Page 74 of The Queen’s Shadow

“Stop whining. You’re fucking embarrassing yourself.”

“She was just another sex slave. I-I paid for the hour; I was within my rights!”

The cold feeling came back with a vengeance. I dropped the Glock and straddled him. Grabbing his jaw with my free hand, I forced his mouth open.

He struggled beneath me, looking up at me like a dead fish with his cheeks pressed together under my hands.

“You were within your rights?” I hissed, my voice dangerously soft. He whimpered but couldn’t do much more with the way I was gripping his face. “Tell me, did you put this fucking tongue anywhere near what’s mine?” I slid the bloody knife into his mouth. Suddenly he stopped moving and lay perfectly still beneath me. I relaxed my grip on his jaw slightly.

“Answer the question.” I snarled, holding the blade steady against his tongue.

“I dinnddnn knooo shhhee wass yrss,” he struggled to speak around the blade without cutting himself.

Well, I guess we had one thing in common. I hadn’t known either, until I had just said it out loud. But the moment the words left my mouth, they rang true.

She was fucking mine. I had just claimed her. Now, there was no letting her go.

“Mmm suurry…” He continued, crushing his eyes closed.

“No, you’re not, and even if you were, it’s not me that deserves your fucking pathetic apology.” I snapped. He just sobbed some more.

I was getting sick of watching him cry. It was getting boring.

“Since you put this tongue on her, I guess that means I’m going to have to take it from you. This belongs to me now.” I said, snatching up his tongue and pulling it out of his mouth. His eyes widened briefly, but by the time he tried to pull his head away, it was already done.

I watched the blood spill out of his mouth and coat his face in a thick film of red. I listened to him scream wordlessly as he thrashed beneath me for a few minutes before I grew tired of that, too. His pain wasn’t as satisfying as I had expected it to be. I picked up the Glock and shot him twice in the head. The screaming abruptly stopped, and I thanked the gods for the silence.

He had been annoying as fuck.

I waited for the rush of dopamine I usually got from a kill, but it didn’t come. I was still cold. I was still angry.

Finally, I sighed and stood up. I left his corpse where it was on the mattress, next to his severed tongue. Pulling out Kasha’s notebook, I flipped through it until I found Koliath’s name. Dragging the bloody tip of my dagger across it, I crossed it out.

‘One down, Kasha.’ I thought to myself before cleaning my blade on Koliath’s shirt and slipping into the dark alley.

Only a hundred and seventy-five to go.

Dossidian

Iknocked on Meredith’s door, but she didn’t answer. Was she out in the greenhouse still? After running into Blackwood and The Siren, I was no longer feeling comfortable with her being on her own. I resolved to find her, before trying to get some shut-eye in preparation for the night’s proceedings.

The chalet was getting increasingly busier as the day wore on. I navigated through bustling hallways filled with magick folk of all shapes and sizes. They chattered amongst each other in several different languages, in varying types of dress.

Though I did my best to keep my aura as close to me as possible, inevitably, I still received quite a bit of attention. Aside from the fact that I nearly towered over every witch, wizard, mage and shaman that I passed, I was also a daemon.

Magick folk and daemons had a complicated history. Even before Ash Nevra had taken over, our species had often found themselves on opposite sides of wars. There were even ancient stories that suggested that The Origin first cut through The Veil to the human world to give the magick folk a place to live where they would be less likely to interact with our kind. As things grew more tumultuous, Aleites began to worry that we would extinguish one another.

Both Amon and I had attended Board meetings in the past. However, it was so infrequent for daemons and magick folk to mix, that curious looks and stares were to be expected. If I was being honest, many of the looks were not only curious, but openly hostile.

Since Ash Nevra had come into power, daemon relations with the magick folk had declined even further. As the years passed, the tone of the magick folk mandate to ‘keep the balance’ shifted from its original aim of ensuring neutrality among daemons, shifters, and humans. More and more frequently, The Board needed to intervene, especially on behalf of humankind, to keep daemons from overstepping. I could understand the animosity, and the lack of trust. Especially considering the magick folk had no understanding of what had been going on in The Dominion of Sin.

The prejudice was not one sided, after all. Many daemons regarded the magick folk with disdain, feeling that they often involved themselves in business that wasn’t theirs to meddle in. Our kind had not exactly been open and forthcoming about the state of things on our side of The Veil. Meaning, most of the magick folk had no idea that any negative interaction they had with my kind was likely forced by the dictator who ruled us.

This meant that Conrad would have his work cut out for him tonight. The audience would not be sympathetic to his request to get involved in a war that they did not feel was theirs to fight. Despite their tendency to stick their noses where they didn’t belong, they tended to baulk when things turned violent. It made me nervous. Especially if Conrad and Meredith were ordered to stay here, on this side of The Veil. My heart sank at the thought.

I shook off the sinking feeling of dread in my chest. No use worrying about things outside of my control.

Making my way through the busy dining room, where the merry sounds of chatter and clinking cutlery filled the air, I exited through the back door. There were several greenhouses out this way, nestled in a picturesque backdrop of the rolling green slopes of the Dolomites. I pushed through the wooden gate that fenced in the back patio of the chalet and made my way into the small series of greenhouses, looking through the semi-transparent walls of each structure, until I found her.