My eyes scan to the right of them, where on a dais before a little crowd sit three people, gagged and chained with obsidian to three chairs. My gasp is involuntary. It’s the tall figure of Ablo Obon; the wolf queen, Lunissa Darkfang, and Irma Goldwing, the avian queen. All three have glazed, unseeing eyes, but their breathing and heartbeats are rapid as if they’re in pain.
He’s done it. My father has actually done what he’d planned all those years ago. Mace Naga is preparing to take over the state.
I want to jump out of this seat and run. I need to warn Minnie and the academy. I need to find my mates. I need to get them backnow.
“Settle,”Ghoul warns into my head. His shadows slide down my arms as if to soothe me, and perhaps because he’s one of my mates, it works. The regina in me succumbs to his hold. The serpents in the room mingle and laugh. They point at their captives and shake hands with each other. Suddenly, I’m all too aware that every male in the room is wearing a formal military evening uniform. It looks official. Intentional.
It reminds me of images I’ve seen of another time and place where such things had happened, in another fragile decade.
My vision sharpens, and with that, my mind. Though I keep my gaze turned away from them, I allow my mind to stray to the wolf queen. What manner of serpent magic is this? That the avian queen with her refined healing powers could not fight off? That Ablo Obon, with his powerful telekinesis, could be helpless against.
The wolf queen does not respond when my power touches her mind and asks permission to speak. It’s as if her mind is cast in darkness. In shadow. My head swivels towards the face ofmy fifth mate. Both of us, with our eyes covered from the world. Both of us covered in shadows.“You did that?”
“Did what?”he drawls. “Cast a spell upon The Collector to make her skin fall off?”
“We are not the same.”
“We’re exactly the same. That was a stroke of genius by the way. Very well done.”
I won’t get any type of answer from him, and I know it.“Is this it?”I ask.“You want me to be your bride? Bear your seed?”
“Is that too much to ask ofmyregina?”
“You’ve never been loyal to me.”
He bares his fangs.“Are you ready for what’s to come, snakelet?”
My stare is hard on the points that glint crimson. He’s caught me off guard with his words for the second time tonight.“Get me out of here,”I say with disgust.“I’ve played my part.”
When he rises, holding me close as ifIamonly made of shadow, my gaze finds my father sitting in a winged-back chair, his eyes fixed on me. My heart jumps like it’s been shot but hecan’tknow that it’s me. A band of shadow wraps around my arm in a guiding fashion, and Ghoul leads me right over to his king. He bows, and I do a hasty curtsy.
As we turn to leave, a woman’s voice rings across the room. “Jade? Oh Jade, how happy we are!”
A plump woman and an older man are hurrying towards me, their faces panicked, their arms reaching out. Maybe it’s their panic, maybe it’smypanic, but I too reach towards the flustered mother.
There is a strange and awful hiss, and a column of shadow bursts around me like a tornado. My world is a whorl of black and power. Wild Mother, all I can see now is the tornado of turning shadows around me. I stand in its eye, hidden from the entire room.
“Donottouch my bride.” Ghoul’s voice has taken terror to a whole new level. Within my tornado, he sounds like he’s very far away, but even then, his wrath sends me reeling. “She is no longer yours. She ismine.As are the hatchlings. As is her soul. Do you understand me?”
There are other muffled voices from outside the storm of shadows, and before I know it, I’m being whisked away by dominant, possessive hands and being lifted into Ghoul’s SUV. We’re tearing down the street fast enough for the streetlights to be a blur.
There are too many things wrong with all of this. My father wants Ghoul to breed. Jade’s mother doesn’t know she’s dead. The world doesn’t know that the council is being held captive. There is a warrant on my head, and none of my mates can help me right any of these wrongs. Ghoul is an enemy. But why is it that he doesn’t touch me like one?
No words are exchanged between me and the basilisk lord, but he undresses me with the same efficiency as he dressed me, then proceeds to lead the way back to the academy. The flight is strained, but not physically. I’m troubled as to why he hasn’t chosen the real Jade Brown to be his wife. Nothing stopped Xander from taking Francesca as his for a while. But I’m not going to ask him any questions at all. There’s no point.
When I’m finally back in my bedroom, feeling like I need to scrub this night off my skin, I turn around to address the silent giant. “How are you going to keep up this ruse?”
“You’ll be coming back as needed, of course.”
“Arrogant bastard,” I mutter. “I don’t want to go back there.”
“Hush now,wife.”
I round on him, but he’s already gone, and in his place are six glass vials glinting like jewels on the open windowsill.
Chapter 24
Ghoul
