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There’s nothing behind her eyes, but I see it the moment that changes, like a light switch flicking on. Slowly, she cocks her head to the side and says, “Have you given my offer any more thought, Valerie?”
Her voice comes out low, not even sounding like her.
No.
“Reid…”
But she is a blur of motion before I manage to get the word out. Instead of lunging for me, she pivots and goes for him.
“No!” I shriek as the two of them crash into the glass coffee table and a million shards scatter through the room. Reid recovers quickly and flips her onto her back. She bears her fangs and hisses.
I carve into my wrist with the blade from my ring, tightening my fist around the blood. I focus on her muscles, trying to freeze her in place. Her movements slow, but she doesn’t stop. I dig my nails into my palm, adding more blood to the mix, but now her hands are around Reid’s throat, and it dawns on me far too late that this isn’t like last time. The last person sent with a message killed himself once he was done.
She’s been instructed to killReid.
No matter how much I bleed, she fights through my restraints. She’s too old, too powerful.How is Westcott even able to control her?
Glass shatters a second time as Reid smashes the teapot over her head, and she stumbles back a step. Shards catch in her hair, her crown.
Everything in my body goes cold.
Break the teeth.
I don’t think. I just move.
If I’m right about this, I have a feeling they won’t break easily. She whips around and hisses, giving Reid the chance to push to his feet. Even as facing her feels like staring down death, all I can think isI can’t let Reid go through this again.
He already feels responsible for Graham. And no matter how horrible she is, she’s his mom.
I grab a wooden chair in the sitting area and smash it against the wall, trying to break off a leg to use as a stake. It won’t kill her, but I just need to slow her down. There’s another crash, a snarl, and then pain explodes in the side of my neck. Nails dig into my throat as she grabs my jugular and sinks her fangs into me from behind. My back hits her chest, and I kick off against the wall, trying to throw her off balance as blood gushes over my shoulder. But the venom is already flooding my system and blurring my vision.
“Valerie!”
Reid’s voice is faint, distant. I tighten my fist around the chair leg, focusing on the wood against my palm like an anchor. The queen yanks me back, and I throw a foot between hers and hook it around her ankle. I pivot as we fall, putting all of my weight into the stake.
It pierces through her stomach, far too low to do the kind of damage I need, and she bares her teeth, my blood dripping from her chin. She still has that empty look in her eyes—a mindless, deadly predator.
I stagger to my feet as she wraps her hand around the stake, trying to pull it out. I think Reid’s hands are on my arm, but all I can see is that crown. Before she can rise again, I smash my foot down as hard as I can on the teeth, focusing on her blood and mine surrounding us, urging,beggingfor its help.
The impact isn’t enough, but it does knock the crown free from her hair.
I can’t afford to consider this might not be the saving grace I think it is.
“Keep her down!” I yell.
Queen Carrington seizes my ankle, pulling me back, but Reid rips her hand away from me, and I scramble after the crown on my knees.
If the teeth are sealed with the kind of magic I think they are, force won’t be enough to break them. I seize the crown with one hand, blood smearing across the surface, and crawl toward the fireplace, my vision going in and out from the venom and the blood gushing from the wound in my neck.
I toss the crown on top of the logs, and my magic burns hot against the blood on my skin as a fire roars to life. Black smoke fills the room as I let my blood join the fire, my unblinking gaze focused on the crown.
For a moment, I think this isn’t going to work either. Reid grunts somewhere behind me, and it takes every ounce of willpower to maintain my focus and not stop to help him.
But then, one by one, the teeth separate from the crown.
The sound the queen lets out is inhuman, shrill.
I turn, clamping a hand over the wound still bleeding in my neck, but the pain goes numb the moment I see that haze over the queen’s eyes disappear. She offers a small, weak smile as her skin rapidly ages like the hundreds of extra years she’s cheated are catching up to her all at once.
