AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I glanced at Alisdair but he didn’t glance back. I sensed I had gone too far.
The boy’s cries rang in my ear.So did he.
“A tip, my husband,” I said lightly. “You can easily be rid of me and these innocent mistakes, if you run slower.”
He didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure he heard me.
A mousy woman approached the dais. Yes, mouse. Twitching nose and whiskers drew my eyes, though I tried not to stare.
“Ethna, my lord.” She bowed low, then didn’t make it all the way up—hanging her head. “We have but one request.”
“We?” I asked. No one else stood at her side, or looked in her direction.
“We ask that you allow us to kill the stunted queen.”
I froze, eyes blinking rapidly. I couldn’t have heard what I thought I did.
“What did you say?” Alisdair hissed, obviously suffering from the same roaring that sounded in my ears.
“When we heard that she broke the treaty and destroyed our chance for peace, we knew she was dangerous to you and Lumenfell, my lord. Now after what we’ve just witnessed? Her dissolving the borders so that the wolves can descend and devour us all...” She shook her head. “It’s clear her only goal is to ruin us. The stunted have taken so much from us”—she raised her head, revealing an expression that wasn’t nervousness, but hate—“they will not take anymore.”
“Guards,” Bradach roared, but it was already too late.
The entire line of villagers burst into action. Half split in every direction, running to meet the guards. The remaining, including Mousy, ran straight at me.
Scales, fangs, claws, feathers, fur, and cursed hybrids I couldn’t begin to name rushed me in a horrifying parade. Clapping their hands together, they ripped them apart. Stone broke off from the wall dozens of places, shaking the throne room on its foundation.
The stone collided together, then flew at me.
“Aahhh!”
“Ana!”
A flash of feathers, then a hard force smacked into me and threw me out of the chair. I screamed as I was lifted into the air. This was the end. After everything I’d done. One day away from escape and freedom, I would die.
I kept going up, and up, and up.Why aren’t I falling?
Prying my eyes open, I came face-to-red-face with Bradach. He held me tight, forehead dripping sweat, and soared away from the madness below. “H-hold on—"
“Are you okay? Why are you—? Ahh!”
Claws sunk into his back, hooking into muscle, bone, and sinew. The cat faeriken grinned at me with sharpened teeth. “Release your prize, little bird.”
I shuddered. I didn’t think anyone else could make that awful pet name sound worse.
The stones pummeled my throne, burying it under a brutal grave that was meant for me. One by one they fell off the pile, took to the air, and narrowed on me.
“Bradach, look out!” I screamed, but as the cry left my lips, I knew it was too late.
He was slowing down—wings beating furiously to carry me, and our hanger-on.
Stones converged on us from all sides, flying together to crush us into nothing. Fur flew at my face, making me shoot back screaming as she sunk her teeth into Bradach’s neck.
Bellowing, his wings crumpled.
We fell.
Bradach released me. Hand slicing through the air, a wave of magic blasted my body—plunging me cold. My descent slowed. The rocks slowed.
