Page 45 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
“Valentine,” Belladonna croaks. “This one was meant to bemyplaything. You had your turn last time.”
I glance back at her. The smooth skin of her face is almost completely healed, but her throat still has a huge, gaping hole burned through it, covered mostly by her hand. She is recovering fast. Then I notice them: the shadows billowing off Valentine and encircling her, lending her power and matter for healing.
We can do the same, I’m sure of it!Keira says frantically.I can send you my magic.
She doesn’t wait for my reply, just forces her raw power down our bond. It trickles into me, clearing my head and allowing me to stand straighter, but it isn’t enough to fuel any wields.
Buy me time,she pleads.You are so far away.
Her magic hits a choke point in the bridge between us and much of it sloshes off the sides to fall away into oblivion, wasted. The little that reaches me trickles in slowly, but it is better than nothing.
Keep going,I encourage her.It’s working.I don’t tell her that there is little I can do against two of the most powerful Assassins of Belladonna, even with a magic boost.
“I will not stand by and watch while he burns you alive.” Valentine doesn’t take his eyes off me as he pulls a short metal pole from his belt and flicks his wrist. Twin blades of crackling starlight materialize, forming a double-headed spear. Its tips are huge with ornately curved edges. “But you are right: thisisyour fight. Allow me to herd him for you.”
“Do you think your mate is too weak to fight me by herself, Valentine?” I throw the words at him, hoping they will make him back down.
He laughs. “She is stronger than you and I combined. Belladonna likes to play with her food, but I am not a patient man.”
Valentine is like a whirlwind as he comes for me, swinging that spear rapidly in a single hand. The blades leave a sharp arc of glowing light in the air as they move. His weapon slams down toward me and I bring my sword up just in time to keep it from slicing through my shoulder. Sparks shower over me as his blade slides across the length of mine, and those drops of starlight burn all the way through my armor and into my skin. The agony of it is a shock to my system.
He smirks, his head close to mine. “Do you feel the burn of the poison yet?”
He rains multiple attacks down on me with that spear, and I narrowly evade each one. My movements become sluggish, my brain groggy, slowing my senses. Electricity ignites a path through my nerves, dancing with fire and making my limbs numb. I can’t afford to let any more of that poison drip from his blade into my body.
Valentine circles me while my heart rate slows dangerously. “You’d be a dead man by now if Dante hadn’t improved yourtolerance to our poisons. Shame that he had to waste his time on you.”
I focus what little magic I have left on meticulously burning away each particle of toxin in my blood, just the way this order trained me, but it is slow work that consumes too much of my attention.
Let me do it,Keira begs.I will clear your blood while you fight.She joined me in enough of my lessons to know what to do.
“While this has been entertaining, I find myself getting bored now.” Valentine deactivates his spear, returning it to a simple metal rod. Shadows pour out of his body. The ropes of them ensnare me, pinning my arms to my sides and dragging me to my knees.
He squats to look me straight in the eye, but when he speaks, it is not to me.
“Belladonna. Finish this now, so we can get to more important matters.”
I burst one of my bindings, followed by a second, because the fool has stopped poisoning me. He chuckles deeply as two more fail, then his eyes flick over my shoulder and my heart stops.
Heeled footsteps approach.
Cold hands grab my face, turning my head until I am looking into Belladonna’s silver eyes. The black runes are crowded on her skin, overlapping each other, and her lips have turned black. Not a single drop of magic stirs at my call, all of it expended. The ropes of shadow reform around me.
“This is what happens to warlords who come here and try to take what is mine,” she purrs in the softest whisper, then bends low and presses her lips to my cheek. Confusion blooms through me, right before searing pain erupts from the spot. “They call this death’s kiss, because nothing is more poisonous than the skin of my Nightmare.”
My blood turns to ice as my vision blurs.
Toxins flood my body, rapidly multiplying and attacking with an aggression I have never experienced before. They consume everything. My magic and my life force.
All I can see is her black form walking away from me, those long ribbons extending out from her body, her tail darting. I don’t realize I am falling until I slam against the ground, landing on my side.
I can’t move.
I need to get up.To keep fighting for my life.But I can’t make my muscles respond. Not even a twitch.
For the life of me, I cannot remember who I am battling. Does Finan have Keira locked in his palace? Is the Winter King invading my court?
I need to get up.
