A ribbon of shadows shot forward, wrapping the queen’s delicate wrist in a vice.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
LYVIA
A might to break with the stars to take.
– Eghan Family Stone.
Lyvia – Ayla, Lotrennia
Bayne’s wooden chair clanked to the floor as he stood, and six War Slayers converged from the two entries of the room. Eyes wide and pinned on the chain of death wrapped around her porcelain wrist, Queen Antares’s lips curled into an ugly snarl.
“Let’s keep our hands to ourselves, shall we?” I warned, the surge of protectiveness continuing to rise like the hackles of a wolf, but the muscles in my face remained calm. My eyes slid to Kellan’s as he tracked the long line of power streaming from my palm to the queen’s hand.
A shadow wolf pup leaped from the line of power and raced up his arm to perch on his shoulder. I smothered a surge of exasperation, my powers unable to stop creating on their own and throwing themselves at the pirate lord. He lifted a finger andscratched it on the head before taking another drag of his smoke and shooting me a wink. A pulse of air gathered around us as he effortlessly locked his shield into place.
“Remove this,” the queen hissed, a quiet rage growing beneath the carefully crafted mask.
“Lyvia,” Bayne warned.
I glanced at the king of Lotrennia, noting the small white flames dancing in the center of his pupils in near threat.
My lips pursed as my shadows reluctantly slunk back into my palm. The tiny wolf pup remained on Kellan’s shoulder for a moment, flashing its teeth at the queen before hopping through the air back to me.
The queen turned an ugly snarl toward me as she shook her hand out.
“I see your powers are working together at last,” she sneered, the mask of control struggling to reform on her face. “Tell me, dear Lyvia, what did it take? Did someone finally beat it out of you? I tried, you know, with Tiberius.”
Her petal pink lips tilted into a mocking smile as she took a sip of her drink. My stomach dropped as memories of her iron whip ripped across Ti’s withers…his bleeding wings…The wrath I’d carefully caged as I prepared for this dinner thrashed behind its bars.
“Do you know what would make me smile?” Kellan cut in, finally addressing the queen’s comment from earlier. His boot thudded to the floor as he set his goblet on the glass table. He turned to the queen and cocked his head to the side, one corner of his lips tugging up in a handsome smirk.
Queen Antares snapped her attention back to the pirate lord and arched a golden brow. “Do tell,” she purred.
Kellan stared at her, his eyes going glassy before blinking slowly.
“Taking these hands,” he said calmly as he held them out.
The queen’s eyes flared in lustful greed, likely imagining the power that came with them.
“And ripping out your throat.”
The last word dangled in the silence of the air as the queen blinked. My lips fell open, icy shock warring with the warmth swelling in my chest. I clamped my mouth closed, biting my lip to keep from smiling.
If I hadn’t already fallen in love with the pirate lord, the quiet conviction with which he spoke the words would have done it. I would have fallen to my knees if I hadn’t been seated. Kellan’s eyes remained pinned on the queen’s, his cocky smirk disappearing. A quiet, deadly thing had replaced his easy-going attitude, and my blood surged in response.
“And you expect us to trust you?” Queen Antares spat at me, shaking her head. “Threats and demands of the king and queen of Lotrennia.”
“Threats and demands are your language of choice,” I reminded her.
“We’re done for tonight,” Bayne cut in, waving his hand at the six War Slayers still encircling the table.
The queen snapped her face at Bayne, but he’d already stalked across the room.
The soft,Lotrennian breeze blew a wavy stray strand of hair across my vision as we made our way through the open chamber, though it did little to douse the heat. Night eclipsed the violet twilight, and our blue moons were nowhere in sight.
The enchanted lights from the Gilded Fortress floated onto the outdoor stairs that spiraled around this turret of the living castle. My hand slid over the railing of vines, the canopy of thebordering forest reaching the tips of its soft leaves onto my arms as we left the room in silence.
