The Shadow Queen (17 page)

The dragon inside him snarled in vicious triumph as her outstretched arms left her heart exposed.

Kol turned and threw himself away from the girl. Away from the knife.

Away from the temptation to destroy the one ray of hope he’d found since the pain began.

“Halt!” the man yelled. The cold rasp of a sword leaving its sheath scraped the air.

“No, wait! He doesn’t want to hurt me.”

But he did. He wanted it more than he had words to describe.

Come back. I can help you.
Her voice filled his head, all comfort and beckoning light.

If he returned to her side, he’d kill her, and the pain would stop. But in the warmth that lingered where her touch had been, some part of him knew that the cost he’d pay for ending his agony was more than he could bear.

Kol turned his back and ran.

L
ORELAI STARED AFTER
Kol’s retreating back, her magic searing her palms, her breath coming in gasps, before leaping to her feet.

He’d run away from her, even though he desperately wanted to kill her. Even though the punishment for disobeying Irina was destroying him. Lorelai could feel his agony increase with every step he took. The part of him that had survived Irina’s brutality was fighting to overpower his dragon heart, and he was paying for it with every razor-tipped breath, every fire-laced thought that burned from his mind into Lorelai’s.

She’d underestimated his strength. She’d accused him of being without honor, when the truth was that he was trying desperately to save his kingdom at the expense of himself.

Trying desperately to save her—a girl who meant nothing to him—at the expense of himself.

Lorelai tore off her gloves and moved to follow Kol, although even in his human form, he was much faster than she’d ever be, but Gabril blocked her path, his sword still out.

“What is going on?” he demanded.

Lorelai met his eyes and her voice trembled as she said, “We failed to trick Irina. And instead of letting the blood oath kill him, Irina took Kol’s human heart and bespelled the collar around his neck to cause him incredible pain until he takes my heart back to her.”

A muscle in Gabril’s jaw clenched. “Without his human heart, he’s a predator through and through—one focused solely on you. I know this isn’t fair, I know the boy tried hard to act with honor, but we have to kill him. It’s an act of mercy for him, and it’s the only way to keep you safe.”

Lorelai lifted her chin. “No one else is going to die because of Irina. Including Kol.”

Die. Please.
Kol’s thoughts burned against hers, though they felt distant, as if the bond they’d formed was tenuous, and the farther he ran, the harder it was to hear the words that slowly formed in the tormented chaos of his mind.

I’m not going to die.
Lorelai snapped at him while she scanned the grove of hemlock trees that spread along the western edge of the Falkrains, searching for movement. For the broken king of Eldr who wanted so badly to kill her and yet was holding himself back.

Not . . . you. Me.

You’re not going to die either. Irina has taken enough from us both.

There was a flicker of gratitude from him before it was drowned out by a wash of agony that covered his thoughts in red and sent his dragon heart pounding.

“Are you listening to me?” Gabril demanded.

“I am now,” she said, but part of her was tethered to Kol,
to the pain that screamed through him and the whispers that promised him he’d be better once he held her heart in his hand.

“Lorelai.” Gabril’s voice was gentle. “We can’t save the boy. He’s a predator now.”

Yes.
Kol agreed.

“He’s not a predator. He’s at war with himself. That means—”

“You don’t know that. We can’t assume any part of the boy we met still exists.”

War . . . with you.
An image of her broken chest spilling blood onto the ground while Kol tore out her heart filled his mind.

Stop that. Focus on something constructive. You and I aren’t at war with each other, no matter what Irina wants.

“ . . . have to do what needs to be done. You still aren’t listening to me. Lorelai—”

Run. No. Chase.

“Both of you be quiet! Let me
think
.” Lorelai whirled away from Gabril and began to pace.

“Both of us?” Gabril’s voice was dangerously quiet.

Lorelai’s cheeks heated. “I touched his chest with my bare hand and sent my magic into him. That’s how I could feel the space where his heart used to be. How I know that he’s at war with himself. There’s a bond now.” Because meeting Gabril’s eyes felt impossible at the moment, Lorelai looked up, past the crease where the mountain met the valley they were in, beyond the point where the hemlock grove bled into the evergreens that covered the western mountain, and focused on the enormous command outpost for the section of Irina’s army that was stationed in the north.

“And you’re
talking
to him?” Gabril’s voice rose.

