Page 97 of Ballad of Nightmares

Her final conquest.

She backed away slowly in the dirt, one step after the other. The sound of her favorite lullaby hummed in her throat, a smile toying on her lips as she recalled the texts. A delirious urge snaked its way to the pit of her stomach that she hadn’t felt in weeks.

Ana left the cemetery with only one thing on her mind: her crown.

Sam took one last inhale of his smoke and then crushed it on the ground as he watched Ana walk back to the road. He couldn’t tell what was on her mind. Why that last smile she shared with the darkness had his skin crawling. Why she had knelt on the ground and almost cried over this man’s body. It had hurt to see it, and he hated how he’d wanted to take her into the castle right then and give her everything.

He’d watched the entire thing. Had run from his back garden steps upon hearing her scream. But he hadn’t interfered.

Deianira hadn’t lost her fight.

Hands in his pockets, Sam stalked back to the castle where he’d left the Firemoor soldier’s final seconds suffer.

The man was choking on blood, lying on Sam’s table when he went through the garden door. Sam lit another smoke and leaned back against the wall.

“Let me go,” the man managed through his struggle. “Let me see that next life.”

“Who sent you?” Sam asked, ignoring the man’s pleas.

“No—“

Shadows snapped around the man’s ankles and hauled him into the air. The man writhed, screaming, but the rings of darkness wreathed the man’s body, and he dangled upside down.

Sam pushed off the wall and sat one hip on the table instead. Toying eyes traveled over the soldier’s terrified face, watching every tear drop… His head tilted at the Fire mark on the man’s neck.

“You’re one of Prei’s,” Sam noted. “How did you get through my shadows?”

The man didn’t answer.

Impatience fluttered through Sam’s veins, and he sent shadows curling into the man’s wounds. The man cried out, and Sam squashed his smoke in his palm.

“The more you deny me what I want, the longer this suffering will go on… and on… and on…” he said in a daunting whisper. “I will gladly put you back together just to watch you bleed. Over and over. Is that what you want?”

The man choked as he shook his head in a pleading manner.

“Then be a good boy and talk,” Sam growled.

“There… there is a path of sunlight—“

Sam’s insides grew cold.

“—on the southeastern border,” the man continued. “It grows every day.”

“How many have come?”

The man didn’t answer, and the shadows dug deeper into his wounds. He whimpered again and shook his head. “A dozen—“

“Only a dozen?” Sam threw his head back with his laugh. “You expect me to believe that your little General found out the woman who murdered his king only sent a dozen soldiers into my mists to take her out?”

“It was a trial,” the man said. “His favored assassins.”

“And when none of you return with her head?”

The man swallowed, this time meeting Sam’s eyes.

“The entire army.”

Thunder cracked overhead, and Sam hugged his chest. “An entire army for one woman.” Sam scoffed. “It sounds like your General wants more than just her head.”