Page 217 of The Queen’s Shadow

“How do you know they were even with you when you arrived? The moment you stepped foot into my court, I could have separated you from your party, and you never would have known.”

That’s not possible. I would have known… wouldn’t I?

“Or perhaps you never arrived at all, and you are all still stranded in the desert…if that’s the case, you better be careful. One blind quasar could hit your friend… what was his name… Conrad, was it?”

“If you hurt them, I will kill you.” I snarled, but Sirocco just laughed.

“So many threats from you. I hear you have threatened to kill the Queen as well. Is that true?”

“Yes. You know it is.” I snapped, my mind racing. I had thought he was an ally! This was royally fucked up. How could Dossidian think it had been a good idea to try to recruit his family? His father was a lunatic, clearly.

“Why did you come here, tiny queen? What did you hope to gain?” He asked. He wasn’t smiling anymore. His expression was dead serious, and he was circling me. I had assumed he was a good-natured, glory-seeking male who liked to laugh. I could see now, the cunning in his eyes, potential for cruelty, and brutality.

His dark eyes shone with intelligence. I was just a little fly that had fallen into his web of illusions.

“Tell me the truth and perhaps I’ll spare your friends.”

I spun around, and pressed my aura outwards, trying to see if I could find where the illusions attached to my magick, the way I had been able to find and sever the strings of Prince Zayne’s magick. I searched and searched but found nothing. Was he even here? Had I even made it past the border? Finally, I took a breath, and tried to calm myself.

“I came here to ask for your help.” I said. He narrowed his eyes on me,

“Lies. You came here to ask me to bow.”

I snarled at him, and his eyes flashed.

“I did no such thing.”

“You did. You want me to pledge allegiance to you so you can use my armies to fulfill your agenda. Admit it.”

“Fine. Yes. I was hoping you would agree to lend your armies to my cause.”

He sneered at me, happy that he seemed to have gotten the admission he wanted.

“That is the problem with you monarchs. You take and take and give nothing in return. What makes you think I would trade one hellish, power-hungry queen for another?”

“Power hungry? You don’t even know me!” I hissed. “You haven’t given me a chance to explain or tell you what my motives are.”

“I know you want to rule The Dominion. I heard what you did in Greed. Prince Zayne has bowed to you. Just as you plan to force me to do.”

“Zayne and I made a deal. He was a willing participant and he got what he wanted out of it, he’s by no means a fucking victim here.” I growled, and the Prince of Wrath glared at me.

“In the time that I have watched you in the desert, I have seen that darkness follows you and you are quick to anger. You nearly attacked me in my throne room. Nothing I have seen from you has convinced me you are a good fit for the throne. You are correct, tiny false queen. I do not know you, however, at least with Ash Nevra, I serve a devil I do know.”

Okay. Enough.

If this asshole thought he could bully me with a couple of cheap parlor tricks, he had another thing coming.

I wrapped my aura around him and realized he, at least, was solid. He wasn’t an illusion. Wherever we were, he was here with me. I snaked my powers through his and found that they were slippery and elusive. I had difficulty grabbing hold of his energy, but what I was able to latch onto was his slavery bond.

The moment he felt me grab the bond, his eyes narrowed in rage. I could see it in his face that I had just confirmed what he thought of me. He thought because I hadn’t been able to get ahold of his elusive power, I had resorted to grabbing him by the barbaric chain of magick that Ash Nevra had enslaved him with.

“I never gave a fuck about being Queen, Prince Sirocco. If I’m being honest, I still don’t.” I held him in place by his slavery bond and stalked through the endless darkness that surrounded us, my eyes flashing.

He might be a master of illusion, but I was the Queen of fucking darkness, and illusion or not, the dark was mine to rule. I pulled smokey snakes of shadow out of the pitch-black void that surrounded us and watched in satisfaction as they wound around his wrists and ankles. If he thought my quasars were the only thing he had needed to worry about, he was sorely mistaken.

“I wouldn’t normally give a shit about your damn army, Sirocco, but that bitch that you would rather serve, has my mate. She’s been torturing him for weeks.

“All I care about is getting him back. I was hoping that a happily mated daemon like yourself might understand that I’ve been a little bit on edge since she took him from me. So my apologies, Sirocco, if I haven’t exactly been the picture perfect smiling monarch you all think you fucking deserve so much.”