Page 124 of Courting the Dragon King

“But so many of you did sign.” There was a sharpness in the grand monk’s watery grey eyes. “And it amazed me that you would still sign, Shadow King Lament and Shadow Queen Rue, when you knew that I had already lied to the others about what was in their contracts. Yet you still assumed I would not lie to you.”

The shadow king drew his sword. “You snivelling little worm. You traitorous maggot. You don’t deserve to lick the blood from my boots. And you dare betray me?” He stalked forward. “I’ll show you!”

To Wraith’s shock, not the grand shield nor the warrior doves ran forward to protect their leader. They merely watched.

A step away from the grand monk, the shadow king lifted his blade. He cried out. His sword clattered to the stone. He shook and trembled. His eyes rolled into the back of his head. He collapsed to the ground, limbs flailing.

But Wraith could see no reason why he did this. There was no obvious source of his suffering.

“Lament!” the shadow queen screamed and knelt by his side.

Spit foamed around the shadow king’s mouth. Tears of blood dripped down his cheeks. He choked.

“It’s exactly what happened with my stepmother,” Konrad said.

“What?” Wraith turned to him.

Konrad’s gaze remained fixed on the shadow king’s convulsing form. “She tried to tell us who she had been working with. This is what happened to her. This is how she died.”

“So the monks were behind her death too?” Wraith asked.

“They must have been,” Konrad said, voice hollow. “They’ve been behind all this. All the plots. Right from the start. It was them all along.”

Wraith’s mother gripped her husband’s arms. “No!”

Vex and Harrow stood over their father and mother.

“Stop this!” Vex screamed.

“That is what happens when you break the contract you signed,” the grand monk said, voice calm as the shadow king writhed. “You vowed not to harm us. He signed his name in blood. Your husband just broke his vow and will now suffer the consequence. In this case, death.”

“Stop this!” Vex shouted. “Or I will kill you, you dirty little sneak.” She reached for her dagger at her waist.

“You can try,” the grand monk said coolly. “But I should remind you that you have signed contracts as well.”

The grand shield laughed. “In fact, that was why we signed contracts with so many of you necromancers and dread knights. We said it was us binding ourselves to serving you, but it was actually so none of you could harm us.” She sneered as she looked them over. All deference she’d previously shown gone.

But Vex and Harrow weren’t even listening. They’d pulled their daggers. Each of them cut their hands. Blood dripped. They re-sheathed their daggers and clapped their hands together. Eyes closed, they began to chant.

About a hundred, a third, of the skeletons and rotting corpses began to shuffle as Vex and Harrow took control of them. Strong necromancers could effectively compel about twenty-five reanimated on their own. But when necromancers worked together, it allowed them to double that.

Wraith glanced at the necromancers who’d stood in a line at the front of the crypt. They would have had control of the reanimated but must have released that to Vex and Harrow.

Vex and Harrow continued chanting, pouring their wills into the reanimated. Suddenly, the skeletons and corpses turned towards the monks. They took a step forward.

Some of the monks took a step back. The warrior monks drew their swords.

Suddenly Vex choked. Her chanting cut off. She gripped at her throat.

Then Harrow coughed, a hacking sound that went on and on until he was coughing up blood. It splattered across the stone floor. Vex and Harrow collapsed to the ground. Blood dripped from their eyes. Spit foamed around their lips. The reanimated stopped moving, then collapsed onto the ground.

“Stop this!” the shadow queen demanded, clutching her husband as she watched her children in pain. “Stop this now!”

“I am so sorry, Your Majesty,” the grand monk said. “It is too late. This is out of our hands even if we wished to stop it. They broke their contract. They tried to harm us. Meant to kill us even. The magic is doing its work and will not stop until it has reached its conclusion. All three will die. I’m sorry to say it will be extremely painful.”

With a jerk, the shadow king went limp in his wife’s arms. A few moments later, Vex and Harrow stopped moving.

“No!” his mother screamed.