She at once understood what Malachi aimed to do.Rishaud is shrewd enough to never teleport to the same spot twice, she projected at her husband. But he also doesn’t travel too far out of optimal striking range to deliver his returned assaults. Which means the next area he might teleport to is …
Kadeesha and Malachi stepped toward the same location, their shoulders brushing.
Rishaud appeared inches in front of them. Shock and then a snarl contorted the Hyperion king’s face as void daggers impaled him through the center of the head, the neck, the chest, the lower torso. Blood poured from the wounds. When Rishaud teleported again, Kadeesha knew exactly where he’d appear. So did Malachi. Their eyes met for the briefest of spells, but that was all it took for him to pass her another silent communication.He won’t be expecting it because you can’t teleport. Don’t miss.
This time, Malachi did reach for his own teleportation power—and it was to move Kadeesha into the precise spot she needed to be in. When her feet touched solid ground behind Rishaud, he immediately began spinning around to face the detected threat at his back. However, Kadeesha moved faster, driven by pure stubborn will to end this fight for good. Her aether sword connected with the flesh of Rishaud’s neck and slid through it, burning away skin and muscle and bone as it cleaved the bastard’s head from his shoulders. Rishaud’s head landed at her feet, his brown eyes frozen wide in an unbelieving stare. She screamed and plunged the sword through his right eye to be thorough.
“It seems I am the one who has brokenyou,” she spat downat her former betrothed. “You should’ve chosen a different female to try to chain to you as your wife.”
She then yanked her eyes upward at the movement she sensed, raising her aether sword to strike out at a new enemy. Hundreds of surrounding soldiers—Hyperions—all gazed at Kadeesha with a mix of terror and malice. She readied her flames. Leisha and Samira, who’d been engaged in their own fights nearby while she fought Rishaud, now appeared at her side.
“You dare defy your queen!” Kadeesha screamed.
In response … they said nothing. Because a storm of shadows slammed into the enemy soldiers, answering for them and not allowing them the chance to attack—or retreat. The shadows were like a black tidal wave that swallowed everything in their path. When the deluge cleared, corpses littered the ground. When Malachi turned to her, his eyes were pools of darkness that bore into her. “I am uncertain if I love or loathe fighting beside you on a battlefield,” he growled. “If anything happened to you, I’d drown the world in shadows that would devour it and every living soul.”
Kadeesha blinked, taken aback by the sheer amount of malevolence that wafted off him. It was so potent that it was a physical thing that suffused the air, making it thick and icy and so suffocating that it stung her lungs.
She tilted her chin and told Malachi, “Those were my kills. Areyoudefying your queen? Because I am uncertain if I am flattered or downright insulted by your confession. I am a warrior too and can take care of myself in a fight very well.” She stabbed her sword toward the head that was half burned away. “As you can see.”
Abruptly, Malachi rumbled a laugh. On its heels, the malevolence coating her husband and clinging to the air becameslightly less oppressive and Malachi’s eyes lightened from pitch black to their usual gold-flecked brown hue. That didn’t mean he was done being terrifying, however. He swept a dark look out over the bloody battlefield and saw what she saw. He’d killed hundreds of soldiers, but Rishaud’s army had been over a hundred thousand strong to begin with. Fighting still raged in every direction. The Hyperion king might be dead, but many didn’t know that yet. Scores hadn’t glimpsed his slaying or his decapitated body. Malachi grabbed her hand and sent a gale of shadows roiling over the battlefield. While the shadows couldn’t avoid touching Apollyon soldiers, it was only the fae clad in uniform colors of the Six Kingdoms that began shouting and wailing as if coming into contact with a flesh-eating poison.
