Page 32 of Queen of the Wicked
I lie back against the hard ground, staring up at the crooked canopy above; black, gnarled limbs stretching across the sky like scars.
The Well is calling her again. I can feel it in my bones.
But the three of us? We’re not strong enough to face it.
Twenty-Nine
Adelasia
“Adelasia?” Rowan says softly.
I blink and look up. We’ve stopped again. I don’t know how long we’ve been walking. The days started running together a while ago.
Rowan gently grabs my arm “You’re shivering.”
I hadn’t noticed. My arms are wrapped around myself so tightly I might crush my own ribs. Kaius is beside me before I can respond, pulling off his cloak and draping it around my shoulders. His fingertips graze the back of my neck, and I lean into them automatically.
It’s so easy, still, to find comfort in their touches. But part of me doesn’t feel like I deserve it.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
They both freeze.
“For what?” Kaius asks carefully.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “For dragging you into this forest with me.” I lower my voice. “It’s not safe. You’re not safe here with me.”
“You’re not a monster,” Kaius says, voice tight.
I meet his eyes. “Aren’t I? Look at my hands.”
I present them to make my point. The rot has darkened. The veins around it have turned a sickly violet, and it now extends so high it touches my shoulders. It looks like something diseased.Cursed.
Rowan reaches for one hand and turns it over in his.
“It’s not who you are,” he says. “It’s something that’s been done to you.”
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold it back,” I confess, my voice shaking. “It’s louder now. All the time.”
Kaius his hands frame my face. “It’s not you, it’s the Blackwood. Remember, it plays tricks on you, feeds on your weaknesses.”
I nod. He helps me take a few deep breaths as I try to fight the urge I have to run and hide. Not because I’m scared of them–but to protect them from what I’m capable of. This power I have feels ancient and terrible and uncontainable, and no amount of breathwork will ground me. It wants to lash out.
Still, I try.
I picture the rot in my veins as vines, and I try to pull them back into the soil. They only grow. The forest darkens—not from clouds, but from me.
“Adelasia,” Rowan says slowly. “Focus.”
“Iam,” I bite back.
The air thickens. My breath shortens. The wind kicks up, and suddenly—
The groundexplodes.
Cracks spiderweb through the dirt. The trees nearest us groan. A blast of shadow bursts from my chest, knocking Rowan and Kaius backwards with a force that sends them skidding through the leaves.
My ears ring, my skin burns, and when I look up…they’re staring at me like I’m something they don’t recognize.
