CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The pounding of my boot heels into the marble floor vibrated in my head. My thighs burned as my strides cut the distance between me and the amphitheatre. I flew around a corner, the tattered train of my dress billowing behind me as the halls disappeared in a blur of white.
The Queen would be in the amphitheatre, overseeing the dramas, manipulating my mindless sisters into half a dozen arranged marriages. I sort of felt sorry for them. They were sheep. My heart pounded in my chest, the tightness of breath the same now as when the Queen had tried to possess me—
No. Rheagan tried to possess me. The same way she possessed my mother. Gods, was there any chance my mother—the true Queen—was still somewhere inside herself.
With my insides balled up and writhing in my gut I paused inside the archway to the amphitheatre. The place was packed, the audience seated in ascending stone benches arcing from one side of the stage to the other, rising in rings to a hundred feet near the back. The crowd, absorbed with the drama on stage, was a scene from a Greek tragedy themselves. They were puppets and they either didn’t have the distance to see it, the courage to question it, or were too entranced by the illusion Rheagan had cast to realize it.
My gaze was drawn straight to Rowan, sitting in the Nobles box across the open forum. He was alive and unscathed. I breathed deep for the first time in half an hour.
His gaze locked on mine. I nodded and he tilted his head so slightly no one would have noticed. He glanced to my right. Ydorus, dressed in full Strati garb, moved up my flank and slid the hilt of a second dagger into the palm of my hand.
“Princess Grace,” one of the attendants said, waving to Zale. She’s here, he mouthed, pointing and turning with a light of excitement. “Praise the gods, Princess Grace. The nuptials are about to begin.” With a firm hand at my back the little man whisked me through the crowd. “We’ve had people searching for hours. Your intended feared you had met with some ill fortune.”
“Yes. I’m sure Zale was beside himself.” I climbed the stairs, joining the Eligibles and their mates waiting for their married lives to begin. The murmurs of the crowd rose as the actors fell silent and still. Ahh, I had everyone’s undivided attention.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, folks,” I said, finding Rheagan perched in her seat of power at the side of the stage. The Queen sat straighter but made no move against me. Her gaze narrowed. Any moment she could flip her wrist and her Strati army would come down on me like hail. Stall. I needed more time. “As you’ve probably heard, a lot has been going on.”
Zale cursed and stormed to my side. He wrenched my wrist and towered over me, his threat as palpable as the smell of fear mixed with his fury. “I don’t know what you’re up to,” he said, “but you’re an Eligible and in a few minutes, we’ll be married and you will do as you’re told.”
I shook my head. “I can’t marry you, Zale.”
Zale’s cold, dark eyes narrowed. “Now is not the time for grandstanding. This is your celebration day of your sixth cycle. The laws are absolute. Go sit with your sisters—”
I laughed and pulled my wrist free of his grip. Ydorus situated himself to the side, not far from Rheagan’s throne.
I gained a bit of distance from my betrothed and raised my voice. “Poor Zale, so worried about me tarnishing his image by coloring outside the lines. Regretting your vow to marry me? Well don’t worry about the nuptials. Been there, done that, got the Noble husband to prove it, fuck-you-very-much.”
Rowan strode onto the stage and moved close behind me.
“In fact, I’am quite pleased with the upgrade. Oh, and there’s nothing you can do about it, because like you say . . . the laws are absolute.”
Rowan kissed the top of my head. “Thank you, darling.”
Zale’s glower moved from me to Rowan and back to me. “You’re lying.”
I shook my head and tapped the rhinestone camera glued to my forehead. “No, I’m not. Priest. Rings. Blood bond, blessing of the gods, the whole deal. Too bad we don’t have time to watch home movies.”
I stepped to the center of the theatre and faced the crowd. “Citizens of Attalos, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Alexannia Grace, the long-lost Eligible you’ve all been whispering about. As of this morning, I am also the wife of Rowan, Noble of the Fifth House.”
