Page 50 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

In this mad state, I did not hesitate to use my power to force a curtsey out of her too. She glared up at me from her lowered position.

“Yes,” I purred at her. “You see what will happen now. I go for your king.” I sent my voice on the wind. “Pawns, return to your queen.”

Most were still here, though Deliver and Seal were still watching Change’s kingdom. I pulsed a summons for my taking pawns, too, who had rushed off in an attempt to calm their king, no doubt.

As my queendom pulsed and squeezed, pawns gathered behind me. I faced the gate, trying to hold madness steady.

Soon you will be unleashed. Soon.

Valetise hurried forward to unhook the partial skirt from around my hips, leaving me in leather pants and a laced tunic. A growl ripped from my curled lips.

“Where do we go?” Huckery called.

This would be uncomfortable for them. I did not care. “To conquer King Change.”

My werebeasts skittered back.

“Will you stand with me?” I asked them, and my eerie voice was filled with everything uncertain and threatening.

Unguis covered his snout. Loup’s hind legs buckled. I took that as a no.

I met Huckery’s startled and fearful look. “You will pay the price for this choice, as all others.”

He managed a furry nod in the face of a queen’s madness. Huckery was a prince amongst pawns, truly.

I anticipated tying them more tightly to loving themselves. “We march.”

“What of your sixth?” crunched Toil.

Too late.

Red blinked across my vision as obsession and madness claimed me. I gave myself over to the violent creature who ruled this version of me. There could be no hesitation. I could not hold anything back in a battle with a king.

“What of them?” I hissed, filling the air itself with my menace.

Wicked delight was in my heart. Savage thirst in my mind. “Keep up.”

ChapterTwelve

Obsession was a quaking,

A shaking of Whole.

Madness was a staking,

The unmaking of Soul.

Reining madness to blur at a pace manageable for pawns took every ounce of my willpower.

Growls panted from deep in my chest. I was a rabid creature.

“Slow down, my queen,” shouted Deliver.

An impossibility. Only a speck of me remained. Ancients wrestled with me for control. Soon I would abandon the battle and let age-old icy instinct take the wheel.

Shadowed tree tops of a haunted forest loomed in the dark distance.

KingChange.

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