Page 88 of Their Blood Queen

The event is called Monsters Night.

An event I intend to join.

Maybe we’ll simply play with a new toy. Fuck. Bite.

Or maybe we’ll find what we’re looking for.

It doesn’t feel real.

It’s like a dream, and as Strigoi, we know how fleeting dreams can be.

“You can ask him yourself,” I say instead of giving him empty promises.

My expectations are low. All I can allow myself to hope for is a reprieve and a chance to recharge my strength before I take the Strigoi throne. The only way my father can stop draining me is if I leave this dimension entirely and find a clean source on which to feed.

And when I return, if I return, I will take his heart for all that he’s done to me.

No matter what happens, the idea of hunting for fresh blood, new dreams, and a chance to rid myself of my father has me saying yes.

But I hope Cage comes with me. I need him to, or else I’m not sure I can go through with it. There will be repercussions to using an illegal portal.

But we won’t be the only ones, at least.

“Is he waiting for you?” Cage asks.

“Us,” I confirm as I pocket the invitation and hold out my hand. “Will you come with me?”

Cage considers my hand for a moment. I’m a dreamwalker, but so is he, and he always has his walls up. I can’t enter Cage’s mind no matter how close we’ve become. I would trade anything to know what he’s thinking.

To my relief, he slides his hand into mine. “Let’s see your new boyfriend, then.”

Maliki is hardly my boyfriend, but I know he’s just teasing.

Grinning, I delve us into the dream plane, and the world around us explodes in darkness and shadow. The Rot reacts to the invasive magic and bleeds death into the soil.

It makes the ground beneath our feet soft enough for us to sink. I don’t react. Instead, I let it happen.

Cage watches me, and it says something about how much he must trust me that he follows my lead. His skin bleeds over with black shadows, and his eyes glow with a fiery red as I take us into the depths.

The blood fields swallow us up, the roots of the Rot dragging us down until we deftly land on the hard surface miles below.

A tunnel filled with Nightmare Fae spans out around us. The vines of the Rot nest take up the entire ceiling, but it has rooted this place securely enough to make it a hub between kingdoms.

The Morpheous Kingdom and Netherworld Kingdom exist on separate planes, but this is a place where they overlap.

All because of the rotted death stalks in our blood fields.

All because of my father’s incompetence… I have the chance to destroy him.

“Where are we?” Cage asks as he backs into the darkness, but we can’t hide. Not from the grouping of Nightmare Fae who have gathered in front of a massive void. I know it will soon turn into a portal, and my dark heart skips a beat.

Excitement? I ponder. It’s a new sensation, one I haven’t felt for a long time.

I like it.

“A communal tunnel between kingdoms,” I briefly explain as I spot Maliki already approaching us.

I’m surprised there isn’t a female, or a male, hanging off of him at all times, given how incredibly beautiful he is. Like most Hell Fae, he is a unique mix of species. In his case, I know that he’s part Corpse Fae with some other powerful blood types mixed in. Even if I don’t know the details, it’s obvious by his striking appearance and aura of power that he’s exactly the type of “abomination” the Hell Fae Realm was built for in the first place.

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