Page 7 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
“You mean like killing you got old?”
“You and I both know it didnotget old.”
“You’re right,” I say. “It didn’t. Especially not if it results in sex in the Resurrection Chamber. I’ll be killing you all the time if that’s the deal.”
I rise on my toes and steal a kiss as we release one another from our embrace. We head back to the carriage to free the remaining four souls from their iron yokes. “What about sex in the Council Palace?” Ashen asks, releasing another clasp.
“You mean where Eshkar and Imogen lived? Eww.”
“Hmm. Good point.”
“What about your room at House Urbigu?”
Ashen’s eyes darken. He keeps his gaze away from mine. “Not habitable.”
“Right,” I say, letting a soul free of its shackles. “I heard.”
Ashen’s gaze flicks to mine, his jaw ticking. A quiet grunt is all he has to say about the room he destroyed when I was captured by his realm.
We work in silence, releasing the last souls who wander away, listless and alone. We watch them for a moment before Ashen slips his hand into mine. I feel a ripple of anxiety in him, teasing at the flesh beneath my mated mark, and I wonder what it’s for.
“Come on, vampire. I know a place we can go.”
CHAPTER3
We walk for a long while, absorbed by the fog as we progress further from the bay, stopping only briefly when we pass the Resurrection Chamber to pick up the waiting soldiers who follow a careful distance behind us. Urtur catches up and leads the way, his amber eyes reflecting on the haze. Crawlers pass us now and then but stay obscured by the mist. Everything around us is quiet, quieter than I’ve ever heard here before. But I feel them. The presence of souls, their thoughts pushing on the veil I try to keep between us to separate my mind from theirs. And watchful eyes, observing our presence from the cover of silence. I’m not sure if they’re demons, or beasts, or souls, or maybe something else altogether. Perhaps even memories and fears, breathed to life from imagination.
We continue past House Urbigu, down the streets until I don’t see the looming shapes of buildings anymore. It feels like there’s open space beyond the twilight fog, like things growing and living. But I can’t see them past the road, only the grass that lines its edges and the occasional shrub with dark green leaves that have probably never seen real sun.
Gradually, the road lifts up a hill. The surface is more pitted and crumbling with lack of use and maintenance. I hear the sea in the distance to my right, crashing against stone.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“You’ll see. Almost there.”
We turn off the road down an overgrown path. It’s only a few more moments of climbing the hill before a ruined building takes shape, rising through the fog at the edge of a silver cliff. The mist is thinner here and rolls on a breeze that carries the faint scent of sulfur and the sea.
The facade of the structure has crumbled away, but even still, I can tell it was once a beautiful, palatial home. The hewn edges on the broken stone were once carefully cut and smoothed, and what still stands remains level on a solid foundation. There’s no glass in the windows, no door on the rusted hinges. But when we step inside, the essence of this place still hums with the memory of usefulness, like it’s proud of what it once was. Maybe even like it hopes for what it could be again.
Ashen orders theShub Lugalto form a perimeter before he leads us through the door and into a foyer where greenery has taken up much of the empty space. There’s a path through it, worn but not frequently used, sparse blades of grass poking through the channel of dirt. A massive fireplace is nestled into the wall on the left. A torn tapestry flutters down the opposite wall, the image too dirty to be visible through the damaged threads. Ashen pays none of it any attention. He’s been here before, looked at it all.
“What is this place?” I ask as we start to climb a wide set of winding stairs.
“Truthfully, I cannot be sure. It fell into ruin before my time. Some say Eshkar had a wife before Imogen, and that it belonged to her. Others say it’s a relic of the gods. But I just think of it as mine. No one else ever comes here but me.”
“Why not?”
Ashen shrugs, his hand still clasped around mine as we continue up the stairs. “Most demons like order. Things in their place. Things that are new and glossy and opulent. Not things that are broken.”
“Most demons,” I say, repeating his words. “Is that why you like me? You like broken things?”
I don’t mean anything by the joke other than to rib Ashen like I usually do, or at least I don’t think so. But he wheels on me, pinning me with a fierce look that has me taking a step back in reflex. My back touches the cold stone.
“No, vampire. That isnotwhy.” Ashen’s gaze inflames my skin. Hot blush floods my cheeks. He watches as it flares and fades away. “You have never been broken.”
I swallow, memories of the cage beneath the Kur surfacing like a bloated corpse. “Are you sure?”
“You’re here, the Queen of the Shadow Realm. Not even this place could break you, and now it is yours. So, you tell me.” I make no counter argument as Ashen’s fingers trace the line of my cheek. He grasps my jaw, keeping my gaze fused with his. “You are the strongest person I have ever known, my vampire. The furthest thing from broken.”
