Page 27 of Tortured Royals

“How bad are they?” I ask him.

“Those are creatures made of magic. One of the assassins in the order got his hands on one once,” Alaric explains. “He intended to use the creature on his next target, but somehow, he got himself stung. Their venom targets the magic in our blood and will inflict a true death. They found him the next day, nothing but a husk of the male he was.”

“So, it’s really bad then,” I say, nodding like it’s no big deal.

The chain fastening Nate to the top of the cage rattles and starts to lower. It’s moving incredibly slowly in small increments, but it’s enough for me to realize Queen Vespera’s intentions.

“One day I will be queen,” I tell her. “We could be forging an alliance rather than battling as enemies.”

“An alliance?” Queen Vespera laughs. “Your father didn’t care much about that when he took my angels, but if you defeat my soldiers and survive this, perhaps we can discuss it. Free your shifter, and in turn save yourselves, and I might even call on the allied realms after all.”

Dante and I share a look, his midnight blue eyes piercing into me. “We can do this, princess,” he says casually, though his body is rigid.

I don’t bother to entertain the thought that the queen might actually let us walk. I’ve been around enough psychos in my life to know the queen doesn’t intend to let us leave here alive. After all this fanfare and her admission about wanting justice for myfather and Nate’s crimes, she knows there’s only one real way that I’m leaving here. And it’s if I take her head from her body. Something she has no intention of letting me do.

Nate lowers another inch, and the queen clucks her tongue. “Better hurry now, your highness.”

I let a breath out through my nose and think of the different rules Dad taught me when I was young.Rule number one: Never show weakness; Rule number two: Never show mercy; and Rule number three…Never surrender.

At least fifty angels swoop down from the open space in the middle of the stadium, and they land in perfect formation, their boots slamming to the sand as they form a long line to one side of the arena. Dressed in gleaming battle armor, they face us, their helmets pulled low, and their wings flared out behind them.

Nate growls, trying to struggle against his binds, but the golden wire only tightens, trails of blood trickling from various places on his body.

“He can’t shift,” Alaric growls. “The wire will only tighten as he tries to change.”

Mason, Alaric, and Dante move with me, the four of us taking up battle stances, but Prince Callan stands apart, that lost expression still on his face.

“And what about your son?” I say, staring down the queen’s angels. “You would condemn him so easily?”

“He never wanted to follow the path I set out for him,” Queen Vespera replies. “And I’ve grown tired of having to manage his…outbursts. I have long since known that he worked with the shifter to try and organize my daughter’s kidnapping, and she is worth one-hundred sons. Prince Callan chose his fate long ago.”

“She knew?” Prince Callan mutters under his breath, his gaze finding his sister again.

My mind works as I struggle to understand. Struggle to fill in the missing pieces of Prince Callan’s story. I think of the recording we’d heard of Prince Callan getting tortured. The sound of the flickering flames is still vivid in my mind along with the voice of his sister…urging him to tell the queen about Nate. To blame it all on the shifter. I’d thought the sister was trying to help him, but those flames…was she the one burning him?

Nate lowers another inch, and I know the time for words is over.

“We’re with you, princess,” Mason says beside me, and he shifts, turning into his winged centaur form.

The queen’s eyes widen with surprise, and the crowd goes wild, none of them having seen his kind before.

Dante winks at me. “Let’s show this bitch queen how demons fight.” And he disappears, becoming invisible.

Queen Vespera leans back on her throne, a pleased smile on her face.

Prince Callan wrenches his gaze from his sister and turns, finally coming up beside me. “There will be a barrier around the royal box,” he says, though I hadn’t asked the question. “And the archangel soldiers will all have a protective shield around them, too. I’d have to be within arms-length of them to use my magic.”

I move my feet, adjusting my stance. “And why should I believe a word you say?”

“You shouldn’t,” he replies simply, and he runs out ahead of me.

I want to shout at him. To curse him for betraying us, but the archangels descend on our position, fanning out, and we need all the help we can get.

“Always knew you’d never amount to anythin’, prince,” an archangel spits as he sends out a burst of water magic, aiming it for Prince Callan’s head. Prince Callan jumps into the air and spins, tucking in his wings as he easily avoids the blast. In a fewmotions, he’s grabbed the archangel’s sword and has knocked the soldier out.

Half of the crowd boos while the other half cheers, as if they’re all just as confused as we are.

“Kill him!” the queen shouts.

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