Page 35 of Seduced by Power (The Queen's Consorts 3)

I shoved the doors open, turning so my wings wouldn’t catch on the frame. Four sets of eyes found mine. Only half the council members had come at the summons. They stood around one end of the long table, their faces pale and drawn. A putrid odor permeated the council chamber. I recoiled from it as if it were a physical blow, my eyes watering and nostrils flared.

“What is it?” I demanded, searching for the answer in their close-lipped frowns. “And what in the name of the gods is that smell?”

“The envoy has returned,” the court’s baron of finance answered me, looking nauseated. He gaged, cringing.

The room held no others. And I had seen no riders when I swept the northern roads this morning. “Well, where are they? What have they said?”

“They’ve said nothing,” the rotund one with the beard snarled, stepping away from the table to reveal a wooden chest standing open on the table.

My stomach dropped. I stepped in closer to the table and the three males parted, allowing me to pass. I knew what I would find, and yet Ihadto look. To be certain.

I peered over the top of the chest. A finger of fire raced up my spine. My stomach curdled like soured milk.

It was grotesque. It was the envoy—that much was certain. It was easy enough to tell by the severed hand still baring the ring seal of the Night Court. But there were four hands. Four eyes. Four tongues. Stitched together into the disturbed shape of a monstrous creature with a gaping maw—the flesh paled and putrid. The base of the chest coated in a thick layer of crimson grime.

Swallowing the urge to vomit, I stepped away from it.

“We must send word to the queen. Shemustreturn.”

I wasn’t sure who’d said it. Didn’t care.

If I succeeded in allowing her to see through my eyes, she already knew. The envoy had returned… in pieces.

“I will,” I responded. “I’ll need to tell Silas, too.” I stalked from the council chamber, letting the fire build and writhe in my core.

They called after me, asking me when I’d be leaving—how long it would take for Liana to return. Asking me all sorts of questions I stopped hearing.

Vaulting from the terrace at the end of the corridor, I flew north toward Silas and the Horde—hoping I could make it to the border by dawn.

The message was clear. Ricon had no intention of talking terms or coming to any sort of compromise that would lessen the bloodshed. He meant to wipe out any who would stand in his way of getting Liana’s crown. There would be no mercy. It was time to prepare for war.

Chapter Twenty

Liana

Igagged, heaving in a long shuddering breath.

Eyes wide in the dark, I bolted upright in the bed. Arms reached out for me—tried to grab me, and I yelped, backing away. My pulse a drum-beat echo in my ears. I backed up into a wall of solid, naked muscle. I lashed out, trying to find my attacker, but my eyes wouldn’t adjust.

Strong hands bound my wrists in their vise-like grip and I thrashed, trying to get free.

“Liana!” My name was a command—loud and insistent. “Liana, it’s us. You’re safe.”

The wall of muscle behind me reached out to rub my back, and I flinched, my spine going rigid at first before my breathing and pulse calmed, evening out.

I found the curve of Alaric’s face in the trickle of moonlight and reached out for him, collapsing into his arms.

“Was it a bad dream?” Finn asked from somewhere to my right while Tiernan moved in closer to continue rubbing my back.

I shook my head against Alaric’s tunic, “No, it was a vision. From Kade.”

Alaric stiffened beneath me, his breath hitching. And Tiernan’s hand stilled, dropping from my back. “What did you see?” he asked.

My stomach roiled, the acid rising into my throat at the memory. It wasn’t so much the sight—though it was morbidly grotesque—no, it was thesmell.That awful, putrid rank of decaying flesh and the strong metallic tang of clotted blood. I swallowed, hauling in clean, crisp air through my nose to clear it.

“The envoy returned,” I told them, “The Mad King sent them back in pieces.”

They were all silent after that and I wished someone would say something.Anything.But they didn’t, not for long, arduous minutes.

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