Page 88 of Queen of Ever

‘It hurts,’ she whimpered.

‘We have to get you out of here.’I tried to help her to her feet, but she cried out, the sound terrifying me enough to lower her to the ground again.I scanned her frantically, looking for injuries.‘Where are you hurt?’

‘All over,’ she rasped, her teeth chattering.‘Myhead.’

‘You’ve used too much magic.’My gaze flickered towards the soldiers milling around, edging closer now that Imogen’s creatures were gone.She was going into shock as the effects of magic wreaked havoc on her body.I needed to get her somewhere safe.If that meant I had to leave the rebels behind to fend for themselves, then so be it.

‘Tarian, darling.Hasn’t this gone far enough now?’

For a split second, I closed my eyes and wanted to pretend that I hadn’t heard the voice, even while my mind began sprinting through choices, weighing options and potential consequences.None of them looked good.

‘I’m unimpressed that I had to leave my borders to clean up this mess,’ Moriana continued.I drew a breath, brushed a kiss across Imogen’s head and released her.Her hand reached after me as I left her, and I had to turn away so I wouldn’t see the confusion and the suffering there.I had to draw myself up, put some ground between us, leave her shivering in the mud alone and hope Ethan or one of the rebels was paying attention.I had topraysomeone would come and get her out while I drew my mother’s attention.

Moriana stood with her arms folded, dressed in the sort of clothing that suggested she never intended to see any fighting herself.I would have bet she had been waiting a long way off, watching from beyond her border until she could see which way the battle would swing.She’d only come now that she’d seen Solas fall.

‘What do you want?’I demanded as I approached her from an angle, circling so she’d keep turning away from Imogen, reaching for what flickers of magic I could access.It was faint and unreliable.I’d never catch her at a distance like this.And she’d strike me long before I got close enough to touch destruction to her skin.‘Your soldiers can fight without your presence here.’

She wore a cold smile, her head slightly cocked as she considered me.‘But then I’d miss the spectacle.Isn’t it glorious?’She spread her hands, encompassing the battlefield, the dead and dying rebels scattered around us, the sounds of more casualties as High Fae forces attacked those still fleeing from the collapsing tunnels.‘If I’m to weather the embarrassment of you defecting to alesser fae rebellion, of all things, then at the very least I should have the pleasure of seeing it all fall apart around you.’She strode towards me, pausing only to peer at a groaning fawn who lay sprawled in the mud.Reaching down, she turned the creature’s face towards her, pointed fingernails digging into his chin.He whimpered as she knelt beside him.‘Such mindless fools,’ she crooned.I took the chance to glance back at Imogen, who was still where I’d left her, arms locked around her knees again.A splitting scream drew my attention back.Moriana dropped the fawn, who slumped back to the ground, now silent, before wiping bloodied hands on her skirts and rising again.

‘Now, let’s get to the matter at hand,’ she said.‘I’m getting bored of you defying me, darling.’

I took a few small steps backwards.Could I lead her further away somehow?Give someone a real chance to reach Imogen?‘Then don’t toy with me and deal whatever punishment you’ve come to issue.You know I don’t go in for your games.’

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t come closer.‘I’m also terribly bored of being underestimated.If you think I don’t know you’re trying to distract me from that little ball of fear and weakness over there, then you’re stupider than I’ve given you credit for.’And suddenly she wasn’t facing me anymore.She was heading for Imogen.

I jolted forwards, but almost as soon as I moved pain tore through my body, ushered in by a careless flick of Moriana’s wrist.She didn’t even look at me to do it.Pain devoured me, consuming my strength, my vision, my senses, clamping around me in a cascading cacophony of spasming muscles and screaming nerves.When it cut out, I was on the ground, lying on my stomach, vision spotted and limbs shaken with tremors.It didn’t help that I was already weak with magic use.It hit me so much harder.I pushed myself up on my forearms to catch sight of Moriana leaning over Imogen, taking hold of her hair and yanking her head up.A pair of Seelie soldiers seemed to rally, perhaps finally realising their loyalties now lay with the woman the Unseelie Queen was threatening, but there was an Unseelie vanguard beginning to form around us all now, protecting their own queen.Cutting off all possibilities that someone of more use to Imogen than me would somehow reach her.

