“You have yet to see insane.” Tileatha snaps her fingers, and I hear the rocks tumble against the cliff beside us. “The throne was always mine! But the Gods wouldn’t choose me because I was born from another woman! You took everything away from me!”
“What are you going to do!” I scream, removing my distance from Klayra and striding towards Tilly as I feel the ground beneath my boots tremble. The rocks dance along the surface. “Kill off everyone who is in your way to become Queen?”
“That is what I have been doing.” Her lips curl into a wicked grin. “Father and Mother, easy. You destroyed them with your love for this bastard! And now the only way to break the curses of the land is to kill the Wailing Mother,your mother… and you will never have the guts to do it.”
I hear a grumble ripping in Koen’s throat as his dagger slices against his leather sheath. I know he is ready to throw it right into her chest.
“Now, for Queen Antivianna, my mother.” Her brows lift as she takes an exaggerated sigh. “That was much harder to convince Skie and Lykia that you two were the one who killed her.Not me.”
“You killed the Queen!” Florian’s voice twists into a deep growl.
“And no one will ever know.” She shrugs, the dagger twisting in her hand. “You will all be dead.”
Chapter 49
“The map will be seen only by a huntress, only with the stones and the sword. This must be done in order to bring peace once again for the Realms if a war breaks out.” - Book of Azure
MY NAILS DIG INTO MY palms with a violent, piercing sting that radiates up my arm. The agony matches the scorching wind slashing across my face. The heat seizes the tears that streak down my cheeks.
So much heartbreak. So much pain.
Was she ever truly my sister?
“You killed the Queen?” I demand, my throat rumbling with barely-contained fury.
I’m about tolose it.
She planned this. All along.
Her lips curl into a sinister grin that stretches towards her ears.
“Spark.” A gentle, yet urgent voice jolts me from my trance. “We must go now. You are in no condition to fight this. You can get revenge later.”
Koen’s finger brushes against mine, gently, making my breathing hitch. My eyes falter to his bruised and bloody knuckles, my heart twisting in pain knowing he has been through so much. But when I glance up to get lost in his emerald eyes that are full of fear, my shoulders drop. I follow his gaze, my heart pounding fiercely against my chest as I spot the darklings clawing viciously at the mountain's edge behind us.
She’s afraid to kill me. She plans to use the darklings or the dragon to do her dirty work.
Smart.Yet, this proves why the Gods never chose her.
She’ll never be fearless.
She’ll never beme.
“I can't leave,” I insist, my eyes reluctantly tearing away from the cliffs where rocks cascade ominously to meet his exhausted gaze. The dried blood along his forehead is mixed in with dirt and ash, while his tousled curls fall along his shoulders. “I must find out where Alice is. She needs me.”
Florian limps up to us. “I know she is here.”
“Sweet Florian.” Tileatha presses the dagger's tip harder against her lip, a wicked grin curling as she speaks. “How foolish my little sister was to choose Koen over you.”
Florian's shoulders tense and rise as he lets out a furious snarl, the sound sending chills along my spine as he grips a dagger against his thigh.
“Don’t let her get to you.” I lean towards him, eyes searching for his to meet mine. A desperate plea as my eyes finally lock onto his, begging him to hold his ground. “She isn’t worth you shifting, not right now. I need you strong.”
“And dear Koen,” she takes a deep breath, “I still have the flame. You forget I control you. How heartbreaking would it befor my sister to reunite with the love of her life only to have him kill her?”
I step in front of him within a heartbeat, glaring at my sister with raging eyes. My footing falters, betraying me as the blood from my wounded thigh seeps into the fabric of my onyx suit. My heartbeat slows down—my power, my life, is draining from me.
In a split moment, I feel the hands of Koen gripping me tightly under my arms, steadying me.
