Page 77 of House of Mages and Raven

Queen Lilith was no longer hiding her trade secrets. She was the mastermind of the dark force aiming to destroy me.

But what made her so bold? When the realization hit me, my stomach churned. She and her ward had the chaos heir wrapped around their pinkies. Now she’d entered the scene, she could do whatever she wanted, and her fiancé would let her instead of protecting me.

Somehow, it felt like the demon queen wanted me to know about her involvement in kidnapping me, as if she wanted to speed up whatever was on her timetable. An ominous feeling filled me.

My skin broke where my fist made contact with Grace’s knuckle guards, and my body went numb as the dark spells infused within the dark material got into my bloodstream.

My opponent had played dirtier than me.

I crashed to the ground, cracking my skull against the hard marble floor. Agony bloomed in me, filling my every cell. I heard surprised calls from the heirs as they rose from the royal table.

Even after seeing me sprawl like a rag doll on the ground, the heirs wouldn’t intervene. A duel was a duel. Killian had once tried to stop the match between Medea and me to save me, but that had been when he still wanted to get into my pants. He no longer cared about me or what happened to me. His new girl was winning while his betrothed snuggled against him; he must be highly entertained.

They’d set me up to fall, so the new girl would officially replace me.

The mob’s cheers were deafening.

Grace waved at her exultant followers, a peal of victorious laughter sliding out of her throat. She stalked toward me as I writhed on the ground, panting in agony. Dark material tainted my blood, and my limbs were too numb to move.

Get up! Get up now!Sy snarled.

Grace lifted her foot to stomp on my face, a delighted glint filling her eyes. It wasn’t just my utter humiliation and defeat she wanted. She aimed to maim me, and then she’d be the only one wearing my face.

I rolled away at the last second, and Grace’s boot stomped into the marble floor, cracking it. She lifted her boot again, chasing me, determined to dent my face. I rolled and crawled to get away from her. And now she was taking her time, knowing I’d run out of space to roll with the mob blocking my exit.

“You know what I’d love to see, Barbie?” she said sweetly. “I want to see what’s inside your head. I want to find out if the matter of your brain is as colorful as when you run your mouth.”

I couldn’t get up. Even with Sy’s strength, I couldn’t get up. The dark material was like lead in my blood, and it was starting to poison Sy as well.

The crowd parted for the heirs, shock on their faces as they saw my condition. I must’ve looked terrible. I felt worse. I swept my gaze over them, as if wanting to apologize for letting them down. Killian and his betrothed weren’t among the heirs. He wasn’t even bothering to come to see the results of the duel for himself.

“Enough!” Rowan growled. “This duel is over.”

It was a surprise that the fae prince had stepped in first.

“The rules of engagement prohibit anyone from interfering,” Grace said.

“Prince Killian, your queen’sfuture king, intervened and stopped a duel last time,” Silas said, ready to bully his way in.

“I’ve read about the case, Prince Silas,” Grace said amiably, as if she were the most reasonable person here. “Last time, Princess Medea was said to use a forbidden artifact in the duel, so Prince Killian had to intervene. In the end, the duel ran its course, and Princess Medea was killed.”

Grace clasped her hands in front of her. Her knuckle guard had vanished. No one had seen that dirty move of hers when she struck me down. If I pointed out how she’d cheated, no one would believe me, and I’d sound like a sore loser.

Cade studied her carefully. “Barbie is a good fighter, yet she went down all of a sudden. It didn’t make sense.”

“It’ll make sense, Prince Cade. I promise you,” Grace said. “And according to the rules of a duel, the winner has every right to deal with the loser however they see fit. I can kill her, or I can show her mercy.”

“Then show Barbie mercy, Princess Grace,” Louis said urgently.

Grace flashed him a stunning smile while shaking her golden curls.

“I would if she’d showed mercy to my friends,” she said. “Barbie must be punished, so she’ll learn her place. However, since our heirs have spoken for her, I’ll let her live, if she kneels and begs.”

“I didn’t even knee before a cruel god,” I said. “Give me your worst, Princess Fuckface.”

As fast as a flash, Grace kicked toward my head, aiming to crack it open like a melon. The princes shouted in alarm. I had no room to dodge, and I didn’t plan to. But I wheeled on the spot just in time, so instead of denting my head, her boot rammed into my ribcage.

I heard a sickening crack. She’d just broken my ribs. I wheezed out a ragged breath.

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