“It would be rude to ignore him. Especially when he can’t use
his voice—”

“Because he’s nothing but
dragon
!”

Dragon
. Kol’s voice was a snarl of rage and hunger.

You’re more than a dragon. You’re the king of Eldr. I’m the rightful queen of Ravenspire. And we aren’t at war—

War.
The hunger in his voice was a vast, violent longing that swept over Lorelai’s mind in vicious waves.

She scowled at the trees, though she could no longer see him.
You listen to me, Kolvanismir Arsenyevnek. We are not at war with each other. Your collar is telling you lies. I’m telling you the truth, and you need to listen to me because I can help you.

There was a long silence, punctuated by images of agony and struggle, and then he whispered.
Help.

“What if he shifts? If he gives into his dragon completely, we’re in serious trouble,” Gabril said.

Why didn’t you come after me as a dragon?
Lorelai asked and then mentally kicked herself. Putting that idea into Kol’s broken mind wasn’t one of her smarter moves.

She glanced at the tight line of Gabril’s mouth and decided that he never had to know.

Kol sent back an image of the collar keeping him trapped in his human form. Apparently, Irina was worried about facing a vengeful dragon as well.

Lorelai met Gabril’s gaze and said, “He can’t shift. Irina’s collar won’t let him. And he’s more than a predator sent to hunt me down. He’s the king of Eldr, his kingdom is falling, and he’s been trapped by Irina’s treachery. I can save him, Gabril.”

“The risks are tremendous.” He sheathed his sword and stared her down, his implacable expression demanding that she back up her words with logic he could accept. “If he’s at war with himself,
he’ll crumble eventually. Irina’s magic has tainted him, and in my experience, that taint only grows more poisonous over time.”

“Then I need to act quickly.”

“If you use your magic to battle Irina’s magic in the boy, you’ll have revealed your true strength to her. She’ll be more prepared, more informed, when you get to the capital. And you’ll weaken yourself if his heart doesn’t submit to yours, which will also give Irina an advantage—”

“I’m not just going to let him die! Not when I have the power to save him.” Lorelai’s words fell between them, hard as stones, and Gabril’s eyes softened.

“He isn’t Leo.”

“No, but he’s
somebody’s
brother. Somebody’s friend. And I made a promise to save Eldr if Irina didn’t do it. Kol is part of Eldr.” She raised her chin. “I keep my promises, Gabril.”

Gabril crossed the space between them and pulled her close. “I know you do. And I’m grateful that’s who you are. I just want you to be alive at the end of this. I can’t bear the thought of losing you too.”

She wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes, letting the warmth of his chest and the familiar weight of his chin against the top of her head make her feel safe.

Not . . . safe
. Kol’s thoughts were a torment of blood, fire, and death. Her death.

I know, but right now there are more important things.
She knew the risks of refusing to kill Eldr’s king. Of setting her sights on Ravenspire’s false queen and waging a war that would end with one of them on the throne and one of them in the ground.

Stepping back from Gabril, she said, “It’s time to start. You remember what we discussed?”

He nodded, his stoic expression back in place. “If you get weak from the magic, I’m to get you to the next location even if I have to drag you behind me.”

“Yes.”

“A task made much harder by the presence of a dragon trapped in his human form who is dedicated to killing you.”

“Use Sasha to keep him away until I wake up if you have to. Just get me off this mountain and down to the bridge that spans the Silber River and connects the Falkrains to the rest of Ravenspire before the army gets there. Irina will start using magic to try to stop us once she figures out what I’m doing. I need to be at the bridge or beyond it before that happens.” She flashed him a little smile, though there was no mirth in it. “And pray that Ravenspire recognizes my intentions and lends me its heart without a fight so that nobody has to drag me anywhere.”

“How do you plan to put a barrier between the ogres and my people if you can’t actually touch the land in Eldr? Don’t you need to touch the heart of the land if you want it to obey you?” he asked as they both turned to look up at the command outpost.

“I’ll use the river our kingdoms share.” She studied the way the outpost, with its thick stone walls and narrow towers, was carved into the side of the mountain itself.

Where is the armory?
She sent to Sasha.

Kol sent back an image of confusion.

Sasha sent back an image of a massive building housed beneath the mountain.

It was going to get complicated having both of them listening to her thoughts.

