The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire)

by C. J. Redwine

  She’d save Kol first and then look for Gabril and Irina.

  It’s okay, she sent to Kol, even though she wasn’t sure he could hear her. She stood and faced him, opening her arms. My heart already belongs to you. Come and take it.

  Her magic flared, racing through her veins to gather in her palms like lightning. Something flickered in his eyes, and Lorelai leaned toward him, willing him to see her. To trust that she wouldn’t let him become what he feared the most. That she would save him, no matter what.

  “How absolutely touching. I do believe if I left the two of you alone, you might actually manage to rescue him.” Irina’s voice was sugar-coated knives, just like it had been in Nordenberg, but this time, Lorelai wasn’t going to run.

  She turned, putting her back to Kol, and found Irina standing in front of the door, Gabril bleeding and chained beside her while an enormous black viper coiled about his neck. Irina’s hands were already wreathed in magic, her smile a slash of cruelty across her face.

  THIRTY-NINE

  LORELAI FACED IRINA, her magic burning in her palms, her knees shaking. Nine years of training. Hiding. Waking up screaming in the middle of the night with Irina’s cold blue eyes blazing in her memory.

  She’d been terrified of what the queen was capable of—she still was. But Lorelai knew what she was capable of. And she knew how far her heart was willing to go—how much she would sacrifice—to take Ravenspire’s false queen off the throne.

  It was time to end this. Looking Irina in the eye, Lorelai said, “I told you this was the last day you would ever breathe Ravenspire air again.”

  Irina’s lip curled. “You disappoint me.” She took a step forward. “You had so much potential. I could have trained you into a mardushka worthy of being my daughter.”

  “I already have a mother,” Lorelai said. “One you tried hard to erase.”

  “Oh, I didn’t just try, princess. I erased her very existence.” She took another small step toward one of the wooden benches that lined the wall.

  “You can’t erase someone when their memories live on.” Lorelai lifted her chin and held out her hands, palms toward the floor. “I remember my mother. I remember my father and brother, too.”

  “You took Arlen from me.” Irina’s voice rose. “You took everything from me.”

  Lorelai slowly crouched toward the floor as Irina came closer to the bench. She couldn’t allow Irina to touch the bench without having a spell of her own ready. She remembered the wooden vines from the night her father died.

  “I took nothing from you that was truly yours.” Lorelai’s voice was steady. “Everything you have, you’ve stolen. You’ve misused your power to force others to give you the life you think you deserve. You’ve killed those in your way, tortured those who stood up to you, and destroyed the land with your insatiable appetite for power at any cost.”

  Irina stopped moving toward the bench. Her smile raised the hair on the back of Lorelai’s neck. “And I suppose you think you’re going to be able to stop me.”

  Lorelai’s throat tightened, but she held Irina’s gaze and said, “Yes.”

  Irina’s eyes gleamed. “You’re going to lose. Do you know why? Because you’ve already made the mistake that will destroy you.” She extended her hands toward the bench, her magic reaching for the wood as Lorelai sank toward the floor. “You thought I was the biggest threat in the room. You were wrong. You really shouldn’t have turned your back to him.”

  The queen lunged for the bench, her hands connecting. Lorelai slammed her hands onto the marble floor, her magic surging.

  And then Kol struck Lorelai from behind, knocking her on her side.

  She skidded across the marble, and Irina laughed wildly as shafts of wood exploded from the bench and became a mass of vipers writhing and hissing as they slithered over the marble toward Lorelai.

  The princess grabbed the handful of dragon scales from her pocket and focused on the Draconi’s hearts. The snakes coiled themselves, ready to strike, fangs already dripping venom. Lorelai shouted, “Zhech`pusk,” as the closest viper lunged for her face.

  A bolt of white-orange fire shot from her hands and engulfed the snake. Lorelai swept her arm wide, and the fire leaped from snake to snake.

  Irina pressed her palms to the polished cherry wall, and a hail of barbed wooden spears flew out of the wall and headed straight for Lorelai.

