Page 57

They’ll see.

I pause when I reach Nix, and rest a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to kneel for me.”

He looks up, smiling. It’s a similar smirk to the one Lucien gives me sometimes. But less appealing. “I will do whatever you command, my queen.” He glances behind me. “You are alone?”

I suck in my cheeks a little, as if I’m annoyed. “Lucien will come around eventually.” I tilt my head. “When he sees what we can do.”

Nix stands, staring at me hungrily.

“We do this my way.” I meet his eyes, even though he’s over a foot taller than me. “You want to be a part of this, you step aside and let me claim my destiny. You don’t interefere. You don’t try to pull those little puppet strings you think you pulled to get me here. I put a hand on his shoulder and apply pressure until he understands that I want him back on his knees. “You think you played with my mind and tricked me into coming here? You didn’t. I’m done being tricked by men like you.” I kiss him hard, biting his tongue and licking the drop of fiercely hot blood with the tip of my tongue.

Nix is practically panting.

“Do you understand?”

Nix nods at me.

I smile down at him, except it’s not him I’m seeing; it’s Lucien. Telling me to command him and let him know what I want. Giving me my voice. If he hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here doing this. I wouldn’t know how.

I inhale deeply, picturing the way Lucien and Kim look at me when they are desperate for me.

Then I picture Steven floating away like ash into the wind.

I picture my father, hanging upside down in the car. He deserved it. My mother shouldn’t have died, but he should. He was rotten to the core.

I pace away from Nix, toward the centre of the room. I feel like I’m walking through water, echoes rippling through the ocean to break on my skin, pulling me toward a dark, swirling pool of power.

The book doesn’t look like a book to me; it is a shining, vibrating portal of dark magic.

As I approach it, all the light is sucked dry from the room. Shadows whip through the crypt like wind, stinging my skin, combing their dark fingers through my hair.

I release a deep sigh and let my hands hover over the book. I have no idea what will happen when I touch it. But I have to trust that I will remember who I am and why I’m here.

I have no idea where Nix is or what the others in the room are doing. I can see nothing and feel nothing except for one quiet whisper… Claim us. Claim us. Claim us.

The second my fingertips meet the cover, the book flies open. Ink moves across the page, words form, words I’ve never seen before but can somehow read.

I speak them aloud.

Again and again.

I feel my eyes go black, and suddenly I see everything. Just like I did with Steven. In the pitch dark of the crypt, I see every single creature. How they’re moving, what they’re thinking. But I feel them too. Their darkest desires.

They enter me, scraping through my veins, burning like acid.

I look down and see black inky markings appearing on my skin.

Nix is staring at me. Shadows surround him, binding his hands to his sides.

I stretch out my arms and scream. But it is a scream in reverse, swallowing up every thought and desire and shadow in the crypt. The book wants me to destroy them all, consume their power.

The Covenant wants me to consume everything.

I am not its queen. I am a conduit for its power. And if I don’t destroy it now, it will destroy everything.

I am still screaming. My bones feel like they are breaking. Cracks appear on my skin, dark tar-like shadows seeping from within them.

I slam the book down on the altar and place both hands upon it, palms flat. I stop muttering its incantations.