Page 104 of Fae Reckoning

But a wall of guards, mixed with a couple of pygmy ogres, stretched across the exit. And Lennox and his buddies stood in front of them, smiles cruel and taunting.

I pressed El to my back while Xeno spun to scan our circumstances. When he glanced at me, his mouth was a grim, desperate line. He shook his head and then kicked off his boots.

The fight to the death I’d been dreading had already arrived.

32.IF DEFEATING THE DARKNESS WAS MY DESTINY, THEN SO IT MUST ALSO BE HIS

ELOWYN

I called through my thoughts as Rush settled fully between me and the deadliest danger in the hall, both hands clutching blades, scanning the immediacy of our other threats before returning to Talisa, over and again.

Einar asked sharply.

Around Rush’s broad shoulders, I surveyed the narrowing distance between me and the crazy-bitch queen and snorted. It had only been seconds, but I had none of them to spare. I snapped.

His deep, rumbling voice arrived a moment later.

Whatever exactly that meant, I’d fucking take it. I disconnected from Einar, allowed Rush, a barefootXeno, Ryder, West, and even Ivar to barricade me as Talisa gobbled up the distance between her and us tonot nearly fucking enough. It didn’t help that the snakes cleared a path for her or that she appeared to skim over the upturned glass floor as if she weren’t resting her weight on it at all. More magic, apparently.By blazing beams of sunshine, could she have less of it and not more? For fuck’s sake!

Xeno was hurriedly shedding his weapons belt and shirt, dropping them on the floor. Once he shifted, maybe he could rally the dragons if I couldn’t.

Talisa’s eyes were no longer a disorientingly pure, crystalline sky-blue, but a burning, blazing, furious red. No more pretending now, no more hiding the monster behind a pretty face, extravagant raiments, and palatial etiquette. Here was the beast on full display, not even a stitch of clothing to conceal her true nature.

Many of the nobles who crammed against the mirrored walls wore stunned, dazed expressions, as if they were seeing the full extent of their monarch’s evil for the very first time. Some of the royal guards, even, couldn’t keep the horror from their expressions. Would they still defend her?

To the room at large, Talisa crowed, “Elowyn’s death is mine. Rush’s death is also mine. No one kills thematesbut me.”

Her emphasis was a mocking taunt that only emboldened me. I wasn’t at all alone in this fight. My mate stood right beside me, ready to lay his life down formine.

“Yes, my queen,” said Braque, who was shuffling behind her with his short, wheedling, irritating steps.

I called out again. Despite my urgency, I received no answer.

Doing my best not to reveal where my attention was going, I leaned once more around Rush to pick out the sapphire-blue she-dragon who crouched all the way on the other side of the vast hall. When I’d vanished so abruptly from the Sorumbra to materialize in the throne room, it had been she who’d led the other dragons. There were a greater number of them now than there’d been then, and she’d only communicated with me when our foreheads had touched, but she was my best bet.

I said as I caught her pupil-less stare, wincing at the disrespectful address, though she’d been the one who’d refused to give me her name. I had no more time for diplomacy.

No answer.

“Dammit,” I growled under my breath, drawing a quick glance from Rush over his shoulder.

I shook my head in a subtle “turn back around” while Xeno finished stripping, drawing Talisa’s attention for valuable seconds.

With a languorous lecherousness that made my skin crawl and my fists itch with the need to intervene, she trawled her gaze along his many, many muscles, skimming all that smooth, sexy skin. She paused, almost derisively, to lick her lips as she admired his chest, histight abdomen, to trail down to the V I knew dipped between his hips. After a quick glance at his thick thighs, the soft red glow around her pulsed, and she groaned—a salacious, disgusting sound that delivered haunting memories of how vocally she’d desired Rush, how she’d forced him into her bed to pleasure her. I had to shake free the unbidden image of Rush’s purposefully blank face, hiding so much pain so Talisa wouldn’t witness him breaking inside as she did her best to break his body and his will.

When her openly ravenous stare—did she forget we were in a room filled to bursting with observing fae?—settled on Xeno’s dick and held while she licked her lips yet again, I had to force myself to look away and maximize her distraction.

There simply had to be a way to rid the world of someone so eager to abuse and torment. A silent, desperate sob bubbled through my chest.Come on, forces of the light, the land, anything, anyone! Help us. The world shouldn’t host such cruelty. Please.

I pushed my next pleas toward the she-dragon who’d heard me once before, praying touch wasn’t necessary to engage her. She herself had told me the most powerful of them didn’t need a physical connection to hear thoughts.

Nothing.

With a terrifyingly easy slash of her hands we had no way of preventing.

Rush took a protective step backward until his broad body blocked me from Talisa’s view.

Another sob I wouldn’t release gurgled around my insides. Unsurvivable, even.

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