Page 2 of The Flame King's Queen

“Where is that dragon?” Elysant says, gazing at the sky. Dragons always come from the sky. Huge. Noisy. Impossible to slip through unnoticed. Unless you’re a small, determined, and clever dragon who doesn’t think twice about conquering the biggest dragons she’s ever seen. Sound is oddly muffled in the ethereal plane, and the light is muted. Shadows ripple strangely. Neither Leibel nor Elysant notice the dragon edging closer to us, and her footsteps are whispers through the dust.

Esmeral snakes forward, gets her teeth into the magic cords that are binding me, and snaps every one of them. The ties that bind me are made from the same power that pumps through her veins. It belongs to her, not theHratha’len.

I slowly get to my feet, breathing raggedly. Esmeral unfurls her wings and raises her head, her jaws parted in a snarl. Elysant and Leibel realize too that they’re not alone. My mate’s dragon is impatient to taste blood, and she lunges forward and latches onto Leibel’s arm.

I take the halberd from his hands, and drive it through his chest with a roar.

Elysant screams.

Leibel stares down at the blade through his chest. I yank the weapon out, and with a muffled screech of fury, Esmeral tosses his body, and he tumbles over and over into the fog. Then she bares her bloodstained teeth at Elysant.

The woman is terrified, her eyes showing white all the way around as she backs away. “You know we’re right,Ma’len. You will never unite the people of Maledin while that witch sits on the throne.”

She and I have different ideas about the people of Maledin. Isavelle and I are both the future of this country, and we will unite the humans and the Maledinni.

Blood is running down the front of my armor. I don’t have the breath to argue with this traitorous bitch.

Elysant lifts her hands, red magic beginning to swirl between them. To prevent her from casting a spell, I bring the shaft of the halberd down on her arms, and the priestess screams in pain.

“Who is— Who…the third trait—?” The halberd slips from my nerveless, shaking fingers as pain floods my body. I’m overtaken by a coughing fit, blood gushing from between my lips.

Elysant shakes her head.

I raise the halberd again.

“Ma’len, please. I will tell you, but it no longer matters.”

She speaks his name, but it can’t be him. He, a traitor?

“Why did he—” I cough so hard that I see stars.

Elysant whimpers with both arms cradled against her chest and her eyes. She turns and runs, and I’m blasted backward by force and heat. I fall to one knee, and when my vision clears, the woman is fleeing into the fog.

Blast her to the fucking stars.

A scaly head nudges under my armpit. With a soft trill, Esmeral helps me to my feet. The dragon looks to where the fleeing woman has disappeared, and then toward the portal that will lead us out of the ethereal plane and into our own world.

“Will you permit me to fly on you, Esmeral?” I rasp, placing my hand on her saddle.

Esmeral understands immediately and flattens herself to the ground to make it easier in my sorry state for me to clamber up onto her back. Groaning in pain, I keep my right arm close to my chest as I pull myself slowly and painfully up to the saddle and swing my leg over. Of course it would be the same side where I was stabbed by the High Priest. The same side I hold my sword, making me weak and useless. I’m coughing, sweating, and nearly fainting as I slowly sit up. Someone from my own ranks wants to kill my mate, and I grit my teeth and hold on.

“I’m ready, Esmeral.”

With an angry cry, Esmeral unfurls her wings, launches into the sky, and arrows toward the portal.

2

Isavelle

Ihave my arms around my little sister, and I’m holding her tight.

Though just fourteen, Anise is nearly as tall as I am. Tendrils of her hair, the color of summer wheat, dance in the breeze. She feels so slight in my arms. So small. She’s cold, no doubt from being locked away in the ethereal plane for weeks and weeks, and her heartbeat flutters against my chest.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see her looking with terror at the man looming behind me. A very tall man. An Alpha with white hair and a cold, ruthless demeanor.

I thought I’d killed you with the ritual.

Stesha really just said that.

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