  She threw up a hand to defend herself, but Kol was there, grabbing her hand and dragging her away. At first, she thought he was pulling her to safety, but soon she realized that he was taking her to Irina. His grip was like iron, and every surge of magic she sent into his hand met resistance as hard as stone.

  Irina was right. She owned him now. The only way to save Kol was to kill the mardushka whose magic was poisoning his mind, body, and heart.

  But she couldn’t kill Irina if she was thrown, helpless, at the queen’s feet.

  The spears clattered to the marble floor behind her and became thick, branchlike vines with serrated leaves and gaping teeth-filled mouths where flowers should be.

  Lorelai bent double at the waist and shoved the back of Kol’s knees with her free hand. He stumbled, his grip softening. She yanked her hand free and twisted away from him, her palms hitting the marble floor.

  “Rast`lozh,” she said, and the marble began expanding in a half circle around the princess, surging toward the ceiling like polished white hills and cutting her off from Irina.

  Irina’s vines slid over the top of Lorelai’s barrier, their mouths snapping as they came for the princess. She spun to her left to avoid them. Kol snatched her waist and began trying to drag her up one of the slippery marble hills toward where Irina still stood beside the wall.

  Lorelai looked past Irina to find Gabril’s face a deep shade of red as the snake around his neck tightened its hold. Desperation blazed through her, and she struggled against Kol’s grip.

  Kol, listen to my voice. Hold on to me. I can help you. I can save you.

  Irina laughed. “He can’t hear you. He hears only the pounding of his dragon heart and the voice of his queen.”

  Lorelai whirled, planted her right foot against Kol’s left thigh, and launched herself backward out of his arms. Snarling, he lunged for her. She spun into the air, hit him in the chest with a roundhouse kick, and sent him crashing to the ground.

  Sprinting out of the half circle of marble, Lorelai dove for the floor, and spoke the incantor again the second her palm touched down.

  The marble expanded once more, completing the circle, rising like a loaf of bread until it was over Kol’s head.

  He was trapped inside a fence of marble.

  He was safe.

  Now it was just Lorelai and Irina.

  The vines rushed for Lorelai, tangling in her feet and sinking vicious little teeth into her legs. She kicked at them as her skin burned and blistered from the venom in their fangs, but she didn’t have time to think of an incantor to deal with them.

  She needed to stop defending herself and start attacking.

  “Do you really think you can take my huntsman out of the game?” Irina sent a bolt of magic into the floor and the marble circle cracked in half.

  Kol burst through the opening and ran toward Lorelai, but she was focused on the arc of marble closest to the queen.

  Pushing her palms against the floor, she whispered an incantor, and the thick half-moon of marble skidded across the room, slamming into Irina and pinning her to the wall. The marble knocked Gabril to the side, and he thrashed against the chains that bound him.

  Irina screamed an incantor. Kol reached Lorelai, whose feet were still tangled in vines, as the windows that surrounded the door shattered and the glass teardrop chandelier fell from the ceiling to explode into shards against the floor.

  The princess put one hand on Kol, desperately sending her magic into him, trying to smash through the barrier Irina had erected. With the other hand, she reached over a pile of writhing, snapping vines for the clo
sest shard of glass.

  Kol shoved her hand away, and Lorelai stumbled. Snatching at his shirt, she kept herself from falling as she bent at the waist and scooped up the glass. A vine lashed itself around her wrist and sank its little teeth into her arm. The pain was a brilliant flare that streaked through her veins and sent the room swaying, but Lorelai didn’t hesitate.

  Holding the glass, feeling the heart of the Ravenspire sand that had been sacrificed to make the chandelier, she said, “Tvor`zhi.” It was the same incantor the queen had used to create snakes, but Lorelai had a different creature in mind.

  Thousands of razor-sharp glass shards rose from the floor and hovered like a swarm of bees. As Irina shouted another incantor, and more vines peeled away from the wooden bannister to plunge toward Lorelai, the swarm of glass swooped through the air, gaining speed and momentum, and then dove for the queen.

  Irina screamed as the shards arrowed over the top of the marble barrier and struck her.

