Page 37 of Queen of the Wicked
“I know. But I’m not alone.”
His eyes move to the men behind us. Rowan, with his sinful gaze still eating me alive as it was last night, and Kaius, tense but steady and ever watchful.
“As long as you trust them.”
The bond lines running up and down my arms tingle. “With everything. With my heart and soul and everything in between.”
He smiles, though it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Then I trust them too. But Adelasia,” he pauses for a long moment. “You will always have a home with me. If you ever need to run away from the world, find me in the desert where the sand dunes reach higher than mountains. The fires will be warm and welcoming to you.”
My eyes sting. “Thank you, Saddiq.”
Then, he turns to Kaius and Rowan. “Take care of her,” he says.
“We will,” they answer at the same time.
We didn’t wait for the men to finish packing. With one last hug, I left Saddiq at my back, Kaius, Rowan and I melting into the darkness of the forest, toward an uncertain future.
I look to my left and right, one on either side of me and lift my shoulders with a false confidence. “Let’s finish this.”
Three souls. One bond. Scared. But ready.
Thirty-Three
Adelasia
The Well of Eternity looks the same as the last time I saw it, only infinitely more…familiar. Dangerous. I wonder, if it wasn’t plagued by Eternity’s rot, if this place could be beautiful, even after all the misery it’s caused.
I stand between Rowan and Kaius, flanking me like twin shadows, ready to strike down any and all who attempt to harm me. Their presence always steadies me, but right now, it feels like we’re all barely hanging on. Scared.
The Priestesses were waiting for us the moment we stepped through the trees as if they could smell us. Cloaked in grey and black, they stand as still as the ornate statue of their dark goddess, looming behind them.
Though I can’t see their faces, I can feel them–some sort of ancient pull that ties me to their evil. Amatisi is ready for violence. Yekaterina, ready for revenge. I can almost feel her salivating, ready to pluck out my eye and replace the one I stole from her the last time I was here.
“I don’t want to fight,” I say, knowing they can hear me from across the lake. “I just want to return…this.” I hold out my arms to show them.
“Stolen! Stolen! Thief!”they chant.
“I did not ask to be made this way.”
Amatisi chuckles, stepping forward. “And you come here, wishing to be unmade? Why would we do such a thing? Do you think we truly sought peace with you?”
Then, Amatisi reveals the silver dagger I know so intimately in my gut. The ruby pommel stone glimmers in her hand. Her long fingers wrap around the hilt, and then…
Then she turns, slamming the blade into Yekaterina’s stomach. Kaius, Rowan and I gasp, confused. As her sister falls to the ground, Amatisi turns back to us.
“Eternity has chosen you, Adelasia. Your punishment for stealing what was not yours to take. You shall be Her vessel. Her new Matriarch. Blessed by Her dark powers.”
Her words pull a scoff from me. “I do not serve Eternity.”
“Not yet,” she hisses, making a fist in the air. When she does, Rowan is yanked from my side and pulled to the island with the Priestesses. Amatisi rubs a hand across his chest as Rowan is bound and gagged by shadows.
“Let him go!” I shout, stepping into the water, but Kaius pulls me back just as tentacles reach for my legs to pull me under. I turn to him. “Kaius, we have to help him!”
I turn back to Rowan as the Priestesses rub their filthy hands all over him like he belongs to them, like he wants this. “Join us,” she hisses, her whisper floating over the water directly to me. “Or he suffers,” she adds, before ripping one of his wings clean from his body.
I feel his pain in my own back, Kaius too, bound in love and pain through our mating bond. Kaius and I hit the muddy ground, groaning.
“Stop!” I say, lifting my head, just as they take his other wing. He’s dripping blood, looking pale and confused and horrified as they continue touching his body. His incubus powers render him unable to fight them, and I begin to sob, stepping back into the water. I can’t let them hurt him.
