Kill the Queen (Crown of Shards #1)

by Jennifer Estep

  And that’s when Vasilia unleashed her magic.

  Lightning flashed on her fingertips, and she reared her hand back and then snapped it forward, tossing a white bolt of magic at me. I barely had time to throw myself down to the ground and roll out of the way. Even though I avoided the blast, I could still feel and smell the sharp sizzle of it streaking through the air.

  The bolt zinged across the arena, and people screamed as it hit one of the poles planted in the lawn, shearing the wood in two, and causing the flag on the top to topple to the ground. This flag featured Vasilia’s fuchsia colors and sword-and-laurels crest, and the fabric smoked from where her magic had scorched it.

  I came up into a low crouch, my sword still clutched in my hand.

  Vasilia sneered at me, even as more lightning crackled in her palm. The glow of her power matched the murderous rage gleaming in her eyes. “I don’t need a weapon to kill you, Everleigh. I can just do it with my magic.”

  She reared back and tossed another bolt of lightning at me. Once again, I rolled out of the way, avoiding it. This time, the bolt hit the base of one of the bleachers, making the wood smolder. The people sitting in that section screamed in surprise and started leaping out of their seats and off the sides of the benches, trying to get to safety.

  Vasilia threw back her head and laughed. She wanted to kill me so badly that she didn’t care if her lightning fried the crowd as well. I hadn’t wanted the troupe members to get hurt, but I hadn’t realized that everyone else would be in danger too. There was only one way to end the fight now.

  I had to let her hit me with her lightning.

  I didn’t know if I could survive it a second time, given how angry she was. Those last two blasts had been much stronger than what she had used on me during the massacre. But I couldn’t let Vasilia hurt anyone else, especially not the people that I was supposed to protect. So I got back up onto my feet and moved so that I was standing in front of her. Still holding on to my sword, I held my arms out wide, just as I had done when I had first addressed the crowd. Everyone immediately quieted down, although I could still hear the stamp of footsteps as people continued to leave the smoldering bleacher.

  “Go ahead. Hit me with your magic. Blast me into oblivion if you think you can.”

  Vasilia let out a loud, mocking laugh. “Do you really think that you can survive my lightning? You might have gotten lucky once, but you’ve grown quite arrogant if you think that you can walk away from it a second time.”

  “You want to kill someone, then kill me,” I called out. “Leave everyone else alone. They don’t have anything to do with you and me. They never have.”

  Vasilia glanced around at the crowd, which had gone utterly, eerily still and silent. Her mouth twisted with disgust. “They’re all a bunch of fools. Cheering for you. Thinking that you can beat me . Thinking that they can stand against me . I’ll kill you, and then I’ll show them exactly who their queen is.”

  Everyone heard her threats. A few folks gasped, but people remained in their seats. They were too afraid to move right now for fear of drawing her attention and wrath.

  I raised my arms even higher. “I’m not going to stop you. Go ahead, cousin. I dare you.”

  If there was one thing that Vasilia could never, ever refuse, it was a dare. Even when we were kids, it was the one way that I always knew that I could still get under her skin. Vasilia sneered at me a final time, then reared back and threw her lightning at me.

  I stood there and let the bolt hit me square in the chest.

  For a moment, my vision went completely white, as though I were standing in the middle of Vasilia’s lightning, watching it flicker all around me. Then her magic hit me, and I started screaming.

  And I couldn’t stop.

  Vasilia had hit me with her lightning before, when she had knocked me over the wall and into the river, but that had just been a small, brief sting of her power. But this—this was an all-out, full-frontal assault by a powerful magier.

  That first bolt knocked me down to the ground. Once again, I was lying flat on my back with my opponent looming over me, and once again, there was nothing that I could do to block the attack that I knew was coming next.

  Vasilia stepped forward and hit me with another bolt of lightning. And then another, and then another, until I felt like I was in the center of a storm cloud. The lightning zipped up my arms, across my chest, and down my legs, before rushing back in the opposite direction. My fingers spasmed, my toes curled, and my entire body jerked and flailed. I opened my mouth to scream again, and the lightning sizzled down my throat and burned my lungs.

