Page 50 of My Demon Desire
Then Reis pulls me from Thorne's arms into a bear hug, inhaling my hair. When I pull back, he brushes his lips against mine.
"Reunions and kissing later," Kaden reprimands us. "We need to go... now."
Reis lets me go and we race up the stairs. When we reach my dad, Thorne picks him up this time with Reis behind us and Kaden in the front with the orb.
"There they are, get them," a guard yells.
Kaden lifts the orb, and in a swirl of smoke, we're outside behind the castle walls.
But the guards are still after us. "Run," Kaden shouts, and we make for the forest that's three hundred yards away, but feels like forever.
We keep running with the guards on our heels.
"Annalise," Reis shouts. "Get down."
Something hits me in the back, knocking the wind out of me and my legs tangle up in something.
Kaden turns and throws the last orb. It hits the ground with a loud explosion, and in a split second, the vines around me wrap tighter and tighter. I can't get them off me, can't get loose.
I scream as I feel like I'm going to be crushed to death.
Reis falls to his knees beside me, pale, and worry furrows his brow.
"What is it? Get it off me."
"It's a summoning charm." Reis meets my stare. "No one can break it save the one who crafted it. The queen."
"I warned you," Morrigan's voice carries across the air. "Since you did not accept my terms, you all will die."
Black vines erupt from the ground and snag onto Reis's leg.
He blasts them with magic, but it only makes more appear. I lift my head, seeing my dad, Kaden, and Thorne trapped in creeping vines as well.
"Who shall we kill first, Annalise?" The queen chuckles. "Your father... or one of your lovers?"
"No, please." But the vines choke off my words, digging into my neck and squeezing the air out of my lungs.
CHAPTER17
ANNALISE
"Kill Kaden first," the queen says and the vines around my chest and throat ease a fraction. "He was always a troublemaker.”
Fear overtakes me. "Please, don't do this. Me and my father will leave. Neither of us wants your throne or to overthrow you." Though after seeing the condition of the prisoners and how hard Kaden, Reis, and Thorne fought to keep me safe from her, I've my doubts she should be queen.
She laughs mirthlessly, throwing her head back before meeting my gaze with cruelty in her eyes. "Your father on the throne? He's nothing but a puny human."
"That's... that's not true." I look from her to the dark fae struggling with the vines, to my father. "I'm part fae."
"Not through him, you're not." She point's a ring finger at my dad. "I've had him tested. He's 100% human with no fae blood whatsoever."
"B-But the ritual, the portal," I blink, trying to figure out what all this means. "Dad, you have magic, y-you opened a portal when you tried—" I couldn't finish the words of how he'd dug up Mom's body to try and bring her back to life. "Dad?"
His eyes are pleading with me, but then he looks at the queen and her guards with a sour face.
"Do you think I'd allow him to live if he had one spec of fae blood?" She shook her head. "And here I thought you were smart by staying hidden all this time."
"But he's not a threat." And evidently, neither am I, even if I have fae blood, it can't be royal. Is that what Reis was trying to tell me? Not that he wasn't sure, but didn't know how to say why I had the royal birthmark and yet didn't have royal blood. "Let us go, please. None of us will get in your way."
