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“Win? Silly princess. So short-sighted. I don’t need towinthe Trials to gain power. Janus and I just needed Merden’s trust to put our plan into action, and she’s given that all too easily,” Jillian sneered.
I raised an eyebrow, but it was Darnell who caught her attention with a bark of laughter.
“She promised you things, did she? Well, then you’re even stupider than your brother,” he said, putting his hands on his slim hips and staring her down.
A look passed between them that seemed to tell a story, but both of them had locked their minds down tight, and I didn’t feel like putting in the hard work to pry them open.
I needed my magic and strength for the Trial - I didn’t give a shit about the history between these two and Janus. The Trials would take care of their future, too.
I was going to be Queen, and none of them were going to live to see it.
“So... what about that tunnel?” Darnell asked, giving Jillian one last glare before turning back to me. His gaze slid over my shoulder, though, and he froze for a second before drawing the short sword he’d worn into the labyrinth. Jillian’s eyes grew wide just as I caught the scent of what they’d seen. Fuck.
Kassian had warned me about this, but I’d been hoping it was a fluke.
The skin on my stomach began to itch and burn again, but I wouldn’t have time to sit and read spells from theBook of Icenow. I reached deep inside myself to find the strength to mask the pain - I’d been trained to fight through anything.
Slowly inching my hand down to grab another knife from my waist, I pivoted smoothly and came face to face with the ugliest creature I’d ever seen, peering around the corner of the hedge like it had been waiting there, watching us.
Greenish gray skin stretched over a misshapen skull, and dull yellow teeth were lined crookedly beneath cracked, grinning lips. Its eyes were keen and bright, fixed on me with interest as its nostrils flared.
It stepped into the middle of the corridor, and I could see it was maybe an inch taller than me, and well-muscled, although the limbs were a little too long for its body, the knees and elbows sticking out of ragged clothing and ending in clawed feet and huge hands.
“Gobbelin,” I whispered, just as two more of them slunk around the corner, evening the fight. Or actually, tipping it in their favor, since they each carried massive, spiked clubs, and Jillian didn’t even have a knife.
Raising my voice, I said, “Whatever you do, Jilly, don’t drink their blood.”
Then I launched myself at the closest one.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
RUSH
Returning to Saori Sang reminded me just how alone I felt in the world.
My meager family in Aralia was little more than blood bound by name, never duty or attachment. The vampires I’d ingratiated myself to here meant nothing to me, and I was certainly the same to them.