  Through the blasts, I could see Vasilia towering over me, smiling wide. I had been wrong before. She hadn’t been happy merely sitting on the throne. Not really, not completely. No, this, killing me, this was what made her truly happy .

  The sight of her smug face made my own cold rage rise up in response.

  I had always pushed down the emotion, along with my immunity. It had been easier, safer, that way. But things were not easy right now, and they definitely weren’t safe. And I didn’t want them to be. Not anymore. For the first time, I wanted Vasilia—and everyone else—to see exactly how strong and powerful I was.

  So I reached for the one thing that could save me—my immunity.

  I ignored the burning pain pulsing through my body and focused on my own strength, my own power. I reached deep down inside myself, bringing all that cold rage up to the surface, along with my immunity. I imagined wrapping that power around my fists, like it was an icy, unbreakable shield covering both my hands. Then, when I had a good grip on my magic, I used that power in my fists to start pounding away at the lightning, punching it apart piece by piece, even though my hands weren’t actually moving.

  I punched away the lightning zinging through my lungs, and my breathing became easier. I hammered at the bolts blasting my arms and legs, and my body quit flailing. I drove through the stinging tendrils wrapping around my head, and my vision cleared.

  Oh, the lightning was still sparking, snapping, and crackling all around me, but it wasn’t actually touching me anymore, thanks to my immunity. Now came the hard part.

  Finally finishing this.

  I looked past the lightning at Vasilia, who was still looming over me, pouring all her magic and energy into killing me. I let the hate filling her eyes fuel my rage.

  Still holding on to my immunity, I rolled over onto my knees. My sword had slipped from my fingers when I had hit the ground, and I crawled over to it and wrapped my hand around the hilt. Serilda was right. The tearstone deflected some of Vasilia’s magic, and the feel of the sword in my hand bolstered my own immunity and further steadied me, as did Alvis’s bracelet, which was still on my wrist. Using the weapon as a crutch, I stabbed the blade into the ground and pushed myself to my feet.

  I was dimly aware of the crowd gasping in surprise, but I tuned out the noise. With every move I made, Vasilia’s lightning threatened to break through the cold, protective shield of my power, and it was all that I could do to push back against her magic.

  Slowly, very, very slowly, I turned around and faced her again. Vasilia snarled and blasted me with even more of her lightning, but I ground my teeth, dug my boots into the grass, and remained upright.

  Then, when I felt steady enough, I started walking toward her.

  One step, then two, then three. My boots dragged through the grass, along with the dirt underneath, but I managed to put one foot in front of the other, even though she was still blasting me with magic the whole time. Paloma was right. It was the most difficult thing I had ever done, and with every step, I was aware of Vasilia’s lightning crashing into my body, trying to break through the icy shield of my immunity and fry me alive.

  But I didn’t let it.

  I didn’t give in to her as I had so many times before, and I didn’t let my magic waver, not even for an instant. This time, I kept right on fighting the way that I had wanted to for so long.

>   I shuffled closer to Vasilia. She blinked in surprise, and more fear flashed in her gaze, even as the lightning streamed out of her fingers. She snarled and hit me with another blast, forcing me to stop. But my immunity snuffed out her power, and I walked on.

  Vasilia backed up, still throwing lightning at me, but I followed her, every single step. Finally, she let out a loud, frustrated scream, drew both her hands back, and hit me with every single shred of magic that she had left. But my immunity snuffed out this blast like it had all the others, and I kept creeping toward her.

  Desperate, Vasilia tried to call up another bolt of lightning, but only a few weak sparks crackled on her fingertips. She was out of strength, out of magic. She sucked in a shocked breath, but she slowly lowered her hands to her sides.

  “Why—why aren’t you dead?” she whispered.

  “Do you remember the day of my testing? When the magier said that I didn’t have any magic? When you told me that I was useless and slammed your playroom door in my face?”