The audience erupted in a wave of mumbling chaos.
Since I had everyone’s attention, I held up my arm and willed the golden brand on my arm to glow. “I am also a Talon Enforcer and newly consummated member of the Noble Council. It is in that capacity that I declare martial law and suspend the Queen’s reign.”
Voices exploded as Strati soldiers rushed the stage and Rowan, Ydorus and I spread our stances. I glanced over my shoulder to see Rowan windmilling a sword and three Strati moving in. Ydorus was similarly occupied to my left.
And then everything suddenly stopped.
The Strati halted mid-attack and assumed a ready stance. Following their line of sight, I pivoted to the approaching Queen. She practically floated across the stage in her floor-length red gown. It was a grace shared by her brother and niece, though I’d been slow to make the connection.
“Well, well, Alexannia, it seems you have quite a lot on your mind today. I would love to hear it. After all, I believe it is my right to face my accuser, is it not?”
I lowered my blade but remained ready to strike. “I know who you are, Rheagan. It took me a while, but—”
Her head tilted back as melodic peals of laughter echoed in perfect resonance throughout the amphitheatre. She clapped slowly, laughing as if there weren’t hundreds of citizens, soldiers, and Eligibles watching.
“A while?” she said. “In a mere week, you discerned what these mice have been scurrying around for almost thirty years. I was right to choose you.”
“I told you before I won’t—”
She waved her hand at my words. “You did, but you also didn’t understand what I was capable of at the time.”
Images of Tham bombarded my mind, his attack at Haven, his death in my room, his pyre burning until the silhouette of his body was consumed by the flames. I struggled for breath, the ache in my chest and back debilitating.
Sirens screeched in the distance.
Rheagan spun to speak to one of her soldiers. With her distracted, my mind cleared. I realized then that Rowan had gripped my shoulders and was urging me to fight the mindfuck that bitch was unleashing on me.
I steadied and nodded to him that I was tight. She wouldn’t get inside me again, or if she did, I’d at least be prepared.
Pivoting back to me, Rheagan raised a delicate hand. “I tire of this game, Princess. You’re much stronger than your mother, but still no match for me. Realize that before more people you love get hurt.” Pointing a long, slim finger toward the back wall of the open theatre, she waited.
I glanced up, then back, ready for the distraction to be a trick. It was the tone of Rowan’s curse that had me taking another look. No. No. No!
A hundred feet above the level of the stage, at the highest part of the amphitheater wall Terran, Coal and Elani were dragged to their feet. They stood bound and helpless against the Strati soldiers guarding them.
The blood pounding through my mind plummeted from my head and I fought not to faint. She had them. How could she—then I saw him. Estes. Estes descended the stairs, a wicked grin on his traitorous face.
“Why?” I cried. “I thought—”
His laughter sent shards of fury through my betrayal. “For a trained soldier, you were too easy to fool. Your need for someone to trust made you gullible.”
“But you helped me with Tham and with Tasso.”
He hit the bottom tier of steps and joined us on the stage. “I needed to show your mother what you were capable of, Princess. A credit to your father’s raising. At first, I thought Bruin was the special one of you four. But that wife of his, more trouble than I anticipated. I learned a lot from them though. Mistakes that won’t be repeated.”
My muscles tightened. “What the hell are you talking about? Who are you?”
With cruel delight dancing in his dark eyes, Estes swept his hand down the length of his body and the mirage he wore wavered and disappeared. The acrid scent of dark magic singed my nostrils as his visage changed.
“Abaddon.”
My mind spun with the reality of what I’d stumbled into. The Scourge’s big play. They’d been searching for a way to resurrect Rheagan for millennia and Abaddon had done it. Here, isolated from the Realm of the Fair, taking over the lives of these people. Abaddon had somehow broken the banishment Castian had imposed on his sister and raised her to life again.
I glowered at the woman who should have been my mother. “You won’t get away with this. Your attempts to take over the realms didn’t work back then and won’t work now. Castian will never allow it.”
