Queens of Mist and Madness (Fae Isles, #4)

by Lisette Marshall

and you wanted me, didn’t you? You got me here? So where were you when I was told I cried too noisily, or when they locked me in my room whenever guests came over? Where were you when my world burned down?

:(

‘When I first spoke with them and they kept telling me how they’d finally gotten rid of you, how they hadn’t wanted you in the first place, as if they expected praise for being heartless cowards

Ok im crying now

I fell into the seat beside her as if I’d never done anything else. Curled up against her shoulder like a small, scared child and clutched my arms around her willowy frame,

Stop this is making my heart hurt

‘My baby girl,’ she whispered, voice shaking on the edge of sobs. ‘Oh, my darling, darling baby girl …’

PLEASE :'(

‘Let’s go kill the bitch, then,’ I said.

I love Em so much

‘Did you just call one of Tared’s ideas bright?’ I said, squinting. He sent me a wry grin. ‘Don’t tell him.’

She let out a quiet, desperate moan. ‘Em, what if he’s angry?’

don’t want any other pretty men with wings,’ she said in a melodramatic, exasperated tone. ‘I just want … well …’ ‘Him,’ I said. She let out a deep sigh, and it sounded like a surrender. ‘Yes.’

Awww she still loves him

‘No, that’s fine,’ Rosalind wryly said next to me, in Faerie again. ‘I could come back next week, if that fits your schedule better, Lord Protector?’

Agenor’s answer was indistinguishable. She did not speak again. But when I glanced over my shoulder a few seconds later, the tent cloth had been folded shut and both of my parents were gone.

Ughhh right now is when i wish this wasnt first person

Edored’s habitually overexcited voice burst in. ‘Nosebreaker!’

I guess like everyone else this idiot has grown on me

inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A razor-sharp alf steel edge.

‘And I’m not an alf. So—' Tared quirked up an eyebrow. ‘Aren't you?’ Oh. One of us.

:')

that name that will make everyone around you nod and say, yes, of course this is what Em would have chosen. As I said, you’ll know.’

‘I won’t name it after singing candlesticks,’ I promised, ‘and I won’t fight anyone with it until I know what I’m mysteriously supposed to know, and thank you all so, so much for … for …’

Didnt she name Alyra tho? Thats something she knew

wondering despite my own better judgement how much of a scandal I would cause by picking Accidentally as my sword name. It did have a certain ring to it, really.

Honestly everything leading up till now was an accidental involvement lmao

‘We might at least get an idea of their direction by posting some people as lookouts on nearby islands. If we know whether she takes the east or the west straits …’

Are none of them wondering where a core part of their group is?! Like no ones seen Naxi when shes always involved usually

‘You’re not saying you don’t want to defend whoever her target is at all, are you?’

I thought she knew that was thw plan, its why i was so confused as to hy she was okay with setting the humans up to be slaughtered by her

finally gave Creon his astrolabe and was rewarded with an expression remarkably similar to that of a young boy just handed his very first toolkit;

Awqw

fighting the unsettling apprehension creeping up on me – the feeling that we were overlooking something, that danger was looming just out of sight, and that it might come up to devour us far, far too soon.

I mean i was thinking the same

‘Can I come in? There have been developments, and I think it's about time we start asking for your opinions again.’

I love this relationship she created w her parents

‘Right. If you could give us a moment …’ Us. A tiny knot of tension loosened itself in my stomach.

No – younger. Gone was that persistent weariness, the bitter lines burned around the corners of his eyes and lips by twelve hundred years of war and grief. His eyes were brighter, clearer.

Awwww its actually heart breaking tho that ali is human and for them to lose 20 yrs together is so sad especially over an untrue assumption

I’d come here to talk about war and strategy, and gods help me, now there was nothing I wanted to talk about less.

I feel cheated not being able to see or know much of their reunion when ive waited so damn long :'(

‘Finn?’ I breathed. A swollen, purple-green eye opened. ‘Finn.’ My voice broke.

The way it took me like 10 mins to kinda recall who this was

‘The White City,’ she rasped, interrupting me with the urgency of a dying plea. Her bloodied, claw-like hands came up to grab the front of my dress, holding on for dear life. ‘Emelin, the Mother … the Mother has taken the city.’

Wtf also why would Finn be sent to deliver this news

the girl who’d once risked her life to help me free Creon from the Mother’s clutches.

Tried it and never managed – so why would those god-forged defences suddenly give in now, at the worst possible moment, if they’d held fast for hundreds and hundreds of years?

