Page 105 of Fae Reckoning

What was my own death compared to the prospect of such agonizing loss? He was the blessing for which I hadn’t dared to hope. The man I was intended to share the rest of my life with—until it was time to share the next and the next. Would our time together this incarnation be cursed to be so fleeting? Here and gone as if it had been nothing more than an unattainable dream?

The she-dragon’s stare seemed to hold mine, though I couldn’t be certain at this distance. Regardless, she remained silent. No help was coming from these dragons, not even now that they were free from the dark shadow that bound them.

Then I would seek support from the land. I stood several stories removed from the ground, but perhaps that was no impediment to a magic so powerful it fueled the entire Mirror World.

Talisa was reaching for a naked Xeno when I denied my instincts to chop off her encroaching hand and willed my eyes closed, already searching for some sign of the land’s magic.

An agonizingly slow, measured, and ancient voiceI’d last heard in the throne room filled my mind:

My eyes shot open to stare blankly at Rush’s back. I clamped down on the magnitude of my relief lest Talisa suspect I was up to something her disembodied spies weren’t picking up on. For now, Xeno’s impressive equipment continued to hold her attention.

Silently I exclaimed, Why did you take so freaking long to answer me? Were you trying to save the shadow the effort and kill me with a heart attack?I bobbed my head out from behind Rush to stare down the length of the hall at the sapphire-blue she-dragon.

It was, of course, Ivar who’d directly released them, but this wasn’t the time to split scales.

I winced before schooling my features for the spies floating overhead, just beyond my reach.

With a quick wave of familiar magic, Xeno shed his man for his dragon.

My heart thudded.

“Ooooooh,” Talisa purred at Xeno’s dragon. “You are a mighty specimen, aren’t you?”

I asked the she-dragon.

“Such a magnificent maleanda magnificent dragon,” Talisa was saying in a voice that was sickly sweet. “You’ll make an excellent addition to my collection.” She laughed huskily. “And to my bed. You and Rush can join me together. Won’t that be a beautiful sight, Elowyn? The two males you love the most, servicing me? Maybe I should keep you alive just long enough to see that. Or…” She canted her head. “I could kill you now, then bring you back to have you watch us at my leisure.” She smacked her lips. “Aye, that’s much better, wouldn’t you say, stupid, bothersome girl?”

It took a moment to fully register what the nasty bitch was saying—and that she was trying to get a rise out of me. Before she could follow the line of my attention, I jerked it to her and spat out the first thing that came to mind.

“You wish.” Lame, but I surely didn’t care. I was already pressing the she-dragon.

As if we had all the time in the world—which the she-dragon obviously didn’t realize we absolutely didn’t—languidly—fucking languidly—she unfurled from her crouch beside the throne and began stalking toward us with graceful, powerful, and certain steps that made solittle sound Talisa didn’t turn. Instead, the false-queen shook her head at my “comeback,” her crown fixed in place despite the movement—so much magic wasted on her.

“And you think you have what it takes to rulemykingdom? You’ve lost whatever senses my foolish husband might have given you through his useless seed.”

A wave of muffled gasps were a sharp reminder that we had a large audience—and that the false queen, who’d always appeared to care what her courtiers thought of her at least to some degree, no longer did. There was nothing holding her back anymore.

She dragged a finger—the same one she’d used to slice off my father’s and Dashiell’s heads—between her full breasts, where she paused … then continued on to trail it down her stomach, where she rested the tip of her finger inside her belly button.

“You’re fucking insane,” I blurted. “You know that, right?”

Her frame went rigid. The snakes had begun hissing softly again, a constant that faded into the background din. Now they silenced.

“You made everyone believe my mother was the one who lost her sanity, but it was you all along.”

Her other hand joined the first at her waist. The fingers hooked into claws.

From the walls behind the empty throne, goblins materialized in great numbers. My heart skipped with fear that Talisa would turn and spot them.

She didn’t, baring her teeth and growling at me, her breasts jiggling with her mounting rage.

The goblins were armed with nothing but their magic. By a dragon’s life, I prayed it was enough for them to all survive.

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