She lifted long-fingered brown hands and gave me a couple of lazy claps. “Bravo.”
“And the demon?”
She made a fart noise with her lips. “That was annoying. The demon was meant to kill you and the Pukas. Solving my problems in one fell swoop. Unfortunately those damn Pukas managed to kill it and then hired you to protect them.” She lifted her hands. “As you can see, things got much more complex after that.”
“Yet somehow you poisoned me that day.”
“The poison was in the demon’s blood. A little backup plan. Demons aren’t susceptible to Benificious. But the poison remains potent in the blood when consumed.” She frowned. “Apparently Pukas aren’t susceptible either. Good to know.”
A traitorous trembling started in my hands and spread through my whole body, leaving me quaking like a bidgie bug in a firestorm. “And Dialle’s poisoning?” I was terrified to hear how Astis-Crisanne had poisoned Dialle. But I had to know.
Her keen gaze couldn’t have missed my quaking fear. I fully expected her to take advantage of it.
But she just laughed. “You fear he dallied with the very sick but hauntingly beautiful Astis? How quaint. But I won’t lie to you. He resisted our charms at every turn. I had to resort to a single scratch of his perfect golden skin with a poison-soaked fingernail. He barely noticed it.”
Relief swamped me. My knees wobbled. Dialle hadn’t betrayed me.
Then horror at the way I’d treated him, the ugliness of my accusations, flowed in to replace the relief.
Fortunately, Brina’s voice called out from the other room to pull me from my regrets. I opened my mouth to warn her, but an invisible hand clenched around my throat, choking off the alert.
When Brina entered the room, her dark eyes took one look at my choking and quaking form and she flung power across the room, diving toward me as Crisanne caught her power and consumed it, unharmed.
The world muted and stopped moving and, for a beat, I thought Brina would get us out of there in time. But the evil bitch across the room lifted a hand, sending us skidding across the floor.
Beside me, Brina suddenly clasped her throat and made choking sounds. Her small hands clawed at her throat as Crisanne squeezed with her horrible power.
I knew she had only seconds to live and realized I couldn’t just stand there and let it happen. With that thought I rediscovered the spine I’d lost when I looked up and found Crisanne across the room from me.
I leapt forward, sweeping the sharp edge of my sword in a downward arc that would have severed her arm at the elbow if she hadn’t stopped me with a power arrow to the chest. Pain blossomed, the concussion of her blast sending me flying backward to smack against the wall above the bed.
The air left my lungs in a painful whoosh and I slid downward, scraping my back against the wood of the bed’s headboard before ending up in a breathless pile on the mattress.
Brina was still choking, but the sound was softening as she died beneath Crisanne’s crushing magic fingers.
I pushed myself to my feet and took a running leap toward the powerful Tweener. She lifted her other hand and held me above her head like a bug pinned on an invisible board.
I screamed my frustration and kicked out, but my legs were too short to reach her.
Something crashed in the other room and the wall between the main room and the bedroom exploded.
Crisanne lost her grips on Brina and me as chunks of wall rained down on us. She was forced to protect her head and face with her hands.
As the dust settled, the room filled with a painfully bright white light and wind swirled through the space, blowing everything in its path away from the glowing form standing in the center of the main room.
A head-jarring roar filled the rooms, making it impossible to hear anything else.
The figure stood eight feet tall, its robes swirling around slim legs and large feet, and power pulsed from it in such visible waves that even I without my magics could see it.
Aubrey lifted large hands toward Crisanne and she flew off the ground, smashing hard against the wall.
I ran to Brina and pulled her off the ground. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
Leave this place, Astra.
Aubrey’s deep voice filled my head and I blinked.
“Aubrey! Is my sister okay? Myra?”
They are fine. I left them cleaning up the last of Crisanne’s evil surprises.
Relieved, I grabbed Brina’s arms. “Come on, shift us out of here.”
Brina tried but nothing happened. She turned dark eyes filled with horror in my direction. “I can’t feel my power.”
I swore. That dark bitch had done it again. I turned around and grabbed my sword, striding toward Crisanne with blood in my eye.
“Astra.” Aubrey sounded mildly concerned but mostly irritated.
“Shut up, angel. I have a score to settle.”
The air next to me shimmered and Dialle appeared, his eyes swirling with rage. “As usual, you ignored me and put yourself into danger anyway, Astra.”
I shrugged. What could I say?
He sighed. “It is not important. You deserve this kill. I will allow you to help me.”
I shook my head. “You can’t fight her. I won’t risk having her drain you of your power.”
“We are in the Shadows, my love.”
I turned to him, blinking. “And?”
“Do you not remember Prince Nille?”
I blinked a moment longer and then smiled. “Do you think it will work?”
He leaned close and placed a tender kiss on my lips, his mouth moving softly over mine as he savored the touch.
