Page 157 of Once the Skies Fade

It took the span of a single breath to fell one guard, and I was foolishly so transfixed on my own power I didn’t notice Ursula flick her fingers again.

Arms wrapped around my shoulders and pinned my arms to my sides. Two guards moved in, holding large pieces of metal connected together by hinges. I tried to redirect my shadows, but I wasn’t fast enough. Two more guards approached, each taking hold of one of my forearms, using both hands to hold me steady. My shadows finally reacted, swirling around my attackers’ heads, trying to obscure their vision, but somehow this didn’t hinder them from clamping the metal—iron—contraptions on my hands.

No!

My shadows vanished at once, recoiling.

With all my strength I thrust my knee into the groin of the male in front of me. He doubled over but recovered quickly, bringing the back of his hand to strike me across the face as if I were some common criminal and not his queen. The strike sent my head flying to the side, but I refused to cry out in pain. Instead, a growl erupted from my chest, and I put all my strength into getting free.

“Seriously, three of you should be able to hold her,” Ursula chided, smirking at me as I twisted and pulled and kicked to get away. “Someone check her pockets.”

What did she think was in my pockets? This was ridiculous. What could they possibly expect to find?

One of the guards came forward and almost seemed apologetic—the only thing that kept me from kneeing her in the face as she reached her hand into one pocket and then the other. I was about to gloat over them finding nothing when the guard lifted a clear bottle I’d never seen before.

I stilled. My blood froze with dread only to shift in the next breath, my growing rage heating it to near boiling as I watched Ursula stretch out her hand for the vial. She held it up to peer through it.

“Seems we have every right to arrest you, YourMajesty.”

“I don’t even know what that is!”I spat at her, but somehow I knew it was the poison. Even if it wasn’t, they would force the healers to declare it was just to rip me from power.

I threw all my weight forward as if to attack her, but the guards held firm, and all I achieved was to cause a searing pain in my shoulders as my arms were held behind me. Cuffs slammed onto my wrists below the iron gloves. The chains rattled as I continued to struggle to get at Ursula.

How did it get into my pocket?

Who had been close enough to?—

Graham.

My whole body froze except for my chest, which heaved faster and faster as this new betrayal took hold of my heart. I wanted to double over and retch, but the guards held me upright.

No. He’d been my friend for years. Decades! He wouldn’t.

I glared at Ursula through hot tears.

“How?” I hissed out. “How did you threaten him to get him to help you?”

Ursula’s empty hand flew to her chest. “Threaten? Threaten whom exactly?”

“Graham.” His name was ash on my tongue.

Ursula’s dry cackle rent the air. “Oh, Your Majesty, this was his idea.”

My eyes closed as my head dropped to my chest, but I refused to shed a fucking tear over that traitor, instead clinging to the bitter hatred brewing in my veins. The bastard would die for this—painfully and slowly.

I barely listened to Ursula’s prattling. “This holds a striking resemblance to the poison used in the trial,” she said, clicking her tongue at me. “We’ll have the healers determine what it is just to be sure.”

Ursula’s lips curled into a sneer as she stepped closer, and she dropped her voice into a whisper. “I wonder, though, will you choose to die by poison like your husband? Or to hang like your mate?”

Chapter 70

Matthias

If I never got poisoned again, it would be all too soon. How much poison could someone take before it eventually killed him? Or could I potentially develop an immunity to it? That would be decidedly better, but that was not at all helpful to me now as I sat here in a dark, dank prison cell. From the pitching and rolling of the floor, and the water seeping in through the wooden wall opposite me, it wasn’t hard to conclude I was on a stars-damned ship.

Which meant we probably weren’t heading to Emeryn, leaving only one likely destination: Dolobare.

Stretching, I winced as the metal bars of my cage dug into my shoulder blades.

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