Page 149 of Treasured
Luna seemed just as shocked. “Are you serious?” she questioned. “You want to know why I hate you?”
“Deadly serious, little vampire,” the queen responded, seeming amused.
Anger pulsed through the bond, and Luna released my hand. The Tether was still open. I trained my eyes on the queen. I would not look away.
“You want a list?” Luna’s wings snapped behind her back.
The queen tilted her head. “Certainly. It’s not like any of us have anywhere else to be.”
“Fine.” My wife’s tone was hard. “First, you treat humans like they’re trash.”
The queen scowled. “That’s not a crime. It’s our gods-given right as children of the moon.”
Luna did not back down. “We’ll have to disagree, I’m afraid.”
This wasn’t going to end well. Not that it could, given the parameters of the challenge, but this was especially bad.
“What else?” the queen asked. “I’m curious what charges you level against me.”
Luna ticked items off her fingers. “You let the People of the Night out of their tomb. You killed my family, the people of Rivin, and you tried to kill me.”
“Is that all? A few deaths, and you challenge my throne? Hardly something worth ruining your life over.” She glared at me. “You betrayed me, my son.”
“I’m not your son,” I snarled. I had stopped calling her Mother the moment she strung my wife up in a gilded cage.
“I Made you!” Quen Marguerite shrieked. Her mask of amusement fell. Her eyes were swirling pits of darkness. Rage ebbed off her. Shadows leaked from every orifice. “You’re mine.”
My blood boiled at the queen’s claim. Once, I would have let her make it, but no longer. I pulled Luna back from the older vampire, shielding my wife with my body.
“I’m hers. Not yours. Not anymore.” The queen opened her mouth to speak, but I shook my head. “Enough of this. We could go on for days about the reasons you deserve to stand here today, but we’re not going to do that.”
The queen ran her fingers over that cursed ruby. “Oh?”
She still didn’t look afraid.
“No,” Luna snapped. The Tether thrummed and pulsed. Anger rushed through the Binding Mark. “You’re going to die tonight, Marguerite Montquartier, for your crimes against Eleyta.”
The queen laughed, and it sounded like death itself. “You think you can kill me? You’re a Fledging.” She sneered at me, her black eyes promising pain. “And you, Sebastian. You might deny it, but you’re my son. I gave you immortal life. Your name. Your place in this country. It is all because of me. And you dare turn against me?”
“You have gone too far,” I said. It truly was that simple.
“You will regret speaking to me in such a manner,” was the queen’s response. “I am going to make you bleed until pain is the only thing you know.”
Then the time for talking was over.
The queen’s eyes hardened to black diamonds. Her massive wings flapped, and she rose in the air. She drew shadows out of her hands like threads of yarn and wound them around her palms.
A pit grew in my stomach. This was the moment everything would be put to the test. I reached inside and pulled out a swath of shadows. They were a black river flowing out of me. I erected a shield of darkness around us.
In the space of a heartbeat, Queen Marguerite conjured shadow knives. In the next, she threw them at us. They whizzed through the air, moving so fast they were little more than bursts of black against the crimson night sky.
The blades slammed into the shield. It shook, but it held. I pulled off my gloves, dropping them on the ground as Luna did the same. The Tether glowed, nearly as bright as the moon.
Ready? I asked her.
Take it all, Sebastian. Luna reached over, linking our bare hands together. The moment we touched, power surged through us both. It was more than I’d ever felt. Magic brimmed, overflowing in my veins. Red sparks danced over our joined hands. My shadows throbbed, eager to be released. Magic flowed through me.
After a few moments, Luna stepped back. We’d discussed this. I would stay in the front as much as possible. Even after we pulled apart, the red sparks flitted over my hands.