Page 88 of Queen of Darkness
A sliver of fear pierced my stomach, lingering, the cold clamminess balling up, refusing to go. This was all up to me going forward. I had to kill her or everything, all of this, was for nothing. A waste.
Everyone else believed I could do it, that I was capable of ending this madness.
So why couldn’t I find it in myself to believe? Why did I have this growing sense of doom?
Again, my eyes darted to the palace. I couldn’t shake the feeling that once I entered, I wouldn’t leave it alive.
But what choice do I have?
Chapter Forty-Three
We encountered the first resistance two blocks out from the palace. The sudden eruption of vampires into our midst yanked my mind from its ever-worsening spiral of depression and despair, forcing me back into the present.
I leaped from the saddle, clearing a sword that carved up the side of my mount by a finger’s width, no more. The ground came up hard, and I curled into a ball, bouncing and rolling before leaping to my feet. Furious activity was all around me as the team, including our Enkk escorts and our mounts, fought back.
Dodging another strike, I grabbed the extended wrist of the vampire and hauled on it as I spun into him. My elbow made contact with the bridge of his nose, shattering it and the orbital bone. As the vamp dropped, I brought a knee up and into his jaw, ending the fight.
Then, I picked him up and tossed him at another vampire who was trying to haul Alexi from his mount. The unexpected weight took both to the ground, and the horsi-gator casually leaned down and crushed the vamp’s head in its jaws.
The Enkk, with their four arms, mowed down vampires swiftly, clearing a path for us to continue forward.
“Come on!” Aaron shouted, reaching an arm down to me and hauling me onto the back of his mount.
We raced up the hill toward the palace, picking up speed.
“Jump!” I screamed in his ear, flinging myself off the horsi-gator just as we cleared the top of the hill.
A giant crossbow bolt, aimed down the center of the street, plunged through the neck of Aaron’s ride and out the other side, narrowly missing Aaron’s leg as he leaped free.
Two of the Enkk went down in a barrage of the tiny wrist-mounted bolts while the rest of our party crashed up the hill. Aaron’s team fired their guns, and vampires dropped before they could reload their crossbows.
“Come on, no stopping now!” I shouted, getting to my feet and jogging alongside those still mounted. “The palace is right there!”
Twice more, we encountered resistance, but the vampires left behind were obviously not the cream of the crop. They fell before our wild onslaught, no match for Aaron’s team or the whirling blades of the Enkk.
However, by the time we reached the palace, word had gone out. The doors were closed and barred, and the windows barricaded.
“Any suggestions?” I asked as we slowed to a halt, our mounts finally breathing hard and showing the exertion of the hard trek.
“Yep,” Aaron said, pointing at Jaxton.
“You brought explosives,” I said plaintively. “That’s what they’re using, isn’t it?”
Aaron nodded an affirmative as Jaxton and Pieter ran up to the door while the rest of the team covered them. They quickly began to place black lumps at what I assumed were strategic places.
“You’re prepared.”
“I know the palace,” Aaron said, backing away at an arm wave from Jaxton. “I never assumed we’d get in unnoticed. Plan for the worst, hope for the best, as they say.”
“Mmm,” I said, looking away as sharp blasts blew holes in the doors.
With a loud groan, the giant metal barriers fell inward. We left the horsi-gators to slow down any pursuit and plunged deep into the palace, heading for one place and one place only.
The throne room.
“You’ve got this.”
I started at Aaron’s whispered encouragement. Had he been reading my mind? The deeper we went into the palace, the more the ghostly voices in my head voiced their doubts, bringing my insecurities to the front.
