Page 92 of The Curse of Ophelia

Cool fingers wrapped around my throat, crushing my windpipe and throwing me to the ground. The air blew from my body, and my head smacked into the rock. Black dots clouded my vision.

“Enough!” Kakias shouted.

Her bloodied warriors froze as her claws gripped my hair and dragged me to my feet to face her. The silver slit of her dagger pressed against my neck as she walked me backward. I couldn’t fight, couldn’t struggle as it sank deeper.

One motion, and that would be it. My blood would spill, my life would be ended. Malakai would die next, and the Mystique Warriors would forever be at the hands of this hell-sent queen with the soulless eyes and bloodied hands.

My legs hit a table beside the forge, and she forced me onto it. Splintered wood cut into the skin where my leathers were torn. I felt trapped. I did not understand the power she wielded to hold me here.

“The box,” she called without taking her eyes from the place her knife met my neck.

A guard brought whatever she demanded, placing it on the ground beside the table where I couldn’t see it.

I raised my chin, daring her to make that final slice.

“All of this precious blood wasted in a worthless girl,” she whispered.

My chest tightened, but I refused to let Kakias see even a flicker of vulnerability. Malakai was on the ground, struggling against the guards.

The queen smiled as the first bead of blood trickled down my neck, a thin line of heat tickling my flesh, signaling that it was time to die. Metal caressed my skin like a welcome kiss, as if the Goddess of Death knew I had evaded her recently and had come to claim me now.

The blade pressed deeper. It was sharp—one slice and my life would be over. My eyes locked on Malakai, face drained of color and eyes wide, and I sent my goodbye to him with one slow blink, sending him riling against his captors.

Then, I met Kakias’s cold stare, watched her lips split into a victorious grin. The blood thickened on my neck. Slowly. She was going to do this so Angel-dammed slowly. Make me feel every second of life leaving my body.

There was no preparing for it, nothing I could tell myself to make it hurt less. I was trying to grasp that grim reality when a flash of green armor threw aside the queen, knocking both her body and dagger away from me.

He tore his mask from his face, but it wasn’t pale skin that shone in the firelight as he looked down at me.

It was tanned skin.

Brown hair with honeyed highlights and chocolate eyes fueled by vengeance.

Chapter Forty-Three

“Vincienzo?” I gasped, confusion shooting through me. Fighting erupted around us again.

“Hey, Alabath,” he breathed, fear and relief deepening his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder at the stirring queen, and his frame tensed. Turning back to me, he pulled me from the table. “I’m glad you’re alive.” He placed a kiss on my cheek, whispered, “I’ve got to go,” and dove toward Kakias’s body.

Stunned, I watched my best friend roll across the ground with his hands around the neck of the Engrossian queen.

Before I could move, one of the guards forced my hands behind my back. I thrashed, kicking the air wildly, but their grip was too solid. Panic formed a vise around my stomach as they forced me out of the fray of battle.

They shoved me toward the wall. I spun, poised to attack, but a gold chain with a crescent emblem and purple gem dangled around the guard’s neck.

“Jezebel?”

She removed her mask and winked at me. I had never been more grateful to see her mischievous eyes. “Hello, sister. We’re just in time, it seems.”

“What—how did you get here?” I gaped at her, taking in the deep greens of her full Engrossian armor and weapons. I looked over her shoulder, and should not have been surprised to see Cypherion fighting beside Malakai. Ax slicing through enemies, his scythe nowhere in sight.

Where he joined Malakai and Tolek, the three moved like a thread connected them. If one faltered, another struck, shifting as one along that instinctual rope. It was the beauty of their years of training tied up within their bond as brothers, and I wished that our lives weren’t on the line so that I could marvel at it.

“When you didn’t emerge from the Undertaking, we figured something had gone wrong. We returned to the Spirit Volcano and went in after you,” my sister reclaimed my attention, a proud glow emanating from her. “We completed the Undertaking ourselves and have been prowling these tunnels in search of you.” I understood then that the radiance around her was more than pride, it was the blood within her veins awakening.

At the sharp clash of weapons, Jezebel added, “I’d love to tell the tale, but we really can’t let them have all the fun.”

Malakai and Cypherion faced all nine of the Engrossian Warriors while Tolek circled their queen. I pushed Jezebel aside to run to them, but she grabbed my wrist. “You’ll need these.” My sister sheathed my dagger at my thigh and pressed Starfire’s cool hilt into my hand. She warmed in my palm as if in greeting. Silently, I told the blade that I missed her, too.

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