Page 75 of The Nightmare Queen

Oh. Well, I did say that.I can’t help myself against the fit of laughter that bubbles out, the emotion so violent that tears spring from my eyes. “Oh, you foolish,men.”All of them, including Rorin, stare at me confused. “He will not be king because I am marrying him.”Although what a thought.“He will be king, because soon he will be the only royal Collier left standing.”

Rorin chokes and before any of them have a chance to say something we're interrupted by Armond who charges into the room, the look on his face is solemn. “Obsidian or Bair?” I ask, his eyes shadowing over. “Obsidian or Bair?!” I shout.

“Obsidian.”Fuck.

The entire room goes into an uproar. My men are trying to figure out from Armond what exactly happened while Rorin’s men are trying to figure out what exactly I meant. At the current moment I can’t find it in me to care, my head was already spinning with all sorts of grave thoughts.

“What’s wrong with Obsidian?” I practically growl at him, my voice cutting through all of the noise.

He shakes his head. “I received a missive from Felix yesterday.”

“Yesterday?!” I shout.

“I would’ve come to you sooner but you weren’t in any state to hear it.”

My feet march over to him putting us chest to chest, my anger radiating between the two of us. “You do not get to decide what state I am or am not in to hear news about my own fucking kingdom, Armond!”

His eyes are soft, that blasted empathy of his surfacing, “the situation is severe, Eveera, and you were volatile last night.”

The situation is severe.“How. Severe.”My patience has already snapped, I’m already imagining the worst, how bad can it really be?I wonder. Armond takes a deep breath in, his eyes flicking over to where my men have clustered together. “Don’t look at them. Look at me. How. Serious.”

“The three towns that border Oriya,”Oh gods,“they’re gone.”

“Gone? Th-they can’t just be gone. Towns don’t just disappear Armond.” I’m struggling to put the words together as well as keep a handle on my magic. “Wha— how?” I can feel the panic crawling up my throat and my heart is beating too fast in my chest. It feels like the air is being sucked out from my lungs, making my vision blurry, and my nerves tingly.

He braces a hand on my shoulder, “outer land creatures have overrun them.” He tries to explain.

“But…isn’t Vada?" Orem starts before, "oof!” My head whips around to see him rubbing his ribs, Axel’s elbow still hanging in the air. I look back to Armond, searching his face to see if he’s going to tell me the truth or try and spare my feelings.

Thankfully he has some self preservation skills, but I don’t know if it matters because the overwhelming feeling of dread that comes from a single word.

“She's gone.” I nearly pass out as he says it.

"Dead, gone? Or disappeared, gone." Axel asks the question for me.

"Disappeared." He replies. We’ve run out of time -I’verun out of time and Vellar is going to cost me yet another thing, except this time I don’t even have the satisfaction of blaming it all on them. I chose this. I chose my revenge, and now my people are suffering.

Rorin tries to reach me through the seal whispering my name, but I slam my walls up, shoving him out of my mind. “We can send some troops back. We can work with half the military, if necessary.” He suggests.

Everyone looks at me for a response or approval. I shake my head, “no.” My voice coming out quieter than I’d intended.

“No?” They all repeat back in unison.

I nod my head. “No. We don’t send back troops. She wouldn’t respond to them anyways.”

“Uhm-I don’t think Rorin meant to send the troops back forher, Evie. He means to send them back to defend the citizens.” Axel says. I shrug both he and Rorin off. My hands reach to unwind the low buns on my neck and restyle my long locks into a high pony. “No one goes back—”

“You can’t be serious?” Ezra shouts.

I bare my teeth at him, “no one goes back butme.” Reaching for Armond I think of the portal room we entered through on our first day here and Void out of the apartment.

The attendant's eyes grow wide at my magical intrusion. He stands with what I can guess was the full intention to stop me. “Excuse me but—” A tendril of my magic tightens around his throat, silencing him and my right hand rises to the iridescent flicker of the portal.

The door flies open, I don’t have time to look over my shoulder and see who it is so I focus harder on the iridescent shimmer and start to push my hand into it. His scent hits me first bringing me a complicated mix of relief and anger. “You can’t escape me that easy.”He says.

“You all were going to argue with me. We don’t have time to debate.”He stands tall next to me, briefly glancing at the man wound in my magic, before lacing his fingers through mine.

“Where to?” He asks out loud. I don’t say anything, instead, with a hard yank I pull him into the portal with me. We land fast, tumbling into the hard dirt.

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