Queen of Immortality

Light will prevail, but only if darkness doesn’t first.

Undine has taken over Zara, readying the boy, Lucas, to be the kingdom’s new ruler. But though Lucas now has power of his own, he’s nothing more than a puppet in Undine’s treacherous hands. The boy is the tool Undine needs to rewrite the rules of magic, a fate Cali knows will doom the world if the two of them succeed.

She and Bae must stop Undine from her wicked plans, but taking her down could also mean harming Lucas, something they have no desire to do. He’s innocent, a mere pawn in this wicked game the sea witch is playing.

Can they defeat the sea witch once and for all and save Lucas as well?

Light and darkness clash in this final installment in USA Today bestselling author Cortney Pearson’s Curse of the Pirate series.

Chapter One

Undine stood at the fringes of the burning forest and stared. Hungry flames devoured any particle of wood they could find. The fire leaped and spread, rampaging through with suffocating force.

It was a wonder to behold—at least, for anyone not
directly in its path.

Time was ticking. Undoubtedly, the fire had already made a banquet of the outlying wooden homes on its way to the Wild Rose Sector’s centermost stone buildings, which meant she and Lucas needed to get to the sector as quickly as possible.

She needed a way through the flames. Sooner than later would be preferable.

Lucas didn’t weigh much, but the strain of holding him dragged on Undine’s arms as she shuffled through the sand toward the shelter of a large boulder. He began to stir—he’d collapsed after the exchange of magic, and Undine had caught him before he’d toppled to the sand.

Careful to make sure they remained hidden, Undine crouched on the sand just in front of the flaming bracken, surrounded by its heat and by the satisfaction devouring her with its own consuming effect, and watched her sacrificial lamb flutter awake.

“Mama?” Lucas muttered.

Flame after flame and streak after streak danced behind Lucas’s small body. His little lashes fluttered. Laced with ash as they were, it appeared as though he had feathers over his eyes.

“It’s all right, darling,” she said. “I’m here.”

His forehead pinched. He waved his hands in front of his face and coughed. Bits of ash and impermeable smoke flickered from overhead.

“Did it work?” he asked. “Did I get magic?”

“Why don’t you try it and see?” Undine suggested.

This was the moment of truth. This was what everything she’d put into place was leading to. She adjusted the bag hanging from a single strap over her shoulder.

Lucas shook his head. “I can’t. I’m tired. I want to go to sleep.”

“I know, darling. You’ve had a taxing journey and a difficult night. But you have power now.”

She lifted his hand, turning his fist upward and coaxing his fingers open to reveal his palm.

“Remember what I told you? That bad princess did this. She burned the forest. That fire is heading to the town and making the people afraid. And it’s up to you to stop it.”

He scuffed his hand beneath his nose. “How do I stop it?”

“Do you feel any different inside?” she asked, continuing to stroke his face, to smooth a stray bit of ash from his eyebrow. “Do you have something inside, something that feels like you want to let it out?”

A sniffle and a nod. “I think so. Something feels angry in me.”

Undine’s heart began to pound. She’d been waiting for this moment. Lucas had taken Soraya Cressida’s glorious sunlight, and it was exactly what Undine needed.

She wanted to shake Lucas. To force the show from him—or better yet, take the magic herself and move things along. But she couldn’t do that. So, she waited.

With the patience of eternal things, she schooled herself to embody the role of mentor, though it chafed not to be the one in control.

“That anger is your new magic,” she said. “Try it now, darling. Try and see what happens.”

Lucas concentrated on his hand. He wiggled his fingers a few times and then exhaled in frustration. “It’s not working.”

“Try again. Tell your magic—because it’s yours now—tell it to come out. Fire can fight more fire, Lucas. Tell it to put out the fire you see there and create a path for us.”

She gestured to a small cluster of unfortunate, burning weeds.

“You have Princess Soraya’s light now. Light can swallow light. You can take flame into you, and it won’t hurt a bit.”

His little lower lip pouted. “I want it to go away.”

“This will make the fire go away. Only you can tell it to stop. With your power.”

Lucas screwed his face in concentration. Undine waited, fought the urge to snap at him to hurry, forced herself to be long-suffering.

She wasn’t sure how the light would emit from him—would it work the same as it had with Soraya? Would it part his skin with cracks and ravines and emerge like the sunlight it was?

“I—it’s not—”

“Keep trying.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You have to.”

“I don’t want to!” he shouted, and the force of his shout sent her reeling backward and colliding with the side of the boulder shielding them from being seen.