You know
, like an open air market. And artistic people selling their wares on pretty little carts. Like in New Orleans, but more…I was going to say artsy, but that’s not it.” She tried to think. “You know…have people doing what Aric does, making their stuff and selling it. I don’t know how a potter would do it, but you think people would come to see her throwing pots, don’t you?”

She felt foolish and nearly told them to forget it
, but Andi spoke up. “I know this woman who does the most amazing knitted things. Little Dunc has two of her hats, and he had a bunch of her little booties. She’d make a killing at something like that.”

“You’d have to make the rent affordable,” Lizzy said.
“Most people who are just starting out have very little money. And maybe you could provide them with some stuff to make it work. Like a cash register and some shelves.” Kim found herself getting into this too. She could see it coming together and spoke up when Lizzy told her about a man she knew who made jewelry.

“And in the summer, a garden could be made so that visitors could come
and have a seat, maybe even enjoy an ice cream or a hot dog.” Lizzy laughed, but she didn’t feel foolish. It was just a dream, but it kept her from being scared for a few minutes. The door opening just beyond her had her freezing up, but Tess told her to be calm.

Tess had shown up just as they were leaving the house.
Kim had a feeling she’d been asked to go with them, and after she’d taken her into the yard to work on a little self-defense, she was sure of it. But she was glad for the fae. Kim had to smile. A fae…she knew, a flipping fae person.

“Well
, you showed up, didn’t you? Didn’t think you would with all this shit going down about my son being abusive to you. I think you should know that nobody else complained when they was with him.” She looked at Mr. Gibson and decided that the man was hurting. “He wasn’t doing nothing you din’t want.”

Okay, maybe he was just as asshole.
She stiffened her spine and took a step toward him. Tess had told her that bullies usually didn’t like it when their intended victim did that. He frowned at her and took a half step back.

“
Your son was an abusive ass, and I’m beginning to think you taught him everything he did.” The man nodded, clearly confused by her statement. “Do you know what he did to me? How badly he’d hit me sometimes?”

“Well yeah. Duh? Why
, if you’re going to hit someone, would you be gentle about it? Women only should have one position, and that’s flat on their backs. Whether they’re there because you knocked them there or they’re servicing you, that’s where they should remain.”

Her laughter bubbled up before she
could stop it. She had no idea why she thought it was so funny that he’d think this way, but it had her nearly doubling over with it. When he took a step toward her, she stood up and faced him. He drew back his hand to hit her, and she spoke.

“You do and it will be the last thing you ever do in your short and miserable life.”
Her voice surprised her at how calm it was when inside, she was terrified beyond her next breath. “I will not allow a man to touch me again in violence.”

“You think you’re so tough? I got news for you
. I’ve hit more women in my lifetime than most men fuck.” He did a small lunge at her, and she stood her ground. “You’re nothing to me. And when you’re dead and in the ground, nobody will give a shit about the woman who murdered my son.”

“But they’ll know your son,
won’t they? They’ll know that his entire life he was abused by you and your wife. That the two of you would lock him in a cage not even big enough for a small animal. But you treated him that way, didn’t you? Locked him in there to teach him a lesson he never forgot.” Kim had no idea why she was getting these thoughts, but knew that it wasn’t from the women with her. “What about all the times you would send him out into the cold, when all he wanted was something to eat? If anyone is at fault for your son’s death, it lays solely at your doorstep.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He started for her again, and she kicked him in the shin, bringing him to his knees. “You’re going to pay for that, bitch. You just wait and see.”

“Try me.” He looked up at her as he stayed where he’d
fallen. “Get up off your lazy fucking ass and make me pay. Or are you too afraid of me? Is that it? A woman fights back and you’re suddenly not going to play? Get up.”

“You’re nuts.” She reached for his arm to pull him up
. She’d had enough of this. But his next words had her still. “I’m going to kill you when you least expect it. Not now, because you probably got this place all wired up. But I’ll get you.”

Kim put her hand on his head. Her intention was to knock him all the way to the floor
, but the moment she touched him, she felt a hard current run up her arm and to his head. And in what seemed like hours but had to have been only seconds, she pushed as much of herself into him as she could before someone else touched her. She looked up into Elizabeth’s face, and felt as if she’d been given a great gift in their friendship.

“Let him go.
Kim, honey, let him go.” She felt her finger let him go and her body grow weak from it. “That’s my girl. Just lay down here.”

Her body was being laid
down, and she couldn’t find the strength to argue. When someone else stood over her, she looked up into the grinning face of Lizzy. She saw Andi there as well.

“Did I kill him?”
Lizzy shook her head and they both moved so that she could see him. He was lying on the concrete floor sucking his thumb and sobbing like a baby. She looked at Elizabeth, not understanding. “What happened to him?”

“You gave him what he’d been giving every
woman he’d ever met, as well as the pain that his son suffered at his hand. You gave as good as you got.”

The police were called
, and Tess talked to them. Kim didn’t understand why they weren’t slightly freaked out by her appearance when Lizzy walked up to her and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. She asked the beautiful woman why they weren’t freaked out.