I breathed deeply, inhaling his scent and feeling my body tighten with pleasure.
When he pulled away I licked my lips. “Hold that thought, Dialle. I have plans for you later.”
Inclining his sexy, dark head he said, “Your wish is my command, my queen.”
“Astra!” Aubrey’s deep voice boomed around us, rising above the sound of his massive power throbbing through the room.
I turned to him. “Release her, Aubrey.”
His form wavered as if I’d struck him. “I will not. Remove yourself from this place and let Heaven deal with this creature.”
I shook my head. “I have a score to settle.”
“Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.”
“Yeah, well He’s never had the power sucked out of him by an evil bitch. Besides, I’ve met the Big Guy. I think he’d understand.”
Aubrey’s light blinked off and the room fell shockingly silent. He glanced down at his hands, looking confused.
Apparently the Big Guy had hit the off switch on Aubrey’s power.
Crisanne slid to the floor with a thump and rolled onto her face. She lay there groaning, her legs and arms twitching.
Aubrey stared at me with confusion written across his handsome features and shook his head. “You are a very difficult creature, Astra Q. Phelps.”
“I know that’s the rumor. But, for the record, I’m denying it.”
Aubrey crossed his arms over his broad chest and frowned. “Get on with it then. I will allow you to try it your way.”
As if he had a choice.
A blast of power hit Dialle, ripping him away from me as the evil Crisanne finally found her sea legs and fired the first shot over our bow.
I bit my lip, struggling with an urge to interfere as Dialle writhed on the ground, his handsome face contorting with pain. I had never wished more for a return of my power so I could send it into the bitch like a magic knife, burying it deep within her heart.
My hands tightened on my sword. “Push, Dialle. Don’t pull.”
He gritted his teeth, lifted his hands, and Crisanne gasped, staggering backward.
Dialle sat up and his features smoothed as he regained some of the footing he’d lost with her initial assault.
As we’d done with Prince Nille, he was pushing his power at Crisanne rather than fighting her for it. Because the magic in the Shadows ran at cross purposes to normal magic, the result was that Crisanne’s magic flowed toward Dialle instead of away from him.
He grew visibly stronger for a moment and then I heard Aubrey cry out and turned to find him on his knees. Crisanne had lifted her other hand toward him and fisted it, turning it as her face highlighted the strain of draining the powerful guardian.
“Push the power, Aubrey. Don’t fight her, dump it all on her!”
But his instincts were too strong, and he wasn’t hearing me.
I ran toward Crisanne, sword drawn, and swung it toward her neck, intending to lop off her head. The sword hit a power bubble that felt as if it was made of lead and twanged off, flying across the room.
Bones cracked in my wrists from the impact and I hit my knees, pain slicing through my legs and up my arms.
Behind me, Dialle cried out. I turned to find him on the ground, his legs twitching as Crisanne pulled the last of his power away.
“No!” I screamed and flung myself into the path of her power.
It hit me with the force of lightning in the center of my chest, shoving me backward. But I gritted my teeth and dug my feet into the floor.
Pain saturated my entire body. The power charred my flesh, ripping and burning and devastating everything in its path. My heart stopped beating. My lungs felt as if they’d melted. My mind clouded under pain and lack of oxygen and blood. I would have dropped to the ground but the power held me upright.
Brina crawled over and pushed to her feet, inserting herself between Aubrey and Crisanne. Her slim back bowed under the massive assault, but she dug in as I had and held her ground.
I watched her black eyes widen under the excruciating pain and saw her lips move, but nothing came out.
Behind Brina, Aubrey regained his feet and shook off the effects of Crisanne’s power.
I heard Dialle moving and felt his arms enclosing me from behind. His soft lips found my ear and he said, “Open yourself to the power, Astra. You’re a reservoir. You held the power once, there will be memory of it in your cells. Let it fill you. Don’t fight it.”
I closed my eyes and opened the core deep inside my body where the magic used to rest. At first the core resisted opening, but after a moment I felt the first crack and, as power entered that tiny fissure, the core opened wider, and then wider, until I felt it filling with power again.
“Embrace the Shadows, Astra. Use that power against Crisanne.”
And so I did. I opened my eyes and smiled at Crisanne. Then I softened my control and let the power flow, pulling the chaotic power of the Shadows with it.
Enjoying the feeling of having power again, I pulled the string taut and let it slide away from me, sending it into her with ruthless efficiency.
Crisanne’s eyes widened as the first wave hit. At first it would feel as if I were giving her my power. She would welcome it, embrace its delightful flavor. But then the adverse perspective of the Shadows would kick in and her power would start to drain away.
It didn’t take long for her to realize she was getting more than she bargained for. She tried to lower her hands but the power held her in receive mode.
A moment later, her lips opened and she screamed. