Page 55

A s soon as the door opened, I rushed in, sword at the ready before me. I had been ready to leap into action… but the moment I scanned the room, I stopped. My feet frozen to the floor.

Donika lay across the wooden bed on the far wall, her legs crossed at the ankle, her back resting against the headboard. A wicked smile graced her lips. Her eyes narrowed at me. My attention had been drawn to her immediately, her position suggesting she wasn’t even a little afraid of us.

And for good reason.

She was surrounded . I kept my gaze on her as I ticked off the Noctani out of the corner of my eye in my head.

One, two, three…

Four, five, six…

Seven, eight, nine …

We were evenly matched. Or… we would have been if we hadn’t lost the resistance member among the bloodshed in the throne room. The remainder of her Noctani must be out on the battlefield with the Araneoch.

Donika moved slowly, her delicate legs flashing as she swung down from the bed, her blue chiffon skirt trailing behind her. She wasn’t dressed for battle… no.

She was dressed like a queen.

I swallowed hard, my gaze focused on her as she crossed the room towards me.

“Ah, ah, ah… stay right there,” Puck warned from behind me.

I didn’t dare move my gaze from hers.

There were enough Noctani in this room to easily drain us all, stealing our magic and leaving us for dead.

We needed to be careful. As we had expected…

she hadn’t surrounded herself with her normal Nightshade soldiers.

She had saved only the best to serve as protectors for her.

She never cared about the men who fought for her on the battlefield below…

she only cared for herself and her own safety.

Donika quirked her brow at Puck. “I only need to give the word, and you’ll be slaughtered where you stand. Don’t think you can order me around in my own castle.”

Her words were cold, voice cutting.

A prickling sensation settled over my skin as my magic surged forth of its own volition. I pressed it down carefully, letting it hum right beneath the surface of my skin. There was so much of it I practically expected my skin to be aglow when I glanced down.

The sun had made its ascent into the sky and it had to be midday, the rays of light peering in through the window and casting shadows across the floor.

The storm still raged on outside, but the sun had managed to fight its way out despite it, peeking through the cloud covering.

Donika stepped through those shadows, her heeled feet clicking against the worn wooden floorboards.

“So easy to predict you,” Donika mused, her manicured fingers on her chin.

“I knew you would check the throne room first, naturally. I would never be dumb enough to hide in my own chambers, either. But here?” She laughed, and the sound sent a cold shiver down my spine. I tightened my grip on Nik’s sword.

She took another step closer, but I refused to step back. I would not cow before her.

She had imprisoned me in the Stormvault and tortured me, but she had not broken me then. She had turned Nik into a bloodthirsty, soulless monster… and that hadn’t broken me, either. She had killed my father and countless resistance members, but still, she did not break me.

I was Diana Kotova… and I would not break today.

I was the most powerful Stormshade of the Kotova bloodline, and beneath a storm of my own creation, I would reclaim my throne.

My father’s throne.

It had been stolen from us by someone only hungry for power, and today it would be returned. Istmere would be returned to peace once more.

Donika took another encroaching step .

“This room not only means something to you, Mother dearest, but it means something to me, too.”

“And how is that?” Annelise asked, her voice strained.

I couldn’t imagine how difficult it must be for Annelise to be here. This was the room in which Osiris cast her out of the castle. The room where I came into this world. So much pain had unraveled and endured inside these walls.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Donika replied, a smirk lifting the corner of her mouth.

“Enough games, Donika. You know why we are here,” I ground out.

Donika laughed once more, her head thrown back and her blue and white ombre hair shaking behind her.

“Little Stormshade, you are too funny. Of course I know why you’re here. To defeat my army of trained Noctani and Nightshade soldiers and take your place as the rightful queen of Istmere. There is only one little problem… ”

I knew she wanted me to ask what that problem might be… but I clamped my mouth shut, my teeth grinding together. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I have too many men for you to have any hope of defeating, of course.”

She spread her arms wide, indicating the Noctani that lined the room around her. Thankfully, I didn’t recognize any of them.

Zachariah and Corian were nowhere in sight.

“You think you have any hope of defeating them?”

She took another step .

“I have created the perfect Shade. Both more powerful and stronger. And the best part? They only take orders from me .”