‘I know I can’t compel you both at once,’ Moriana called as I struggled towards them, half stumbling, half crawling.‘But I can hold one of you immobile while I ruin the other.The only dilemma is which I’ll keep alive to watch the other die.You know I’d prefer it to be you alive, Tarian dear, but sinceAureliais the new Seelie Queen, it had better be her.’

‘Get off her!”I snarled, but she just felled me again with a flick of her wrist.The pain was wilder this time, sharper, feral.It chewed its way into my head, incinerating my thoughts and reasoning until all I knew was hot, blinding agony and I just wanted it tostop.My heart was sluggish with pain as it pumped heavily in my chest, stuttering and starting, torment squeezing me so tight I couldn’t breathe, and of all the ways I’d thought I might die, it had somehow never occurred to me that I could be tortured to death.Then the pain faded away, awareness of my body waning even as my heart squeezed in an aching shudder.

A few moments later, I was blinking my eyes open to grey, roiling sky as I gasped back into consciousness, crashing down into my body again, with all its lingering suffering.But Moriana’s magic had released me.

A shadow passed overhead.Wind stirred my hair.A deafening roar smothered all other sound, drowning the cries of battle and death.I pushed myself up as those around me ducked down, cringing close to the ground or scurrying out of the way.Enormous wings were consuming the sky, blocking out the daylight as they buffeted the air, working hard to keep a huge, sinuous body aloft.A wave of searing heat hit the air as the beast spewed a stream of fire towards the ground, sending High and lesser fae running, screaming, burning; fleeing back to the relative safety of underground.Some shot blackfire arrows in retaliation, but they were no match for that scaled hide.

I didn’t even attempt to run as the beast landed with a great shudder of the earth, snapping at a water wielder who had been mad enough to think she could freeze a dragon.Her bones snapped easily in his powerful jaws, scream cutting out.The enormous head swivelled, yellow eyes finding me as smoke curled from his nostrils.‘Prince.’

I just nodded at him, relieved he hadn’t decided to send any of that fire in my direction.

The dragon’s head turned, his neck snaking away as he sought something, sending soldiers scurrying as fast as they could out of his notice.Locking on a point amidst the chaos of fleeing fae.The Unseelie Queen, standing rigid and completely still, focus entirely on the dragon.A low growl rumbled out of Ruisin’s chest, sending more smoke puffing out of his nostrils.

‘Moriana.’This time, the voice seemed to boom through my mind, and I cringed against the force of it.Several of the remaining Unseelie soldiers ducked down, clapping hands over their ears as though they could somehow block the dragon out.‘You’ve left the protection of your lands.I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment.’

‘You shouldn’t be alive.’Her attention had left Imogen entirely as she stared at him with an expression entirely stripped of the malice and calculation that usually twisted it.She was wide-eyed.Afraid.But she was movingtowardsthe dragon.

‘Is that really what you expected when you exiled me in the Whisper Wastes?That I’d simply lay down and die?’

‘But I cut out your heart,’ she spluttered.‘I held it in my hand!You should never have lived!’

‘You cut outone.’

The dragon began to pace towards her, and as he did his scales rippled, his body shifting, shrinking, limbs shortening, wings retreating into a muscled torso.When he stood before her, he was as a man—huge, bearded, entirely naked and seemingly unphased by that.I scraped myself off the floor, pushing up on shaky arms, stomach roiling, focus immediately on Imogen, who still lay immobilised.

‘Tell me, Moriana,’ Ruisin continued as I crawled towards Imogen.‘Your heart must be as cold as the moon now, but it wasn’t in those days.Did you weep for me?’

Around me, others who’d been felled when he’d lashed out were stirring, drawing themselves up, crawling or staggering away as fast as they could.And still Moriana didn’t seem to notice, her focus entirely fixed on Ruisin.

‘I had no other choice,’ she snarled.

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