Vengeance of a Queen: The Resurrection of Queens, Book 2
Vengeance of a Queen: Chapter 15

We spend some time reconnecting at Kelly’s house. It’s easy to forget how much your friends lift your spirits and soothe your soul when you’re buried under piles of crap. But the second you reconnect with them, everything seems right in the world again.

We’re heading to the packhouse to meet with Malcolm and the others for dinner. We’ll need to talk to them about what the Council’s plans are, but compared to what we just dealt with, I’m not as concerned about their answers.

“I’ve been thinking,” Darcy says as we take our time walking home. “Ayla said queens historically took alpha dragons as their mates.”

“But we were also historically only female dragons,” Ayla points out. “You three aren’t dragon shifters.”

“You’re right,” Darcy agrees. “I think the gods are diversifying. Olivia is a panther shifter, Kelly is a witch, and I’m a vampire.”

“You’re a weird hybrid of basically everything,” I tease. “But you’re right.”

“When I was being held by Malick, right after the goddesses saved me…” Ayla pauses to take a deep breath. “They showed me my mother’s fate. Katja said that queens, dragons, shouldn’t be the only ones to have power like that. Honestly, I completely agree. I don’t agree with how she went about trying to get that kind of power, but I’ve never thought dragons should be the only ones to be at the top of the food chain, so to speak.”

“I know there’s a prophecy and all that,” Kelly says, “but what if the gods are…I don’t know…changing fate as they go? Olivia doesn’t have an alpha dragon as a mate. Darcy and I might not either. We all know how hard it is for normal supernaturals to find their mates.”

I’ve been thinking about this deep in the recesses of my mind. There are so many things that can block a mate bond, such as insecurities or being from a different species. In those cases, the bond takes a while to form. The couple often doesn’t feel an instant connection, which is what happened with Malcolm and me. I felt a pull toward him before I’d come into my queen powers, but the knowledge that he was my mate didn’t fully hit me until that day on the battlefield.

“I’ve talked to my dragon a bit about this,” Ayla comments. “She says it’s part of the queen magic. The bond forms automatically without either party really putting any effort in. Obviously, the pair has to work to make it finalize, but there aren’t the same hindrances that other supernaturals have. Something to do with boosting a queen’s power. We’re more powerful when we’re bonded with our mate.” She shrugs. “At least that’s what she tells me.”

“Interesting,” Darcy murmurs. “So it’s possible Kelly and I won’t know who our mates are—if we know them already, that is—until our powers come in.”

Ayla nods. “Yeah. Unless you overcome those hurdles beforehand, I think you’re right. You’re still just normal supernaturals right now.”

“I wonder what will happen once this is all over.” I look at the others as they all turn their attention to me. “Will the gods continue to allow new queens from different species and allow them to take mates who aren’t alpha dragons? Or will they go back to only having dragon shifters as queens? If so, will our powers be stripped?”

“I don’t think I want to worry about that right now,” Kelly mutters. “We have way too much on our plate to contemplate something that far in the future.”

She’s right. It’s part of my job to think about things like this though, so it’s hard to turn off that part of my brain. It’s a mix of being head of security and being a tight little ball of anxiety. At least I’m self-aware.

We make our way into the dining room to find the guys, as well as Xin, Ripley, and Fayden, all seated at the table. I’m surprised to see Ripley but pleased because I’ll be able to get an update on how things went today, and Ayla and I can call a meeting for tomorrow first thing in the morning.

When my gaze lands on Connor, I fight the urge to blush, but he doesn’t look at me or Malcolm. His gaze is fixed on Kelly. His gaze is almost predatory as he watches her take her seat. There’s concern there too. My eyes flick over to my friend. She isn’t paying any attention to the dire wolf, almost as though she’s purposely avoiding his gaze.

You seeing this? I address Ayla and Darcy. I notice both of them covertly glance between the shifter and witch, their interest instantly piqued.

Something is going on between those two. If I’m right, it’s the same something that happened between Malcolm and me before I came into my powers and realized we were mates.

