Page 66 of Red Queen

“Your head will look better on a spike than on your shoulders!”

Our swords clash again, sparks flying from the contact. But it’s useless. Her talisman-fueled might is overwhelming.

I risk a glance at Alexandru. He’s struggling to rise, his eyes clouded with pain. My heart tightens, but my resolve hardens.

I refocus on Catarina, watching her every move, predicting the fray that she’s so adept at leading. But it’s a feint within a feint, and before I can react, she’s on me, her movements a blur of lethal beauty.

“Eleanna, always too slow!” Her voice is serpent’s hiss, and her laughter cuts deeper than any blade.

Then, in a movement so swift it seems to defy possibility, Catarina’s hand darts forward, not with her sword, but with something smaller, more sinister—a poisoned dagger, its black blade infamous even among our kind for its cruel efficiency. She stabs me in the gut with the sharp edge, and pain explodes with me. The poison, known for its slow and torturous effect on vampire physiology, courses through me.

“Feel the embrace of eternal sleep,” she whispers.

More searing pain rolls through me, spreading like wildfire from the wound. The poison begins its insidious work, sapping my strength and dulling my limbs. My sword falls from my grasp, clattering against the stones, useless.

“Alexandru!” My voice is a choked gasp, the world beginning to spin and darken at the edges.

Suddenly, his arms catch me as I crumple. His presence is an anchor in the darkness engulfing me. “Hold on, Eleanna, stay with me.” His voice seems distant, muffled by the roar of blood in my ears.

“Sweet dreams, Queen of Ravens.” Catarina mocks me, her silhouette looming over us, a specter of doom as the battle rages on around us.

The cold seeps into my bones, the winter air no longer held at bay by my supernatural heat. The sounds of the battlefield—the boom of swords, the cries of the dying—fade to a hollow echo in my fading consciousness.

“Fight it, Eleanna!” Alexandru’s plea is desperate, his grip on me tightening.

But the darkness is relentless, pulling me into its icy depths, even as I struggle to stay above its crushing waves. My mind races, thoughts of revenge, alliances, and survival tangling in a mess of fear and rage.

“Alexandru...” I whisper. “I’m too weak to fight.”

“Looks like your queen has fallen,” Catarina says, her triumph as clear as the bright winter moon above.

Alexandru starts to stand, to kill our shared enemy, but I hold onto him with what little strength I have. It’s not the time.

“Go, please,” I whisper. “Save yourself and what’s left of your troops.”

“Retreat!” Alexandru’s command is a guttural roar, one that I feel rather than hear as my senses betray me. His eyes meet mine, silver pools of anguish. “I can’t lose you, Eleanna. Not now, not ever.”

But Catarina, that cunning bitch, knows the moment to strike. Her guards swarm us and pull me from Alexandru’s arms. My limbs are leaden, my mind foggy with the poison coursingthrough me. I’m screaming on the inside, but no sound escapes my lips. The guards, five of them, hold Alexandru back as he struggles to free himself from their tight grip.

“Take her,” Catarina snarls as her talisman pulses with a sickening glow. “Let the general watch his queen fall.”

They drag me away, each step farther from Alexandru a descent into despair. The castle gates loom over us, mocking reminders of the power I once held. Through blurred vision, I see our forces—my forces—overwhelmed, decimated. The stench of blood and gore saturates the air, a testament to the battle’s ferocity.

“Alexandru!” My heart screams his name even if my voice cannot.

The fortress I spent centuries fortifying now becomes my prison. They drag me inside the castle and down the winding, narrow staircase to the dungeons below. The dampness and cold make me shiver. In a place meant for traitors and enemies—not a queen—they toss me into a dungeon cell.

“Fuck you,” I spit at the guards, my voice barely above a whisper.

But they only laugh, and the sound grates against my skull as the heavy door slams shut, sealing my fate.

Despair clutches my heart with icy fingers. I’m alone, trapped by stone walls and iron bars with this slow-acting poison in my veins. In this dark hour, I question everything—the war, my reign, my choices. Most of all, I doubt the bond between Alexandru and me.

What are we if not two warriors caught in an endless struggle for power?

“Damn you, Catarina,” I curse under my breath, my words lost in the silence of the cell.

The chill seeps into my skin, but it’s nothing compared to the brutal realization that creeps into my soul.

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