Page 14 of Faerie Hunted

All three carved thrones were empty.

“Who is that?” Mike leaned in closer to the vision like it might give him a hint at her identity. “Mom?”

“I’ve never seen her before. She’s obviously some sort of magic wielder if she managed to get inside the castle,” Laina mused. “A witch, perhaps?”

A really fucking powerful witch.And somehow she’s managed to rip her way into Faerie.I kept the thought to myself.

“Do you think she put a spell on the guards and that’s why communication stopped?” Mike pushed.

“She’d have to have an army with her to be able to make it past not only the guards but the wards. Wait.” Laina sucked in a breath. “What’s that in her hands?”

Dumbstruck, I stayed silent, my lips trembling and my teeth chattering together to the point where I clenched my jaw to still the movement.

The three of us watched Barbara exit the throne room, heading into the heart of the castle.

No one stood in her way.

None of the guards.

She practically strolled, as casual as a gray-haired psychopath like her could be, down the corridors, inspecting room after room at her leisure.

“I can’t make out what she’s got, but she’s holding something.” Laina leaned even closer.

“Can you zero in on the object?”

Then I heard Mike’s audible gulp.

Out of nowhere, a single guard at last ran straight for Barbara, his sword pointed at her chest and his magic building.

She barely slowed before she lifted the object in her hand. And she never looked at him.

The guard jerked to a halt, and his cheeks suddenly caved in, his skin desiccated and stretched thin over bone as the life drained out of him.

His body fell to the floor seconds later but he kept twitching and writhing. He was still alive yet barely clinging on. Worse, I realized, than death.

I knew exactly what she had.

TheAugundae Imperium, the magical artifact designed to siphon power from anyone and store it for the wielder to use. Roughly the size of a Rubik’s cube and made of an amalgam of metals…I never thought I’d see it again.

Not after she’d forced me to steal the object for her and we’d passed it off in the dead of night, my duty to her fulfilled.

Now she used it on the people of this castle.

My gut dropped straight down through the floor.

In horror, we watched the witch climb toward the royal’s chambers. We watched her find the King and the two of them square off against each other.

And we watched Barbara descend like a predator to use theAugundae Imperiumon King Tywin.

4

The illusion shattered.

Queen Laina picked up the mirror and slammed it down on the rocks, breaking the spell and splitting the glass into two neat pieces. Then she bolted back into the main room, opening the door with such force the wood slammed into the stone wall.

Several pieces splintered off the edge.

“Captain Hezarwick!” she demanded. “Send your guards to the royal bedchamber immediately. King Tywin needs help. Rally the others!”

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