Kill The Queens (The Darkest Queens #2)

ONE

Ace

Death was sneaky. Not that anyone would think back on that when faced with that white light they're supposed to walk into. That’s just how truly devious and tricky it was. Everyone always forgot that. But not Ace.

Ace saw spots the day she died, before the white light had even fully appeared. Call it foreshadowing. Call it a warning. Call it Ace’s mistake for not paying enough attention to it or to the feeling in her stomach that screamed for her to run the other way. They'd dotted her vision in warning. She'd thought it was a symptom of the fear that gripped her as she followed her family through the woods and nothing else. So she ignored her gut instinct.

Always trust your gut.

Lightning cut across the sky, the flash sparkled in her gaze for several seconds after, followed by a boom that shook the ground. Rain was coming down in fat, heavy drops that reminded her of tears as they fell down her cheeks. Was she crying? She honestly didn't know. She hoped not. She’d never hear the end of it from her siblings.

From her parents’ deaths to the growing feud between humans and Fae there'd been a lot going on. A lot of people to mourn. It made her heart heavy like an extra piece of luggage she needed to drag around with her. One she could never put down.

A few of her siblings were up ahead. Their forms were merely shadowed outlines against the trees. When lightning struck she would get a glimpse at their tattered dresses and messy dark hair. One of her sisters, her oldest, walked behind her, hand pressed between her shoulder blades forcing her forward.

Goosebumps chased over Ace's skin. A dark, cold feeling settled against her neck, creating a shiver that ran down her spine again and again. Those little white dots appeared once more at the edges of her vision.

Probably just from the flashes of lighting , she told herself. That’s all.

Her skirt snagged on a fallen limb. Before she could pull the murky brown material—that had once been some shade of light blue—her sister grabbed her dress and yanked. The dress tore and Ace's eyes lifted to her sister’s calculated face. It was the only dress she had. And now it had a gaping hole in it.

"My skirt!" Ace hissed up at her sister.

"It's not important." Ace could remember the exact way her sister's face twisted into something ugly when she talked to her that night. She’d never seen her look so terrifying. "Keep moving before we run out of time. The moon needs to be at the center of the sky."

"For what?"

Her sister shoved her forward without another word. Ace stumbled along, her heartbeat trilling in her chest. She was starting to lose feeling in her fingers, the numbness creeping up slowly into her hands and then eventually into her arms. None of them had told her what was happening tonight. It was a secret Ace wasn't allowed to know.

You have a blabber mouth and you'll tell everyone. They’d tried to reason with her.

No matter how she begged and pleaded with them they'd all kept it a secret from her. Ace knew she could keep a secret when she wanted to. She wished she knew the secret even more now as her flimsy cloth shoes sunk into the mud of the forest floor. Water seeped in between her toes.

Her skirt was ripped and her shoes were ruined. What a night this was turning out to be.

The forest opened up to a small valley where the moonlight poked out from parting clouds and cast its light. It was in the middle of the sky just like it was supposed to be. Just like her sister wanted. The storm clouds continued to shift and quickly the moon was out of view again. Did her sisters need to see the moon to do whatever they'd come out here for?

The small group slowed to a walk and then came to a stop. Her sister’s hand had slid up her back to the nape of her neck. Her fingers curled into Ace until the pressure made her squirm.

That's where everything got fuzzy in Ace's memory. It went from a dreamlike sequence to small flashing images. Some human coping mechanism to protect her from trauma. Ace wished she could remember it all clearly as she did the hours that led up to the exact moment of her death. She wanted to use it all as fuel. She wanted to know with certainty that she had died with a purpose and that it had been for something . Anything of value.

There was screaming, she remembered. Some her own as she was forced to her knees and no one had answered her questions. Some were strings of prayers that were shouted to the heavens.

She remembered the shine of the knife as lighting had blasted through the sky followed shortly by thunder that could have very well been Ace’s own heart. She remembered the terror that filled her as she tried to rip from the hands that held her there, as the blade was brought to her neck.

What were they doing? Why would they do this to her? Didn't they love her?

Steel bit into her skin. Pain didn't register till after the knife had been dragged across her flesh from one side of her neck to the other. Red seeped into the bodice of her gown even as Ace pressed her fingers to her neck and tried to hold the blood in.

Her next breath had felt like she was underwater. It burned in her lungs. She coughed only to produce hot droplets of crimson on her bottom lip. Her head spun. Her limbs...gods she couldn't feel her entire body even as the world tilted and she fell against the damp grass.

Though she didn’t want to accept it, she knew what all of this meant. Ace knew as she blinked, watching the wind and rain play at the grass around her sister’s shoes, that she was dying. Every second that passed, her body grew weaker. Her thoughts became slower, more sluggish, which was a striking difference to how frenzied they were not long ago.

Someone turned her body to face the sky.

More white dots appeared, bigger this time, making it hard to see the faces looking down at her. The people she called family. Were they crying? She blinked and her eyes almost didn't make it back open. She wanted to know if they were mourning her or felt remorse. Perhaps if she could look them in the eyes there would be something there that would tell her why.

One feeling vibrated through her as she struggled to stay conscious, as her throat burned, and her lungs filled with liquid. She wasn't angry. She wasn't scared or sad. Not anymore. Not when she looked past their smiling faces up to the moon that had reappeared in a suddenly cloudless sky.