Well, hot damn! I’m excited for Kelly, but I can tell she’s not ready yet. She’ll need a bit more time before Connor can act on that animal instinct he’s feeling. There’s a part of me that’s just screaming at them to kiss in my head, but I’ll leave it be for now. I can hardcore ship them from a distance until it actually happens.

“We’ve got a lot to talk about, so let’s dig in.” Ayla gestures for everyone to eat.

As we’re eating, we discuss the plans for the blood bank, which Ripley confirms is almost finished. Ayla, Kelly, Dante, and I agree to make an announcement in the morning to get volunteers to give blood. We’re all sure there won’t be an issue there.

I tell Caleb we need to go over plans for the dissolution of the Council so we can plan for more community members here in town. This opens up a whole new can of worms. Are we going to have branches of this community throughout the rest of the world? There will eventually be six queens, so are we all going to stay here? What will the new governing body really look like? Will it just be queens at the table, or will we have others as well?

I knew this process would take time, and I knew I was going to be part of the process since I’m now a queen, but dear goddess, I’d rather leave this to someone else.

We agree to come back to this topic at a later date once we’ve all had time to think about the options, plus we still have more to discuss.

“What I really want to know,” I begin, “is how the hell those demons knew where we were when we were in Ireland. That cottage is still warded to high heaven.”

“We’ve been trying to figure that out,” Fayden chimes in. She’s practically bouncing in her seat. “While my tech struggled with your memories, Olivia, it does suggest there may be a mole in either the community or the Council. The other probability is that Malick is able to watch us without a mole, that he’s gained a new ability somehow, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”

A heavy silence greets her. A mole is my worst fear. Then again, so is Malick gaining new abilities. We still don’t know for sure who saved him during that battle outside his facility. We speculated that it might be one of the Härja, but we haven’t figured that out for sure yet. If his friend is able to give him new powers, we’re even more fucked than we thought.

“I know we threw out the idea that Malick could be working with the Härja,” I muse, “but we didn’t really flesh that out much. It makes sense, right?” I look around the table. “I mean, based on what we know. Malick has claimed that he wants to open the gates of Hell to let Lucifer out, but Ayla and I saw Lucifer volunteer to create a prison for the Härja.

“It’s possible one of the Härja has been acting as Lucifer to get Malick to open the gates,” I continue as my brain starts to work through everything we’ve experienced. “Or Malick is lying about why he wants to open the gates. Either way, I think it’s safe to assume Malick has ties to the Härja.”

Ayla nods thoughtfully. “I agree. Brigid said Malick wasn’t the main threat, but she wouldn’t tell me exactly what was. Then we were pulled into that vision in Ireland. The Härja are the main threat. The prophecy suggests that by the three Fates falling, the gates to Hell will open and they’ll be unleashed. But what exactly does it mean by Fates falling?”

“There are a few meanings,” Fayden supplies. “One is that the Fates all die. Another is a fall from grace sort of situation—think how popular literature now has Lucifer falling from Heaven. A third is a loss of power.”

“How are we supposed to stop the Fates from falling if we don’t know what the hell that actually means?” Caleb’s gruff response has us all pausing. I’m sure we were all thinking the same thing.

“Fayden,” Malcolm says, breaking the silence, “you’re taking notes on all this, right?” She nods. “Good. We need a new way of seeing all these facts. Can you play with that?”

“Sure.” Her fingers start flying across her tablet.

“Let’s bookmark this.” Everyone agrees. “Great. Can I have my abuela’s journal?”

Fayden slides it across the table. It’s thicker than most, with pages that have been sewn in as my abuela continued to collect information she thought was important. Most of the pages are yellowed with age, and the soft brown leather is worn along the creases.

“What did you find out?” I ask.

Fayden taps at her tablet a bit before settling on something. “There’s a lot packed into that journal, but I’ll give you as much of the CliffsNotes version as I can. It’s still going to be long though. Feel free to interrupt me with questions.”

We all nod.

“I think the best place to start is with what your abuela had on the gods, then we can work on queens and their origins, demons, and then the prophecy. There’s really no linear outline to the journal, but I tried to organize the topics as best as I could.

