It was dark, and the scoreboard glowed in dim shades of blue, black, and gray. Totals were updating every second. Names were bumping up and down in the ranks. Mine was flittering somewhere between first and fifth, battling it out with Nerissa, Annika Eriksson, Maren, and an Azikizon girl named Sasha.
I looked around, fear and nausea crawled up my throat at the sight of my utter solitude. Where was Gage? We’d entered the trial together. Why had we not completed it together?
How the fuck did one summon a Blood Witch?
I planted my legs and stretched my arms out wide. “Ezra! Show yourself! I need to talk to you now!”
And with that, I summoned as much light energy as I could in the form of a spell.
“Light burning deep inside, send the Blood Witch to my side!”
A beam of glittering light erupted from my face and shot upwards toward the arched ceiling of the building, maybe even pierced through it and blasted into the night sky. I couldn’t be sure.
Suddenly, my mother clicked her tongue, breaking my concentration. The light faltered, and I was left with a nauseating headache.
She stepped from the shadows in an elegant silk gown, her blonde hair tucked tightly into a flawless French twist. She was tall, like Nerissa, and arrogant like her too. It never used to bother me.
“The Blood Witch is an incredibly busy woman, Eliza. But don’t worry. I already know what you’re after. Your dragon is alive.”
She said the word dragon like it was dirty. As if she’d mentally grabbed it between thumb and forefinger, doing her best to not touch it at all.
I guess I always knew shifters were sort of looked down upon, but I hadn’t really thought much of it until now. Now, when it pertained to me. I hated how shallow that was. As a royal, I should’ve been looking out for them all along. They were my people, too, with fantastical abilities just like us.
I straightened my back and lifted my chin.
“My prince, you mean,” I said, giving him the title he so rightfully deserved. “Possibly even the king of all magical beings when this competition is over with.”
She scoffed. “Eliza, please. You know your sister is the favorite to the throne. Just gracefully stand aside so that she can rule as she was born to do.”
My mouth literally fell open. “Are you serious? You know your precious eldest daughter practices dark magic?”
“She would never,” Mother practically spat, her lips thin. “And I don’t want to hear you accuse her of such. Especially when she’s so close to winning the Trials.”
I honestly thought she genuinely believed herself.
“Mother, she’s a necromancer! I literally watched her raise a dead guy from the ground last night!”
“Enough, Eliza.”
“Seriously! Maren has seen it too, and Gage and Eli.”
“I said enough!” She stomped a high-heeled foot, the sharp sound echoing loudly through the empty room. “I don’t want to hear another word of this heresy. Your sister has been training to be Queen Witch since the day she was born. She’s mastered every aspect of the title, and it’s now time for her to take her rightful place. You need to accept that and assume your role as future queen of Terranea with dignity and poise. Imagine how weakened the structure of our world would become if someone as naïve as you were to sit on the highest throne. Our kingdom would be nothing more than a target. Even if Nerissa managed to become queen of Terranea underneath you, it wouldn’t be enough. Our enemies are ruthless. They would swallow you—and us—whole. As much as you want to win, you don’t want the destruction of our great nation, do you?”
I pursed my lips, doing my damnedest to hold my tongue. “No, Mother. I don’t.”
She sighed, and smiled for the first time since she’d shown up. “Good.”
“Which is why,” I continued mockingly, “I will not be backing down. Nerissa might be smarter, stronger, and more powerful than me, but I refuse to sit back and let a dark witch rule. Even someone as naïve as me would be better at ruling than a monster.”
She clutched at her chest as if safeguarding her heart. “How can you say such hateful things to your mother? How can you insult your dear sister so terribly? Are you not grateful for the life you’ve been given? Are you not content with having anything your heart desires?”
“It’s not hateful, it’s true. And Nerissa’s not dear, she’s evil.” I slowly marched right up to her and got in her face. “And I’m not content with this life. Not anymore. I realize now that there is so much more I need to be doing. I won’t lounge around in comfort while there are others living in a constant state of distress simply because of what they are. So thank you for that kick in the ass. I needed it.”
She sneered at me, but for once kept her damn mouth shut.
Who the hell even was this woman? She wasn’t this awful just a few weeks ago. But then again, I had changed since then. I cared about things that I never used to, things she still didn’t care about. Perhaps it wasn’t that she used to be so virtuous, but rather that I used to be so blind?
“Now,” I continued, glaring daggers at her. “Where is my prince?”
She glared right back. “The palace infirmary, of course.”
I spun on my heel and started walking away, but her words stopped me dead in my tracks.
“It’ll be interesting to see how much you still care about him once the Sixth Trial begins. I hear it’s going to be quite a show to watch.”
Grinding my teeth and clenching my fists, I forced myself to keep walking.
I needed to get to Gage before I ripped her fucking face off.
Chapter 18
I didn’t know what I was expecting.
Gage, lying there, completely comatose, hooked up to a hundred Ivs and wrapped like a mummy in white gauze?
But him standing there casually, in nothing but a pair of black sweatpants as a nurse checked his eyes, throat, and ears, was not it.
“Gage!” I cried, running into his burly arms.
