Page 103 of The Flame King's Queen

The man’s eyes are wide with fright as he looks everywhere but at me. “Is it true what people are saying? There’s an army of mon—monsters at the gates?”

I shake him to get his attention. “King Zabriel. Where is he?”

“I have not seen him. No one has.”

I gulp down my panic and run for the stairs that lead up to our quarters. As I pass by the entrance to the Great Hall, I hear someone calling my name.

“Queen Isavelle!”

I think it’s Stesha, but I’m already halfway up the stairs. Zabriel needs to know what happened so that the dragon army can hunt down the lich and kill it once and for all. We need our king.

I burst into our room, and the sounds of the ringing bells and panicked people fade away. Zabriel is standing over the crib at the end of the bed with his back to me. There is something strange and unsettling about how motionless he is, even though he must have heard me come into the room.

“Zabriel?” I call out to him.

The door slams shut behind me.

His head turns slowly toward me, and my blood runs cold as I see that Zabriel’s mouth is stretched wide in a hideous smile. The red in his eyes has been entirely replaced by a sickly flickering green.

“I’m so happy you’re finally here, my dear,” he says in a cracked, rasping voice. The lich’s voice. The thing controlling my mate reaches down into the cradle. “Look at this little treasure. We have such a pretty child.”

27

Isavelle

Iscream and run for Sylvi, my arms outstretched to take her from that thing wearing Zabriel’s face. How dare it pretend that it has anything to do with our daughter.

I hit an invisible barrier, and I’m flung back off my feet. I fall in a heap on the floor and sit up in time to see the lich grasping the edge of the cradle and leering at me.

I have to get it away from our child, but my heart is racing, and my mind is screaming at me so loudly that I can’t think. I reach for the first thing I can think of to draw its attention on me and away from my baby.

“You killed my crone,” I sob. Biddy’s blood has dried stiffly on my clothes and hands. She survived the Brethren witchfinders and a ferocious battle for Maledin, only to meet her end being puppeteered by the thing standing in front of me.

“I did,” the lich agrees, still grinning with Zabriel’s mouth. “This creature’s body is far more suitable than that old hag’s. She was little threat to me, but it was worth my effort in order to draw those traitorous warlocks far away from the city, and to see your face when I killed her.” The lich laughs, and it’s a ghastly, grating sound.

It means to play with us before it kills us. It wants us to suffer. I wonder if Zabriel is aware of everything that is happening while the lich controls his body so to cause him the most possible pain.

If I can get the balcony door open, I might be able to call for Esmeral, snatch up Sylvi, and fly her to safety. That might make the lich release its hold on Zabriel. Or it might make it kill him. Zabriel would want me to protect our child no matter what, but the thought is no less devastating.

I get to my feet and edge around the room, careful not to approach the lich or Sylvi. So far, my daughter still sleeps, and the lich has left her unharmed. It watches every step I take, turning to follow me around the room.

The lich leers at me but doesn’t move. “What are you doing, Isavelle?”

I try the door handles that lead to the terrace, and surprisingly, they open. The lich hasn’t magically sealed them. Outside it’s fully dark now, and the stars glint in the heavens. I smell smoke on the air. Smoke, blood, and fear.

“Do you think you can escape that way?” the lich calls to me. “We are hundreds of feet above the ground. You will smash yourself to pieces, and I’m sorry, but your dragon isn’t coming to save you this time.”

I feel a sob rising in my throat. What has it done to Esmeral?

“I think it’s time you and I had a little talk,” the lich rasps.

Now that the doors onto the terrace are open, I can hear the distant sounds of battle. Shouting. Clanging. Screaming. The people of Lenhale are fighting for their lives, no doubt terrified that their king and queen seem to have abandoned them.

“Unless you’d rather I pick up your sweet little daughter. She’s still asleep, for now, but I wonder what she sounds like when she’s screaming.”

I whirl around to face the lich. “Leave Sylvi alone. What do you want from us?”

It drags its eyes up and down my body. “I want to bargain with you, Isavelle. You have something I want.”

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