Page 56 of Queen of Darkness
Focusing on keeping the trembling down, I unfolded the letter. To my surprise, it wasn’t in my father’s handwriting at all. It was cursive and flowy. A female hand had written it.
No more. Wishing you all the best on the upcoming Wild Moon.
Much Love, Elenia.
I frowned, looking up at Dani. “No more what? I don’t get it.”
“Your dad said he got that in the mail. When he should have been getting more of your mom’s pills.”
My blood turned to ice.
She knew. Sheknew.
“Sonofabitch!” I swore, turning away. “She’s going after everything. Trying to destroy me and my life.”
“What happened?” Aaron asked.
“I never knew who sent my mom her pills,” I said. “But whoever it was, Elenia got to them. She won’t get any more.”
Aaron hissed. “When the next Wild Moon comes …”
I nodded. “She’ll be unable to resist. She’ll shift. Become like me. And Elenia will order her death.”
“Shit.”
I wasn’t sure who uttered the oath, but it about summed everything up. The next Wild Moon was only six days away. I would need at least one more day to finish recovering and get the entire team ready to go. So we had five days to pull this off. To overthrow a ruler who had to know we were coming for her.
Needing a moment to think, I walked over to the fireplace. Everyone else followed me, taking seats.
“So, what are you going to do?” Fenrir asked, surprising me by speaking up.
Still, he’d given me the opening I needed to state my mission to everyone.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I’m going after her.”
I swept my gaze over our team. It had taken most of the day for Dani and Aaron to gather everyone, and I was feeling much better. My strength was returning swiftly, although I was ready to vomit at the idea of drinking any more blood.
What I wouldn’t give for it to taste like a good red wine. That would at least make it a bit more passable.
Instead, my lips and teeth were stained crimson from the metallic liquid, and my nose was likely to give me hints of the iron-like tang for weeks. The darkness in me, that shadowythingthat longed to feed, should have been overjoyed at the literal buffet I’d been feeding it, but no, I couldn’t even get that lucky.
Not only was it insatiable, always craving more no matter how much I gave it, but now it was clamoring for the real thing. It wanted tofeed. Thankfully, I was in charge, and without a Wild Moon to give it that terrifying level of power, where it and my wolf merged,Iwould stay the boss.
“If you’re going after her, why are we here?” Fenrir asked.
Beside him, Drakul muttered something I didn’t understand.
“He wants to know why he left his castle to hear something he already knows,” Fenrir supplied.
“Because,” I said, meeting everyone’s eyes one by one, “I can’t do it alone. I need your help.”
There was silence. Drakul and Fenrir exchanged glances. The two of them were sitting on the smaller couch while members of Aaron’s team hung around and sat on the back of the bigger one, and Vir lounged in the single recliner with Dani perched on his lap.
Aaron stood next to me for moral support. I knew he was in. He’d already said so. It was the others who I hoped to recruit. I wasn’t going to assume anything of anyone for this venture. It was too likely to be a suicide mission for that.
Stop thinking like that. There’s a chance. There’s always a chance.
