by A. K. Koonce
The room clears in seconds, but all of the advisors, all of the guards, Sev, Isabella, and several onlookers watch hesitantly as the dark demon fae climbs the platform stairs toward my father’s throne.
“In the event of the King’s death, the eldest heir shall rule,” Corva says, skimming her palms down her dress, looking down at her small crowd, and then taking her seat in my father’s chair.
Mother is still staring vacantly at the blood pooling around her husband’s body. No tears fall from her cheeks. No love is lost here.
But astonishment is fully in place.
“Ryke,” my attention stays on the dangerous woman before me, “Take my mother and take Pen and get them out of here,” I instruct with fraying calmness.
He pauses, his attention splicing from me to my sister and then back again. Then he does as I ask and guides the two women out the door and down the hall.
“You cannot rule,” Johnn tells her, like a man who’s far too advised for his own good.
“Johnn,” he looks to me. “Shut up,” I whisper, and his brows pull low over his brown eyes.
“You’re a banished woman with no title. You cannot inherit your father’s crown. Only a blood-born Sinclaire of royal title can be Queen. There are rules!” Johnn steps forward, and that’s all it takes. That one little step.
And the room explodes with power. Black magic cuts out in inky colors. I shove the advisor out of the way, but the slicing energy hits Waltry straight through his eye. I don’t have time to find the breath in my lungs as my wings splay out, and I catch the air. I’m soaring down on her in seconds. My hands hit her shoulders and the force of my attack sends the solid throne to its back. With deadly intent, she shoves me off her, but we both go scattering across the floor.
“You can’t harm me,” I scream at her.
“And neither can you,” she hisses back, clawing at my hair for some sort of leverage as we grapple against one another. “But my friends can,” she adds with a manic smile.
I blink at her for several seconds.
And then a buzzing sound stings through the air. A thousand sharp needles pierce my skin. A scream tears from my throat, and I slap at the tiny insects, but there are too many of them.
“Pixies,” Damien whispers.
His big palms catches a few, and a cracking wet sound follows as he fists his hands together hard. Glitter slides through his knuckles. But there are so, so many more.
As I scream and kick and slap at the vile little creatures, a groan hums through a man just two feet from me.
Corva’s knee comes up over and over again right between Zaviar’s legs as he holds her by her throat against the ground. His arms tremble, but he never lets her go.
Until that lethal magic of hers slices out. It cuts through him, and I scream out with too much emotion in my voice as he falls to her side.
Krave, Damien, the King’s guard, and the Shadow Guard rush the flurry of pixies and my powerful sister. Damien’s big black wings fan out, and he tackles the demon fae to the ground with so much force, the floor shakes beneath me.
Smoke and magic burn through the room. It fills my lungs and attacks me just as much as the pixies slicing their swords into my flesh.
Blood coats my skin. I run as fast as I can, and when I find one more of the men I care about bleeding out from Corva’s magic, the bond inside me rips open with newfound rage.
Just as Johnn said, there are rules.
And mate magic, it overrules vow magic.
I slink into the shadows along the wall. I black out the candles there, until a dense darkness covers me like a blanket. I use the unseen shadow magic for my own use. I use it to ink closer and closer and closer.
Before lurching forward. The sword in my hand is striking, it sweeps down with power and intent. The blade lands hard. It lodges deep. The inky smoke around me is too thick for me to see where I struck her at.
But I know I struck her.
The wafting black fog clears little by little. It funnels through the room and is collected from the source it originated from:
My sister. She stands in front of me with Damien gasping at her feet, his face bloody but his body intact. The sword protrudes from her, sticking out at a sharp angle from her back. She smiles at me.
Confusion falls across my face, and when she turns, the tip of the blade is embedded into her back. But her black dress that covers her spine is a wavering color. It’s . . . translucent.
Smoke.
“I’m made of smoke magic, sweet sister.” She wretches the blade from her body, pulling the weapon straight through her stomach and out her front in an alarming way. “And you—you just broke our vow.”
Her arm comes straight back, and she rails the sharp tip of the blade straight through my stomach in the blink of an eye.
The air in my lungs catches. Warmth seeps over my hands as they shakily slide down the front of my gown. The fabric becomes darker. And my palms become slicker.
The fighting rages on around me as I struggle to keep a breath in my lungs. Damien and Krave battle shimmering pixies. Light reflects in their eyes.
They’ll never know how incredibly handsome they are when they’re determined.
Ryke . . . he’s safe. He’s safe for now.
Zaviar . . .
I fall to my knees but try to search him out. What happened after he was struck down. Where is he? Is he alive?
“Hey, Pretty Crow.” A deep voice is laced with pain as someone falls to their knees in front of me.
Zaviar’s dark lashes flutter to keep his deep blue eyes focused on me. His palm shakes against his chest, and blood coats the front of him, just like it does me.
We’re both fucked.
