Pia Does Hollywood (Elder Races, #8.6)(33)

Evening was still a few hours away. They were still within their safe zone, and she had at least three more times, maybe four, when she could try without risk to heal Dragos.

Time to take a breath. Time to try to relax. She had been in several tense situations before where a safety margin of four hours would have felt miraculous.

How would Liam and the Stinkpot get along? The thought almost made her smile.

As Tatiana settled on the nearby couch, Pia said, “I can’t imagine how you must feel, knowing your sister might be trying to kill you.”

In the softer interior light, the Queen’s composed expression seemed to sag. “There is no ‘might’ to it,” Tatiana said softly. “Isabeau has already tried many times in the past.”

Pia bit her lip, pressing her fingers harder against her abdomen. Please gods, both her children would love each other. “She’s your twin, isn’t she? Did you ever get along?”

“We had a more cordial relationship once, long ago when we were children,” the other woman replied. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Although we always had something of an edge that lay between us, and we were prone to quarreling. She was jealous of privileges that I got. I’m younger than her by just a few minutes, you see, but those few minutes dictated the course of our lives. She was the heir, and I was not. I had more freedoms, and she did not. She has an aptitude for magic, and while I have force of will, I have very little else.”

The space of a few years between siblings was not quite a few minutes. Already Liam seemed so much older than little Stinkpot, but that gap would close rapidly after Stinkpot was born. The gap in their ages would certainly seem negligible in forty or fifty years, very like a few minutes.

Make note to self, Pia thought. Don’t play favorites with privileges.

Tatiana continued, “As we grew older, both our parents were killed in a fire. Isabeau became Queen of the Seelie Court, and that’s when her jealous side took over. Eventually she changed so much, she acted like she hated me. Court became a place I avoided as much as possible, but since I was then the heir, I couldn’t avoid it entirely. I never really felt threatened, though, until we both fell in love with the same man.”

“Uh-oh,” Pia whispered, completely drawn into the recounting of the other woman’s memories. “What happened?”

“He chose me.” Tatiana gave her a wry, bittersweet smile. “We tried to keep it secret for a while, but ultimately that didn’t work out very well for us. I became pregnant with Bailey and Melisande, and I reached that inevitable place where I was having difficulty hiding the pregnancy. Dain—that was his name, Dain—and I had started to discuss whether or not we should leave the Court, but we hadn’t made any final decision, when he was killed.”

Pia sucked in a breath. She had known that, clearly, something had happened to Tatiana’s lover, either a quarrel or a tragedy, because to her knowledge, the Light Fae Queen had never been married. Hearing the details seemed to bring the long-ago tragedy much closer.

She murmured, “He died when you were pregnant.”

The wry, distant expression in Tatiana’s gaze iced over. “Dain was murdered while I was pregnant,” she corrected. “He was struck by an arrow while out hunting with his men. At the time, I was very much younger and a lot more foolish. And of course, I was also heartbroken and beside myself. I remember feeling like I had somehow left my body. I confronted Isabeau, and I didn’t wait to do it until we were alone. I confronted her in front of others. It was a foolhardy thing to do, but ultimately, that probably ended up saving my life. That was the first time—at least I think it was the first time—that Isabeau tried to kill me.”

“How horrible,” Pia whispered.

A soft tap came at the door, and a servant poked his head into the room. “Ma’am, your meal is ready to be served,” he told her.

“We’ll take it in here, Evan,” Tatiana replied. “It’s quiet and private in here.” She said to Pia, “I assume that is all right with you?”

Outside, a Light Fae guard carried a laden tray to Dragos. She turned her attention away from the window, nodding quickly. “Yes, thank you.”

Tatiana didn’t resume her story again until their food had been set on the tables near their seats. The Queen had a simple sandwich, while Pia had a fragrant bowl of pasta with spinach and what smelled like pieces of vegan sausage in a creamy coconut milk base. A cocktail of sparkling water and fresh juice accompanied the meal. She fell on the food like she hadn’t eaten in a week.

Tatiana watched her eat with a small smile. “As long ago as my own pregnancy has been, I still remember those days of being utterly ravenous.”

“Sometimes my stomach feels so empty, I feel like it’s fused to my backbone,” Pia muttered. She sipped at the delicious cocktail. It tasted of apricots, oranges and mint. “Please, do go on.”

With a shrug, the other woman picked at her sandwich, shredding bits of lettuce around the edges. “There isn’t too much more to tell, I’m afraid. The scene was like something out of a Greek tragedy, or a modern soap opera. There was even a dramatic thunderstorm that evening. Isabeau completely lost it. We screamed terrible things at each other. She accused me of stealing away her man, which was frankly delusional, because Dain was completely faithful to me. She accused me of other things as well, trying to steal her throne, and her people, and she said traitors who acted against her deserved to be killed. By being with me, Dain had sealed his own fate.”