Page 90 of Crown of Darkness
“Ayelet!” someone screams, and I catch sight of a woman reaching for us with horror written all over her face as she’s pushed into the crowd.
“Hold still,” I whisper hoarsely. “I’ve got you.”
Dragging the little girl into my arms, I close my eyes and try to will us away from there. I can feel the Hallow in the castle, plugged directly into the ley line. It’s a drumbeat that calls to me.
And maybe if I wish hard enough I can somehow get us out of here.
Nobody’s ever been able to travel without a Hallow portal.
But I have the blood of the Old Ones in my veins and maybe….
Maybe nothing. There’s no link to connect with. The Hallow’s too distant.
Water roars down the streets toward me. I can’t outrun it. I can’t channel it. I can’t evaporate it.
My magic is useless, and—
A little whisper of memory stops me.
The Gray Guild whispering about how Thiago wants to bind me to the kingdom.
A bound queen rules the lands. She gives herself over to them and they rise and fall with her blood. My mother bound herself to Asturia a thousand years ago, and she can wield the land’s hungry power like a whip.
“You want a queen, Mother?” I rasp. Dragging the knife across my palm, I slam my hand against the cobblestones, marking it. “Then let me give you a queen.”
This is not the way it’s supposed to happen. To bind a queen to the land is a cause for joy and celebration. Not one of desperation.
Nothing happens.
There is no great spiraling rage of power. There is no surge. The stone feels cold beneath my bare palm, and I withdraw my fist, clenching it against my chest.
It didn’t work.
I’ve never felt more unworthy in my life.
But then my eye falls on the Wayfarer’s Oak.
If the oak falls, the city will fall, they say.
It’s the type of prophecy my mother would like.
Even if the city stands, even if most people escape, if the oak falls then it will crush the heart and soul of these people. Symbols stand for a reason, and I grab Ayelet and fight my way toward it, determined not to let Thiago wear the burden of this loss.
I won’t let her win.
Not this way.
I’ve spent years polishing my anger until it’s a shining blade of retribution.
I want her to lose.
I want to destroy every plan she’s ever set in place.
I willnotlet her have this victory. I will not let her take my city—my kingdom, my husband—from me. Ceres is mine. Evernight is mine.
And Thiago is mine.
Water sweeps the woman and her friends away.
