Page 66 of Demon Queen
The ground ahead of us trembled and then shivered as zombies broke from the earth, bodies and bodies of desiccated creatures.
“That’s the trouble with zombies,” Frisco growled, taking his place on the other side of Dorian from Regis. “You defeat them in one war, but then you have to fight them again in the others.”
“Unless they’re properly broken down,” Dorian growled, digging his molten claws into the earth.
Regis cleared his throat. “The King and Queen shouldn’t go to war. If something happens to you, this is the last chance we have to survive.”
I leaned forward and put my head on Dorian’s fire mane with spikes. “I love you. Let’s take back the lands.”
“As my Queen wishes. I am merely her slave,” he growled and stalked forward, slowly at first then faster and faster in a rolling gait as we raced down the slope and into the field of undead.
The demons were terrifyingly quiet, only a clash of bodies, bone against flesh, and the scent of blood and rotting flesh as we engaged with the undead. Dorian exhaled flames ahead of us, and continued with his steady lope, like the demons should have no trouble keeping up with us. A paw crushed three zombies, an exhale another dozen. He was molten death.
Maybe we’d actually pull this off.
And then a shower of death darts came down from the Mad Hatter’s stone palace.
One of the iron spears came down through my parasol and speared right into the remains of my Wilkie and into my Cinnamon bear.
He roared while I stood up and yanked the spear out, and then holding it high over my head, rage pulsing through me. How dare they spear Wilkie after he was already dead? Was there no respect for anything?
A bolt of lightning came out of the sky, hit my raised iron spear and went into me. It would have hurt if I’d been able to feel anything other than shock and tingling. My skin was glowing. So was the spear. So was Wilkie.
And I wasn’t dead. I looked to my right and left, at all those demons brought down by those iron bolts. I smiled and then the lightning flowed through my iron bar and theirs, filling them with raw energy and power that made them shudder and then yank out the iron spears while they glowed and the spears glowed. One spear.
Oh. All of those things were now the Scepter of Rebirth. And as long as I held it, as long as they held theirs, we were indestructible.
“To Victory!” I screamed, and then the demons were roaring, rushing forward with those spears like suicidal maniacs.
The field was cleared while the bolt throbbed in my hand. My arm was numb, but it didn’t matter. When we got to the stone walls, Dorian roared, and flames burned away the wall, leaving a broad gate for us to enter and retake our home.
Wilkie stirred as Dorian stalked down the Mad Hatter.
He was holding a large hat, but he looked more confused than anything as he watched us coming for him.
“Stay away from the hat,” Wilkie said, looking around blurrily.
I sobbed and would have hugged him, but I had to hold the scepter like all the rest of our forward guard. The spears of Rebirth.
Frisco raised his hand and then we stopped while the higher level zombies waited, looking like happy hour gone wrong.
Drigo rumbled, “If you choose to surrender, we will offer you mercy.”
“Mercy?” the Mad Hatter demanded, expression madly amused, the most emotion I’d ever seen on his face. “There is no mercy in the Queen’s Court.”
“There is in my Queen’s court. The Demon Queen has made a deal on your behalf.”
The Mad Hatter blinked in disbelief. “Has she? And the King will allow the Zombie Queen’s greatest general to escape?”
Just then flickering spheres appeared on the back wall and out stepped the Grand Master, the Alpha werewolf, and their wives as well as hundreds of vampires and werewolves.
I waved at Lucy then hurriedly grasped the scepter before I dropped it. The thing was getting heavier all the time.
She gave me a sharp smile and then shifted her knife in her hand as she eyed the zombies in their ball gown gear.
The Mad Hatter looked back at the Grand Master and went very pale. “This is impossible. You cannot trust the demons not to turn on you. They always consume their own. No alliance can survive.”
“On the contrary. I’ve offered my services to hold you with the White Rabbit. Your brother is so lonely without you. He negotiated for your safety. This is a new world filled with hope and impossibilities. And it’s only beginning. Truly, the myths are coming alive. The Zombie Queen will fall.”
