Page 144 of The King’s Queen
The area was crowded with supernaturals, fighting off the shadow monsters despite lacking any kind of magic power.
A vampire in a suit who was able to resist the call of the blood gave me a curious look as she punched her fist through a creature’s chest.
“Here! Use this!” I tossed Charon’s dagger to her—I had a bigger weapon I needed to get.
I jumped the shrubbery, searching for Noctus, Charon, Ker, Aristide, or even the Paragon. I didn’t see them anywhere.
My heart pounded, and my brain was so scared I just heard panicked screaming inside my skull. I ignored it and threw myself at Noctus’s magic, accessing the portal to his weapons and shoving my hand in.
“Truck!” I screamed, my voice shrill as I ran across the parking lot, zigzagging to avoid shadow creatures. “I need you to choose me! I’m not getting out of this otherwise—Noctuswon’t get out of this!”
My loud screams got me a lot of attention from some deeply confused supernaturals—including a handsome, brunette fae who had to be a Court monarch based on the soldiers who flanked him, but I ignored them as I reached the base of the Cloisters.
I felt something play at my fingertips, but nothing solidified in my hand.
I growled, but turned into a cat so I could claw my way up the Cloisters’ wall, using tiny grips from the bricks and the gutters to make it to the top of the overhang.
Standing there, I swapped back to my human form, and again summoned the portal. “I need your help, Truck! I can hear you, so that means you’re considering me, right? Please, let me draw you out!”
“Chloe?” Noctus shouted. He was making a stand on a higher section of the roof, with Aristide, Charon, and Ker. I didn’t see Oleander and the elven guards anywhere—Noctus had probably sent them inside.
“Chloe, what are youdoinghere?” Noctus yelled despite the shadows swarming him. He stabbed one shadow and beheaded another in one smooth movement, but three of the monsters crowded closer, replacing the fallen creatures.
“Chloe!” Ker screamed, her voice panicked. “Get out of here!” She stood back to back with Aristide, facing off with the shadow creatures that clustered around them.
I ignored both Noctus and Ker as I strained my ears and listened for Noctus’s heirloom weapons.
I couldn’t hear anything over the frantic beat of my heart and the shouts and crunching noises from the desperate fight that surrounded me.
“Truck!” I screamed like a lunatic. “I’m not asking! You talked to me, so this was your choice, partner!Come here or I swear I will crawl in through the portal and pull you out myself!”
I felt something harden, solidifying in the palm of my hand. I closed my fingers around it, barely registering the cylindrical shape, and yanked the weapon out before it had a chance to second guess its decision.
The portal widened, opening as I drew the pole weapon out—it was so long I had to physically back away until the top of it finally exited the pocket realm, revealing an enormous scythe blade. Taller than me, decorated with rubies that sparkled in the rising sun, the scythe’s blade had what looked like flecks of dry blood on its curved blade. Despite the scythe itself beingmassive, the weapon was light, and I could bear its weight in one hand—though I had to hold it with both for balance purposes.
Truck.
“Nice to meet you. Work, please, now. We’re on a deadline, I promise we’ll have proper introductions later!” I said, my words fast and almost hysterical as I glanced up at the ominously glowing heirloom.
This close, I could see the light that drifted up from the spearhead that was stabbed into the Cloisters’ roof. I could also make out the blond haired fae standing in the barrier with the weapon.
Fear threatened to choke me, but I took a deep breath and tapped the base of the scythe on the ground. “Let’s go, Truck!”
Black fog drifted off the weapon and wrapped around me, forming into plate armor that was veined with glowing red magic. A long cloak—black exterior with a blood red interior—that was undoubtedly going to choke me and get tangled on things dropped from my back, stretching so long that it dragged on the ground behind me.
A helm formed around my head—black and slashed through with enough red magic that I was starting to feel like some kind of Dark Lord. It left from my nose down completely uncovered and had two holes for me to look out of that really blocked my vision.
Whatever. I’m not going to complain about usability features now. We’ve got to go!
“Chloe—NO!” Noctus’s voice was torn with anguish. “That’s Destruction! It’s cursed!”
I broke out in a cold sweat, but Noctus’s warning came too late.
Magic that was a deep, rust color—like dried blood—dripped off the scythe’s blade, forming a pool around my feet before climbing up my new armor.
“Death!” I heard a voice yell. I knew the shout wasn’t in English, but I felt the translation wrap around me like a python. “For my body you have carved up, with the power contained within it, I curse the sweat of your brow and the veins of your body with death!”
It was the curse Noctus’s father, the King of Mors, had tried to put on him. And now, it had caught me.