Page 26 of Tortured Royals

The others stir as well, and I copy Alaric, turning my gaze to the giant amphitheater we’re in. There are too many rows of angels to count, the curved seating area stretching high into the sky. Some of the angels laugh, bumping one another with excitement, but just as many sit there with dark expressions.

I spin until I spot the royal box, and the golden throne where Queen Vespera smiles down at us. Beside her, Mirelle sits on a smaller but no less lavish throne, the smooth gold of the chair inlaid with sparkling stones.

The sight of the royals sickens me. The queen should be concerned with the fight against the witches. Not busy toying with us.

“I wonder why Prince Callan never mentioned her?”Shade asks, now perched on my shoulder, and I guess that she’s referring to the princess.

“He never mentioned a lot of things,”I reply simply, the wound from the prince’s betrayal still a gaping hole inside me. I knew he was an asshole, but I hadn’t expected this from him.

My gaze goes to the archangel prince who stands a few yards from me on the arena floor, but he doesn’t look at me. He keeps his gaze fixed on the royals. On his sister.

“We shall get out of this, my mate,” Mason says, now beside me in a fighting stance. “I’ve seen worse.”

My lips thin, and I can’t stop staring at Prince Callan. When we’d first met, I’d known he was a dud mate, but this is so much worse than I’d anticipated.“So much for Lady Fate knowing what she’s doing when she made our matches,”I grumble to Shade.

For once, the crow doesn’t have a witty comeback. She merely says,“Blake. Where’s Nate?”

My head snaps to the side as I realize I’d miscounted my mates, and my shifter isn’t anywhere around us.Fuck.

A horn blares, and the angels in the amphitheater quieten, all attention going to Queen Vespera.

The angel queen smiles down at me and my mates. “How delighted we are that you have finally decided to join us,” she says, her shrill voice somehow amplified and ringing throughout the enormous space.

Dante and Mason both stand with me now, and Dante’s tail flicks as he stares at the queen with hatred, his burnt hand still raw, though the flesh is finally starting to heal.

“Where’s Nate?” I yell.

Queen Vespera smiles wickedly. “Well now, I couldn’t make it too easy, could I?” She motions to someone behind her, and the ground beneath our feet starts to tremble. My mates and I move back as the sand shifts in the middle of the arena, and from below, a giant cage rises, the thick golden bars alight with white fire.

I gasp when I spot Nate trapped inside. The shifter is suspended upside down, held by a chain that hangs from the top of the cage. Golden barbed wire covers his entire body, the metal slowly moving as if it were dozens of golden snakes, and a thick layer of clouds covers the bottom of the cage.

No!

Dante lets out a stream of curses beside me.

“Now that you’ve agreed to this little competition, it seems only fair that I create a game befitting the daughter of the demon king,” Queen Vespera says, tapping her long nails on the armrest of her throne.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” I warn her. “I may have agreed to fight for my mate, but my death could still result in a war.”

The queen sneers. “Your father already played a dangerous game by luring some of my best archangels into that pathetic competition of his. Then he had the indecency to come here, advising me to call on the allied realms for aid when Toralyn is easily the strongest realm of all five.”

My stomach twists, because the queen isn’t entirely wrong. King Daltonhadmade some angels lose their lives, all so I could find my mates. The angels may have come to the ball willingly, but if they’d known about the competition they might have stayed away. “He came here to help and to warn you about the witches and their plans.”

“Your father is a fool, and he spouts the idea of unity after wasting innocent lives,” Queen Vespera spits. “And now justice must be served.”

“Then take it up with the demon king,” Alaric growls. “Or are you in the habit of convicting innocents yourself?”

“Unfortunately, murdering the demon king would have dire consequences, though I had been weighing my options when you so happened to walk into my palace,” the queen replies, giving me a gleeful smile.

“So, this has nothing to do with Nate,” I say coldly.

“Oh, let’s not get confused,” she replies. “The thief must die for attempting to kidnap my daughter. But you know the saying…two birds and all that.”

I scowl.

There’s a muffled sound, and I turn to where Nate is still hanging. One of the wires is wrapped around his mouth, and when he tries to speak, it makes shallow cuts in his skin. The queen flicks her hand in the air, and the clouds below Nate dissipate. Hundreds of gold-tipped scorpions come into view, crawling around the base of the cage.

Alaric growls in the back of his throat.

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