King Of Shadows: The Shadowcrown Duet

by Kay Elle Parker

  Lucifer ran a hand over his cropped hair and laughed in exasperation. “Stubborn little queen, so resigned to doing everything by herself when she doesn’t have to.” Rising to his feet, he gave her a soft smile. “The offer remains open, Allianna. When you’re ready to reconsider it, let me know.”

  Her heart and body ached when he walked away, her mind screaming protests. “Lucifer, wait. Please.”

  He paused. “Yes?”

  “Islador’s body...if it’s still here, I would like it. He is...was...the highest ranked Shadow warrior in the realm. He deserves to be buried with honor, with his family.” She swiped at the tears, straightened to her most regal pose, and implored him. “It’s not a lot to ask for.”

  Lucifer turned to face her, and she had her answer before he spoke. “His body waits for him in hell, Allianna. He will have use for it once I put him to work, just as Kian will need his once you send Antzel back to me inside it. Otherwise I would grant your request without a qualm.”

  Allianna barely stopped herself from firing back with a savage fuck you.

  “Your golem knows how to reach me if you need me, little queen.” Lucifer stepped forward and simply wisped out of existence, leaving her clawing at the sheets as the enormity of her loss struck her.

  Both her men, gone. Leaving her alone and wedded to a demon. Pregnant to her dead lover, married to a monster, and trapped in a loveless marriage she couldn’t escape without staining her hands in blood.

  So be it.

  It was past time this shitshow came to an end. The necromancer was no longer in the picture, Kian and Islador were dead and under Lucifer’s command. There was still life to pay and either she or Antzel would have to surrender and cough up the payment with their dying breath.

  “Dhur,” she called out.

  The golem lumbered toward her, eyes respectfully averted as she threw the covers off and stalked toward the wardrobe. She ached, but at least she was healed and clean. “Yes, Queen Allianna.”

  Oh boy, she liked the sound of that. Absorbing it, she began to accept the position with enthusiasm. The quick thrill of power was satisfying. “Who holds your loyalty, Dhur? Your queen or the king of hell?”

  Without hesitation, the hefty boulder dipped his head and said, “My queen, always. Do you have doubts, my queen?”

  She shook off the wariness clouding her thoughts. Just because the golem had been talking with the devil didn’t mean there was mischief afoot. “No, Dhur, no doubts. I’m just shaken up, that’s all. We need to find Antzel.”

  Dhur frowned and simply set his massive hand against the wall. He listened intently, nodded. “The walls shake with his fury, my queen. Are you sure you want to corner the tiger to catch his tail?”

  “Yes. Tell me where he is.”

  “I believe Antzel returned to his chambers to recover after Islador assassinated his face. He is in pain but seems to be regenerating at a rapid pace, much like yourself.”

  Allianna dressed for a fight, much like she had before. Stretchy jeans, her needle-strap top and hoody, and her trusty boots. Boots already christened with demon blood. She hoped Antzel could smell his mother’s death on her boots when she kicked his face into bloody mush for all the shit he’d brought down on their heads.

  “When we leave this room, stay on my heels. I will go alone into Kian’s quarters; I would appreciate it if you could stand and guard the doors so no one can disturb us. What I have to do shouldn’t take long.” Maybe that was just wishful thinking.

  Dhur frowned as best he could, his heavy brow wrinkling with effort. “I don’t know if boss would like that. I’m supposed to be keeping you safe.”

  “Islador is dead, Dhur.” Fuck, there went her tear ducts again. “The thing that killed him is polluting our air by remaining alive and I won’t let him turn my realm into a toxic wasteland anymore.”

  The sound the golem made was...primal. Dhur’s frown turned into a look of abject horror, and his pain resonated through the ground into the earth, sending it into seismic fits of agony beneath their feet. The world trembled under the weight of his anguish but all Allianna could think was that someone was capable of expressing their sorrow in a way she could only pray for. Maybe if she could expel her grief that way, she wouldn’t feel as though her soul was being crushed.

