Page 114 of The Queen

“Violet, is there a concealed door on that wall?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I had a sinking feeling in my chest. Had Edeth left herself an escape? She could easily have planned to leave if anything went wrong. I had to stop her. She couldn’t get away with this.

I slipped under the arm of the guard closest to me and bolted across the room, ducking and dodging terrified nobles. Blaster fire vibrated in the air around me and people shouted my name. I stayed low and scrambled through the panicked chaos.

Edeth was mere feet from me. I had no idea what I was going to do if I caught her. I just knew someone had to stop her from escaping.

A hidden panel in the wall shifted aside and she stood from her cover behind the table and made a dash for it. I sprinted, ready to launch myself at her, but just as I was about to leap, she was jerked to a halt. I skidded a step, nearly toppling her over.

Titus had her by the arm, and I heard what he was saying to her before they saw me. “I trusted you and you betrayed us all. You killed our queen. My wife died that day. And for what? So you could sit at my side and manipulate me?”

“I loved you. They were all obstacles to our future together. A future you enjoyed just as much as I did.” Edeth tried to rip free of his hold, but her pampered beta strength was nothing to an alpha. “But I realized, you were just a weak, pathetic fool.” She resorted to pounding on his chest until he wrestled her arms behind her back for both of their safeties.

In the time it took me to get across the room, the blaster fire had quieted, and a blood covered Lex and Ghost stood in the center of the floor with a pile of soldiers dead around their feet. More lay on their stomachs, groaning, with their hands secured behind their backs. Alphas I recognized as the ones that guarded the hall on my coronation day picked through the restrained troops, freeing some and securing others.

We’d won. With the soldiers’ attention divided, they’d done it.

I couldn’t bring myself to focus on the dead and dying on the ground. There would be time for grief later. For now, my anxiety burned away on a high of adrenaline laced gratitude.

When I turned back, Titus had dragged Edeth to the floor, and they both knelt in front of me.

My voice trembled as Shadow and Albion caught up to me, lending me the courage I needed to utter the words I’d longed to say. “Edeth Knight ne Lochlan, you’re under arrest for treason. Your sentence is banishment. The Imperatrix will punish you in ways I can’t even imagine. There are things worse than death, and I have no doubt you’ll learn that firsthand.”

A thud sounded behind me and I whipped around to find Lady Baxter on the ground again, unconscious.

Chapter Seventy-One

Saphyra

Iwobbled on my feet, exhaustion overwhelming me. “Everyone needs to be questioned. Use the brig for traitors, and anyone involved should be put on one of those Imperatrix ships and sent back where they came from. Can we do that?”

“Yes, my queen. Right away.” Albion bowed and turned to distribute my instructions to the troops that had arrived with Maddox and my mates.

Titus had a screaming Edeth restrained, and he and Dani escorted her toward the exit.

Lex and Ghost vaulted over obstructions, making their way through the room to my side. Huge arms banded around Shadow and me from all sides, wrapping us in their delicious scents. Everything was coated in a coppery film of blood. I was so happy to be back together that I hardly noticed.

Something was missing, though. Where was Grey? I felt agony slice through the bond, and I struggled free of my alpha’s python-like embrace. “Grey?” I mumbled against the constricting appendages. With some effort, I managed to squirm away. “Where’s Grey? Help me look.”

Our connection told me he was close and in pain, but it wasn’t a locator device, just a sensation. An inaccurate sensation that was pulling me in all directions. Nobles huddled in the corners, shaken but in most cases unhurt. The bulk of the fighting had been in the corridor and near the hole that was cut into the wall.

I wove through the milling soldiers as loyal trusted alphas escorted Edeth’s troops to the oversized brig, but there was no sign of Grey anywhere. My mates were scanning the room with concern etched into their features.

“There.” Ghost pointed to a pale arm sticking out from under a downed alpha.

“Help me!” I screamed and scrambled over fallen soldiers to get to him. His hand was cold to the touch.

Lex lifted the unconscious guard off Grey, and my beta groaned. “I think I was shot.”

His leg was a mess of tattered fabric and blood. He was definitely injured and still bleeding.

“Melody!” I called for her and she was at my side in a blink, looking over Grey’s wound.

I clutched my mate’s cold hand with my heart in my throat. “Please be okay. Is he alright? Grey, you really have to stop trying to die all the time. It’s taking a toll on my mental health.” I tried to make a joke, but it ended in a sob. All the warmth leached from my skin. It felt like I was bleeding out right alongside him.

She whipped her belt off and wrapped it around his thigh. “He should be fine. There’s a lot of blood, but it appears that nothing major was hit.” Grey’s dirt-covered medical bag was on the ground next to him, and Melody dug through it until she found what she was looking for.

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