He hugged me tightly and chuckled. “Easy, Princess. Your potion was kickass, but not that kickass.”
I backed away quickly, and he pointed to a pink scar across his side.
My eyes widened. “The trial was real? You were actually stabbed?”
He cocked his head and a tuft of dark hair dropped into his eye. “It would appear so.”
Anger resurfaced and boiled hot in my veins, threatening to overflow. This was so much bullshit! The Trials were never supposed to be like this. What the hell had happened to Shayna—the recently deceased Queen Witch—that would make this insane method of succession a viable option? Or was the awful treatment simply because Gage was a shifter?
“You called me ‘baby,’” he said, immediately snapping me out of my rage.
He was grinning. Those dimples chased the ire right away.
“What?”
“In the trial,” he said, pulling me close again. “You called me ‘baby.’ I liked it.”
The nurse blushed and excused herself.
I blushed too, but I had nowhere to hide. Not that I wanted to.
“Must’ve been a reflex,” I said, voice inadvertently dipping low and husky as I studied his chiseled jawline. His neck was so close to my lips, I could practically taste him. His natural spicy scent filled my lungs, dizzying me.
“An interesting impulse,” he said.
I closed my eyes and tucked my lips in, fighting the urge to get lost in the heat of his body. As much as I longed for it, there were more dire things at hand. Like not dying, and figuring out where the living dead had scurried off to.
I sighed. “We have to figure some shit out tonight.”
He dropped his forehead to mine. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We need to be alive in order to make our relationship work at all, right?”
I grinned. “Unless we’re vampires.”
“Or zombies.”
I groaned. “
Oh, God, not those. One is plenty.”
He smiled and touched my chin, opening my lips and kissing me with the slow-burning passion of the sun. A kiss that subtly promised there’d be more to come. Tingles flittered the whole way down to my toes.
“Thank you for saving my life,” he murmured.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” I said, and I damn well meant it.
But before the conversation could get too mushy, I quickly changed the subject.
“Come on. Let’s start by finding out what Nerissa has done with that zombie.”
He took his place beside me as we left the infirmary behind. “Do you know where she’s at?”
I shook my head. “No, but a graveyard is a pretty solid guess lately.”
“Isn’t that the truth? How many more are there around here?”
“Oh hell, probably a hundred or better. But we keep forgetting something important.”
His brows pinched. “What’s that?”
I grinned in reply. “That I’m a witch.”
I led us to the alchemy room and quickly snatched a mirror from a shelf, one about twelve inches long all around.
“Magic light inside of me, Nerissa’s path I need to see.”
An instant headache roared to life within my skull, rattling my bones. I gritted my teeth to try to make it bearable, but it didn’t really help.
The mirror quickly morphed into a map of sorts, showing us standing in the capital city, and Nerissa at the end of a twisty trail that ended in the Outlands.
I closed my eyes and the magic faded. “Great.”
“Where is she?” he asked.
“Outside the city walls. Again.”
Gage frowned and smiled all at once. “Why is it illegal to leave the city if the Outlands are part of your kingdom too?”
I pursed my lips and shrugged. “No idea. My parents made the rules, and like a dumbass I just never questioned them.”
But I was questioning things now. And I wondered if this, too, wasn’t something I should have doubted all along. Perhaps there really was a reason they’d outlawed the Outlands. But perhaps it was to cover their own asses as opposed to protecting ours?
“Well, regardless,” Gage said, leading us out into the hallway and toward the nearest arched, open-air window, “it’ll be much faster to fly. You feeling up to it?”
I raised a brow and lowered my gaze to his newly formed scar. “Are you?”
“I’m a dragon,” he said, shrugging nonchalantly. “I’ll be fine.”
I sighed, completely in awe of him and grateful for the hundredth time that the fates had chosen him for me. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”
“And just where do you think you’re going?” my sister said from behind us.
I spun around quickly.
“Laken!” I bridged the gap between us and wrapped her in a hug. “Are you okay? How was your trial?”
I glanced over her shoulder to where Nathan stood, alive and well. He was silent, though, and a little resigned.
“It was all right,” she said with a tiny smile.
I knew she wasn’t quite as adept at magic as the rest of us Strand girls, which was saying something, considering I was only mediocre myself.
“But you didn’t answer my question,” she said, refusing to be sidetracked. “Where are you guys going?”
Gage and I shared an uncertain glance.
She crossed her arms and pursed her lips, staying sassy while somehow managing to not look bitchy. It was a gift.
I sighed. “All right, fine, we’re going to spy on Nerissa and Julian.”
She gaped. “I can’t believe you were gonna keep that from me, asshole! Why? What are they up to?”
I winced. “It’s a long story.”
“It’s actually not a very long story at all,” Gage decided. “Your sister is a necromancer.”
Laken’s mouth fell open. “Say what?”
Nathan moved closer.
“Come again?” he asked, crossing his arms.
He just looked so clean-cut and well put-together. Not exactly what I would’ve expected for my unruly younger sister. She liked immature party boys; Nathan reminded me of a man with too many responsibilities and not enough fun. Maybe it’d be one of those opposites attract things?
