Page 51 of The Dawn of the Cursed Queen

“I’ve heard the witches laughing and the guards talking. She has many titles. Nismera the Conqueror and Nismera the Bloody, but I hate Nismera the Mutilator the most.” Camilla set a bottle back on the shelf and walked closer. Her nose wrinkled in disgust, but she did not seem surprised. “In our realm, they called it science. Here it’s turtisuma. She’s been busy while you were gone, it seems.”

“She’s mutilating her guards?”

“The ones that fail her or the ones she is interested in, I suppose, but most of these look like regular beings. Maybe prisoners of some sort? Traitors.”

“Why?” I asked. “And more so, how do you know?”

She lifted a pendant between her breasts. “I have my ways. I’ve been sneaking around, usually at night when everyone is asleep, and I found this place. My magic was screaming every night she was in here. Whatever she is working on is making my skin crawl. I snuck in during one of her long war meetings the other day.”

I said nothing as I walked around the large lab. The remaining bodies were half-covered in thin sheets. It smelled of blood, piss, and darker things, as if most weren’t dead when she started whatever the hell it was she was doing down here. “I never knew Mera to be so . . . cruel.”

Camilla scoffed and shrugged. “Maybe you haven’t known her at all.”

I glared at her. “I know my sister.”

“You mean the same sister that locked you in her dungeons for a week after you returned?” Camilla said. “I heard how terrible they are. So far beneath the ground, even the light is afraid to reach it.”

The memory of them flared back. How I shivered in that corner cell, unable to tell if my eyes were even open with how pitch black it was. The only indication I was awake were the moans and screams. The inhabitants who had been there much longer than me cried and begged for an end, any end.

My eyes snapped to her, but I said nothing. Whatever she read in my gaze made her drop it and return to the jars lining the walls. “I may need some of these.” She glanced back at me. “Spells and all.”

“And what exactly are you plotting?” I tilted my head a fraction higher.

“Always have to have a backup plan.” She cut her eyes toward me, and I knew exactly what dark-haired beauty had taught her that. My heart skipped a beat even thinking of Dianna.

“What makes you think I won’t have you detained for this?”

A smile curved her full lips. “Because something tells me your dear sister didn’t want you to see this, either.”

Checkmate.

I shook my head and scratched my brow, my armored glove cool against my skin. “It makes no sense why she would be so desperate to mutilate so many. It’s as if she’s studying them. These bodies are fresh. Samkiel is dead. She is the most powerful being now. So why?”

Camilla quirked her upper lip. “From the way she is working and experimenting, something tells me that even with him gone, she isn’t the most powerful being in the world.”

Before I could respond, the door started to open. I threw my hand up, drowning the room in complete darkness before grabbing Camilla and pushing her between one of the racks. I pressed my body over hers, my hand covering her mouth, and a single finger raised to my lips to hush her.

“See, no one in here, you idiot. The lights would be on,” the guard from outside said. “You just fell asleep.”

“Me? You fell asleep too, you moron.” The rest of their words faded as they closed the doors.

I glanced down at Camilla to find her looking up at me. Her hands rested on the plated dragonbane armor covering my arms. Her throat bobbed, and a look passed between us. Memories were thick between us, but it was a history neither of us wanted to repeat.

“Can you make them sleep from here?” I asked, lowering my hand.

Her gaze darkened. “Of course.”

I was about to respond with a snide comment when the wall near her head hissed. We pulled away, and cold air hit us as the wall slid to the side, revealing a hidden room. My eyes adjusted to the pale blue light of the small chamber.

“What’s this?” Camilla asked, stepping away from me.

I didn’t answer as I entered, feeling her right behind me. In the center was a long, rectangular table, and atop it sat a device. Its insides were spinning wildly. I bent to look and stopped, my blood running cold.

“It’s a centrifuge.” Her voice was as cold as the room.

I stood up and turned toward her. “And the blood currently spinning inside is of my brothers.”

“What?”

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