“They don’t see her like we do because she
doesn’t want them too. You should see yourself as we do. You glow.” Kim shook her head. “Yeah, you do. And there are all kinds of beautiful sparks coming off you all the time. It’s your magic. It’s powerful.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Andi walked up to them, and when Lizzy told her what they were talking about, she pulled her along to a closed door. When she opened it, Kim looked at the woman staring back at her in the mirror.

“How…how did this happen?”
Neither one of them answered her, but Kim didn’t care. The girl looking back at her seemed to be something out of a faery tale. Kim looked at Tess when she came up behind her. Then Lizzy and Andi were talking to Elizabeth as Mr. Gibson was being loaded in an ambulance.

“You okay?” She nodded.
Tess grinned. “As you might have guessed, I came along because I was asked to do so. Rythen sent me…well, he asked me if I’d make sure you were okay. I think I’ll be happy to report that you did better than okay. You fucking rocked the house.”

“Do you know how long he’s going to be like he is?”
Tess told her forever. “I didn’t mean to hurt him like that. I only meant to keep him from hitting me. Why didn’t Elizabeth pull me away sooner? And now that I think about it, when did she show up?”

“I
can’t touch you.” Kim frowned. “You’re royalty, yeah, but you’re a powerful being and I can’t touch you without your permission or you’re going to cause harm to another member of the royal family, like Sara and her family or Queenie and hers. You did neither, and I had to call someone who could.”

“What about Lizzy or Andi, aren’t they royalty too?
Not that I believe that I am, but wouldn’t they have been able to pull me away from him before I hurt him that badly?” Tess shrugged and smiled. Kim looked at the two women that turned when she did, and it hit her. “They’re going to have a child, each of them.”

“They are. I don’t know if Andi is aware of it yet
, but Lizzy knows. Can you tell what they’re having too? You should be able to.” Kim reached out to them and knew that Lizzy was having a son and that Andi was having twins. One of each. “You’re getting really good at this. What am I having?”

“A son.” Tess nodded and smiled at her. “And had Aaron known or even any of the rest of them, you wouldn’t have been able to come here.”

“They’re very protective of their women.” Kim had seen that. “There’s something else you should know. I’m probably not supposed to tell you this, but Rythen is taking mate lessons from Shamus.”

“Mate lessons? What the hell are those?”
When Tess laughed, Kim had a feeling she didn’t want to know. But as she moved closer to the other women it occurred to her. He was learning to deal with her.

“Not deal with you
, but to be a better man for you.”

She felt Rythen touch her as if he were standing next to her. “
You are not harmed, are you
?”

“No. He never touched me.”
She wanted to not speak to him, but she was very proud of herself today. She hadn’t crumbled under the pressure. “I took care of myself. I won’t let another man harm me again.”

“
And I did
.” She didn’t answer him because they both knew that he had. “
I’m trying to do better. I’ve been somewhat…I’ve been a pain in your ass. As it has been pointed out to me a great deal
.”

“You’re not going to hear me say
anything different.” He laughed, and she felt her heart take an unexpected twist. “I’m not going back there with you. I want to be here, with my friends. You aren’t right now.”

“
I realize that. And I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know about that. I’m going to make it up to you. I swear
.” She didn’t say anything, but he continued anyway. “
I would very much like to take you out to dinner tonight. I understand you’ll be in town with the others. I could meet you somewhere
.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been…the only out to dinner I know is a fast food place. What did you have in mind?” She waited for him to answer her as she climbed into the limo with Lizzy and Andi.
Elizabeth and Sara, along with a couple of the other women that Sara knew, were going to meet them downtown.

“
I have in mind a very elegant place where it would pale in comparison to you
.” She flushed, and Lizzy winked at her. “
Ask one of the women to help you find something lovely to wear, and I will take care of the rest. I’ll meet you at the riverfront at six
.”

She told him that would be fine and felt the connection close. She looked over at Andi and started to ask her about a dress when she spoke first.

“You should do it.” She frowned, wondering how she knew about the dress when she continued. “The shops. You should do it. I’ll help. I know the person who owns the building, and I’m sure he’ll give you a good buy. Black owns it, Lizzy’s family business.”

“I was just telling him about your idea
, and he loves it. He said if you want to rent it or buy it, he’s in.” Kim started to shake her head when they both continued talking at the same time. They had the entire building set up and tenants practically in it before they got to the first shop. She was almost too excited to tell them she didn’t have any idea how to make this work, much less the money to do it. The rest of the early afternoon and well into dusk was a flurry of shopping and food. But most of it was friendly talk. And Kim learned a great deal about what she was.

~~~

Rythen was terrified nearly out of his boots. He’d been told all day that if he’d just learn to listen rather than speak, he’d find his mate would like him. He had no idea how that was supposed to work. And when he saw her at the corner where he’d asked her to meet him, he nearly swallowed his tongue. Christ, she was a goddess.

He moved toward her slowly
, wanting to absorb as much of her beauty as he could. There was so much of her to see that he wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and take her home to peel her open. When she turned and saw him, he whimpered when she smiled. A man could only take so much.