Either those gods have since been murdered OR the mother is actualky there and she has more than one gods magic doesnt she? So maybe her armiws have never been able to but she finally just left the throne and went herself?

‘Emelin!’ That was real, gut-tearing fear in his voice, a rare crack of the polish. ‘Emelin, where are you going? Don't you dare—’ I started running.

You dumb bitch you better not be doing what i think you are

Tomorrow night. Too soon. We needed more time than that if we wanted any hope of survival to cling to – there was no sense in charging mindlessly at the Crimson Court without our human allies,

Shes probaby gonna fking kill them anyways whether you surrender or not, they need to do whT they were planning on doing to save more people in the end

If I had ruined humanity's last safe refuge, I was the one who should go and fix it – a simple matter of justice, of actions and consequences.

Babes about to damn thw whole fking world rn lmao

ruthless calculation didn't change anything about the guilt that kept my feet moving and moving and moving, the unforgivable mistakes that were mine and mine alone.

Em ia falling right into the trap shw laid, i think literally she forgets shes the only one who can save the world being unbound and lso th obly one who can break the binds on the orbs so people can get their magic back which we should Have Done already at least for sevwral powerful people so you could win!?

A shadow fell over me.

GET YO GIRL CREON THANK GODS

I punched him. I tried, at least, and got within five inches of his face before his larger hand wrapped around my knuckles and stopped me in mid-air – holding me in place so easily,

Lmao A for effort

Sprawled in his seat, wings draped loosely over the backrest with an air of casual invincibility, he’d narrowed his eyes at Finn

Yeeah dude i think shes fking lying OR shes under some sort of magic to make her say those things, i dont at all think the mothet is there but maybe im wrong

‘Finn?’ I said quietly. Her nod was barely more than a single, involuntary twitch of the head. But it was a nod,

Ok maybe not lying buy something is weird and off abt her

‘Fifteen,’ Tared muttered under his breath at Creon, then barely dodged the small fireball Lyn flung at him.

Lmao are tared and Creon besties now because im living for it

‘We might not even get all our allies to show up on such short notice,’ Lyn

So are we just not gonna ask or even thinj to utilize thysandra?! Why is noone concerned aboit where naxi is!? Why hasnt em thought about it?!

In a whirl of sunlight, Naxi stormed in – blue eyes bright with excitement, blonde curls dancing cheerfully with every step.

Its abt time jfc

So we collectively wrote a letter to the Mother instead, debating every word and period of the bargain she would have to make in order to receive Thysandra back into her entourage.

Im gonna make a prediction that the mother isnt goign to care abt thysandra and when thysandra hears about shes gonna snap and give damming info

He's served his purpose. My heart twinged. Had he known this would be her response – so close to a repeat of the day he almost died, burned and bleeding, in the mud at the Golden Court?

Of course he knew though i hardly think he enjoyed seeing thysandras suffering i think he feels for her but it had to be done

Half a heartbeat, and she stiffened, staring at the message in her hands as if it was a death sentence – as if the parchment itself was all thorns and fangs, its poison spreading through her veins already. The colour drained from her face.

There has never been a single soul as smart as I

my reassurance that it was possible for me to best the Mother, and most baffling of all, several handfuls of Underground alves who wanted to know if I had named my sword yet.

Lmao the alves are so unserious

she couldn’t tell me where Creon had gone except that he had suddenly remembered he had something urgent to do. Something urgent?

Damn he's avoiding tf out u

The flash of emotion that slid over his face was all the confirmation I needed. No surprise. No confusion. Just that same, strange stiffening – the look of a male caught red-handed, despite his most desperate efforts.

Imaginr hes setting up a propsal or wedding before shit gpes down

‘Could I get back to you later, Naxi? This is really not the moment for—’ ‘Can't wait,’ she interrupted, dancing out from between the pale tents.

Bro i think im right

The rest of the sentence froze on my lips as I turned to where he’d been standing. The clearing between the tents was no longer empty.

DAMN

They were looking at me with so much expectant confusion,

I’m still feel like Creon is planning like a wedding or proposal and everyone is in on it

The trick to making them visible is to use just enough blue magic to heal the wood that was destroyed around the inscription, but not so much blue magic that you’ll undo the inscription itself, too

Damn that’s crazy

when Agenor appeared again, in Rosalind’s company this time. They had, it turned out, decided it was about time to send me to bed.

Stop its so cute to me how they both come together to parent her after not being able to for her whole life. Just them two falling into their roles like it shouldve been