  Lorelai had no time to celebrate the victory. Kol was grappling with her, his amber eyes wild, his skin so flushed with heat from his dragon’s fire that it hurt to touch him. She sent spells into him, shouted incantors, even tried to break his hold on her by breaking his arm, but he was a dragon trapped in a human body—impossibly strong, fast, and lethal, and she refused to do the one thing that would save her from him.

  She refused to kill him.

  Her chest burned from the vine’s poison, and every breath tore at her throat like a knife blade as she struggled against him, pushing her power into him in desperate hope that somehow she could slow him down long enough to kill Irina and set him free.

  “Kaz`lit.” Irina’s voice thundered throughout the hall, and Kol howled in agony as the pain inside him doubled.

  The queen spoke another incantor, and the marble barrier crumbled into dust. The glass shards fell to the floor. And the cuts on Irina’s skin knit back together again.

  She began moving toward the far wall where the Diederich coat of arms, complete with a pair of crossed swords, was mounted.

  “He’s going to kill you, Lorelai. Any second now. It’s the only way his body and mind can find any peace. But if he doesn’t . . . I have something that will do the job.” Irina’s smile was cruel.

  Kol lowered his shoulder and slammed into Lorelai, sending them both sprawling into the nest of writhing vines.

  The vines whipped out and lashed themselves around Lorelai’s arms, legs, and waist, pinning her to the floor. Their teeth were razors, their poison fire. Her lungs labored for every breath she took. Her pulse pounded in desperation as Kol yanked at the vines that covered her heart, heedless of the teeth that sank into his skin.

  Across the room, Irina hefted the swords, one in each hand. Her lips moved, and the swords shuddered to life. Releasing the hilts, Irina smiled as the swords hovered in the air like hawks searching for prey.

  Lorelai’s eyes stung with tears as she met Kol’s feral gaze. His talons tore at the vines across her chest. The swords began circling faster and faster. Weariness from Lorelai’s constant use of magic was setting in.

  Irina laughed in vicious triumph as she waited for the princess to die.

  The last vine blocking Lorelai’s heart snapped in two, and Kol roared in savage hunger.

  The swords dove toward them.

  And Lorelai knew.

  She couldn’t fight off both Kol and Irina. She had to choose.

  There was no panic. No hesitation. There was only her heart willing to pay the cost of killing Irina and by doing so, save her kingdom and save Kol.

  She gathered her remaining strength, stretched her palms flat against the floor, and called to the deepest core of Ravenspire. To secret depths unplumbed by even Irina.

  The swords flew toward them.

  Kol’s hand curved into an open fist above her heart.

  Irina laughed.

  “Hat`sja oyti,” Lorelai whispered. “Come together and rise. Take the one who hurts you.”

  Deep within the ground, something rumbled like thunder trapped in a cavern of rocks. Something bubbled and boiled and surged toward the surface.

  “Please,” Lorelai whispered, magic stinging her hands as it spilled into the marble and sank into the core of Ravenspire. “Help me.”

  The swords were almost upon them.

  Kol’s talons pressed against the skin around her heart as if he was gauging where to plunge his hand.

  Irina shrieked her victory.

  Leo’s face blazed across her mind, the laughter in his eyes turning black with Irina’s spell. Her father fell to the floor, already dying from the bite of the snake Irina had sent after him. The woman in the Falkrains sobbed over the bodies of her children before plunging her knife into her own chest. The land was rotting, the people desperately crying out for salvation; and Kol, an honorable king who’d only wanted to save his people, was lost.

  All because of Irina.

  Fury was a burning stone in Lorelai’s chest. It was the power in her blood, the strength of her bones. It was the beat of her heart—the heart of Ravenspire’s true queen come to save those she loved from ruin.

  “Hat`sja oyti!” Lorelai’s voice rose as Kol struck, breaking the skin, tearing the muscle. “Hat`sja oyti!”

  Pain was a flash of blinding agony that seized Lorelai’s entire body, but she kept her palms pressed flat against the floor, her magic pouring into Ravenspire with every furious beat of her heart.

