Page 121 of Queen of the Night
How many people would I be willing to watch die?
None.
My trembling fingers twitch, but I pause, attempting to sift and reason through muddled thoughts. Can Renton even bridge with me if he’s not an official king of Moneyre? If I don’t try to bridge, Renton will begin killing innocents… If I do, Ikar will be killed, and all of us will be subject to his rule, but they might all die anyway.
How do I win?
My heart breaks, and another tear escapes the corner of my eye. It appears I can’t, but if I bridge now, these people might survive… and maybe I can save them somehow later. It’s a depressing thought. My life will never be my own again. All I wanted was freedom; now I have less than ever before.
“I love you, Ikar,” I whisper almost silently, attempting to send the words on a streak of lucent that I highly doubt, but hope he will hear all that distance away.
Feeling like a blazing traitor, my fingers curl around the thin stem, and immediately the ends of my magic unravel in answer, ready to officially bridge with another’s. But before either Renton or I can react, a fluffy white ball flashes by, and the tulip slips from my fingers. I stare at my hand, flat upon the cool iron-etched table, no tulip to be found.
“Shoot it!” Renton shouts.
My eyes lift to find Rupi soaring through the dark sky, tulip within her tiny grasp, small wings pumping hard to gain higher elevation. Arrows fly toward her, then gloam hawks shoot from Renton’s side and speed toward her. They’ll eat her in one bite. A muffled scream followed by choking comes from within the silent crowd, and a sob erupts from my throat. The cold. The death. I panic as I watch Rupi struggle amidst a cloud of gloam, dodging weapons and gloam hawks until she drops the tulip, and it flutters and twirls back to the ground, landing somewhere on the platform. Renton’s going to take her away from me too.
I lunge toward him, grabbing his arm as I scream for him not to kill Rupi, but her daring seems to trigger a cascade. I watch with horror as one of the cloaked soldiers lifts his sword overhead and slams it toward Ikar, but instead of killing him, the chains break with a spray of sparks. A wisp of hope rushes through me. Simultaneously, Drade and Renton shout orders to their soldiers, and suddenly chaos unfolds as citizens attempt to escape, screaming amidst gloam and soldiers at battle. Renton shouts more orders even as the rogue guard onthe platform frees Jethonan, who proceeds to catch a weapon tossed his way. The cloaked man pushes the hood back to reveal his face.Rhosse. I nearly collapse with relief. That is, until I hear the screeching of glass that can mean only one thing.Shard beasts.
Rhosse tosses Ikar an enchanted sword, and they jump into battle, fighting through gloam soldiers swarming toward the platform. Darvy works to release the originators, who immediately race to battle with soldiers who already rally around Ikar. Then gloam spreads from Renton in thick waves, spreading like a black ocean as soldiers from both kings pull swords on the other.
All around me the sounds of battle ensue.
I can clearly see Darvy and Rhosse battling side by side. Then there’s Nadiette and her originators sending any bit of lucent magic they can, which is a dreadfully small amount. But I can’t catch sight of Ikar, and a wave of panic engulfs me as small flashes of lucent light mix with clouds of gloam until I can hardly see past the steps. Gloam monster’s roars and screams from the crowd overwhelm me until I’m tempted to clap my hands over my ears to escape it.
But I don’t have time for escape or hiding. I don’t allow myself to overthink the great advantage Renton still has. I waste no time helping in any way I can. With a lunge that rips out every painstaking stitch I sewed into the slit of my dress I ram my shoulder into Renton’s, hoping to distract him from the focus he’s put into his gloam creatures and the awful streams of it leaching from him that slither toward his soldiers, fueling them.
When my shove hardly budges his large frame, I pull the lucent magic that still makes me who I am, shove my hands toward him, and push my magic and all its light into him,hoping that, like the deathstalker in his camp, he’ll simply explode into gloam bits.
No such luck. He roars in pain and backhands me so hard that I fall to the ground, seeing spots and fuzzy edges of blackness in my vision.
“Bridge with me now, or I kill them all. The tulip did enough of its job.”
“You arenotthe rightful heir,” I grind out. “It won’t work.”
“It appears Iam,” he snarls.
His magic comes at me so forcefully that my arms shake as they hold me up from collapsing on the cold stone. It violently travels my body, searching for the waiting edges of my magic, forcing his to complete mine. My body grows so cold my teeth chatter, but I hold the edges of my magic to my soul, unwilling.
He grabs my hair and yanks my face up to his. “Now.”
A dark form charges up the steps to my left, and Renton is forced to form his own sword of gloam, black as the deathstalkers snarling within the crowds. Drade appears, swinging a blood-soaked fae sword in an invitation to fight, and I’m reminded all over again how Drade secured his throne. The eager violence in his eyes is chilling when he sees the way Renton grips my hair. Fae soldiers surround him, protecting his back as Renton releases me and prepares to fight.
I scoot back, dragging the fabric of my dress with me as I attempt to gain my footing and escape as more gloam soldiers race up the steps, straight for Drade. I scan the gloamy chaos for Ikar, but he’s no longer on the platform and worry tightens my chest.He has no armor.
I bite my lip so hard I taste blood. Jethonan leaps from the platform and into the crowd, and my energy drains from me as Renton’s cold envelops me—desperate and vicious. His magic clings like a pest, searching for all the places it needs toconnect, each wisp more painful and cold than the last. The gloam darkens around us as Renton gains strength from our growing bond, faster than I expected.
I fall into frozen darkness until I feel a single spark of warmth my magic craves, pulling me from the gloam that attempts to consume my soul. My magic searches it out, eager—a magic I thought I’d never feel again.Ikar.I can’t see him yet, but he’s close. Somehow. Or my mind has finally broken for good, and I’m officially insane because it doesn’t seem possible that he made it from the platform and across the heavy battle beneath us in this short a time.
Renton must sense it as well because he returns to where I shakily hold myself on the ground and grabs one of my arms roughly, dragging me backward with him before he drops me in a heap near the castle wall and steps forward with his gloam sprouting out around him like thick, weaving snakes. He appears agitated, more than ever.
He grips the hilt of his black sword, and with a wicked grin, shouts, “You’ve come to meet mywife?” He swings his sword back and forth, preparing for the fight. “I’ve never seen a woman so eager to say yes.”
I ignore his barbed lies. My body and every sense attune to the large form that is obscured by clouds of gloam that surround us.Could it be?But who else would Renton taunt like that? I peer through the deep shadows as a man strikes toward Renton, and Renton roars with anger.Ikar.Pure, unadulterated joy runs through me like a spark of lightning—the same as the horror of my new marriage grows. I may not be able to help much in this fight, and I may have wed Ikar’s greatest enemy, but even if it means my death, I intend to help.
So much gloam and so many gloam soldiers swarm around the castle that, at first, I don’t see Jethonanrunning up the castle steps, the somewhat crushed tulip in hand, his long hair swinging and sweat running down his temples as he dodges outreaching hands and swinging blades.
The tulip.
