Page 97 of Their Blood Queen

Sabre eyes the female and her throat bobs, but he must share my own thoughts. We want fresh blood, but not hers.

Only our Sigil’s will do.

He snatches up the vial and downs it, demonstrating his acceptance of this invitation into this realm.

I do the same.

“Let your walls down, Cage,” Sabre instructs me as a flood of nourishment burns in my veins. Whatever blood this new Queen prepared for us is not only rich in vitality but also rich in dreams.

She knew exactly what we needed, which means I fully intend to talk to her in a week’s time.

For now, I gladly do as Sabre commands.

“Lead the way,” I growl as the world around me turns red.

And we both march away from the city and into the forest, our bodies looking for a place to nest for the night while our spirits dreamwalk.

I grin as I follow the screams.

Hold on, Sigil.

We’ll be with you soon.

CHAPTER 26

SCARLETT

“Hold her down!” someone screams as forceful hands try to keep me from arching my back again.

It hurts!

I want to tell them that I’m dying.

They need to know that something is horribly wrong.

But all I can do is scream as the sensation of a thousand knives pierce my stomach, poking me full of holes until there’s nothing left of me to bleed out.

I thrash against the bedsheets and fight the hands trying to pin me in place until something inside me breaks.

Snap.

Everything goes quiet.

The pain slips away like a bad dream, leaving me nauseous and disoriented as I try to open my eyes.

I regret it the moment I do, because now there are two new creatures staring at me from the darkness. At first, they seem like terrifying dark shadows, but when they venture closer, I realize they’re actually quite beautiful.

When their tongues slither out, I shiver with interest.

I’ve gone insane, I decide as I adjust to an alternate version of my room, one with blood dripping down the walls and black veins cracking through the wainscoting.

My physical body is still lying on the bed, but whoever had been holding me down has disappeared.

Or I’m not in the real world anymore.

I’ve spent enough time in an alternate plane of existence to understand that there’s another place that rests beneath my own. One where I have been spying on the comings and goings of the Elites and searching for Cain, to no avail.

But it seems I’ve found two new figments in my dreams.