The air crackled with untapped power as their sorcery was unleashed. The throne room's tapestries fluttered, and some were ripped from the walls as a tornado-like wind formed in the space.
A swirl of inky darkness enveloped Veli, coiling around her like a living serpent. Azenna unleashed bolts of the same shadowy energy across the room, but Veli’s own countered them, acting as a barrier.
Shockwaves reverberated through the room as their forces clashed, causing everything around us to rattle. A clicking sound echoed, drawing my attention up to the swaying crystal chandelier as it fell from the ceiling. It was aiming right for where Avery stood, stuck in a daze of watching the witches fight one another.
“Avery!” I screamed as I leapt up, ignoring the pain tearing through every one of my muscles from Azenna’s torments, and dove for her. I tackled her to the ground justin time, our bodies rolling along the glass-covered floor. The chandelier exploded into millions of tiny shards the second it came in contact with the marble.
Veli’s eyes flashed to mine in horror, and then gave me a nod. She reached out for Azenna, wrapping her shadows around the screaming witch, and sent both of them blasting back out through the windows and into the air above the city.
The throne room turned eerily silent as their battle took to the skies. The only sounds were our deep breaths and the crunching of glass beneath us as we slowly began to move.
“Avery, darling.” Idina’s voice sounded from the dais, where she now stood in front of my father’s throne—mythrone. “Come with me, darling. Come with your mother. We must leave. It isn’t safe.” Her words were frantic and full of nerves.
Avery scoffed and then sat up next to me. As I worked to push myself up alongside her, I reached down toward my sheath, only to find that my dagger was gone.
Fuck.
“I will never go with you,” she breathed.
Idina’s mouth twisted into a scowl as she stormed up to us, aiming for Avery. My eyes landed on my dagger, only feet away, hidden beneath the piles of glass that littered the floor. The obsidian blade glistened in the light that shone through the shattered windows.
The queen reached us then, her attention flashing between me and my sister cautiously as she stretched her arm out and grabbed Avery’s wrist. She tugged at her daughter’s arm violently, sliding her body through theglass, leaving a trail of blood in her wake as Avery screamed and clawed at her mother’s grasp. Crescent-shaped blood pooled on the queen’s arms from Avery’s fingernails digging into her skin.
Idina’s attention was fully on forcing Avery to escape with her. I used the distraction to push my body through the searing pain and reached through the pile of glass, wrapping my fingers around my dagger’s hilt.
Avery kicked and screamed at Idina, but she was injured from our fall, and the queen’s grasp on her was like a death grip as she dragged her body up the steps of the dais.
I pushed myself to my feet, my eyes narrowing in on the female who had taken everything from me—my life, parents, crown, and siblings. All because of hatred in her heart from what her own family had done to her, and jealousy of not being able to be with who she loved when my father only desired the same. They were each prisoners of a contract they had nothing to do with. It cost my father and mother their lives—and now the queen’s actions would have the same deadly consequences for herself.
They say the wrath of a female scorned could rival that of the gods, but what of two queens? Each willing to burn the realm down for those they loved—one benevolent, like her father, and the other even more cruel than her own.
I positioned myself into a fighting stance and held my dagger tight in my grasp—the blade my father had created for me, and that my mate had reforged. The dagger that meant everything to me and reminded me of those I loved most would now take the life of the person who had worked to take theirs.
Idina’s amber eyes widened in horror as they met mine. I took my first step toward her and then another. Before I knew it, I was storming up to the queen, the corners of my lips tipping up at the sight of fear in her eyes—mimicking the fear she had placed upon so many others.
It was satisfying to know I was the one who put it there.
Avery finally shoved out of her mother’s hold once I reached the dais. Idina stumbled backwards, clutching her chest as she watched me approach in slow, taunting movements.
“Elianna, I—” She sounded as if she was about to burst into tears, and one of my own slipped, but mine wasn’t out of fear or sadness. The single tear I let slip was that of relief as my fingertips ached with the need for vengeance, sensing that it was about to be within their grasp.
I forcefully grabbed the false queen by her hair, slamming her against the unforgiving brick wall and silencing the plea for mercy that tried to escape her lips. “You do not speak here. Anything you say will fall on deaf ears.”
Pulling her hair down, I brought the tip of my dagger’s blade to her throat as it became fully exposed.
“If you would just let me try to explain!”
I brought my lips to her ear, and I felt a shiver of terror roll through her body. “Such a terrible listener, as you have been for the last century. Idina, it’s my turn to speak—my turnfor revenge.”
A retort was working its way up her throat, but I pressed the sharpened tip further into her skin, a bead of her blood rolling down its blade.
My face was now positioned directly in front of her own, making sure she was looking into my eyes for what I was about to say. “You are a tyrant, usurper, murderous cunt. Everything that you did was to exact vengeance on innocent beings, all because you believed yourself to be superior to them.”
“Your father—”
“My father was many things. Yes, a fool was one of them, but it was heartache that drove him there, caused byyou. The male was terrified of you, for what he feared you would do to me, and he let his entire kingdom suffer for it.”
“He never even gained knowledge of the scars my body still bears because of you. You state that neither he nor I are worthy of having mates, but it isyou, Idina, who is undeserving of one.” I huffed out a hateful laugh. “Or perhaps you and Callius just truly deserved each other.”
