Page 88 of Queen of the Wicked
Migrating her fear to a locked cabinet in her mind, she smiled deviously at the creature with eyes that reflected the blood surrounding them. She could feel it seeping from her back, creating a halo that was far from righteous, but there was a reason she was sent to Earth and kept hidden from seraphims and archangels alike.
She wasn’t righteous.
She wasn’t wicked.
Alessia was a formidable combination of both. If she could get her hands on that amulet, she would be the only person capable of restoring the realms to their rightful state, and she would not die today.
From here on out, she would take what was rightfully hers.
Smoke wisped around her, colliding with the ashes from around them before snaking around the human limbs and cutting off circulation. The creature thrashed in her hold, but it couldn’t escape. Not when she willed the smoke to squeeze until the flesh turned purple, veins bulging and seconds from imploding.
“Bitch!” It hissed, narrowing its beady eyes on her. “You choose to remain on the wrong side of history?”
Alessia lifted a brow, thinking of the Makers and the choice they made for her without her consent: creating hermatewith the intention of disposing of him like he was nothing but trash. “It’s a shame you won’t be alive to tell Bastian, yourking,that he can fuck off, but not to worry. I’ll ensure I get the opportunity to tell him that myself.” Her smile grew into a sadistically wide grin.“You and the rest of these abominations will eventually learn that thereisno wrong or right side to choose. There is only mine.”
The limbs severed, leaving the creature to bleed out at her feet as she lunged for her knives and continued on her path to the castle. It turned out she didn’t need her knives at all. Her smoke worked for her, robbing the creatures of their breath until they collapsed before the exhausted, bleeding guards. Her smoke seemed to sensewho she intended to kill because the guards remained unharmed, aside from those already injured from the battle.
They looked around, dumbfounded, until their gaze landed on her, and although she couldn’t see herself through their point of view, she had a good idea what stood before them: a woman with fire raging in her eyes, seeking revenge on their behalf.
She stood before them as the harbinger.
One by one, the guards took a knee with a fist over their hearts, and only then did she feel feathers flutter against her skin. Sparing a glance over her shoulder, she gasped in awe at the wings protruding from her back. One white, one black, a symbol of what she already knew was inside of her. Good and evil. Light and darkness.
The realm’s greatest weapon.
The guards' show of respect didn’t last for long. A new wave of creatures screeched in the distance, their crawling figures vaguely visible in the red sun, tainted by smoke.
It would only be a matter of minutes before they descended upon them, and Alessia didn’t know if she was powerful enough to swipe out what looked to be hundreds.
Where were they coming from?
“Get in formation!” Eryx, holding a severed head from one of the beasts, tossed it into the dirt below from the top of the rise. It landed near Alessia’s foot, and when the general noticed her, he ordered the guards to let her pass. “Isla was injured,” he said tightly when she joined him. “One of the abominationsmade it into the castle. She was in the way of its rampage.”
Alessia swallowed down the sob that threatened to escape. “Is she all right?”
He nodded, his chiseled face and blond hair splattered with specs of blood. His gaze lingered on her wings, but they both knew now wasn’t the time to get into what she’d learned at Allegra’s. Not when they were minutes from taking on an ambush. “I bandaged the wound. She is in the infirmary helping others who are injured.”
“And where is Erebos?”
Eryx gazed at the impending doom approaching them, only two miles out now. “His chambers were empty when I arrived. Chaos had already ensued, so I did not have the time to search the rest of the castle. I was needed elsewhere.”
“You didn’t have thetime?” Alessia balked at the man who was supposedly the lord’s biggest confidant. “Erebos is the ruler of this realm, Eryx. We have to find him.”
“You do not think I know that?” he snapped. Instantly regretting his choice of words, he set his jaw in a firm line. “Erebos made me promise that if the choice of safety were to rest between you and him, my responsibility would default to you. I have been fighting my way back to the gates to retrieve you from Allegra’s, realizing that is what he would have wanted.”
“Well, I’m here now, and I can use my powers to fight off as many of them as possible. Go and find him.”
“My duty remains with you,” Eryx replied tightly. “I am under strictorders?—”
Straightening to her full height, Alessia retained that regal posture that made Eryx snap his mouth closed. “And as Erebos’smate,I am ordering you to go and find him. Or does that rule about listening to me instead not apply anymore?” She had further words to exchange with those who hid their connection from her. Although she hadn’t officially accepted being Erebos’s mate yet—she didn’t know how—she figured pulling rank was the best chance she had at getting Eryx to do what she wanted. “I’m the best asset we have at lessening the damage these creatures are about to dish out, you and I both know that, so I am needed here. Go. Find. Erebos.”
Relief flooded his eyes, likely because searching for Erebos was what the general had yearned to do all along. “Yes,My Lady.” He relented with no hesitancy. “I will return if I find something.”
But just as he turned to go, Catalina came racing onto the rise, heading straight for the general. Her steps faltered at the sight of Alessia and her wings, but she quickly recollected herself. “He’s gone,” she gasped. “They took him.”
The ground beneath them trembled from the force of the creatures' running, set to close in on them in less than two minutes. The guards assumed their positions, swords at the ready in a sea of red and black.
“Took who?” Eryx asked.
