Page 209 of A Queen This Fierce and Deadly

Nothing.

Whirling, I found Zathrian watching me. His eyesflickered with sorrow.

“You fucking bastard.”

Demos bared his teeth and launched himself at my cousin.

Zathrian ducked, rolling away.

“Just fucking wait,” he snapped. And unlike on the battlefield, when he’d called me a fucking coward, there was no disdain or fury in his voice now. No, it was filled with baffled frustration.

“Leave him,” I said.

Demos cursed, turning on me.

But his eyes went wide. Next to me, Lorian jolted forward, raising a hand of his own.

But Madinia had already picked up the grimoire. Jamic held one of her hands, and his skin glowed slightly. He was channeling power into her.

Oh gods.

“Don’t open it!” Lorian roared.

She ignored him, flipping it open. Jamic used his other hand to balance the grimoire, and Madinia turned the pages quickly, as if searching for something. Her eyes…

“Her eyes are turning black,” someone yelled. “She’s lost. Kill her before she becomes a threat like Regner.”

“No,” I croaked. “No.” My voice was louder this time as I studied Madinia’s face. Yes, her eyes had darkened and her hands were shaking—as if the strain was tearing her apart. But there was no victorious flush to her skin. She wasn’t celebrating the fact that she had the dark book. No, she looked as coldly irritated as ever, as if seconds away from snarling at all of us.

She was stillher.

“Give her a moment,” I said.

Demos growled. “You’ve always given her too much rope.”

“No,” I said as she lifted her head. “You’ve never given her enough.”

MADINIA

Power surged through me in a rush, heady and addictive. My nerves tingled with a new awareness, as if coming to life.

A strange kind of warmth settled over my body. Inside me, something that had been sleeping…something I had never acknowledged… opened one eye.

There was no pain. My jaw no longer clenched while I ground my teeth against the ache of my wounds. My power came to me easily, urging me to burn and destroy.

I was power. I was might. I wasreborn.

“Madinia!” Someone was screaming. I frowned, glancing down at the book in my hands. There was something I was supposed to do.

The power reached for me, seductive, curling around my skin and stroking. It was somehow…familiar.

It was the familiarity that sliced through the fog.

I understood now just why Regner had become who he had become. It wasn’t an excuse—he’d chosen toembrace everything this grimoire offered.

But I wanted no part of it.

My power came to me easily, and I closed my eyes, visualizing it as an orb of fire. The grimoire’s magic was seeping toward my mind, whispering of all the changes we could make. Thegoodwe could do together.

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