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ChapterTwenty
Perry couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see anything other than blood.There was so much of it.By the powers, Petra or Phaedra or whatever the insane goblin wanted to be called had killed her own sister—one of the last royals in a realm that depended on them to exist.
Shock spread through the throne room like a virus.The no-way-this-could-have-happened disbelief had him fighting to choke a breath past the knot in his chest.
Artanya slumped against the throne with a thud.Her fingers trailed the blooms that’d spread along the floor, painting those violet petals with red and a trace of sparkling silver.
Vori stared at the downed goblin with wide eyes that screamed she was stuck in the same suck-you-down emotional vortex as the rest of them.She’d fought like a warrior queen deserving of the fabled wicked crown.But now?She’d frozen as though she’d become one with her stone castle.The one that sprouted freaking flowers.
The killer snatched the cuff from Artanya’s limp wrist and bolted for the door, knocking goblins out of her path.
“The amethysts.”He pushed into the crowd to follow, but she was so fast.
Vori stopped him.“I’ll stop her.Stay here with Jura.”In a flash, she was gone.After an armed killer who could kill a goblin royal.
No way was he staying like a good little consort.
He looked to Mykata, whose face had paled to a ghastly yellow green.“Go help Vori.You can’t afford to lose another royal—especially not her.”
She stared at her sister’s body but gestured for the guards.“Let’s go.”Thank the powers for soldiers and their drilled-into-them ability to follow commands.Maybe they’d be slow enough he could follow them through the labyrinth of twists and turns that was Kradnovtl’s castle.Otherwise, he wouldn’t know where to start.He ran for the doors.
“Protect the true queen,” Jura called to him.
His already pounding heart skipped a few important beats.“Right.”His voice cracked on the word, the reality slamming into him so hard, it cut off his breath.She’d challenged for the throne, and she’d won.“Vori is queen now.”Whoa.
What did that mean for them as a couple?She’d announced she would stay here in the goblin realm.Had her promise been the truth or part of an act?Figuring out whattheywere would have to wait.His focus for now had to be survival, which meant protecting the queen who kept him safe with consort status and stopping the killer who thought he and his dad deserved to die.
He raced after the guards, following the sounds of yells, barked orders, and crazed shrieking laughter.The castle’s hallways stretched long and narrow.The red-and-silver banners made him sick.Those would now forever conjure the image of Artanya in a pool of her own blood.He couldn’t risk the same happening to Vori.The stone walls to his left flashed a violent purple, and he veered in that direction.
The electrical sources pulsing around him called to his powers.He’d be stupid to go into a fight with Petra before fueling up.Except a guard came around the corner and gave an abrupt bow.He reeled in his hold on his magic as best he could.
The guard didn’t seem to notice.“Queen’s Consort.”
Perry almost glanced over his shoulder to see who she’d been talking to.Damn, that promotion would take some getting used to.“Yes?”
“The queen is asking for you.”
“My queen?”Because there’d been a pretender queen and his Vori who’d sworn she would never sit on the throne.
The guard’s shoulders stiffened more than her already too-starched-to-slouch posture.“The true queen.The legend returned to us.Kradnovtl’s savior.”
He nodded because words wouldn’t come.This realmneededher.She was their only hope, their future.This had been why she’d called it a literal mountain of responsibility.
“Please, come with me.”The guard led him toward the maniacal laugh that he’d need years to recover from.Petra’s delight in the horror she’d caused sent chills down his spine and made him sick to the pit of his stomach.He ran as fast as his limp would allow.
Four guards pinned Petra to the ground, chaining her arms with the same shackles that had been on Vori moments ago.Good.They’d need to fasten her to the wall in the dungeon’s most secure cell.He’d been scared when he’d known he was a target.But now that this murderer was one of two goblins in the entire realm who could hurt Vori?Every instinct to defend an accused criminal drained out of him, filling him instead with the need to protect his goblin.
“Where’s Vori?”He had to see her, to make sure she was okay.He didn’t know where this sudden hero complex had come from, and he hated it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to follow his intuition.Assess first, apply logic later.
The guard who’d escorted him answered.“The queen is around the corner with the captain.We’ve sent for the healer.”
The healer?Who was injured?Please let it be Mykata and not Vori.Although his princess—no, she was queen and maybe not even his anymore—had been hurt in the royal challenge, and she’d been the first to give chase.The fastest.She would’ve been here before any of the others.
The sick from a moment ago spiraled and soured.His world narrowed to finding her.
She had slipped into her human form and sat propped against a wall.Gold blood stained what was left of the dress.A spread of the same flowers that’d sprung up in her suite and in the throne room surrounded her.The stones around her pulsed oh-so-slowly in the darkest shades of violet.
Mourning her?Or mourning with her?
