Page 1 of Crown of Wrath

Chapter 1

When we arrived at Nyth, we found that we were not alone. The Old Ones had been there for as long as there were humans.

~Vyran the Black, A History of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

I never imagined death would smell like salt and citrus. Soft wisps of gray swirl toward me, and my spear slashes, cutting the tendril off from the main mass of mist that the world knows as the Nothing.

Silence fills the air behind my soundless footsteps. No birds chirp. No rabbits move through the forest. Even the wind seems to have died in the mist’s presence.

This took my cousin. It’s killed more people than any single person alive. Entire villages. Men, women, and children. It’sheartless, but it certainly isn’t mindless, and I’ve spent the last three months doing everything in my power to destroy it.

That scent of salt and citrus is everywhere, overpowering everything. I hadn’t smelled it when I’d first seen the Nothing with Cole all those months ago because I’d been a Wyrdling then. The moment that the Painted Crown appeared on my head, it burned away every bit of humanity in me and turned me into a full-blooded High Fae, and the scent of the mists makes me want to destroy every inch of it.

My body moves like the wind, no longer held back by that humanity. As my spear swings, revulsion shadows drive daggers into the thick of the mists before being consumed by it. Every day, it’s my magic against the Nothing’s, and we stay at a near stalemate. Its tendrils war against my spear, neither of us making any real progress, but both of us slowly being worn down by the battle.

Because this battle has been waging for three months with only time for sleep and food.

Cole’s flames explode several feet away from me, the fire burning away the mists as he moves just as constantly as I do. He doesn’t wear the Painted Crown, though, and his flames have come less and less often since I started this war against an impossible enemy.

Every second that we stand near it, our power is sapped. I leap backward as a surge of mist moves toward me. Revulsion shadows come down from above to cut the section off from the main body of fog, and the cloudy tendrils dissipate, leaving only that sour scent of salt and citrus.

I leap back toward it, my spear striking out over and over again, each touch of the steel against the mists saps its power. Sweat pours from my body after fighting for almost four hours straight today. Shadows coat my body in a weightless armor that the mists have trouble penetrating.

It’s Cole and me against an impossible enemy, and we’re winning. Slowly but surely, we’re cutting the Nothing away. Three months of constant battle with it is making a mark on it.

But it’s too slow. We’re getting tired.

I smell that disgusting scent thicken, and I spin. A wall has appeared behind me. This isn’t the first time the Nothing has tried to trap me.

Shadows pool at my feet, and I focus on the disgust I feel for the Nothing. They become revulsion shadows, and I fall through the world. I float in the void for a moment, glad for the momentary silence and peace. This place of darkness is a world of temptation just as much as it was the very first time I was brought here by the Shade, but I can’t let that temptation gain purchase in my mind. It’d be too easy to give into it now.

And I have vengeance to deliver.

I reach out to the clearing that Cole’s been fighting in and grip a shadow, making it mine, making it a part of me. Just as if I were pulling myself up over a ledge, I pull myself out of the void and into Nyth, appearing beside Cole almost instantly. His body is moving so much slower than normal. The once impossibly fast chops, stabs, and slices are a ghost of what they once were. Instead of dancing from one attack to the next, his steps are heavy, and he’s fighting defensively, doing everything he can to conserve energy.

I may be tiring, but Cole won’t last much longer. He doesn’t have the never-ending energy of the Painted Crown to keep him upright. It’s pure strength of will that has him still breathing and swinging.

“Time to go,” I say, and he leaps backward to the center of the clearing. I grab his arm as my darkness curls around his feet, and we’re in the void in a breath. This time, I give myself a moment to let the darkness caress me.

Cole’s mind presses against mine, begging entrance to it as it has so often since the day I received the Painted Crown. Since all the lies were uncovered.

Just like every other time, I push him away.

I reach out for the hilltop that we’ve made our base of operations, and silently, we appear in the tent that Cole, Darian, Lee, and I have been using as our planning room.

Made of thick canvas, it keeps the rain off, but there’s nothing luxurious about it. Ten feet across, it’s large enough that all four of us can sit at a table under it, but that’s all. Each of us has our own small sleeping tents, quite the upgrade compared to the weeks we spent on the road all those months ago.

Still, it’s not what I would have expected if someone had told me I’d be Queen of the world. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been pushed out of the capital and another Immortal rules in your place.

Cole nearly falls into the seat beside me as soon as I let go of him. His body is shaking from exhaustion. The red gambeson that is covered in curled steel bands is soaked with sweat, and he’s gulping in air as if he’d been holding his breath for the past four hours.

This is the strongest warrior in the world, and if I push him any harder, he’s going to fall. I originally saw him as the most beautiful creature alive. He taught me everything I know about the Immortal world. Then he lied to me and forced me into a war I wanted no part of.

To be fair to him, I told him I didn’t care what he’d done. I was wrong, and what he’d done had shaken me to the core. I hadn’t understood the level of his manipulation.

He once told me I wouldn’t want him when I found out everything, and he’s right. He told me he was the sharpest blade I’d ever wield, but people like me don’t marry their blades. Theyuse them until their enemies are dead, and then they put them aside.

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