  Confusion filled her features. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  I moved even closer to her, lowering my voice so that only she could hear it. “Because the magier was wrong, and so were you. I’m immune to magic. I always have been.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t matter. You’re still useless, Everleigh. Your precious immunity won’t save you from this.”

  She reached for the dagger belted to her waist, her last line of defense, her last resort. Her desperate action might have worked against anyone else, but I had studied my cousin’s treachery for a long, long time, so I was expecting the trick, and I didn’t give her the chance to hurt me again.

  I snapped up my sword and buried it in her heart.

  Vasilia screamed then, screamed with all the life and rage that she had left. I looked into her eyes and twisted the blade in deeper.

  “Do you remember what you told Captain Auster after the massacre?” I asked. “Because I’ve thought about it a lot over these past few months.”

  Vasilia stared back at me, pain and tears filling her gray-blue eyes—eyes that were so much like mine.

  “Traitors always pay for their sins,” I hissed.

  I twisted the blade in deeper still. Vasilia gasped, and an agonized cry escaped her lips, along with a thin trickle of blood. She looked at me a moment longer, then toppled over onto the lawn with my sword still buried in her heart.

  The queen was dead.

  Again.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I stared at Vasilia a moment longer, then reached down and yanked my sword out of her chest.

  A few people in the crowd gasped, and a tense, heavy silence fell over the lawn again. I held my sword up high where everyone could see it, as well as Vasilia’s blood sliding down the blade and dripping onto me. Then I twirled the weapon around in my hand and lowered it to my side.

  I looked at the bleachers, my gaze moving from one section to the next. Every single person was on their feet and staring at me, a mixture of horror, fear, and admiration filling their faces. The queen’s coronation had not gone how they had anticipated. Not at all.

  “I might not be the queen that you expected, that you wanted,” I said. “But I’m the one you’ve got. If anyone else wants to challenge me for the throne, speak up.”

  No one said a word, and that tense, heavy silence stretched on and on. But it was finally broken by a most surprising source.

  Maeven.

  She stepped to the front of the dais and started clapping. Nox looked at her like she was mad. So did everyone else.

  “Bravo.” She tilted her head to me. “Truly. Well done, Queen Everleigh.”

  I couldn’t tell whether she was mocking me or not. “Why are you congratulating me? Your puppet queen is dead. There will be no war with Andvari now.”

  “We’ll see about that. This is far from over. Besides, there are other ways to get what we want.”

  “And what do you want?”

  She gave me a thin smile. “What we’ve always wanted—everything.”

  Her words sent a chill through me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Serilda and Xenia creeping closer to the dais, ready to attack Maeven and Nox.

  Maeven spotted them too, and purple lightning sparked to life on her fingertips, far more powerful than what Vasilia had thrown at me. Serilda and Xenia stopped and looked at me. I shook my head. I didn’t know what Maeven was up to, but I didn’t want them to get hurt.

  “You’re not the first Winter queen that I’ve battled,” Maeven said. “But you will be the last. And when you are dead, Bellona will belong to Morta, as will the rest of the continent. Until we meet again, Queen Everleigh.”

  Maeven clapped her hands together. Lightning erupted, along with thick clouds of dark purple smoke that obscured the entire dais. People screamed in fear and confusion. I raised my hand against the bright glare and rushed forward, even though I couldn’t see where I was going.

  Several seconds later, the glare faded, and the smoke wisped away. The dais was empty, except for Captain Auster, who was still trapped in his spiked cage.

  Maeven was gone, and so was Nox.

  My head snapped back and forth, but I didn’t see them anywhere. Serilda and Xenia circled all around the dais and then rushed across the lawn, but a few minutes later, they returned and shook their heads, telling me that Maeven and Nox had escaped.

  Rage surged through me, and I wanted nothing more than to pound my sword into the dirt. But the crowd had finally calmed down, and everyone was staring at me again. I stood in front of the dais, shifting on my feet, not sure what I was supposed to do now. I had been so focused on killing Vasilia that I hadn’t thought about what would happen after that.

