Page 106 of Treasured

“Damn you!” I yelled. “Show yourself.”

A giggle, then she repeated the same gods-damned refrain I’d heard every time I visited. It was little wonder this witch was one of the people I hated the most.

Seething, I followed the horrible refrain until I found her.

Surrounded by hundreds of fish carcasses piled in teetering stacks, Koleta sat cross-legged near the cavernous river that kept her alive. The water flowed despite the frozen air, kept moving by long-forgotten magic. Fish with rows upon rows of fangs filled the waters, their bite deadly to anyone who dared enter their domain.

They were Koleta’s only food.

“I was wondering when I’d see you again.” A gummy smile danced on the mad witch’s face. She had aged since my last visit and had lost several more teeth. The spark in her eye was one I’d seen in the mirror.

“Koleta,” I growled her name.

“Marguerite.” She echoed my tone. “How can I help you?”

Her sarcastic mimicking just made me angrier. I stomped my foot. “Everything is wrong!”

She should have looked shocked. She should have gasped or moved or widened her eyes or… something!

Instead, the witch blinked. “Oh?” Her tone was calm. Lackadaisical, almost. She looked… pleased. Like a cat who’d gotten into the cream. What the hell?

Koleta continued, “Have things… not gone as planned? Is your country falling apart? Are vampires being Made and let loose in the wild? Perhaps chaos is falling all around you?” Her brows lifted almost to her hairline. Slowly. Purposefully. Treacherously. “What a shame. What a sorrow. What a… betrayal.”

Shock and anger pulsed through my veins. She dared speak to me like this? Snarling, I crossed the length of the icy prison in a heartbeat. Picking Koleta up by the neck, I slammed her against the cavern wall. Her tiny, bony hands clawed at my arm, but she was no match for me. A vampire would always win against a mad witch.

“You did this!” I shrieked.

Her thin lips tilted up, up, up. “Did what?” she asked coyly, as though she had no idea what I was talking about.

I grabbed the Blood Ruby with my other hand and shoved it in her face. “This!”

Koleta stared at the jewel. She stared and stared and stared until it looked like her eyes were moments away from falling out of her head.

I tightened my grip around her throat. My heart was a herd of elephants stampeding through my chest. My wings exploded from my back. Streams of shadows poured out of me. “Speak!”

She opened her mouth and laughed. Laughed! At. Me. That anger shifted in my veins, turning into writhing, churning fury. I was death, and she dared laugh in my face?

“Is this not what you wanted, Queen Marguerite?” The witch smirked. “Did you not desire power?”

“Yes!” I shouted. Power was everything. It was the only thing that kept me going after Nicolas’s betrayal. Of course, I needed it. “Now, the ruby is broken!”

Koleta tilted her head. “You don’t say.” She chuckled, the sound grating on my every nerve.

She wasn’t surprised. Why wasn’t she surprised?

“Fix it!” I yelled.

“Night is here; death has come; betrayal is in the air.”

I shook her—hard. Purple bruises bloomed beneath my touch. They were flowers of the night, and I was the bringer of destruction. She cried out, but I did not remove my fingers. “What did you do?”

Koleta’s fingers scraped at the ice. She spoke in pants, her breath coming shorter and shorter. “You… never… asked.”

My brows knit together, and I stepped back, letting the witch fall. She dropped to the ice, landing on all fours and breathing in deeply.

“What?” I asked.

A crazed laugh. “You sold your soul to the ruby, yet you never asked.” She inhaled deeply, rubbing a hand over her neck. “What is the cost of power, Your Majesty? Did you ever wonder what price the ruby demands for the power it gives?”

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