  “Dhur, were you not listening to any of the conversation between Lucifer and I?” Feeling as sorry for the golem as she did herself, Allianna squeezed his arm in support.

  The stony face went blank. “Lucifer was here? When?”

  “He literally left like five minutes ago,” she said slowly. “He was talking to you when he arrived, Dhur. Do you not remember?”

  The golem looked stricken. “No. No, I’d remember seeing the devil, trust me. I let him in?” His face crumpled. “I’m useless. I let the man who saved me die on my watch, then broke my promise to keep you safe. Islador should have left me wandering alone on the mortal plane until they came to execute me.”

  The conversation was baffling her. “Dhur, I’m perfectly safe. I’m unharmed. I think Lucifer doesn’t wait for anyone to let him in; he does as he pleases, and it obviously pleased him to wipe any trace of himself from your memory. And as for Isla...Isla knew what he was doing, Dhur. There is no blame to land on anyone’s head but Antzel’s.” She felt her face twist into a snarl. “And I’m going to detach that head from his shoulders and send him into Lucifer’s bad books for the rest of eternity.”

  “Do...do you need my help?”

  Bless Islador’s soul, he’d found the softest heap of rocks in existence. If the golem was her last support system, she would damn well take his help. She knew what it was to be not needed, to feel useless and a burden. She’d cut her tongue out before she ever let the big brute feel that way. “You’re my rock now, Dhur, quite literally. I’ll always need your help.”

  Sadness cracked long enough for a wide smile to appear. “May I make a suggestion then, my queen?”

  God, her neck was starting to hurt tilted at the angle needed to meet his eyes with hers. Twelve feet against her five-feet-something was a huge difference. He could squash her between his fingers if he so wished. “My ears are open, big guy. Hit me with what you’ve got.”

  With a grunt, Dhur sank to his knees with more grace than she expected from a creature of his size, with chunks of stone for joints. He knelt in front of her, still towering over her but easing the strain on her neck, much to her relief. “You are the Queen of Shadows. Why are you going to him?”

  Allianna blinked slowly. “Because I’m going to kick his ass back to hell.”

  “No. Why are you going out of your way to go to someone so beneath you?” Dhur rumbled patiently. “A queen does not bow to those beneath her. A queen rules by many means; with patience and compassion where warranted, but with the fear of fucking God if necessary. And if I might be so brazen as to say it, now is the time you have to set yourself in a position of power in front of your people.”

  She worried her lip as she thought about it. Maybe he was right. As far as the realm was concerned, the soul inside Kian was Kian’s and not the festering black mass of Antzel’s. Stealing the throne and the crown from him should be done publicly, where any contenders who might think she was easy to defeat could see her in action and think twice about trying to challenge her in the future for what was hers.

  The more she thought about what Dhur said, the more it made sense. Calming the disruption inside herself, she nodded in thoughtful agreement. “I can see where you’re coming from, Dhur. You’re right. I have the means to bring Antzel to me, so why not use it? Approaching him on his turf gives him the advantage; I need to switch that around and keep him off-balance.”

  “Exactly.” Dhur grinned. “Tell me what you need me to do, my queen.”

  Allianna closed her eyes. My queen. Before too much longer there would be an entire realm seeing her in her true light as their queen. Responsibilities would rest on her shoulders that didn’t center around her
or her own survival. Kian’s shoulder might be broader, more suited to carrying the weight of leadership, but she wasn’t going to shirk her duties.

  She’d been raised for this.

  “We go to the great hall,” she stated with precisely formed words. They fell off her lips slowly as her plan formed. “No more hiding, Dhur, for either of us. Whatever end is coming, we’ll meet head-on and with heads high. Antzel will come to me, and it will finally be over.”

  The golem clunked to his feet. “The guards will see us.”

  “No more hiding,” she repeated with a passion that shocked her. “Let the guards run back to their master with tales of a queen in their midst. Pretty soon, the hand on the reins of control will change and they will answer to their mistress instead. If any give us trouble...well, let’s hope for all our sakes’ that they let us pass without incident.”

