Page 89 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
“Lu,” he whispers. Just my name, and yet it contains everything he feels. Ashen presses a kiss to my neck as our steps flow unbroken over the polished floor.
If I need the stars, yours guide me
If your love’s a light, it blinds me
If I’m ever lost, you find me
Even your darkest stars still shine
Ashen holds me closer as the edges of the room flicker. His breath heats my neck. His scent of unsmoked tobacco lingers in the air.
In every breath, I want you
In every wish, I see you
In every life, I’ll love you
Even your darkest stars still shine
Crashing metal echoes through the empty space. Candles blow out. Chandeliers flicker and dim. The music fades.
“Over here,” a voice calls. “I hear her.”
I blink in the darkness. A heavy weight lifts from my lungs and I suck in a breath. A fireball streaks across the sky high above us, but a wave of arrows answers back.
“They’re alive,” the voice calls out. Cyrus. I look down the length of my body, my armor and leathers covered with soot and streaks of blood. Cyrus braces Ashen’s shoulders as he helps him to sit. Three arrows jut from the Reaper’s back. His torn wings are draped behind him beneath a thin cascade of smoke. But Ashen’s eyes are bright, fused to mine with a weary smile.
“Your grace,” a man says. A large hand comes into view, waiting to help me up. “We heard you.”
“Pyrrhus?..” I ask. His brow is drawn but he gives me a tight smile, a decisive nod. I place my hand in his and he draws me to my feet.
When he’s sure I can stand steady, Pyrrhus lets go. His hand folds into a fist over his heart and he bows his head.
“We have come to fight for our Queen,” he says. His smile lights the fire in his eyes as he nods toward the street.
It’s not just the eliteShub Lugalsoldiers standing at attention in their matte black armor. It’s the regular infantry too. It’s the Reapers of the Council. It’s demons from every house, ones I don’t remember seeing before, newly resurrected souls who look a little confused, but determined nonetheless. It’s even the hyenas, their mottled fur smoking as they stand among the army of the Shadow Realm.
Imani steps forward, mykatanaheld in an offering on her open palms. She smiles as a long lost, familiar soldier steps into view. The vibrant gleam in his eye shines with a new fire. “Hail Queen Leucosia,” Vlad the Impaler booms with his enchanting voice.
I take the sword and swallow a thick knot as the Shadow Realm responds.
Hail Queen Leucosia.
Cyrus pulls the last of the arrows from my husband’s back and helps him to his feet, pressing the hilt of his sword into his hand. Ashen lays his palm on Cyrus’s shoulder but draws his second in command into a back-slapping hug. That knot in my throat becomes a ball of spikes and tears threaten to spill across my dirty cheeks. When Ashen lets go and joins my side, we stand for a single moment of silence on the battlefield.
“Shadow Realm,” I say when I turn to the sea of flames that watch me. I take a step toward them. “We will protect the souls who reside here. We will fight with our brothers and sisters who defend them. We will get that fucking stone. And for any traitors and Nephilim who remain…”
My gaze leaves the group, glowing deep crimson as it flows the length of mykatana. When I look back to my army, I give them a smile with an edge as wicked as the blade in my hand.
“For those who remain, we will deliver the justice of demons. And the only mercy we will give is eternal death.”
CHAPTER34
We battle forSpes Aeterna. Every inch we make it down the road is a bloodbath. The Nephilim fight back hard as we hem them in, pressing the enemy into a second group of Shadow Realm fighters who hold a barricade further down the road. It’s a large contingent of Nephilim trapped between us, and groups of traitorous angels who fight with them take to the skies, attacking our soldiers from above. TheShub Lugalfell many with flaming arrows, the hyenas running through the enemy lines as they try to catch as many as they can before the angels take off into the night.
I fight off two Nephilim with Cyrus and Ashen, and I take a brief moment to gulp down a bag of blood from a pouch at my belt when someone nudges my elbow.
“What’s up?” Zara says, standing next to me as though we’re in the lineup for Starbucks. I’ve been so mired in battle and survival that I’ve not truly registered the presence of the hybrids in the realm until this moment. Their thoughts are barely a whisper beneath everything else that crashes around us.
