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

shifted into night, and the emotional high she’d experienced after his pep talk began to wan with the setting sun. By the time he finally returned she was sure she’d remain forever alone. Forgotten and doomed to live out her near eternity in isolation.
    But as promised, “Uriah” returned to his mirror and mere seconds later there was a quiet knock in the stone wall behind her. A banging echo that caused her to jump and twirl. So there was the infamous hidden doorway, oh the temptation to run to it was great. Immediately her hand rushed to the column of her throat in a nervous reflex.
    Mirror nodded for her to answer it.
    “Come. Come in,” she breathed, then cleared her throat.
    He looked a little different than he had that day in the woods. But Charles still cut a striking figure.
    Tall, broad of shoulders and narrow of hips, Fable felt something squeeze through her heart she hadn’t in ages.
    Curiosity.
    “Charles,” she said slowly.
    His look was cursory, but thorough, before he nodded, dropped to a chain-mailed knee and bowed his head.
    “My queen. Why have you summoned me?”

Chapter 3
    Fable
    C lutching at her soft pink colored robe, she curled her fingers tight into the fabric and tried to swallow her nerves, though she knew her voice sounded strained by the emotion.
    “Thank you for coming,” she said softly, cutting a quick glance toward the doorway that had vanished the moment he’d stepped through. The tunnel, or staircase—whatever it had been—vanished the moment he stepped through into her room. Freedom was so close and yet so far from her.
    Maybe Mirror was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t enchanted to kill her; maybe it would sting a little? But no sooner had she thought it then she knew she was grasping at straws.
    Mirror would never lie to her. If he said it was enchanted to kill her, that’s exactly what it would do.
    He rose back to his feet, and again Fable suffered a strange roll of emotion. Her heart stuttered powerfully in her chest, and her stomach kneaded with tight knots. She’d not been alone in a room with a man for so long that to do so now felt foreign and almost uncomfortable for her.
    Unlike the day in the woods, his look now was open and curious. And she drank in the sight of his handsome face. She’d forgotten just how good looking the male was, when she’d seen him last her heart had been captured by George, but it had been some time since she’d felt anything for George other than quiet detachment.
    Now here was a strong, virile male looking at her with a spark in his eye she’d not seen for some time.
    “You shaved,” she said, then twitched uncomfortably, realizing she’d spoken her thoughts aloud.
    He moved deeper into the room, rubbing his jaw idly, as though unaware of the action.
    “Some time ago, yes.”
    “Why?” she asked, talking of nonsense until she could gather enough nerve to get to the real reason for why she’d asked him to come see her.
    He paused in his walk, cocking his head and looking at her far more heatedly than before.
    Nothing inappropriate, but with an obvious flare of curiosity burning in his pretty brown eyes, and suddenly she wished she’d taken greater care with her appearance.
    Whenever she was viewed out in public, she would never be caught dead in anything other than a princess gown with her hair done up in a fashionable queue and her face painted with bright, bold colors to highlight the natural dark hue of her skin.
    Now she wore only a thin, transparent white slip beneath her thick robe. Her hair hung long down her shoulders, covering both breasts with the very tips reaching to her waistline. And no shoes. She had however painted her toenails a pretty shade of lavender. Wiggling her toes and feeling altogether self-conscious she blew out a heavy breath, ready to turn her gaze to the side so that she would no longer need to look at him.
    “I suppose,” he finally said, “that I felt the need for a change.”
    She swallowed hard,