My king actually rolled his eyes. “Please. You know you enjoyed it.”
I kept my mouth shut on that one.
I would not inflate my killer’s ego one bit.
King Niallan stopped in front of me. He smiled.
And it was beautiful.
“Time to get your guards and start Lord Belshazzar’s pain.” He bounced on the balls of his feet in excitement. “I can’t wait to see his face. I’ve been waiting a very long time for this.”
The mist disappeared.
I shoved forward, claws out, just as he grabbed my throat. Druid power shot through my system, and my body jerked with the influx. So heady. So stunning. Somagnificent. I fought against it, shaking my head inside his loose hold. My body wouldn’t respond to my attack commands, each order trapped in my own mind and going nowhere fast.
I gurgled deep in my throat.
King Niallan leaned forward and kissed my forehead softly. “Quit struggling. It won’t help.”
The fuck with that.
I flared my own power to maximum strength.
Nothinghappened.
King Niallan walked me backward toward my front door, taking us to my bodyguards stationed outside. “I told you. It won’t help.”
I stumbled backward, hardly able to keep my feet under me. I tried to speak again, but it came out as a wet gurgle once more. My gut twisted in fear and nausea enveloped me.
I was going to die. It was really happening.
The jewel on my gifted necklace flared.Hot.
A burst of strange, untamable power erupted.
I shrieked as blood splattered my face, my body, the white walls, my white ceilings, the white carpet, and the white couches. Blood fuckingeverywhere. I shook my head and screamed again, backing away from…
What. The. Fuck!
I turned in a fast circle, with my claws still out.
There was no one else here.
No one else alive, anyway.
King Niallan’s head sat on my carpeting, staring up at me with dead golden eyes. All of the rest of him was everywhere else in my living room. Like…everywhere! His bloody bits dangled and dripped from my ceiling and squished underneath my bare feet as I moved.
“Oh my god,” I whispered. I turned in a circle again, studying the carnage. “Oh. My. God.”
Oh my god. Oh my god.
I pressed my palm to my forehead and stared at his dead eyes gazing at nothing. I shook my head and tried to clear my thoughts. This…was bad.
We needed him alive, goddammit.
We needed him alive to steal his power.
Wait…Oh my God.
