Page 15 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

Ahead of me, Zara and Asher charge into a wave of nightmares coming from every direction. They materialize out of the dark and the stone as if they’d been hiding in little cracks in reality. They come from roosts above us as well as ground-level, a dozen at least. Behind me, Owyn spins to face two as they drop over thewall. I test my magic, but it’s just as weak as before, so I let it flow away. I’ll have to rely on steel for this battle.

I run for Owyn. He dispatches one of the nightmares with a blast of magic before I can reach him, but the other attacks him from behind. I sink my dagger into its back while it’s occupied. It shrieks in agony and spins to face me. I crouch down, blade in hand, slippery with black blood. The thing lunges for me, but Owyn hits it with magic and it dissolves into a pile of ash at my feet.

With a nod of thanks, I turn and we charge back through the hole in the wall to help Zara and Asher. The scene that meets my eyes is utter chaos. There are already several dead nightmares on the ground, but the initial wave of them seems to have doubled in size. I count at least twenty of the monsters, and more seem to keep coming.How are we going to fight this many?I feel like dead weight with nothing but a dagger.

Zara, Asher, and Owyn at least still seem to have enough power to take them down. They fight with magic while I fight with steel. But no sooner does one nightmare fall than another takes its place. I quickly find my strength faltering. That’s when I notice another strange sensation in my body.

That dark part of me, my nightmare blood, my inner beast, is stirring restlessly. The more I use my shadow magic, the stronger she gets. This deep, primal part of me. It broke free the day Avonia attacked the Court of Nightmares, and it nearly killed Zyren on the way to the Court of Memory. My mother told me in the family book to trust this part of me, but I can’t help but wonder…

Is this the dark magic Avonia tapped into to release some of the nightmares? The magic that separates the nightmares who have humanity from the ones who are pure beast?

And what if this part of me is the only thing that can save us right now?

I tremble with both the effort to keep fighting the onslaught bearing down on us, and the battle within to keep this dark urge from consuming me. Enemies are falling all around us, their bodies littering the ground, their blood soaking the earth. If I can only keep standing for a few more minutes…

A shadow overhead is the only warning a moment before sharp claws dig into my shoulders and I’m lifted off the ground. I can’t even scream because the air is so quickly ripped from my lungs. Icy air swooshes around me as I’m carried through the sky, and agony pulses through my body where the nightmare’s claws are embedded in my flesh. Owyn screams my name, but it already sounds far, far away.

I’m flung to a stone parapet on the opposite side of the ruins, my bones cracking painfully, and the breath once again shoved from my lungs. The nightmare lands a moment later and looms over me, glowing orange eyes narrowing with malice. It snaps its jagged teeth, a low growl issuing from its throat. A flap of leathery wings, and then it lunges for my chest. I realize that I’ve dropped my dagger. I have nothing to defend myself with.

And then the thing shrieks as a wave of shadow rolls toward us. It leaps skyward to escape, but a pulse of magic like a black spear impales it and flings it to the side. A figure strides toward me, black cloak billowing out around him.

Zyren.

I blink, not believing what I’m seeing. Perhaps I hit the stone too hard, perhaps I’m delusional. Perhaps I’m just seeing what I sodesperatelywant to see.

But when he stops before me, and his storm-gray eyes hit mine, it’s unmistakably my husband. He reaches down and pulls me to my feet.

“Zyren!” I gasp.

My head spins and I wobble on my feet, but he holds me up. I lean against him, a feeling so right, so familiar... I knowhe doesn’t remember me, but I can’t help myself. My free hand slides up his chest, feeling the warm beat of his heart against my fingers. Our hips brush together, and his magic swirls around us, a shield of shadows enclosing us in our own personal universe. That darkness within me crawls upward, wanting him closer, closer…

I stand on my tiptoes and press my lips to his, needing to taste his skin, his breath. My hand slides up into his hair, and a shudder moves through me, of relief, and longing, and desire. “Goddess, I’ve missed you,” I murmur against his mouth. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

Footsteps ring across the stone behind us, and Zyren stiffens, pulling back.

“Well done,” calls a voice from the darkness.

I look over Zyren’s shoulder and my heart drops to my feet. There, emerging from the shadows, is Jonavus. And right on his heels, Avonia. She smiles, a twist of the lips sharper than any blade.

“You’re proving yourself quite useful, Zyren,” Avonia says. “You’ve brought us the traitorous queen.”

Part Two

Chapter Nine

Zyren

Sarielle’s gaze piercesme like a thousand golden arrows. So much pain and accusation in one look.

“Don’t look so surprised, Sarielle,” Jonavus says, stopping a couple feet away. “He’s my brother. Family always comes first.”

“Not before hiswife,” Sarielle hisses, her gaze darting between me and Jonavus.

“I’m not really certain your marriage is in fact binding,” Avonia says. “After all, your first husband is here, alive and well.”

“Because of necromancy.” Sarielle doesn’t look at Avonia, but looks at me, her gaze pleading. “He’s her slave, Zyren. Don’t listen to anything either of them say.”

My jaw tightens. They’d warned me about her, about her lies and deceit. She’s so very convincing… but then, they’d told me she would be.

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