“You heard right,” Gage said, holding his head a bit higher. “She raises dead bodies from the grave and brings them to life to do her bidding.”
Hesitation crept onto my face. “I’m not so sure they actually do her bidding. It doesn’t really seem like she has all that much control over them.”
Laken cocked her head and impatiently threw her arms out. “So, for the last time, where were you going?”
“The Outlands,” I said, tapping my fingers on my forearm. I was getting impatient. Who knew when the next trial would randomly begin? “I cast a spell that showed her location.”
Laken nodded, taking the info in. “So what were you guys hoping to achieve?”
I blinked. “I don’t know. I guess we were just gonna wing it.”
“Literally,” Gage said with a grin.
Nathan stared at him. Not scowling or anything, but not smiling either. They seemed to have some sort of unspoken tension going on.
Then, out of nowhere, a shrill, bloodcurdling scream pierced the silence of the night. It was distant, from the city somewhere, not the palace. All four of us shared an uneasy glance, then darted down the hall.
We took the stairs three at a time and rushed out the front door, heading straight for one of the black cars reserved for royal use only. Without a moment’s hesitation, I took the passenger seat and Nathan took the driver. I slammed my door shut and gaped at him across the center console, momentarily shocked. I looked into the backseat where Gage and Laken appeared just as surprised at the setup.
Nathan then threw the car into drive and squealed down the lane.
I’d kinda just assumed Gage would drive, and I think Laken had too. But based on the way Nathan accelerated and flawlessly maneuvered the beast through the narrow capital streets, it was painfully obvious that he did this sort of thing quite often. Exactly what had he said his profession was, again?
I shot Laken one of those looks, as if to say, “where the hell did he learn how to do that?”
But she was stunned. Her face was blank as she slowly shrugged. Apparently, she still had a lot to learn about her prince. He was clearly more than just “the hottest guy in the room” when she’d chosen him.
I pulled the mirror up to my face again. “Magic from inside me stream, show the setting of the scream.”
An image of the town square instantly filled the mirror’s reflective surface.
“That way!” I shouted, pointing the way as we weaved through streets toward the center of town.
We slid to a screeching stop when we finally reached the square… where the zombie from the night before was running rampant through the streets.
“Oh, fuck,” I said, eyes practically bugging from my skull.
I thought I hated bad press before? This would be the worst thing to ever happen to the kingdom and the Strand family name. It was a literal fucking nightmare.
“We have to stop this thing!” I shouted. “Before anyone gets hurt and the whole kingdom finds out what Nerissa’s done!”
“How the hell are we going to do that?” Laken asked, as we all four bailed from the car.
I shook my head. “We need to get it out of the city.”
“Yeah,” she said, “but how? That thing is faster than anything I’ve ever seen! I thought zombies were supposed to be slow and stupid?”
“I thought zombies weren’t supposed to be real,” Nathan muttered, pulling a handgun from the back of his pants and racking the slide.
Laken’s eyes lit up.
Mine widened. “Who the hell are you?”
He cocked his head. “Nathan Jones. The same guy I’ve been this whole time.”
A devilish smile slid onto my sister’s lip
s. “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Jones.”
Clearly she found this new bad-boy side of him undeniably sexy.
He smirked at her as she cozied up to him.
Gage jerked his head toward Nathan. “You two take the back and push. We’ll take the front and steer him away.”
Nathan nodded once and pulled Laken into a run.
I shot an incredulous glance at Gage.
He merely chuckled. “Let’s just get moving. I’m gonna shift, and you’re gonna ride me.”
“I’d love to,” I said, without missing a beat.
His eyes darkened, momentarily exposing the lust burning there. “Don’t tempt me, Princess. Seriously, though. That thing is stupid fast. I don’t want you on the ground where it can lay a single finger on you.”
My mouth fell open. “But my sister is on the ground! I don’t want her to be in danger.”
“She won’t be. Did you not just see how badass her prince is? Who saw that coming? Besides, the zombie will be too busy chasing us to even care about them.”
I thought about saying something like, “I hope you’re right,” but seriously... who the hell would say that? I had zero desire for a zombie to ever be chasing me.
“Let’s get this bastard,” Gage said with a wink.
Then he dove into the air, exploding into his dragon form, and waited in the shadows for me to mount up.
Chapter 19
I scaled his body more adeptly this time around and held on as tightly as I could. Even still, he pushed from the ground with enough force to make my fingers slip. Luckily, I didn’t fall. I tightened my grasp and clung to him with everything I had in me, until he finally leveled out and stopped his ascent.
Scanning the cityscape below, we each searched for the speeding corpse-of-terror racing through the streets. Unfortunately, we mostly just had to follow the screams.
Bodies littered the streets every few blocks or so. Blood stained their clothes and puddled underneath them. A memory of a vision I’d had not long ago reentered my mind. I’d seen this horrifying landscape before, during the very first trial.
It immediately made me sick, but I was too shocked to puke. The closest thing I’d come to seeing a dead body in my lifetime was Gage lying on the cot in the last trial. And even then, I’d at least thought it was pretend. This, though... this was absolutely real, and completely gut-wrenching. How could my sister have done this?
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