Page 42 of Skyshade
The sword came into her view as he lifted it high over his head. She watched the flickering of her hearth’s flames reflect upon it.
A low growl sounded in front of her.
Tynan might have been right about Grim not sleeping in her chambers...but whoever had told him that information clearly didn’t know about the leopard that did. The one who was barely visible when he slept in the corner of her room, sinking into the shadows.
A roar, and then her wrist was released. Her limbs were freed of the invisible vise.
She doubled over and gasped for air. Sweat streamed down her back and the middle of her chest.
Tynan was thrashing on the floor, holding a hand against the gash Lynx had made in his neck.
Lynx’s teeth gleamed with his blood as he awaited her instruction.
Grim landed in the room with a crack. His wide eyes went straight to her, quickly assessing her state, then to the bleeding man on the floor.
His hands were shaking. His voice was not the predatory calm she had come to expect.
No, his words were laced in pure fury as he bent down, grabbed Tynan by his bloody neck, and said, “My wife? You dare threaten my wife?”
Tynan made what must have been a gurgled plea that didn’t translate into words.
Grim bared his teeth at him, his mouth turning into a twisted smile. “You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy killing you.”
Shadows spilled across the floor, poisonous and ruinous, nothing in the world could stop them—except for the hand Isla placed on Grim’s shoulder.
At her touch, he stilled immediately. He looked up at her.
“Let me,” she said, in a voice she didn’t completely recognize. His shadows instantly retreated. Tynan’s eyes wildly searched the room, as if looking for a final chance at escape. But there would be no escape. He was injured, unable to wield his ability. She wasn’t frozen in her bedsheets any longer.
She took the dagger at her thigh and plunged it through his heart. Blood spurted through his ribs, down her hand, but she only twisted the blade deeper. Deeper, until the tip dug into the floor.
Something within her seemed to sing.
As she watched the life leech from his eyes, Isla realized with horror and fascination that taking it felt good.
Tynan wouldn’t have been the only one in the Nightshade court who wanted her gone. She needed to send a message.
Grim’s people didn’t need another reason to hate her. But she would gladly give it to them.
Air was stolen in sharp gasps throughout the room as Isla strutted through it. They had all gathered before Grim, who watched her from his throne. His posture might have been casual, but there was nothing mild about the lingering fury in his expression.
Snake queen? She would be the villain they already believed her to be.
Her black dress had thin straps and a plunging neckline. The fabric clung to her skin like a sheet of water, its loosely curled ribbons streaming gently onto the floor. Thin, poisonous snakes curled around her waist, sliding up and across her chest, keeping her decent, slithering.Two more wrapped around each of her arms. They hissed at the closest nobles as she passed them by, making one stumble onto the floor. The thinnest snake of all curled around her neck like another necklace.
Their looks of horror weren’t about the snakes, however—though each was poisonous. No; they stared at what she gripped loosely in her hand, emitting a line of dripping blood next to her.
Tynan’s head, held by the hair.
She reached Grim’s throne and threw it at his feet.
“Eat,” she said, and the snakes slithered down her body and raced to the floor, sending the closest people screaming. Their poison worked instantly, melting flesh from bone. The creatures devoured his eyes and tongue in front of the crowd. They swallowed the remaining flesh, and his eyes, all in front of the crowd. Wren had trained them well.
Someone loudly vomited. Another fainted.
Grim forced them to watch. Isla stayed until Tynan’s head was no more than a skull.
“Well,” she said, her voice echoing in the silence. “If anyone else wants me dead, you know where to find me.” Then, she turned on her heel and left the throne room, her snakes not far behind.
