Page 111 of The Queen’s Shadow

Iwatched as the clones all tucked into their empty place settings, each one of them staring at me with the same terrifying grin plastered across their faces. The real Vespara snapped her fingers, and our wine glasses filled before our eyes. I looked at Zayne, and down at my glass. I made the decision then and there that nothing on this table would be going into my mouth. Reading the look on my face, he gave me the slightest of nods, confirming my suspicions.

Nothing on the menu tonight was safe.

“A toast!” All twenty Vesapara’s said in unison, their chime-like voices making my skin crawl. I glanced at the real Vespara at the head of the table and picked up the crystal glass in front of me. Zayne did the same, his expression getting stonier and stonier as he watched his sister raise her glass.

“What are we toasting to?” I asked warily, as the mad Princess’ eyes seemed to shift in and out of focus.

“To chaos.” She sang, tapping her glass against mine, before taking a large swig. I raised my own glass to my lips, but kept my mouth firmly shut as I tipped the glass back, feigning a sip. I watched as Zayne did the same, the drink levels in his glass did not change at all. I looked at Vespara, nervous that she would notice, but she was too far gone in whatever recesses of her mind her madness pulled her to.

“Now for the entertainment!” She cried, clapping her hands, and to my horror four slaves entered the room, led in on leashes by smiling clones. There were two males and two females. Each of them had chains fastened around their throats and wrists.

Nausea rolled through my gut, and my nails dug into the armrests of my chair. I glanced up at Zayne and he raised an eyebrow at me, waiting to see how I would react. I could not sit here and watch Vespara torture these slaves right in front of me. I would kill her before I allowed that.

However, that would absolutely botch all my plans to get Kasha back. I needed to think. What would Amon do? I nearly winced as I realized he would likely allow the torture to happen in the interest of the greater good. I didn’t think I could do that. I would never forgive myself. But what if saving them meant I couldn’t save Kasha?

The clones manifested more glasses of wine and handed them to the slaves who looked down at the cups with a sort of resigned dread. They knew the wine was spiked with something, and I realized quickly this was likely a regular dinner event.

“When you use them too much, sometimes it’s hard for them to get excited about performing. The wine helps.” Vespara said cheerfully, and bile flooded my mouth at the callousness of the comment. The slaves stayed silent and still, waiting for the order to drink. It was as if whatever gave them life was gone from their eyes and only living corpses remained.

I felt like I was going to be sick.

“What is your preference, False Queen? Would you like one of the females, or one of the males to play with?” She asked me, her evil smile curling wider across her face. “Zayne doesn’t like boys, so there’s one for each of us if you want one… not that Zayne is allowed to play anyway.” She simpered, eyeing her brother with a smug look on her face. “Zayne is only allowed to play with me now that Cerenah is gone.”

Okay. Fuck this.

“Enough.” I snapped. My head whipping to face Vesapara. “Take them away.” I ordered. The smile immediately dropped from her face, but I was so beyond caring. Zayne looked disappointed in me. I suppose I was a disappointment. So be it. If I didn’t put a stop to this, I was going to throw up on the fucking table.

“You would deny my hospitality?” She shrieked, clearly outraged.

“I’ll do a lot more than that if you don’t get this disgusting display out of my sight.” I snarled, standing up so fast that my chair scraped back.

All of the Vespara’s stood in unison, each of them turning to face me. I was just glad their attention was now on me, and they were no longer focused on the slaves.

“Tell me where Kasha is.” I demanded, abandoning all pretenses. Zayne dropped his face into his hand, shaking his head in exasperation.

“Fool.” I heard him hiss, but I ignored him. I only had eyes for Vespara in this moment. She began to laugh, and her clones joined her. Her psychotic laughter echoed around us as storm clouds began to roll in over the city. A crack of lightning flashed and was followed by a bellowing role of thunder.

Zayne’s head whipped up at the sound, his eyes flicking to the exit. It was his turn to stand up. He went to his sister’s side, and planted a kiss on her cheek, making eye contact with me as he did so, before whispering in her ear.

She looked up at him, love and adoration permeating every feature, before nodding. What was going on? I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just glared at me.

“Good luck, False Queen.” He drawled before walking away and slipping out of the room, leaving me alone with Vespara, the four slaves and her manic clones.

I should have known he was going to be no help. I was on my own. So be it. This crazy bitch was either going to give me Kasha willingly, or I would beat the information out of her.

I was done playing games.

Raven

Drawing both my blades, I called my shadows to me. All it took was a flick of my wrist, and each shadow cast from Vespara’s clones turned on their counterparts. Her copies hissed and screamed as they fought against my dark shades. I launched myself into the air, flying down the length of the table to hover before the four slaves. They stared at me, wide-eyed as I reached forward with my aura. Wrapping my midnight energy around their slavery bonds, I sliced through them with my shadowstone blade, before immediately shielding myself against the shockwave of energy that erupted from the severed bonds.

The now free slaves screamed in shock, and they collapsed to their knees, trembling before me.

“Run!” I shouted at them, before turning my attention back to Vespara. I cursed, as I suddenly realized I could no longer decipher which one of her was the real one. I ran my aura through the clones, but they all felt the same. Each clone was bound by a copy of the slavery bond as well. There was no way to identify which one was The Original.

I quickly learned that finding the true Vespara would be paramount in overtaking her. As my shadows ripped into the clones and left bleeding copies on the ground, they only seemed to multiply faster.

When I had started this dinner surrounded by twenty Vesparas, there were now nearly fifty of them in the room. All of them were pushing to get closer to me as my shadows tore into them.