This had my mouth twitching into a smile of my own despite my best efforts to keep my face a mask. “Is that so?”

Donika’s expression turned sour. She had to be thinking of Nik.

“Ah, my one failed experiment, yes.” She shook her head. “Perhaps he would have been better off dead.”

“Don’t speak about him that way,” I replied through my teeth. My jaw was aching from the tension.

“Or what ?” She threw her head back and laughed once more. It was always a performance with Donika. She always put on a show.

My left hand twitched towards Stormslayer—Nik’s blade still held firmly before me.

“He warmed my bed once, but I tired of him. Though I must say… playing with him while he was here in the castle really was a treat .”

Anger simmered in my blood, my palms sweating. She was trying to get a rise out of me, and I couldn’t let her. I needed to remain calm.

“I see another warms your bed, now. And what about poor Corian? I thought he was your second hand,” I taunted.

The mention of what I had seen in my dream had her bristling. Her eyes, despite being endlessly inky black, were alight with a fire I had never seen before.

“Zachariah and Corian both have their uses,” she mused.

I scoffed at this. Leave it to Donika to not only use her soldiers to fight for her, but for her own pleasure. Everyone was disposable to her, including her own family. People were merely pawns for her to move around the board as she saw fit.

“Enough of this,” I spat, taking my own step towards her.

She raised her brow at me in surprise.

“Little Stormshade, none of it will matter in the end. Your forces are being slaughtered on the battlefield below. You will join those numbers soon enough.” She shrugged, feigning nonchalance.

If I wasn’t paying close enough attention, I would have missed the slight shake in her hand as she raised her fingers to inspect her manicure, shadows swirling around her blackened fingertips.

“You’re right, Donika. None of it will matter… when you are dead .”

She giggled, and for one mere moment, she sounded very, very young. “You think you can kill me?”

I inclined my head as I watched her with narrowed eyes. “I know I can.”

I allowed my magic to spark through my fingers and the blade in my grasp illuminated with amethyst magic. Thunder cracked overhead so loudly the floorboards beneath us shook.

It was my turn to smile.

Donika’s gaze flitted away for a mere moment, but not before I could read the confusion in her expression.

She had to know of the binding ceremony, with our own mother being bound.

Hadn’t she ever wondered how Annelise had been able to use and control her own magic all these years without it swallowing her or betraying her?

Realization dawned in her gaze as her eyes darted towards the window.

She mustn’t have known I had found myself a binding partner in Nikolai.

She had underestimated our connection to one another.

Did she also know the stipulation of the binding, that if I died, Nikolai would too?

And that the same was true in reverse? If she could only kill Nikolai—which might be easier for her—that would solve her ‘little Stormshade’ problem.

I stepped into her field of vision, blocking her view of the window beyond.

“It’s too late now.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, she gave a soft nod, and one of the Noctani moved to leave the room.

Alastir raised his hand, an incantation spilling forth from his lips before anyone else could so much as blink. In a matter of seconds, a glimmering ocher barricade encapsulated the doorway, pulsing.

“No one leaves.” His voice was gruff when he spoke. “It ends here.”

Donika’s eyes sparked with recognition as she took him in for the first time.

“Alastir?” Her voice sounded… small.

Alastir set his jaw. He might be older, but he was one of the most powerful Shades in the realm. He was blessed by the Mother herself. Donika would have known him from when she was a soldier in Osiris’s army, training at the academy with Alastir daily .

His expression was sad as he took her in. There was so much history there, passing between them. Donika had killed Osiris, his oldest friend. And now Alastir would help to avenge his murder by killing his protégé.

The Noctani who had tried to leave the room banged uselessly against the magical barrier before turning towards us, letting a hiss escape her fanged mouth.

Donika raised her hand, signaling for her to quiet. To wait.

Just as a trained dog might, the Noctani settled into submission, quietly taking her place back by the wall.

The tension in the room was palpable. The hairs on my arms were raised as Donika smiled to herself. Whispered words escaped her lips. I wasn’t sure if they were a spell or a prayer. I wasn’t sure she even prayed to the Mother at all anymore.

With no other warning she raised her hand, and the Noctani surged forth.