Page 61 of Kill the Queens

Thud-unk.

Rehan’s body dropped to the floor, his hands catching him with a loud smack. Ace was sprinting now. She didn't know when she broke into a run but she was lunging for Farah. One long arch of her sword came down and sliced what had been Sienna's staff in half. The globe fell to the ground, shattering and sending the cloud inside of it dissolving into the air like a puff of smoke.

Farah was staring at the broken staff and gripping hers with white knuckles. Ace pointed the blade at her throat.

"Why did you do it?" Ace screamed, her voice cracking. "Why me?"

"We had to sacrifice someone we loved to gain power from the gods."

Loved. They couldn't have loved her. If you loved someone you didn't kill them. That was basically the number one rule of loving someone.

"Well, you've pissed them off because I'm here as your punishment."

Farah inhaled, looking down at the sword poised for her throat. "We were each supposed to sacrifice someone. One person per staff. Instead, we found our loophole. You. You werespecial to all of us, our youngest sister; your death saved three others from the same fate."

"You didn't have to do it at all." Her throat was getting tighter, emotions building in her chest.

The queen slammed her staff against the floor. "Yes, we did. Without it, we couldn't have taken on the Fae. Without your death, we couldn’t have saved Pasia. We couldn't find revenge for our parents. You of all people know how hard it was to lose our parents."

"But I didn't have long to mourn them and I certainly wouldn't have killed any one of you in the name of revenge. Our parents would hate how you've all turned out."

"Too bad we'll never really know, huh?" Farah pursed her lips. She opened her mouth to speak, her staff tilting in Ace's direction but whatever she'd wanted to do, she'd never get to.

Ace moved faster. Her blade plunged deep into Farah's chest, a ragged cry tumbling from her lips. Tears burned at the edge of her eyelids, a single teardrop slipping over her eyelid as she watched her sister fall back and looked down at the gaping hole where her heart was. Rehan was behind Farah, catching her before she could fall.

The sword disappeared in a shower of sparks as Ace let the holy fire go. Her body felt weak. She'd done it. She'd killed. She'd killed her own sister.

Farah's gaze drifted up to Ace as if she couldn't believe that she'd actually done it. Her lips moved like the queen was trying to speak, as if she had final words for her sister. Ace closed her eyes while Rehan lowered the queen to the floor.

"I'm sorry," he said and she wasn't sure if it was aimed at her or the queen. "I'll take care of her king and any lingering issues. Go find your friend."

Shelby.

Ace turned, her boots squeaking against the floor as shetook off. She left behind the smell of magic and blood as quickly as she could. Sprinting through the castle halls, Ace didn’t stop to admire the few carefully picked pieces of art or to admire the craft that had been put into the making of the castle interior—specifically the tall columns of marble that a sculptor had no doubt spent hours on. The only thing that slowed the girl with blood on her hands was when she finally ran into a young woman who appeared as quickly as King Zacharias had. He was probably theformerking now.

"Where are the dungeons?" Her boots slid over the flooring, threatening to topple her as she grabbed the woman's shoulders.

The servant let out a shout that bounced off the walls and away from them. The collection of linens she held in her hands fell from her grasp and unfolded.

"Where do they keep the prisoners?!" she said louder, rougher. Her voice was still thick with the feeling that came with the confrontation of knowing what she'd just done. Be it in the name of the gods or not.

The woman, more of a girl Ace realized the longer she looked at her, trembled as she pointed a finger to a turn on their left. "Take that hall. Turn right..." she swallowed and repeated, "turn right at the next, follow it to the end, it's the last door." Her trembling fingers came up to touch her lips as she spoke. "I should not be telling you this."

"Last door on the left or right?" Ace shook her, the young woman's blonde curls bouncing around her face. "Left or right?"

"It's the only door. It's the last. You'll know it when you get there, I swear it!"

Maybe it was the way Ace gripped the girl so hard. Maybe it was the frantic fight in her voice. Or maybe it was the flaring spark of orange to pink that kept shifting in Ace's eyes that made the girl so nervous.

Ace didn't wait to find out or bother to ask. She ran. Each breath left a stitch in her side that she ignored. There were no other castle servants out working; Ace had the feeling that Farah didn't keep many anyway. She'd much preferred seclusion even before Ace had died.

She followed the girl’s instructions, her mind envisioning Shelby shoved into a small cell or tied up to some sort of torture device. It fueled her to move faster. After the halls had come and gone Ace could see the last stretch, she could see where the hall came to an end. The girl hadn't lied; there wasn't a left or a right, just a single door, cracked open, at the dead end.

Flinging the door open, Ace was faced with a dark stairwell that curved in its descent. There was the slightest flicker of light that came from somewhere far below. She didn't give herself time to wonder if someone was down there waiting before she was bounding down the stairs.

At the bottom, his name was already on her lips. "Shelby?" Someone moved, a few faces appearing at the edge of the cells. Desperately, she looked from face to face, none of them streaked with orange. "Shelby?" She bounced from cell to cell, hands gripping damp metal bars and red rust staining her skin.

No one answered. Not even the people waiting to see what might come of the clearly distressed woman who'd stopped to stare at the large puddle of blood in the middle of the floor. Her breathing was becoming erratic.