  “They will. I’ll make sure of it.”

  Allianna shook her head fiercely. Islador had tried to protect her. Kian had once sheltered her from everything she needed to know about living and dying. She wouldn’t place her wellbeing in another’s hands yet again; she would stand beside her onyx giant and take care of herself.

  “No, big guy. We’ll make sure of it.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  She strode from her chambers like the queen she was, with Dhur stomping behind her and adding a little bounce in her step with every one of his. She liked the sensation it left in her stomach, the pitch and rise of feeling weightless for a second at a time.

  They walked together, the golem a solid shield at her back as they walked without rushing down the corridors toward the great hall. She was nervous about who and what they might meet on their way, whether Antzel would discover her presence before she was ready, but the steps had been taken and she had to see them through.

  She heard footsteps, lots of them, heading toward her in that quickstep march that seemed to be the theme music for foot soldiers. Her own pace faltered for a moment before she straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin a fraction, and drew on what she was starting to label her queen’s confidence.

  “You got this, boss,” Dhur muttered from behind her.

  Yes, she damn well did. Allianna met the unit of Shadow soldiers without fear, watching with silent humor as the leader’s mouth dropped open from ten feet away. He lifted his fist, bringing the team of twelve to a swift and immediate halt.

  “Don’t speak.” Allianna snapped the command out sharply as her eyes raked over the team. It looked good, strong, capable. Twelve young men all under the age of thirty aside from their leader, who bore the lines of age and experience around his mouth and eyes. “You have orders to find me, yes?”

  Stunned, the entire unit nodded as one entity.

  “Excellent, you’ve found me. Now you’ve completed Kian’s mission, you can do one for me. Gather your friends, the other teams looking for me, and assemble them in the great hall. I want every last warrior under my command present as quickly as possible, am I clear?”

  “My Lady, no offense, but we take our orders from the Lord of Shadows or his Second,” the team leader said apologetically. “Islador must issue the order for the search to be called off if the Lord himself doesn’t do so.”

  Allianna studied the man with dirty blond hair shaved so close to his scalp his head resembled the finely-fuzzed surface of a peach. He had muddy brown-green eyes, reminiscent of swamp water to her mind, and obviously had the hive mentality of a drone. “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Hett, my Lady. Team Leader Hett of the Sixty-Seventh Unit.”

  “Hett, I’m afraid to say that Islador was killed earlier this evening.” At the quiet gasps that followed her announcement, Allianna decided to test the loyalty of Islador’s men. Would they remain faithful to their commander, or kneel at the feet of their Lord? “As far as I’m concerned, Islador was killed in the line of duty, protecting his queen and his kingdom from an imposter who lives within the skin of the Lord of Shadows. He died to save us all.”

  Hett swallowed thickly, his gaze shining with what might have been a sheen of tears. He turned to look at his group, and Allianna saw her heart written on their faces. Islador had been loved, not only by her but by the men whose lives he’d had in his hands and shaped to form good, strong fighters.

  Men he’d raised into the image of himself.

  When Hett faced her again, his eyes were hard as steel and his face could have given Dhur’s a bad name. He straightened, squaring his shoulders and showing her a glimpse of the warrior he could be. “We are yours, my Lady. Our lives are in your hands; Islador would want us to honor our pledge to the Crown.”

  She studied him carefully, wondering how far she could trust anyone from this point on, but saw nothing except a willingness to please and a low, simmering anger so like her own. “I appreciate that, Hett. You have your orders.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He offered her a respectful bow that was mirrored by his team before he brought them back to attention and moved them out. As they jogged past, skirting around Dhur’s bulk, Hett paused beside her. “Islador was the best commander I could’ve asked to serve under, my Lady. His loss will echo from one end of the realm to the other. He was truly loved by his troops, and we won’t disappoint his memory by letting you down.”

  Fuck. Her throat closed tight enough to prevent any words escaping. Nodding in understanding, Allianna took his hand, squeezing his fingers in gratitude. She watched him blush slightly, then he was bringing up the rear of his unit and was gone.