Betrayal.

That was what she felt. It stained her soul and consumed her until her last breath. That hurt more than the knife and her aching lungs.

Then she felt nothing.

Her body was free from pain, light and...and airborne. Was she floating? Flying? No, no Ace didn't have a body at all.

That glowing warm bright light engulfed her. It soothed the pain and worry she'd felt moments ago. Ace could recognize herself, she understood without a doubt that she was indeed dead.

It didn't bother her though. Not as the light seeped into her soul bringing with it a new understanding of peace. It was quiet here. Ace's spirit was free .

That's it? a voice said, feminine but thick with an unrecognized accent.

That's not it. There is a plan, a man snapped back.

Whose plan? Who was talking? The questions came and went in Ace's conscious being as she settled into the comfort of no longer caring.

More voices piled onto other voices until it was a roaring chorus of angry arguments. Words she couldn't quite make out. It was all around her and it was loud but Ace's spirit rested .Time was passing, as it always does, leaving Ace unbound from her earthly pain. Those voices came and went. She remained aware of them but paid them no mind. It could have been seconds or it could have been days before the voices changed.

Make them pay. Make them pay. Make them pay. A chant began like a low hum until it took over the back and forth.

A voice whispered, small and gentle. It's not yet your time. You have work to do my little dove.

Mom? Ace perked up as she listened. Had that been her mother's voice?

Ace didn't know how she knew because she had no physical form but hands wrapped around her. Thousands of needing, pulling hands. Their grip tightened and the white gave way to orange and pink splashes.

You must go back.

You must fix the balance.

You. Must. Live.

Voices echoed back in the never-ending vastness that surrounded her. Her spirit lurched; those spidery hands letting her go.

Live? Ace didn't want to live. Living was hard. Living was scary. Living is what ended in dying, and hadn’t Ace already done that?

Living was betrayal .

She tried to turn back to the voices. She tried to speak. Could she even speak? Heat started at the pads of her feet, licking at her toes. Toes...she had toes! Orange rose up around her as she blinked away the white and took sight of herself in that damn tattered old dress.

Pain came next. Fire licked up her calves, searing the ends of her skirts and working its way up to her hips. It stung as an invisible force pushed her further into the flames.

A scream built from her gut and tore out of her throat. Her back arched into heat, her hair melting to her skin.

She didn't want to live. She didn't want this pain.She didn’t ask for this.

Ace reached out for something to take hold of, for something to keep her from what was now consuming her. Her palms swiped through the orange and pink strands of fire. They absorbed into her skin as she tried again and again.

It was all around her now. Burning at her eyelashes. Smoke choking down her throat. Fire crawling over her skin, leaving no inch untouched by its scorching kiss.

Orange and pink faded to gray and then to black and there was nothing left for Ace to grab. She could feel the weight of her body now. More than that she could feel how utterly raw her skin was. How raw her soul was. Every part of her was throbbing and pulsing.

Heat radiated off of her. She didn't move, couldn't move, but she knew without a doubt that if she laid a hand against her skin she'd feel like she'd taken on a terrible fever.

You will do the work of the gods now , someone said. Open your eyes.

Ace lay still. Somewhere water was running; it trickled quietly. Blades of grass poked at Ace's bare arms, a jarring sensation against her sensitive skin. Wet material clung to her frame. Light was shining through her eyelids, making everything red in the darkness she wanted to shrink back into.

Open your eyes, the voice repeated.

Air filled her lungs, expanding her chest. Liquid wasn't fighting her every breath any longer. Wind danced over her, blowing the edges of her dress off her leg where it had been torn. Her fingers curled into the mud under her.

"Please no," she whispered, her voice ragged and low. She didn’t even sound like herself.

It's too late now.

"No!" Ace said, more sternly, still keeping her eyes pressed tightly shut. "Take me back. Take me back." Tears were building behind her eyes. A single drop pushed through her lashes and ran down the side of her face, soaking into her dark hair that was sprawled out around her.

A tremble shook her body as everything came rushing back. Every bitter emotion. Fear. Heartbreak. And something more. They hit her like a hurricane hitting shore, plowing through every wall she ever built until she was finally swept up in the storm and washed away. A sob fell from her lips.

Ace sat herself up, finally cracking her eyes open. Sunlight was breaking over the trees, creating stretched shadows that reached down into the valley toward her. She dragged her slippers through the mud to pull her legs to her chest. The material had started to dry and the caked dirt had made them crunchy.She wrapped her arms around her legs, her skin looking, well, like it always had. Brown. She ran her thumb against her arm. Heat was fading from her in lines of steam that rose from her skin. Yet she wasn't uncomfortable any longer.

Each inhale made her body quake as she tried to force every breath. The ends of her gown smoldered too, looking as if someone had stuck her in...in fire.

Don't be scared, the voice said again.

Ace gasped and looked all around her. No one was there. And all she found was the dark stain of her blood that had been soaked up into the earth all around her. It made the ground look black. Even the brush nearest her looked burnt. She reached out and touched a single blade of grass and hissed as it was still warm to the touch.

She was supposed to be dead. She had died. Now she didn’t know what she was.

Tears were falling freely now. Nothing she could do would hold them in as she tried to absorb what was happening.

"Where are you?" she shouted into the woods.

In your head.