  The rumble grew louder. The marble shook, shivered, and cracked. And then the floor beneath Irina’s feet fell away and a fiery river of molten lava gushed from the belly of Ravenspire and surrounded her.

  Irina screamed an incantor, but there was nothing for her to touch except the blazing stone that already obeyed Lorelai. Her eyes met Lorelai’s, and the fury in them dissolved into bewildered pain as the lava surged forward and dragged the wicked queen down into the depths of Ravenspire.

  The swords dropped harmlessly to the floor, and the snapping vines disintegrated into dust.

  The collar around Kol’s neck snapped in two and fell from his neck.

  The snake wrapped around Gabril’s neck shrank until it became the harmless garden snake Leo had been playing with the night his father died.

  Lorelai’s blood poured from her chest.

  Kol closed his eyes and shook his head, as if trying to understand where he was and what was happening.

  This isn’t your fault, Lorelai sent to him, and his eyes flew open as she used the last of her strength to say, I forgive you.

  Horror filled his face as he saw his hand. Her blood.

  He leaned toward her, but her strength was gone, and darkness claimed her.

  FORTY

  KOL JERKED HIS hand away from Lorelai’s chest and stared in horror at the blood pouring from her. Her eyes were closed. Her body lay limp on the crumpled marble floor, surrounded by the dust of the things that used to be vines.

  Skies, no. Lorelai? Lorelai! His heart thudded against his chest, but there was no call to hurt, punish, and kill because he’d already done it. He’d hurt her.

  He’d killed her.

  He’d killed the girl who’d saved him.

  His hands shook, and his throat ached with unshed tears as he doubled over and pressed his forehead to hers. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

  It didn’t matter how many times he said it, or how deeply he meant it. It only mattered that she was gone, and that he’d done it.

  So what if Irina had driven him to it? It wasn’t Irina’s fingers covered in Lorelai’s blood. It was his.

  He didn’t know how he was ever going to be able to shoulder the guilt.

  The memory of her gaze and the kindness in her eyes as she told him it wasn’t his fault and that she forgave him were blazing coals in his chest. He didn’t want her forgiveness.

  He wanted her.

  He wanted her, but she’d done what she’d promised she’d do. She’d destroyed Irina. She’d
set Ravenspire free. And she’d sacrificed herself to save Kol.

  He choked on a sob and stroked her pale cheek. Ran his fingers through her long dark hair as grief ripped at him. Pressed his thumb against her red lips and jerked upright in shock as the faintest whisper of a breath passed her lips.

  She was alive.

  She was alive, and he wasn’t going to fail her again. He couldn’t call for help without his human heart to give him words. He refused to leave her side when he had no idea where to find a physician or how to make himself understood in time.

  He’d have to save her himself. He stared at the wound in her chest and ordered himself to think. There was a solution, there had to be, and if anyone was skilled at finding unlikely solutions around sticky problems, it was Kol.

  His dragon heart thumped in agreement, and its fire stirred in his chest.

  His fire.

  Quickly, he called the heat and let it blaze through him until it reached his hands.

  If he could melt a sword with his touch, he could seal Lorelai’s wound.

  He lay his hands across the wound he’d made and prayed to the skies above that it would work. The heat sizzled against her flesh, cauterizing the blood flow.

  Lorelai? Please . . . please wake up. Move a finger. Do something to show me you’re still with me. He searched her mind, but all he could find were faded images of blood in snow and shattered pieces of what looked like an ebony carriage.

  He’d stopped the bleeding, but she was still going to die if he couldn’t find a way to mend what was broken inside her. If he could just get her to heal herself, she’d be fine. If he could just get her to use her magic . . . The memory of him stalking across the waterfall’s cave, insisting that if she didn’t survive her battle with Irina, he’d kiss her back to life blazed across his mind. Lorelai had said magic didn’t bring people back to life, but she was still alive. Barely, but it was something.

  Please let this work. Please. He bent toward her, framed her face in his hands, and kissed her.