Read The Magic Queen for Free Online

boredom, or did they plan to ever get on with it? Crossing her arms, she wrapped her fingers around her wrist and reminded herself that she probably shouldn’t tap her foot in frustration.
    “But. But.” Aphrodite stepped up, holding up her hands. “We knew you’d appreciate our matchmaking efforts anyway—”
    Highly doubtful .
    “—we took the liberty of bringing you along for the ride.”
    Fable snorted. Calypso glared at her. “Dear granddaughter—”
    Ah ha ! Baba knew it.
    “I do so love you,” Caly said, “but interrupt us again, and I’ll be forced to turn you into a toad. No favoritism right now. You understand.”
    Fable wisely kept her trap shut after that. They all did.
    “Truth is, you all make a nice even number for our games,” Aphrodite admitted, “which is partly why you’re here but also because we determined that our males could only realistically be paired with the six of you. Believe me when a say a lot of time and thought went into who’d be given the honor of being chosen. You’ll each find your one true mate”—Dite held Baba’s stare long enough that Baba knew there was a message behind the look—“well, unless you don’t die first,” she finished airily.
    A thread of black ice skated down Baba’s spine. What exactly had that look meant?
    The goddesses laughed at an inside joke only the two of them seemed to share. The rest of them looked at each other unblinkingly, all of them seeming to be as confused as Baba herself.
    Calypso rolled her eyes. “The games aren’t rigged. I promise. I’ve even brought Themis along to keep us honest.”
    Suddenly, the air tightened, and another woman appeared before them: the blind goddess of justice herself dressed in jeans, a t-shirt that read Mötley Crüe with the stenciled image of a flaming skull on it. Her blond hair hung long down her back. She waved back at them shyly. Her cataract-blinded eyes zoomed in on each of their faces. The effect might have been eerie for the others, but for Baba Yaga, it felt almost like a little bit of home. And just because she felt like it, she actually waved back at Blindy.
    “Hi,” Themis said shyly then glanced at Calypso and Dite with a look of expectations met on her face. “That’s it right? I can go now?”
    Aphrodite rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “Yes, Them, you can go now.” And just like that, Justice fled. Baba envied her.
    “So here’s the dealio, girls—” Calypso began.
    The first time Baba had met her, the goddess had confused her. She talked in a style that was the very opposite of what she was used to. She’d soon learned that the goddess, who was both incredibly ancient and also young in many ways—as she’d never lived as a human for the first fifty billion years or so of her life, give or a take a few million—had learned to speak under the tutelage of her daughter-in-law, Nimue, who just so happened to be half Earthling.
    Earthlings spoke mostly like baboons. That was to say, they were rather stupid, the lot of them. So it was no big surprise that Caly sounded stupid herself. Not her fault really. You get trained like a monkey, eventually you learned to sound like one too.
    “Baba, I don’t think you paid attention to anything I just said,” Calypso said sternly, eyeing her hard.
    Baba cringed, hoping today was not the day she’d meet her demise. Instead of lying, she shrugged and gave the goddess sorry eyes.
    “Hm. N-E-way,” Calypso stressed, rolling her wrist. “I said that in a few minutes, you’ll find your companions. We’ll be rolling them out here for your viewing pleasure. Now, we won’t tell you which is yours. You’ll have to follow the instincts inside you.”
    What. The. Hell . Baba blinked but wisely kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.
    “After that,” Aphrodite cut in, “we’ll give you all a few days to get to learn the lay of your land. Each world we created for each of you is vastly different and suited to your