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“So easy to predict you,” Donika mused, her manicured fingers on her chin. “I knew you would check the throne room first, naturally. I would never be dumb enough to hide in my own chambers, either. But here?” She laughed, and the sound sent a cold shiver down my spine. I tightened my grip on Nik’s sword.

She took another step closer, but I refused to step back. I would not cow before her.

She had imprisoned me in the Stormvault and tortured me, but she had not broken me then. She had turned Nik into a bloodthirsty, soulless monster… and that hadn’t broken me, either. She had killed my father and countless resistance members, but still, she did not break me.

I was Diana Kotova… and I wouldnotbreak today.

I was the most powerful Stormshade of the Kotova bloodline, and beneath a storm of my own creation, I would reclaim my throne.

My father’s throne.

It had been stolen from us by someone only hungry for power, and today it would be returned. Istmere would be returned to peace once more.

Donika took another encroaching step.

“This room not only means something to you, Mother dearest, but it means something to me, too.”

“And how is that?” Annelise asked, her voice strained.

I couldn’t imagine how difficult it must be for Annelise to be here. This was the room in which Osiris cast her out of the castle. The room where I came into this world. So much pain had unraveled and endured inside these walls.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Donika replied, a smirk lifting the corner of her mouth.

“Enough games, Donika. You know why we are here,” I ground out.

Donika laughed once more, her head thrown back and her blue and white ombre hair shaking behind her.

“Little Stormshade, you are too funny. Of course I know why you’re here. To defeat my army of trained Noctani and Nightshade soldiers and take your place as the rightful queen of Istmere. There is only one little problem… ”

I knew she wanted me to ask what that problem might be… but I clamped my mouth shut, my teeth grinding together. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I have too many men for you to have any hope of defeating, of course.”

She spread her arms wide, indicating the Noctani that lined the room around her. Thankfully, I didn’t recognize any of them.

Zachariah and Corian were nowhere in sight.

“You think you have any hope of defeating them?”

She took another step.

“I have created theperfectShade. Both more powerfulandstronger. And the best part? They only take orders fromme.”

This had my mouth twitching into a smile of my own despite my best efforts to keep my face a mask. “Is that so?”

Donika’s expression turned sour. She had to be thinking of Nik.

“Ah, my one failed experiment, yes.” She shook her head. “Perhaps he would have been better off dead.”

“Don’t speak about him that way,” I replied through my teeth. My jaw was aching from the tension.

“Orwhat?” She threw her head back and laughed once more. It was always a performance with Donika. She always put on a show.

My left hand twitched towards Stormslayer—Nik’s blade still held firmly before me.

“He warmed my bed once, but I tired of him. Though I must say… playing with him while he was here in the castle really was atreat.”

Anger simmered in my blood, my palms sweating. She was trying to get a rise out of me, and I couldn’t let her. I needed to remain calm.