“You promised—”
“Rest assured, my kindhearted wife. It will not kill them. Unless …”
His grin was feral, made even more so by the decadent grille fitted over his teeth, accentuating the sharpness of his canines, and she couldn’t dispute that it excited her. Standing among the battlefield, splattered with blood, clutching void scimitars in his hands, and cloaked in dominance, it’d never been more apparent that Malachi never was and never would be some fae king who belonged in a throne room swathed in court finery. He was a savage tide of death who belonged on a battlefield obliterating his enemies and ultimately commanding whomever he chose to spare to kneel before him. It made for a heady, breathtaking picture, one that Kadeesha had no doubt would be captured in some iconic mural in the future. As had been the dance between them from the very start, it was difficult not to fall into Malachi’s staggering draw. But they had exchanged promises and oaths, and what happened on the battlefield next would set the tone oftheir relationship and how they ruled together. Which was why she shook off Malachi’s spell and reminded him, “There’s a lot resting on that word,husband.”
Malachi’s broad, vicious grin stayed in place but the tenderness with which he gazed upon her tempered it. “Trust me, love,I intend tosurpassthe promises I made.”Before she could truly consider what he meant by that, Malachi shouted, “Your liege lord is dead!” His voice boomed out for miles, carried on the shadows. “Kadeesha Mercier of the Aether and Apollyon Courts, your new high queen, has killed him! Kneel before her and be spared!”
At once, hundreds of soldiers fell to their knees. Malachi tightened his grip on Kadeesha’s hand and raised it in the air. “Before this day is over, you will swear vows of fealty to your high queen to serve, guard, and protect her and the babe she carries for as long as you live, or you will perish as your former liege lord has perished.”
Fervent cries of submission and for mercy emanated from most of the Six Kingdoms armies. As for the ones who proved stubborn, which were primarily comprised of Hyperion soldiers, Zahzah and the other kongamatos flew from the palace and landed in the middle of the battlefield in their favored V formation with Zahzah at the point. The twelve war serpents roared, breathing fire into the air. They then angled their heads toward the battlefield. Leisha mounted her kongamato and screamed, “Kadeesha Mercier is now your high queen!” Leisha didn’t issue a verbal threat as Malachi had done, but she didn’t need to. All that needed to be impressed upon the soldiers was accomplished by the war serpents’ mere presence. The soldiers who were still standing knelt at once.
“Hail, myqueen,” Malachi said to Kadeesha.
She rolled her eyes, even as she exalted in the feeling of power this display imbued her with.
Malachi looked exceedingly pleased—and smug—and she let him have his moment.
It wasn’t long before his Cadre and Auntie Nychelle found them. Malachi asked Nychelle, “Can you go after Trystin and deliver the news?” To his Cadre he said, “Search the palace and kill any trespassers you come across who slipped beyond the gate. They don’t get mercy if they’ve invaded my home.” Then, Malachi turned to Kadeesha and lifted her hand to his lips. He placed a kiss to her knuckles. “We have won, wife. We’ve formed the Seven Kingdoms.” His smoldering gaze turned positively wicked. It wasn’t the time nor the place, but it made her toes curl in her boots nonetheless. “How’s that for fulfilling promises?” he asked in a silky voice that curled around her. “I offered to lay the realm at your feet, but we’ll start with the continent. Consider it your wedding present, High Queen. And if you should ever desire the entire realm, consider it yours too.”
At first Kadeesha couldn’t produce words. They were beyond her. Eventually, she managed, “Your decree … You didn’t proclaim yourself as high king.” It was the first thing she would’ve thought he’d do. And yet, he still had not.
Malachi shrugged. “Obviously I am high king ofourSeven Kingdoms. If anyone wishes to dispute that, they’ll find Rishaud’s brand of viciousness for those who displeased him was child’s play. For now, that bastard was your kill, and you are the one who gained the right of recognition today.
“What?” he asked, amused, when she stared at him flabbergasted, coherent words eluding her again.
“That is veryun-self-serving of you,” she pointed out.
He chortled. Then grabbed her around the waist and pulledher close. He kissed her thoroughly and murmured against her lips, “I spoke many promises to you back in our bedroom, did I not? I intend to keep every last one of them. So, let this gesture be a grand display in case there was any doubt left or any doubt that ever creeps up.
“You. Are. Mine. Kadeesha.”
Her breath hitched as he kissed her again, fierce and strong and violent and loving—everything she’d come to know this male to be. And then he pulled away and looked deep into her eyes.
“And I am yours, my queen.”
Epilogue
