Page 90 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Five

I set her down and rise to my feet.

The queen’s expression has changed from one of confident victory to one of distant apprehension.

A cold draft swirls in the air. The queen shivers.

She steps back as a gust of wind sends the skirt of her dress billowing in the air.

Ice crystalizes on the wall, blooming toward the ceiling.

“You’ve harmed the last of my loved ones,” I tell her. “And now you’re going to pay for it.”

Episode One Hundred Four

I WILL NOT FEAR

The queen’s hands scramble at the wall behind her. A second later, a door pops open, obscured by a mural of a summer garden. Frost covers the mural and the ice crackles when the door breaks away from its inset doorjamb.

She runs.

I give chase.

I am going to end this. Today. Now.

There will be no more pain and suffering. No more tricks. No more lies.

I may have only just learned I’m fae and part of the fae realm, but I’m already tired of the battle.

Do we not all deserve peace and safety and balance?

The Summer Queen wants none of that. She is only grasping for power.

The hallway beyond the receiving room is dimly lit with softly glowing lanterns staked into the stone. But I don’t need light to guide me—there is only one direction to go and I follow it, chasing the queen’s shadow as it stretches over the stone, as the hall curves back and forth on itself like the body of snake.

When I finally emerge, we’re in a garden and the sky is dark.

Thick clouds roll in blotting out the sun. The air is charged and crisp.

I spot the queen’s dress disappearing around a hedge row.

I run after her but come to a sudden stop.

The queen is now safely tucked behind the front lines of her army.

“Kill her!” she orders.

The fae soldiers charge toward me.

This is definitely not how I intended this fight to go down.

Shit.

Shit.

I got myself into this mess though, didn’t I? I didn’t follow the plan. I can already hear Bran in my head, chastising me for not thinking strategically, instead allowing my emotion to get the best of me.

He wouldn’t be wrong.

A clap of thunder sounds in the sky and reverberates through the ground as I backtrack through the garden.