Crown of Shadows (Court of Midnight and Deception #1) - K. M. Shea Page 0,43

board and slammed it upside Lord Linus’s head.

The cylindrical candle snapped in half, and Lord Linus made a pained gurgle and staggered a few steps.

“Daughter?” he tried once he could finally speak again.

I dropped the bottom half of the candle, and it took several long moments before I was able to unclench my hands from the fists they’d curled into. “Never call me that again.” I stormed off before he could answer.

Lord Linus waited for a moment, then trotted after Indigo and me. “But that’s what you are—my daughter.”

I pulled my phone out, found my mom’s number on my speed dial list, and called her.

“Leila—don’t you want a tearfully fond reunion?” Lord Linus asked as he trailed behind.

I ignored him and listened impatiently to the ringing of my phone. I scowled at Lord Argyos when I passed him and his friends in the hallway.

They were all watching the unfolding drama with unabashed glee, snickering and laughing with one another.

Finally, Mom picked up. “Hello! You’re calling me early today,” she said with her usual sunshine.

“Mom, what’s the name of the fae you married?”

“You’re referring to your biological father?”

I barely held in a growl. “Yes.”

“Linus. Actually, Lord Linus. Did he come visit you? He said he was going to.”

“You’ve spoken to him?” I asked, incredulous.

“Well, yes. I thought he should know you’d been chosen as the new Queen of the Night Court since it is his people you’re ruling,” Mom said with a rare bit of wryness.

“You’ve been in contact with him? Why?”

“While I gave you the option of pursuing a relationship with him, he still wanted to know how you were. He is your father—”

“No, he is not,” I stressed. “Paul is my dad. He’s my only dad. This kook here is in no way a father to me. He’s…” I turned around, and when Lord Linus smiled at me, it physically hurt to recognize that I did look a lot like him.

My black hair had more of a purple shine to it, but we were both tall and built leanly. Most condemning, though, were his purple-ish eyes—which I had never seen on another fae except when I looked in a mirror.

But he looks like he’s barely thirty-five!

“Here. Hold on a second.” I impulsively minimized the call and opened up my camera application. I snapped a shot of Lord Linus, who smiled obligingly, then sent it off to my mom. “Is that really him?”

“Hold on a moment, let me check.” Mom was quiet for a few moments, then she said, “Oh my.”

“It’s not him?”

“No—that’s Linus. He looks good—I don’t know if he’s aged more than five years since we met! Tell him he looks great.”

I could barely believe what Mom was saying.

She didn’t sound love addled or hurt, just a friendly sort of factual.

How could she be friendly to the fae that had abandoned her with their toddler?

“Oh, I heard that!” Lord Linus brightened. “Hello, Bethany! Thank you for the compliment,” he shouted at me and my phone.

I turned my back to the obnoxious lord, and hurried down the hallway, taking the shortest route to the nearest staircase. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew you’d tell me not to.”

“Then why would you still tell him?”

“Honey, you’re the Night Queen.” My mom’s voice lost its bright shine and turned serious. “There are going to be nobles going after you with everything they’ve got. Linus, absentee as he might have been, doesn’t want you to die. You’re his daughter, and he does care for you in his own complicated way.”

“Yeah, sure. I believe that,” I drawled.

“I know you resent him for how he treated us, but you don’t have many allies right now. Linus knows how the Courts work. He can help you.” She paused, then added with a hint of wryness, “And if all else fails, use him as a shield and hide behind him if someone tries to hurt you.”

I laughed, and something in me relaxed. “I wish you would have warned me.”

“You’d have done everything in your power to stop me. And I am your mother, Leila. I want what’s best for you.”

We said our goodbyes, and I reluctantly hung up just before I reached the first major staircase—which was carved out of obsidian rock.

I turned around and scowled at Lord Linus—who’d followed behind the whole way. “What do you want?”

“Only to help you, my darling daughter—”

“I already told you, don’t call me that.”

He shrugged and slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “I’m here to volunteer