Page 20 of The Queen’s Shadow

“MOVE!” I yelled at the fiery insects, and they darted away as I sent another screaming blast for the monster’s head. Its skull exploded apart into wet chunks of brain matter and bone.

After having dealt with the widowmaker, and not knowing how immortal this thing was, I called the darkness of the tunnel to gather around the corpse of the monster and set my shadows to work. I watched, seething, as my shadows dismembered the creature, ripping each of its limbs away from its headless body. My darkness scattered the dismembered body parts as far away from one another as I could manage.

‘It will not be able to come back from that. Good work my love.’ Amon whispered into my mind. Breathing heavily, I lowered myself to the ground. I was still reeling. From the illusion, Amon’s presence in my mind, and from killing that monster that had clearly been feeding on me. I touched a hand to my neck. There were several puncture wounds, all in a perfect circle from where it had clamped down on my throat to bleed me dry, like some sort of quadrupedal mutation of a lamprey eel.

‘Amon?’ I gasped into his mind. ‘How are you here? Where are you? Tell me where to find you. I’ll come right now!’

‘If I could tell you, I would. She has done a good job of keeping my location a secret. I have been working on breaking through the block she has placed on the trace. I’m so thrilled it worked.’ He sounded almost surprised himself.

I felt as if a massive weight had been suddenly lifted off of my chest.

He had found a way to contact me.

Across time and space, through the suffocating layers of the slavery bond and the repressive magick of the triquetra, he had still somehow managed to carve a path back to me.

It was as if the universe itself did not want us to truly be apart. Our souls were drawn to one another like magnets.

My aura curled and arched against him, and I shivered as his own aura whispered back against my magick.

He was alive, he was alive, he was alive.

“I tried to follow the trace I placed on you, but it’s just black. There was no way to get through.” I responded. Tears were streaming down my face.

‘That does not surprise me. It is more difficult to break into a triquetra than out of it.’

“How are you? Are you okay? Has she hurt you?” I asked. Even my mental voice was cracking.

‘I am fine, my love, do not worry about me. I am more worried about you.’ I felt his rage slip through his control and ignite against mine. ‘Where are you? Why are you alone? You could have been killed.’ He snapped.

I bit back a smile. He was such a mother hen. I recounted the events of the last twenty four hours, explaining the whole ordeal with Frira and the Widow maker to the team.

“I thought Frira was trying to help me,” I frowned at one of the fiery dragonflies as it whizzed by, clearly trying to urge me further into the tunnel. “Why would it send me in here to be attacked by that horrible creature?”

Amon went quiet for so long that I wondered for a moment if he was still there.

‘You did the right thing, listening to Frira.’ He said finally. ‘Luchorpán are nasty creatures, but it usually means you’re close to something worth finding when you encounter one. There must be something down there that Frira wants you to find. It likely sent the dragonflies to protect you.’

I remembered how the dragonflies had repeatedly appeared in the dream-like illusion that the Luchorpán had trapped me in. He was right. Recalling how Frira had belly crawled up to the opening of the tunnel, I realized the Titan would have been much too large to fit, and had sent these tiny fiery creatures to lead the way.

“Well, let’s find out what that thing was guarding. Maybe we can use it, whatever it is.” I could almost see him as if he were really here with me.

‘Lead the way, my dark, dangerous little Queen.’ He smirked into my mind. I bit back a smile.

Lead the way indeed.

Rycon

The widowmaker’s blood turned grey as it mixed with the water from the shower, twisting down the drain. I let the scalding heat beat down on me as I stared, one hand braced against the rough stone of the volcanic rock that made up the Prince of Pricks’ palace.

I was struggling to get a godsdamned grip, which was hard enough for me to admit to myself, let alone anyone else. Raven was spiralling too, which is the only reason I think she hadn’t noticed just how fucked up I was over everything, despite the fact that our bond had been open again since The Origin’s palace.

Ever since I met her, I found myself dealing with a shit ton of foreign and unfamiliar emotions. Life had been relatively simple before she had gone and bonded me to her.

Murder, fuck, sleep, get paid. It had been a good life, full of all my favorite shit.

Now, all of a sudden, I was regularly feeling all these other things that were much less enjoyable. Like regret, remorse, guilt.

Everytime I experienced a new unnerving sensation, it took me a while to figure out what it was, what had caused it, and how to make it stop.