Page 94 of The Nightmare Queen

I look down at Felix and Armond, their eyes guarded against me, Armond’s hand still on his hilt. “Answer me this,” my hands are shaking as I try to curb the anger mixing with my magic. “Would she does this?”

Her men are quiet for a moment, but Felix’s strained and gravelly voice answers me. “She wanted people to suffer,”not helping your case, I thinkto myself. “but she doesn’t kill innocents. She would’ve found the people and targeted them individually. So no. I don’t think she would do this.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” I snarl storming past them and marching my way outside.

By the time we make it outside, there is a flurry of people. Guards are ushering the nobility and guests back inside away from the horrors that are transpiring outside of our walls.

Through the tunnels arrives Will, Millicent, and of course Eveera. Her face is twisted in anger and she’s covered in blood. She doesn’t look at me walking straight up to Axel who’s now holding a bag -when did he have time to grab a bag?Slippingher arms out of the thin straps on her dress, he hands her a pair of leathers. She pulls the tunic over her head smearing the blood on her face. The process repeats as she slips the rest of the dress off. My men on instinct turn quickly away, her eyes look up connecting with mine for a brief moment. No emotion gives way on her face as she slides her leather pants up. The rest of her process for putting on her armor is rather simple; weapons belt, thigh holster, gloves, and boots. Millie quickly helps throw her hair into a braid so it no longer sticks to her face.

“Are you just about done?” I snap, their heads whipping in my direction. I stomp over to her, my hand coming up around her throat. Her men draw their swords but she stays her hand. Silently commanding them to hold, while she meets my eyes. Her fierce gold eyes flaring at me.

“Do you want to have it out here? Or do you want to go find out what the hell is going on in your city?” She bites and I yank her by the throat into me, squeezing it tighter. Her pulse beats rapidly underneath me.

I lean in, my nose touching hers as I lower my voice. “If you did this. I’ll kill you myself.” Her eyes glint at the challenge.

“And if I didn’t—” she chokes out the words against my hold, “you’ll owe me one hell of an apology.” With a forceful push I shove her back into Millie. She’s laughing, wiping at her cheek as I take the lead out towards the gates. Before we even get out onto the streets the smoke from the blasts burns our throats and eyes.

Citizens are running and coughing through it, as they try to reach safety. I notice Eveera’s eyes are trained on the skies and just before I can give any command the familiar heavy beat of wings comes from above us. Vada’s enormous body lands on one of the stone buildings, crumbling it’s structure, and causes us all to jump back.

“Holy shit.” Bennett breathes as he eyes the dragon who crawls down the rubble her head down and maw open putting her teeth on full display. Eveera gives me a long blink before taking off running, her legs carrying quickly as Vada lowers her forearm and shoulder for her queen to climb.

“Where is she going?!” Millie shrieks.

Orem nods to his queen before telling Millicent, “she’ll be the aerial view.”

I shake my head staring up at the sky where they disappear.“Don’t try anything, Eveera.”I snap.

Her laugh echoes in my mind,“wouldn’t dream of it, princeling.”

“Bennett,” His head turns to me, “take Millie and a horse and go see what damages they caused in the area.” He nods grabbing the reigns of one of the animals we grabbed before slipping past the court’s walls. The rest of us climb on our own steeds and I give commands out to teams of individuals.

Armond, Felix, and I stick closely together. A few wails echo loudly, but as we walk the streets carefully it looks to be mostly minor damage until we come up on the same street as “Goldfinch”. The tavern has been turned into nothing but rubble with a hole blasted completely through it, leaving nothing but a large wake of debris before us.

“What could have cause this?” Armond murmurs, leaving me with mixed feelings. I want to scream at him, want to ask that exact question to him. But the way they all are acting…but her banners.They were her banners flying what else would explain that?I ask myself. We continue following the path of destruction, my city nothing but a smoking carcass.

Leathery wings beat above me but with the smoke and the added cloud coverage I can’t see the large beast anywhere. The sound of hooves joins in and we all spin around to see Axel and the brothers headed for us. “Any. Word. From the—” his voice trailing off as he waves his arms around haphazardly at the sky. “Aerial view?” We shake our heads. My anxiety is growing by the second now with each moment longer Eveera takes up there.

“What the hell do you think she’s doing?” I snap at her men. We moved over to the outer walls and we can hear the sound of movement through the stone.

“She’s got the view; she’s like to do something…” Max mutters.

“She’s likely to do something self sacrificing and stupid.” Axel corrects him, his arms folded across his chest.

I trot my horse over to Armond’s. “Can you Void me to her?” I ask.

He looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind, his speech stolen from him temporarily. “You want me to Voidyou to her? While she isflyingon Vada?”

I understand how insane of an idea it sounds, but she’s likely to tune me out if I just get inside of her head. “She has explaining to do. I want to know what myleverageis doing up there.” The irritation is boiling up and out of me. “She can’t avoid or ignore me for very long if I just show up on the back of the beast.”

“Yes she can. She can just throw youoffher dragon.” Will argues.Fair point.I ignore it and look expectantly at Armond, we don’t have much time if the sounds outside of this wall are any indication of what’s about to happen. He sighs before grabbing my hand and fastening my hold around his forearm.

“You have to think of where you want to be. Similar to portaling. Then lean into my magic.”

Will’s hand tugs on my shoulder, “you’re not serious.” The disbelief plain in his voice.

I keep my eyes trained on Armond. “Simple enough.” My mouth quirks up when I focus my thoughts to her while his magic creeps up my arm. It’s cold. Nothing like a portal, but something else entirely. It quickly envelopes me and…

THUD!

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