Page 12 of Queen of the Wicked
“Kaius,” Rowan warns. “You know it wasn’t just a nightmare. One does not simply dream of the Well. It’s calling to her because it’s not done with her.”
I turn my head to look at him, and I find no smugness there, only concern. It twists my chest.
“Don’t you see they’re trying to scare her?” Kaius shouts.
“Don’t you see the magic is ripping her apart?”
“Enough,” I breathe. The word slices through the air like a blade, but they don’t hear me, their bickering at each other growing louder. My breathing turns uneasy and the irritation soaks into my bones and turns into raw fury. The walls begin to tremble, but they’re still so caught up in each other that they don’t see it. They don’t seeme.
“Stay away from her, Rowan.”
“Why? Because I see her for what she is now? Because I’m trying to save her from the rot that’s eating her alive?”
“She’s not yours to save. She’s mine–”
“I am not a possession!”
My voice bounces off the walls in an eerie, unsettling way. The darkness bursts outward from my chest unexpectedly, pushing both of them off the bed and onto the floor on their backs.
I shakily stand upright and plant myself near them, standing above them like the queen I know I am.
“You speak around me like I’m not here. Like I am a problem to solve. I am not a broken thing you two must take turns trying to fix.”
They both look at me, but not as I want to be seen. My throat suddenly tightens in a defeated way, and my anger recedes like a tide into broken despair.
“I’m scared,” I admit. “And neither of you are listening.” I turn away from both of them dismissively. “Get out.”
“Adelasia–” they say together.
“Now! Both of you, out!”
My voice shakes the very foundation of the Obsidian Palace. Silence follows as they obey.
Obey.I take a deep breath of relief when a weight feels like it’s rolled off my shoulders. Their submission makes me feel powerful and strong. My fingers begin to tremble again, and I watch in horror as the rot crawls further up my palms.
I sink to the floor and my fingers clench into the cold marble, cracking it under me. I try to steady my breathing and close my eyes, trying to remember the face of the dead man in my dream.
Was it Kaius, or was it Rowan?
No matter how hard I focus, all I can see is the blood.
And the worst part is…there’s a part of me that doesn’t care.
Ten
Rowan
There’s a particular quiet that settles in after a woman has screamed at you. One born not of peace, but of shame. It clings to the walls, nestles into the cracks between breaths, and waits.
Kaius stands beside me like a statue, back rigid, jaw clenched tight enough to snap. His hands twitch at his sides like he doesn’t know whether to punch the wall or wrap them around Adelasia’s waist and beg her for forgiveness and to come back to him as the girl he fell in love with.
I don’t know how long we’ve been standing outside her door.
Minutes. Hours. Aneternity. Fitting, perhaps.
I glance over at him. “Well,” I murmur, voice low. “I think it’s safe to say that could have gone better than it did.”
His eyes flash crimson, but I don’t flinch. I never have. Not when it comes to him.
