Page 10 of Treasured

I turned to the two Favorites standing against the wall. Their faces were pale, and they trembled like the cowardly mortals they were.

“Clean it up!” I shrieked, gesturing to the mess.

They hurried forward, the red silk they wore doing nothing to conceal their bodies underneath. They bent, picking up the shards one by one and placing them in a nearby bin.

The sight of my compliant pets did nothing to ease the fury pounding through me.

“Faster!” I ordered.

They obeyed, picking up piece after piece. After a few minutes, blood poured freely down their hands, making a red mess of things, but they kept working.

My Favorites always obeyed me. They understood who I was and what my power meant. Each of them had chosen to serve me. To be fair, it was that or death.

But they’d chosen. They understood my power. They knew who was in charge in Eleyta.

Unlike him.

Anger was a thick soup in my veins, bubbling, frothing, burning. Every time I summoned my son, and he did not obey my call, the anger grew hotter and hotter until it threatened to consume me from the inside out.

I threw another vase. A third. A fourth.

The ground was a mosaic of shattered art. Blue, green, yellow, pink, and red. A perverted version of the rainbow. I hated that, too. These days, I hated everything.

“Pick them all up! Every last piece!”

More Favorites hurried into the room to help the others. Soon, all twelve of them were on their knees. Not a single hand remained uncut as they cleaned up the mess.

Their delicious human scent filled the air, and I breathed in deeply. My stomach rumbled, and I picked up the faint, tantalizing scent of fear beneath their pain.

I would feed soon. Not yet, though.

Technically, I didn’t need blood at all. I couldn’t remember the last time I slept, the last time mortal aches and pains ran through me.

But I loved blood. I craved it. Desired it, even. Blood and power were all I cared about.

My fingers crawled to the ruby around my throat. “Keep going,” I commanded the Favorites.

They did not talk back.

Dropping into a red velvet settee, I gripped the jewel in one hand. Reaching for my magic, I summoned my wayward son. There was no response. Where was he? I’d sent soldiers to his cabin, but he and that barely-Made female were long gone by the time my guards arrived.

I had no idea where Sebastian had gone. Even more frustratingly, he wasn’t the only one who’d vanished. The castle was mysteriously empty of the soldiers who favored my son. Guards had disappeared overnight after the fight to the death, the blonde mind reader was nowhere to be found, and that spymaster of his was gone.

My lips twisted into a sneer. If Sebastian thought he could hide from me, he was wrong. I’d given him eight days to return with his tail between his legs, but my grace had run out.

I would keep summoning him until he had no choice but to respond.

It was that female he married. She poisoned his mind and turned him against me. Before she came into the picture, Sebastian was the perfect weapon. He was everything I ever needed in a son. He did what he was told, killed when I told him to kill, and listened when I gave him orders.

He was perfect.

And then Ciro had to go and Tether my son to that… that…. human.

But she wasn’t human anymore.

No, Sebastian Made her in secret. Had I known, I would have killed her on sight.

Now, they wanted my throne.

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