  But Sullivan had.

  The magier crossed the lawn, his long gray coat swirling around his body. He stopped in front of me, then went down on one knee. Sullivan tilted his head up, his blue eyes warm in his face, and held his hand out to me.

  “Your people are waiting for their new queen to take her rightful seat. Please, let me do the honor of escorting you.” His mouth curved up into a small grin. “Highness.”

  I nodded and took his hand in mine. Sullivan rose to his feet and escorted me over to the dais. I thought he would walk all the way up there with me, but he stopped at the bottom of the steps. He bowed low to me in the Andvarian style, with his fist pressed to his heart, then straightened up. I grinned back at him. Then, before I could think too much about what I was doing, I climbed up the steps and strode out to the middle of the dais.

  I stared at the throne, my gaze focused on those seven shards that made up the crown at the top of the chair.

  You have to live, Cordelia’s voice whispered in my mind. You have to survive, no matter what you have to do, no matter who you have to cheat and hurt and kill, no matter what the cost is to your heart and soul. Do you hear me, Everleigh? You have to live. You have to protect Bellona. Promise me you’ll do that.

  “I promise,” I whispered, and hoped that she could hear me, wherever she was.

  I stared at the crown a moment longer, then turned and faced the crowd again. Everyone was still quiet and on their feet. All those faces staring back at me was a bit overwhelming, so I focused on my friends.

  Halvar and Bjarni, grinning wide and standing in front of Theroux, Aisha, and the other Black Swan troupe members, who had looks of awe and confusion on their faces. Paloma, also smiling, even as she hefted her spiked mace a little higher on her shoulder. Cho, beaming at me, his dagger still up against Felton’s throat. Xenia, who had released Captain Auster from his spiked cage and was helping him stand upright. Sullivan standing at the end of the dais, his gaze steady on mine.

  And finally Serilda, also standing at the end of the dais, a satisfied look on her face and the gleam of tears in her eyes. I wondered what she was seeing right now, what possibilities, good and bad, were flashing before her. Part of me didn’t want to know.

  I
wouldn’t have made it this far, I wouldn’t be here tonight, without all of them. Serilda had been right when she said that my rage made me strong, but so did my friends. I wasn’t going to forget that—ever.

  “Evie!” Paloma called out, and stabbed her spiked mace into the air. “Queen Evie! Long live the queen!”

  The rest of the crowd quickly took up her Evie! Evie! Evie! chant, and soon, my ears were ringing with the noise. It was something that I had never thought that I would hear, that I had never wanted to hear, but I was the only one left, and I would do my duty, just as the rest of the Blairs, just as the rest of my family, had done.

  To the end.

  I raised my bloody sword high, then swept it down in a flourish and executed the perfect Bellonan curtsy. That really made the crowd roar.

  I held the curtsy far longer than necessary, showing them the same respect they were showing me. Then I straightened up, turned around, and sat down on the throne, with my sword lying across my lap.

  The people kept yelling, cheering, clapping, and whistling, the sounds louder and stronger than ever before. In the center of the arena, Vasilia’s body lay crumpled on the ground, her bloody hand stretched out toward her golden crown, which was resting on the grass beside her. I stared at her a moment longer, then focused on the crowd again.

  Everyone was still cheering, but some people were just going through the motions of celebrating, and I could already see the calculation creeping into the faces of certain noble lords and ladies as they thought about how my killing Vasilia and taking the throne would impact them.

  Maeven was right. This was far from over. It was just beginning. Maeven, Nox, Felton, and Morta weren’t my only enemies. There would be many more, both abroad and here at home.

  Tonight, I would enjoy this moment and everything that I had won. I would squeeze every last drop of pleasure and happiness from it that I could and tuck them away in my heart to always remember. Then, tomorrow, I would get started on the hard, dirty work of securing my throne, weeding the turncoats out of Seven Spire, and repairing relations with Andvari.