three crystals. The Queen was still in a coma, and now… no protective dome. I’d burned the bridge with the only people who’d offered to help us, and I had no location for the remaining crystals.
“I’m going to check on the Queen. Be ready in fifteen to go Earthside.”
Elle nodded, and we split ways, her going into town probably to check on her mother and me going into my new “home.”
Nothing really felt like home without my mom there. I was still finding my new normal since her death. Especially after seeing the ugliness in Liam’s memory.
When I knocked lightly and peeked my head into the Queen’s room, Kira was at her feet, reading a book. She was freshly showered, probably back from saving Liam. She looked up at me and closed the book.
“Hey.” I slipped inside, closing the door. “I’m… sorry for sending you off to heal Liam like that… I’m… struggling with what happen—,”
“It’s okay, Lily. You don’t need to explain to me. I think you’re doing great.”
I had to bite back tears. Everyone was being so supportive of my new role, but I felt like I was just screwing everything up.
“Any signs she’s waking up?” I asked.
Kira shook her head. “It seems that she needs more crystals to get enough power to awaken. But I have a feeling every time she got close, Indra gave her the medicine.”
I frowned. “So you think we only need like six or seven crystals to wake her?”
Kira nodded. “When we had over six, her fingers and toes would twitch, but then Indra would give her the sleeping medicine.”
Hope bloomed in my chest. “Okay, so four more crystals, and maybe she can wake up and take over?”
Kira nodded. “Gods willing.”
She closed her book and stood. “I’ll give you a moment.”
After she slipped out the door, I went to the Queen’s side and stared at her face. My gaze ran over her fair skin, upturned nose, and dark pink hair. She looked so much like my mother it hurt. Kneeling at her bedside, I took her hand in mine. It was limp and slightly cold, but I gripped it hard.
A lump suddenly formed in my throat as I recalled the memory I’d gotten from her hair. How selflessly she’d given me to my mother for safekeeping. It must have killed her to be without me. But my mom was all I’d ever known. Still, I wished to know the Queen too.
“I really need you to wake up,” I told her. “I’m making all the decisions, and I don’t know if any of them are right. Faerie needs to be healed, and I can’t do this without you.” My voice cracked. “Maybe one day, after we fix everything… we can just sit and talk. Get to know each other.” A tear escaped down my cheek, and I wiped it away, letting her hand fall to her lap. The slow and steady rhythm of her breathing depressed me. I’d hoped for a twitch, something to let me know she was waking, but all I got was disappointment.
With a sigh, I headed for the door. It was time to beg, plead, and grovel for Liam’s help. Something I wasn’t sure I had the nerve to do after calling him a murderer and casting him out to die.
“I’ll wait right here,” Mara told me from the doorway. She’d taken the news well after I’d informed her the cuffs and imprisonment looked like it was going to be permanent. She’d only waved me off and mumbled no biggie, but I saw the disappointment in her eyes. Jasper and Trissa had stayed back to help make a logistics schedule for all of the new projects we had going on and setting up round the clock security. It was just me and my bestie in Vegas.
“Sure we don’t have time for a game of poker?” Elle asked as I careened the large SUV down the Vegas Strip and we passed the famous hotels with twinkling lights and throngs of people holding plastic drink cups. Mara had made a new toy for me. It looked like a cell phone, but once transformed, it was an SUV. An SUV big enough to fit Liam and his brothers… should he want to come back with me.
I frowned, ignoring Elle’s questions. “What if he tells me to fuck off?”
Elle looked out at the passing buildings as we turned into a seedier neighborhood. Why on earth had Mara brought them here to heal? Maybe because