  “A man is judged by the manner in which he is remembered.” Dhur’s voice sounded as tight as her throat felt. His enormous hand patted her slender shoulder so gently, she could hardly believe the reassuring touch came from someone so huge. “Islador will be remembered as a legend.”

  “Damn right he will.” Allianna forced back the tears. There would be time to cry later, and she would put it to good use. The realm would run with the tempest of her tears and her grief would haunt the hallways for years. “Antzel’s going down, Dhur. When he does, we’re going to have some work ahead of us to get things back how they should be.”

  Dhur grunted. “Whatever we have to do, we’ll do. This is your legacy, my queen.”

  Yes, it was. And right now she was wondering where the hell the general population of her realm was lurking. As she walked toward the great hall, she scanned the shadows for signs of life, and even went so far as to send the shadows at her disposal racing through the hallways to find at least one person who wasn’t a soldier.

  She remembered the days, when she was just a girl, when there were serving girls and washerwomen everywhere. The corridors bustled with them, with the excitement and energy of a small herd of women laughing and joking as they worked to keep the realm clean and presentable for the Lord of Shadows.

  The only washerwomen Allianna had seen of late were the ones drafted to make her presentable for Antzel and his ceremonies.

  If they were the only ones left in the vicinity, the realm was in deeper shit than Allianna could dream of. No females in the realm meant it would fall into disrepair quickly, and a kingdom that didn’t look occupied and tended to often found itself falling prey to scavengers and other planes that would strip it bare or overthrow the reigning monarch.

  Allianna was not going to be overthrown because Antzel was a fucking idiot who couldn’t run a realm if he had an instructional manual in one hand and the best advisors that money could buy in the other.

  Despite her lack of formal clothes and the throne robe, not to mention the crown designed to sit on her head, Allianna strode into the great hall, mindless of the shadowy shapes gathering around her. Hett was doing his job with success, and the hall was filling quickly with witnesses to the demise of the obnoxious Lord of Shadows.

  There were murmurs and gasps from a lot of those already gathered. Ignoring them, she walked through the throngs and made a beeline for the throne. Many of her people hadn’t seen her before, had perhaps
only heard rumors of the child who was now a woman. A woman with an insane amount of power in her fingertips.

  They would get to know her, those people. They would come to see her as everything they desired in a monarch, that a queen could rule as justly and compassionately as any male asshole who wore the shiny gold headdress. Who knew, maybe in time they would grow to love her for her triumphs instead of hating her for spinning their world on its axis.

  She approached the throne. Once she’d dreamed of sitting beside her husband there, curled on Kian’s lap while Islador stood guard at their side. The ultimate triumvirate of love and guidance. It would be hers and hers alone, along with decisions and choices and ultimatums, when Antzel’s blood ran thick and red over the stone floor.

  Allianna’s smile was slightly feral when she seated herself on the scarlet cushion, settling herself into place with a little ass wiggle and resting her hands on the intricately carved arms. She surveyed her surroundings, meeting faces in the crowd as she lifted her hand and dug her fingers into the muscles in her shoulder.

  Come on, asshole. Answer your queen’s summons when she calls for you.

  Antzel’s extreme displeasure radiated through her like a physical blow to the head. He was geared up for a fight and she was prepared to give him one. Oh, he was livid. She could hear him screaming through the link her bite had formed between them.

  She could almost smell his fear.

  He didn’t understand how she could be under his nose without his knowledge. He hated being at the mercy of her summons when she should have been firmly under his thumb, obeying him as his wife. Best of all, he was terrified of what her return to the realm meant for him.

  Eyes moving over the ever-growing audience in front of her, Allianna counted the number of females among the males. It didn’t take long—the number remained zero long after the great hall was brimming with Shadow warriors. She tipped her head toward Dhur where he stood faithfully by her side, a mountain guarding the throne. “When this is over, Dhur, remind me to hunt down the females of the realm. We seem to be suspiciously short in numbers.”