Intense hatred flooded the Queen’s beautiful face until she was almost unrecognizable. “You will help me, child, one way or another.” An evil chill hit me like a wall and I staggered back into Rowan. You just need to be reminded the price for denying me what I want.”
Rheagan raised her hand toward the top of the wall and two Strati nodded. In a frenzy of arms and fists and streaks of red capes Terran was flung up and over the back wall.
I lurched forward but before I could make it more than a few steps Coal and Elani were pulled into position.
Oh gods, no. Not them too.
The chaos in the amphitheatre raged on as the city’s sirens wailed. Eligibles, Nobles, and citizens stampeded toward the exits. Dozens of rebel Strati drew weapons as Ydorus barked out commands and a violent rush of palace guards, soldiers and citizens joined our fight.
With nothing in my sights but Coal struggling at the top rail of the theatre I launched for the steps. I pushed hard, dodging the scatter of people and leaping over marble benches when the stairs were blocked.
Heavy footfalls followed my every move. Rowan was right there with me, racing to help his sister, taking my back.
“Castian!” I screamed as a steady stream of frantic citizens pushed us back from our goal. “Your fucking Pantheon is influencing the shit out of these people. Get in this game. Please, Castian.”
“Is that you asking for help?” Rowan grunted behind me as we were blocked by Strati. He clocked his guy in the face with the hilt of a sword. Blood spattered across the shimmering gowns of the crowd. A lucky elbow to my cheek had me seeing stars. I blocked my foe’s follow up and shattered his kneecap with a well-placed boot.
My thighs burned, my face stung and those goddam sirens were ringing in my head. Only three tiers left to climb.
No. Zale had joined the Strati. Together, they lifted the sobbing children. It happened so fast. Before I could get to them, Coal and Elani were flipped over the back rail.
Gone. My boy . . . gone.
Zale turned back from the ledge and flashed me a triumphant smile.
I slammed into him. The hot singe of steel pierced my side, but didn’t touch my agony. I clubbed him behind the ear as my knee connected with his quad. The bastard was strong but more wife-beater than fighter. He snagged one wrist but I kept the other free. Palm thrusting his jaw was like slamming my hand into stone.
His knee jabbed my ribs. Over and over. My vision spotted out and a thundering whoosh filled my head.
Do. Not. Pass. Out.
Quick jerk and I flipped around his leg, grabbed his balls and twisted so hard I swear I almost ripped the suckers off. The hiss of his breath was so fricken satisfying. While he wheezed and curled like a shrimp, I locked my hands around his throat.
“Face your reckoning, motherfucker.”
His chest heaved and his throat flexed. A hard twist and his neck snapped in my clenched fingers. Cold eyes widened as his lips stretched off his teeth in a sneer that ensured I wouldn’t be sleeping for a week.
The crack to the back of my head knocked me stupid. I tried to shake my head clear. Fuck. Rowan was down, his face obscured by a bench.
Scrabbling, I pulled Zale’s blade from my side and staggered to my feet. The half of my body that I could feel, screamed in protest. Vertigo sent me listing to the side. “Hang on, Rowan. I’m coming.”
Ydorus and his men battled the Queen’s Strati in every direction.
My knees cracked against the stone floor. “I’m here, Doc. I’ve gottcha.”
Rowan’s bloody face blurred behind a wall of despair and I laid my head on his chest. The rise and fall was slight and then nothing moved at all.
Till death us do part.
My body erupted in blinding agony. Writhing, I screamed as early-morning light pierced the blue sky above the transparent dome. Pain burned though me. It blinded. White spots and tears obscured my vision. Let death come. I was done anyway. I’d failed.
They were dead because of me.
The inconsolable grief of my vision paled to what twisted in my soul. Now, I could make out their faces: Tham, Terran, Coal, Elani and my beloved Rowan.
I would never breathe again.