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“Afraid not,” said a female voice.
“Nope,” sang another.
“This is where it ends,” said someone else.
I nodded slowly, mind churning. My own mind. Emiana had gotten me into this mess, and it appeared she had no intention of rising up to get me out. “All of this because you’re all too chickenshit to kill Alisdair yourselves, or indeed, even face him yourselves. You’d rather skulk around in the shadows, arranging the deaths of innocent women.” I scoffed. “Pathetic.”
A hand roared out of the dark and slapped me across the face. I bit my lip against the pain, not allowing a single sound out while my ears rang.
“Watch your mouth, slut!” How quickly Meallan did away withmy ladyandmy queen.“We’ve tried every means of killing him, but he’s too smart. His cult of loyal followers trail him everywhere, destroying the poison flowers the instant they appear, and throwing their lives before the blade to protect him.
“And unlike us, Alisdair has unlocked the secret of the Taken. Or he’s harnessed enough power and magic that the result isthe same. He doesn’t age, wither, get sick, or die. He just keeps going, he just keeps ruling the kingdom that belongs to me.
“All we need is for him to die as the empty shell he is, and then the heart will remain where it is. Safe, hidden, forever cursed. Until that glorious day, we cannot allow whores like you to give him or the faeriken hope. We can’t risk him breaking the curse,” he whispered in my ear, “for something as worthless as you.”
Shaking my head, I laughed. “So that’s it? That was the grand plan for why you wanted to reenter Lumenfell society? So you could sneak around, plotting poisonings, and getting close enough to sense if I’m getting too close to Alisdair, therefore threatening yourrightfulrule?” I laughed louder.
“What is funny?” Meallan barked. “The only joke here is you!”
My laughter ceased abruptly, strangled by my disgust. “No, you whining, mewling pup. You’re the joke. A stupid, pathetic, delusional joke if you truly believe you’re meant to rule Wind and Wild, or that if you even tried, the people wouldn’t rip you off the throne and tear your ass limb from limb.”
I sensed the other hit coming and jerked back, catching the tips of his claws across my cheek. Vicious pain sliced my face open, but I didn’t stop.
“You’ll never have Wind and Wild, and you’ll never defeat Alisdair. You can’t even open your eyes wide enough to see I was never a threat to you. Alisdair doesn’t l-love me.” My voice cracked. “He never has, he never will, and he’d never wanted to. You underestimate your enemy, and that’s why you always lose, Meallan.
“It’s why you can’t rise higher than a dirty, dark pit.”
“Argh!”
The shadows lunged and I jumped—hands reaching blindly, and smashing against their salvation. Seizing a limb, I heavedmyself onto the branch and climbed as fast as my adjusting vision would let me.
It was so dark. I couldn’t see past what was directly in front of me, but I was a child of the forest. The trees were my natural home, and the beasts below were the bastards of curses, mud, and dark holes. All I had to do was keep moving, keep climbing, keep jumping. They would never catch—
A hand grabbed my ankle and yanked me down.
“Ahhh!” I screamed, falling hard on the snow and dirt.
A chuckle sounded over the wind. “I may underestimate Shadowsoul”—a kick landed square on my middle, sending me flying into a tree—“but I overestimated you, War Wife Emiana, Queen of Nothing, wanted by no one.”
Their laughter echoed through the forest as I lay wheezing—pain wracking me with every shuddered breath.
“Kill her,” Meallan announced. “Slowly.”
Furry bodies pounced on me, their claws penetrating my arms, legs, stomach, and neck.
“Alisdair!”
“Scream for him all you want, whore.” Meallan laughed. “You’ll never—”
“Argh!”
Meallanoomphfed as a large, quick-moving shadow slammed into him.
I couldn’t see where he fell. I couldn’t see anything but the knife-tipped canines closing on my throat.
My captor was ripped off me so violently, I went flying along with her—torn out of the grasp of the others. Their claws raked gashes across my arms and legs, leaking excruciating tears from my eyes.
I crashed on a bed of snow—smothered by the freezing cold. All around me, all I heard were snarls, barks, roars, and the grim squish and snap of torn flesh and crushed bones.
