Chapter 32
Chapter thirty-two
Esmeray
I wondered how long it would take Adara’s cronies to track me down.
I put on a grand enough performance at the Obsidian Palace to royally piss her off, and I was honestly a little disappointed it took this much time for her spies to catch up.
Flying over Florra, I knew she would figure out where I was staying.
She seemed to have eyes and ears in every city these days, tracking my every move.
“What’s–what’s going on?” Merrick hissed, narrowing his eyes and scrambling to his feet, unclipping two jagged daggers from his belt.
I could hear them now, slowly creeping through the trees. Their scent had wafted over me moments ago when I tasted the tang of arrogance–and something sharp and dark.
“Adara sent me a little present,” I whispered to him, my fae senses counting the bodies as they began sliding between the trees into my enhanced sight.
Merrick cursed at my side, and his fingers must have touched the ring that connected him to Laurent, letting him know what was happening, because I felt Keerian’s ring heat between my breasts. I only smiled as the first three gargoyles came into view.
This is only the beginning of my retribution for you–for us.
I let Keerian’s face enter my mind–his warm, moss-green eyes, his rough brown beard with those lightning bolts of red running through it, his square jaw…
the way he smiled at me and kissed me, long and deep, on the patio of Sparrow’s home.
How he bent me over that rock and fucked me senseless–the same rock where I just finished fashioning my nails into throat slitting daggers.
I took a step closer.
Seven more gargoyles slinked out from the trees, confirmation I had chosen my spot well.
They couldn’t have flown in at us because the forest was too dense.
The waterfall I chose was perfect for Adara’s cronies thinking they caught us off guard with nowhere to flee.
But unluckily for them, they discredited my fae senses–the roiling of the air being pushed off the waterfall alerted me to their presence far faster.
And I had just taught Merrick a fun battle tactic they would never see coming.
The gargoyles formed a single line, shoulder to shoulder, drawing their swords in sync. The one in the middle stepped forward. “The Queen of Nothing–” he started.
I cut him off.
“Yuck. Did you know, I wasn’t privy to the conversation where Adara decided my new title would be Queen of Nothing? If I had, I would’ve chosen a much cooler name for my exile. But, you know how she is…so uncreative.” I cut Merrick a look that I hoped he read as ‘stay out of my way.’
The soldier ignored me. “Queen Adara has sent us to collect you to await judgement for the heinous murders of the Oracle, King Scottrell, and Queen Elera.”
“Well, that’s going to be a problem,” I purred lightly, inspecting the gleam of my newly sharpened nails in the faint moonlight. “There’s only ten of you.”
Another gargoyle sneered, “Ten highly skilled soldiers dedicated to our Queen Absolute versus the Queen of Nothing and her traitorous sidekick? I like those odds.”
Oh, I would rip his throat out first.
“I do too,” I breathed, baring my teeth as I unleashed every ounce of my pent-up magic and rage at them.