Page 75 of The Blood Queen

It’s now or never.

I grip the dagger in my hand and slink through the furs piled up around the mattress toward the High Blade. She’s sleeping on her back, her red hair spilling out over a wolfskin. For a moment, I am trapped by her beauty, because like all terrifying things, she is beautiful. Her smooth, pale skin is unblemished, almost the same shade as the white chemise she wears. Thin fingers rest over her stomach, one still wearing that thick ruby ring. Her slender frame is softer in sleep, her pink lips curved just the tiniest bit into a dreaming smile, a trickle of red leaking from one corner. My heart surges with hope, quickly crushed—this isn’t likely to be the High Blade’s blood but the remnants of her feast, the remains of which are rotting in the corner.

I hold the dagger over her, gripping the hilt with both hands.

We need a drop of her blood, but there’s no reason I can’t take more than that.

I plunge the blade down, down—

Her hand whips up, grabbing my wrist with iron strength and stopping the blow from hitting. Her eyes fly open and meet mine immediately.

The High Blade’s dreamlike smile shifts into a feral, hungry grin, her white teeth still stained with blood.

Her fingers tighten around my wrist, digging into the small bones beneath my palm, nails pressing against my veins. I gasp as needle pricks of pain shoot down my arm, and my fingers spasm, the dagger dropping straight down.

The blade was enchanted to strike true, and it does—it sinks into Elizabeth’s shoulder, deeper than it should.

But there’s nothing I can do as Elizabeth stands up, twisting my arm painfully so I crumple to my knees in front of her. With her other hand, she pulls the dagger from her shoulder. A glint of a ruby catches the light from the brazier, the ring on her finger quickly obscured by blood.

There it is, clinging to the edge of the blade.

The blood I need to kill this bitch.

And then she lifts it to her mouth and licks the dagger clean.

“This is all you brought to kill me?” the High Blade chuckles softly. She’s not raised an alarm—she wants to deal with me herself. For now. The High Blade cocks her head, looking to the tent flap. “Where is your little pet?” she croons.

The hairs at the nape of my neck stand on end.

“Samson?” she says, lacing his name with magic.

With a summons.

In moments, the tent walls shiver as Samson knocks into them, stepping inside, lurching as he tries to fight the High Blade’s call. This is killing him; I can see the terror, palpable in his eyes.

Elizabeth’s gaze drifts idly over him. “Still somewhat in control? Not for much longer. Did you enjoy carving up this little fool?”

No, no, no, no, this is all going so, so wrong. I cannot let her control Samson again. I cannot survive another round of torture.

And Samson has so much more healing potion than she had before.

Desperately, I grope my free hand along the edge of my dress, the movement causing my twisted shoulder to scream in pain. The angle’s not right with me kneeling before her, eye level with the High Blade’s thighs as she mocks Samson.

Then I find it.

The needle I hid in my bodice.

I will not be tortured again, I think wildly, gripping the tiny bit of iron. The High Blade is still gloating at Samson, who’s barely hanging on to his own consciousness at this point. If he shifts now, I don’t know what’s going to happen.

I press the pad of my thumb against the blunt end of the needle so I’ll be able to apply as much pressure as possible. I take aim.

And plunge the sharp tip directly through the thin linen chemise into the High Blade’s leg.

She twitches as if a tiny bug tickled her skin. Her attention turns down to me, her eyes noticeably shifting from my face to my hand to the needle.

“That’s one of ours,” she mutters, offended. Her voice rises a little. “Did you think you could use one of our weapons against us?”

Of course this weapon, designed to suck out every drop of blood in a human, has not done the same to the High Blade, a Red Cap who would know better than to make a weapon that could hurt her.