Ravyn POV
Ravyn could scarcely believe what Sparkler had just admitted. The tiny shining orange faerie was Ylavi's daughter!
Ravyn turned to Jude, who sat there slack-jawed. "You knew that Ylavi had children when we selected her as a potential mate." A hot blush spread over her cheeks, thinking about her missteps. Or should that be miss-steps? "Did she ever mention Sparkler?"
Shaking his head, Jude replied, "She spoke about the children she had with her late husband, but I don't recall her speaking of Sparkler--and I would have."
Sparkler answered with humility. "Oh, that's because she's not my birth mum. You see, my birth mum, Wildfire, was the queen's secretary. Also her personal spy. Mum knew all the faerie gossip. But Mum ... well, she died just before the king did."
Ravyn's heart squeezed with empathy. "I'm so sorry."
Jude, ever pragmatic, asked, "So, the queen adopted you as her own?"
"Not officially, but everyone knows our relationship," Sparkler answered.
Hades' voice was a dark shadow inside their minds. "That sounds like the perfect spy to me."
Ravyn caught Sparkler in her hand as the faerie flew in circles. Holding Sparkler in the palm of her hand, Ravyn asked, "So, are you her assistant?"
"And spy?" Jude questioned before Sparkler had a chance to answer Ravyn's query.
Ravyn winced. Jude had a way of being too direct at times, partly because of his Alpha nature, and partly because he was a strong, assertive man. But then, she supposed she shared the same tendencies.
Sparkler's wings drooped. "How rude, to just ask that. Even if it is the truth. Yes. I am her spy. I was supposed to report back to her about you. Whether you were planning to escape. Whether you'd managed to communicate with your pack."
Jude shrugged. "Would we tell you if we had?"
Sparkler's orange and coral wings fluttered. "I suppose not. After all, you didn't know if you could trust me. But you can. Because what my mother, my adopted mother, is doing is wrong. We need to get you out of here."
Furtively glancing around, Ravyn said, "Shhh, we don't want the guards to hear us."
Sparkler lowered her voice. "Those guards are my friends."
Ravyn narrowed her eyes. "How loyal are they to the queen? Do they see what has happened to her?"
Sighing, Sparkler said, "I think they do, but we don't talk about it. Faerie guards have to be more stoic than other faeries, you know. They march with the troops. They stand watch over prisoners. But Harthorn and Delphinium are good people. Stout of heart, strong of will. I'm certain they'll help us if we can persuade them."
"A good start," commented Hades in both their minds. "Get those guards on our side."
Ravyn gave Sparkler her most engaging smile. "Then, as faerie soldiers, they should know what is going on in the kingdom."
With a flutter and a flap of orange-coral wings, Sparkler darted to the open door and called out, "Lieutenant Harthorn, Lieutenant Delphinium, we have a problem with the prisoners!"
Jude rubbed Ravyn's shoulders, and the thorny knot between them relaxed. "That ought to get their attention," Jude murmured in her ear.
Wings beating the air while they marched, Harthorn and Delphinium entered the cell with an overabundance of caution. As if Ravyn and Jude might regain their powers and their shifting ability and make a break for it.
"Talk," Harthorn said.
"Have you been harassing Sparkler?" Delphinium stood straight and proud, brandishing her silver-tipped spear.
"Far from it!" Sparkler flapped her wings. "Shut the cell door, and one of you try to mask our conversation. The walls can sprout ears, and this castle is leakier than an old washtub."
Delphinium muttered a few words under her breath, and the walls glowed, phosphorescent, for one brief moment. Dubious-eyed, Harthorn kept her spear at the ready. asking, "Now, what is all this about?"
* * * * *
Jude POV
Jude had always run the Silverpaws with his decisions guided by an important principle: Every member of the pack contributes. No one is insignificant.
Tiny bundle of energy Sparkler proved the wisdom of that. She was willing to defy her adopted mum Queen Ylavi and the other faeries for the good of her people.
"It's about Her Majesty," Sparkler said.
Delphinium brandished her spear. "What about her?"
Harthorn added, "Queen Ylavi is a great and noble ruler, and we are all blessed by the Faerie Gods to have her leading us."
Sparkler fluttered her wings. "Now, I owe her my life and my collection of faerie charms, but the way she's been behaving ... doesn't it seem odd to you?"
For several moments, the two guards hesitated, and a silent conversation seemed to take place between them. "Odd ..." Harthorn considered the question. tapping the butt of her spear on the stone floor.
"It's certainly not typical behavior for her," Delphinium said, looking around to see if anyone had overheard, even with the soundproofing spell in place.
"She lost her husband," Harthorn defended.
"And that was tragic, but her own advisors pushed her to move forward," Delphinium said.
"It's only been a few years ..."
Delphinium cut off her colleague's mechanical argument. "The advisors leapt at the offer from Alpha Jude."
"I didn't. No offense." Harthorn glanced apologetically at Jude.
"None taken," he said dryly.
He'd been so absorbed in his own grief and relentless pursuit of a mate, for the same reasons as Ylavi, that he hadn't bothered to consider what might be happening behind the scenes at the Ember Faerie Court.
"I had the same dilemma and pressure from my advisors," he continued. "It was why I asked Ravyn here, who wasn't my mate then, to find me a mate--a Luna."
Harthorn wrinkled her nose. "I always thought shifters just had one mate for life, and that when one mate died, the other did, too."
"It depends on the shifter," Jude replied. "And I always thought faeries were the same. Nearly indestructible and long, long lives and soulmates."
"Faerie soulmates are as rare as spontaneous waterfalls and Wicker Ghosts," Sparkler chimed in. "Most of the time, it's either love or politics when a Faerie royal marries."
"Wicker Ghosts are a myth," Harthorn scoffed.
Ravyn shook her head. "Not according to the library at the Wildefell Witch Circle Headquarters. And we're getting wildly off track. So ... Queen Ylavi truly didn't want to marry Jude? Did she want to marry at all?"
"NO," Sparkler said vehemently, making little bursts of light with her hands. "She has children. She has ME."
Jude growled and bared his teeth. "So, this could all have been avoided if her advisors had minded their own business and let her work out her grief in her own time, and been supportive and helped her when she turned dark?"
He couldn't help thinking of Cyran.
"Exactly," Hades said in his and Ravyn's minds. "Now, our Wise Woman and our pack had the best intentions. So did everyone in Cyran's life. But you're missing something here. Cyran had already turned dark thanks to me, and I'd wager that Ylavi has been infested by the Dark Goddess for some time now."
Jude felt a chill from within that intensified the effects of the cold air in the cell. He would never be warm again. "Hades ... the Dark Goddess could sense you inside us."
Hades laughed darkly. "Don't worry. I'll stay hidden. And derive great satisfaction from defeating her while hidden in the shadows."
Ravyn faced Harthorn and Delphinium. "Their meddling has made a bad situation worse ... you see, Queen Ylavi is possessed by the Dark Goddess. And if you don't believe us, you can feed us wolfsbane and chase it with silver."
Jude held his breath. Would the guards believe them?