The Dark Queen (The Dark Queens Book 5) Read Online Free

then in one of those rare flashbacks, where her mind suddenly recalled a memory it hadn’t in ages, the image of the guardsman who’d taken her mirror came sharply to mind.
    “Where is Charles!” she asked, voice rising with the thought of salvation.
    Uriah Mirror, far more unflappable than Uriah her brother, said without missing a beat, “King George’s guardsman was unable to follow his liege this morning, he recently broke his arm and—”
    She held up her hand. “I do not care what’s happened to him, only that he is here on the premises.”
    “Yes, my queen, he is.”
    Wetting her lips, an idea suddenly came to her. She’d never tried this before, but her grandfather’s magick was powerful. Powerful enough that when Brunhilda tried to strip the man from the mirror she could not.
    For so long having Mirror in her room was a constant reminder of all that she’d lost. But through the weeks and months that had followed she’d begun to learn that Mirror was so much more than merely a two-way device that allowed her to talk with her family. Mirror was smart, and above all, loyal. All she knew was that she was grateful now more than ever for him.
    “Mirror,” she said softly, “I wonder, can you travel between looking glasses?”
    He blinked, as though startled. Then looked at her with wide, rounded eyes. “Why yes, it seems that I can, my queen.”
    She grinned, feeling more positive and excited about this than she had about anything since arriving in the above.
    “Go to him then and deliver a message—”
    “My queen, if I may.”
    She lifted a brow.
    “There is a secret tunnel into here.”
    “What! Where?” She turned; ready to run far from here. She could leave the castle grounds, find a lake and call for her father. She could be hom—
    Mirror shook his head, a look of distress pinching his features. “I am sorry, my queen, to have caused you such excitement only to have to be the bearer of bad news now.”
    Immediately her heart plummeted to her knees and a scream wedged tight in her throat, to have been given a glimpse of freedom only to have it dashed, it was all she could do to remain standing and not crumble to the floor.
    Squaring her shoulders, remembering the words of her mother, she shook off the disappointment as best she could.
    “What is it, Mirror?”
    “You cannot leave, my queen. The witch has spelled the tunnel, should you pass through it, you would surely die.”
    “What?” She shook her head, knowing she’d heard wrong. It was near to impossible to die in Kingdom, only by weapon or magick...
    “You would die, Fable,” he repeated.
    Her jaw dropped, and her ears thundered with the beat of her racing pulse. Grasping hold of the edge of her robe, she shuffled back toward the edge of the bed, landing with a soft thud onto the mattress and staring at the walls in dawning horror.
    “Are you sure? How do you know this?”
    He remained perfectly still as he said, “She carted me up here hours before she had you locked away. I saw her weave the spell. I can only assume she allowed me to witness what she’d done to torment you with an avenue of escape you could never possibly use.”
    Fable’s jaw dropped. That the witch should do such a thing spoke volumes as to just how evil, and wicked she was. The witch had sent her off on a fool’s errand yesterday morning, begging Fable to run into town and fetch her a basket of golden apples from the vendor at the marketplace because only those golden apples were the very best with which to make the King’s favorite pie.
    She’d thought the request an odd one, considering there were servants to handle such chores, but she’d been happy enough to get away from the depressive castle for a few hours. Like a fool she’d happily agreed to the task, all the while Brunhilda had been weaving an enchantment meant to keep Fable locked away.
    “But...but...when George returns surely, he will—”
    “I do not think she means you to ever