How many people are in the outpost?
she asked, and ignored Kol’s fractured thoughts as Sasha sent her pictures of row upon row of soldiers standing at attention beneath the pale blue sky while a woman with multiple silver bars on the breast of her uniform yelled something to them.

Troop review. Most, if not all the people who lived in the bunker would be in the outer court. The army hadn’t changed their schedule much since Gabril’s days in the palace. That would make Lorelai’s job a lot easier.

The bulk of Irina’s weaponry and supplies were housed in the bunker the stretched from the outpost into the center of the mountain. The bulk of her northern army was stationed here as well—partially because Duchess Waldina owned the land and was loyal, and partially because this was close enough to the Morcant border to act as a deterrent in case King Milek decided to challenge his niece for the throne.

Destroying the outpost and the bunker would leave the northern army without the resources to fight Irina’s battles from afar. Destroying the bridge that connected the Falkrain Mountains to the rest of Ravenspire would make it impossible for Irina to recall her soldiers to the capital for help once Lorelai arrived.

It made strategic sense.

It was also the biggest spell Lorelai had ever attempted, and she figured she had one chance to get it right before the threads of Irina’s magic that ran through the ground reported her actions to the queen and provoked Irina to do a spell that would save the outpost.

“Ready?” Gabril asked, the tension in his shoulders belying the composure in his voice.

“Ready.”

She knelt in the dirt and thought of the woman who’d killed her children to spare them a slow, terrible death. The villagers who’d mobbed the Eldrians because they were desperate to avoid a choice like hers.

She thought of Leo, telling her to run while Irina’s spell turned his veins black and stopped his heart.

Power flooded her body, streaking through her blood to fill her palms with the sting of magic. She raised her hands, wreathed in white light, and looked at the group of buildings jutting out from the middle of the mountain.

“Nakh`rashk.”
She slammed her palms against the dirt and sent her power deep underground. The heart of the mountain felt stubborn, slow, and unyielding, its power steadily syphoned off by Irina’s magic. The second Lorelai encountered resistance, she stopped pushing and whispered, “I ask for the use of your heart, not for my own gain but to stop the one who is causing our land to die.”

She let her magic rest within the land and willed her kingdom to respond to her. To help her. To see that she meant to heal Ravenspire instead of ruin it.

Nothing happened. The mountain refused to yield. Lorelai closed her eyes and whispered a plea. If she had to force the mountain’s heart to obey hers, she’d be weak and exhausted for days, just as she was after healing Gabril. She didn’t have time for weakness. Destroying the outpost was the first move in a carefully planned attack, and every piece of Lorelai’s battle plan needed to happen quickly. She had to keep the queen on the defensive—scrambling to keep up by sending out spells of
her own that would weaken her heart—and she had to strip all Irina’s extra defenses away, or she risked engaging in a battle she might not be able to win.

“Please. Help me,” she whispered. Her magic tingled and sparked, and then slowly, slowly the heart of the mountain moved toward the tendrils of her power that lay beneath its skin.

“Thank you,” she breathed as the vast, stubborn strength of the mountain merged with her magic and became a tool she could shape to her will. “
Nakh`rashk
. Find the foundation of the army’s outpost and shake it until every creature with a heartbeat has left its walls.”

The mountain groaned and shuddered. Trees snapped in half and tumbled down. Puffs of dust rose from the outpost’s compound, and then another shudder gripped the mountain and the outer wall of the compound cracked in half.

Soldiers came pouring out of the compound’s gate as the mountain trembled and shook. Lorelai kept her hands pressed hard against the ground as her heart thundered in her ears.

She’d known she was capable of great magic, but until this very moment, she hadn’t truly believed she had the power to bring a mountain to its knees. The sight filled her with awe, but a streak of fear ran beneath it.

Irina was also capable of bringing a mountain to its knees and look what the queen had done with the vast strength of her magic.

Tell me when all the people are out of the courtyard.
She sent an image of a deserted compound to Sasha.

Running.
Sasha’s thoughts were full of soldiers stumbling out of the outpost as a spiderweb of cracks spread across the stone
floor and raced up the walls.

Somewhere in the background of Lorelai’s thoughts, Kol sent bits of words and fragmented images. Lorelai ignored him as she fought an inner war to quiet the fear that the magic she wielded would turn her into the enemy was she determined to destroy. She focused on the images in Sasha’s mind of the soldiers scrambling for safety, and grabbed on to it like a lifeline.