“From what your abuela could gather, the gods once called Earth home before they created their own realm. Christianity calls that realm Heaven, and that seems to be the most well-known name for it, so I’m going to stick with that. Their exact origins are unknown, and your abuela speculated that they don’t even know their own origins anymore.

“At some point, there was a divide between them, and they waged war against each other for an eternity before the gods finally created their own realm. Your abuela doesn’t say anything about this, so I’m just making assumptions here, but it’s possible they fought for so long because they either hoped they would be able to kill each other off, or because neither group knew how to create a realm before that point. I’m not sure if that’s important, but I’ve noted it just in case.

“Your abuela records here, several times, that the gods refuse to mess with free will. They’ll blur the lines, so to speak, but they won’t ever outright interfere, which is why I think this whole thing is just a complete mess. They don’t want to mess with our free will, but they do want to help us protect the balance. They walk a weird line. Very blurry.”

That’s not news. We’d been wondering why this whole thing was just a bunch of crap to wade through, and if what my abuela had in this journal was right, “free will” was the reason. A shit reason, but a reason.

“Based on a rough timeline which I sort of had to piece together, it was after the gods created and fled to their own realm that they created supernaturals. From what was gathered, the gods created supernaturals as guardians for mortals. Mortals came sometime after the creation of supernaturals.”

“That’s correct,” Darcy interjects. “My memories of that time have faded, but I do know we are the guardians of mortals. We’re meant to protect them from demons.”

“That’s murky,” Fayden responds. “It seems like that’s what ultimately happened, but the journal neither confirms nor denies that theory. I’m just not sure, because based on the vision from Ireland, the guardians were tasked with fighting the Härja, who had split from the gods. They possibly imprisoned them, but I couldn’t find out if it was the guardians or the gods who ultimately did that. The vision suggests the guardians did that, but considering we’re not gods, I’m just not sure.

“Anyway, the journal suggests that the gods gave each guardian line a small bit of their power, which is how we became what we are. As lines died out, so too did those powers, but our purpose remained the same—protect the mortals from corruption. It’s unclear exactly when queens came into the picture and whether or not the Fates predate the queens or vice versa, but the Fates have only ever been chosen from queens. Queens have always had the ability to sense demons and battle against archdemons.

“This is where things get really interesting.” She wiggles excitedly in her seat. “Mortal souls travel along a reincarnation cycle. It’s not clear how many lives they have to live, but they travel along this cycle that ends in three ways—becoming a demon, becoming a guardian, or becoming ‘enlightened.’ It’s unclear what the hell becoming enlightened means, but that seems to be the end goal of the whole process. At least according to the gods.”

We’re all leaning forward in our seats. I don’t think any of us have heard this before. Darcy may remember some of this, but possibly not all of it. I’m not surprised she doesn’t really recollect the beginning. It’s been a hell of a long time. That’s way too much information to store in any brain, even a supernatural and magical one.

“Corruption of the mortal soul leads to demons. This ends the reincarnation cycle for them. The guardians are meant to help prevent this. I’m going to go into what happens once they become demons more in a minute, so stick a pin in this. Exceptionally brave mortal souls are reborn as guardians.

“While guardians are only ever reborn as guardians, it seems like we have a shelf life. Again, I’m not sure how many lives we get to live, but it’s finite, so the gods wanted a way to replenish our numbers without having to continue to create us from scratch. Honestly, this whole process just seems arbitrary, but hey, I’m not a god so I can’t create the rules. So to recap…Enlightenment is the big end goal for a mortal soul. We, as guardians, are meant to ensure that a soul continues on its reincarnation cycle until that happens. We’re meant to help prevent corruption. If that happens, demons are created. We then step in to prevent more corruption, because that is bad for the balance.”

Okay, so if I have this right, the gods won’t directly interfere with free will, but they seem to have put fail-safes in place to ensure the balance between good and evil, or light and dark, is kept and not skewed. This feels like we’re some sort of weird high school science experiment. I’m not sure I like it.

“Let’s move on to demons.” Fayden taps her tablet. “This is where things start to tie in a bit more.”

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