We’re both going to die, and no one can save us. We’ll die with death all around us.
He’ll leave his brother after all this time. And I’ll leave my mates. I guess—I guess they won’t be my mates after I’m gone.
I never even told Ryke.
I didn’t get a chance to tell Damien I loved him. I love him so fucking much.
I never told Zaviar that I heard what he said that night.
There’s so much I never told them.
But I have this moment. This one last moment.
“Zaviar,” I whisper, and blood slides over my lips.
“Don’t talk, Crow,” he says as his cold hands slide around me. He holds me against his chest, and I stare out over his smooth shoulder. Pink feathers fan up in a way that block my view of the destruction.
“You never let me change your wings back,” I say with weakness clinging to my tone.
A laugh shakes through him, and a hard cough follows the sweet sound of his amusement.
“That’s your last fuckin’ words, huh?”
A smile almost touches my lips.
“I don’t want you to die with pink wings, Zaviar.” My fingers skim over the soft downy feathers.
“Don’t,” he says, taking my hand and sliding his fingers slickly through mine.
I just look up at him as a breath rattles from my lungs.
“It’s the only thing that makes me feel like I’m yours,” he hisses through his teeth as his body starts to shiver.
“Mine?” I almost choke on that word, but it fills me with warmth when there’s so much coldness trying to sink in.
He nods his head slowly, tilting forward until our foreheads touch, and we breathe in each other’s final breaths.
“Mine,” I whisper once more with finality, my lashes closing with so much heaviness.
“Yours,” he says like a sweet goodbye.
My body slackens as I slump into him. I feel his hold on me loosen as my heartbeat thumps once more in my ears.
. . .
Finally.
I find peace.
22
The Other Monsters
Zaviar
Warmth scalds across my skin. It burns like frostbite being dunked into hot water.
Long hair tangles in my hand, and I kno
w who it is just from the way she hums softly against my neck.
I smile slowly and hold her harder against me. I’ve seen the realm of the gods, and yet, nothing’s ever felt as good as her body does against mine.
“Who the fuck is that?” A familiar voice asks with disdain infecting her tone.
My eyes open slowly.
Piercing bright whiteness surrounds me, and my stomach sinks hard.
I pull Aries’s naked body up closer against mine. Her stark black wings draw attention from the few people watching us as we sit amidst a soft white fog.
“I said, who the fuck did you bring here, Zaviar?” The shrill voice asks once more.
My throat tightens as I look up at the woman in a long white gown. Her golden wings shine in the intense lighting.
“Mira, how did I get here?” I ask the angriest valkyrie the gods have ever created.
Her golden eyes glare down on me with the heat of a thousand suns. I sit at her feet with nothing but big pink wings to cover my nudity. I use my wings instead to shield Aries from view of the others the best I can.
“You died, you dumb fuck.” She shifts on her feet, her smooth arms folding hard over her chest. “And when you returned back to your realm, you brought trash in with you. Get up and get her registered before Darine spots you.”
Fuccck.
The memory of white horns and crawling magic sends a spider-like shiver down my spine as I hold Aries harder against my chest. I hold her like I can protect her from cruel magic like she’s never seen before.
I hope she never wakes. Not here.
Because she’s about to find out that some monsters are blessed by the gods.
And I’m one of them.
The End
I hope you enjoyed book2 of this series! I’ve loved writing about the mix of good and bad in this world and I’m finishing up the last book. Book 3, Spiteful Creatures is coming soon!
Also by A.K. Koonce
Reverse Harem Books
Origins of the Six
Academy of Six
Control of Five
Destruction of Two
Wrath of One
The Hopeless Series
Hopeless Magic
Hopeless Kingdom
Hopeless Realm
Hopeless Sacrifice
The To Tame a Shifter Series
Taming
Claiming
Maiming
Sustaining
Reigning
The Royal Harem Series
The Hundred Year Curse
The Curse of the Sea
The Legend of the Cursed Princess
The Severed Souls Series
Darkness Rising
Darkness Consuming
Darkness Colliding
The Huntress Series
An Assassin’s Death
An Assassin’s Deception
An Assassin’s Destiny
The Villainous Wonderland Series
Into the Madness
Within the Wonder
Under the Lies
Stand Alone Contemporary Romance
Hate Me Like You Do
Paranormal Romance
The Cursed Kingdoms Series
The Cruel FAe King
The Cursed Fae King
The Crowned Fae Queen
The Mortals and Mystics Series
Fate of the Hybrid, Prequel
When Fate Aligns, Book one
When Fate Unravels, Book two
When Fate Prevails, Book three
Resurrection Island
About the Author
About A.K. Koonce
A.K. Koonce is a USA Today bestselling author. She’s a mom by day and a fantasy and paranormal romance writer by night. She keeps her fantastical stories in her mind on an endless loop while she tries her best to focus on her actual life and not that of the spectacular, but demanding, fictional characters who always fill her thoughts.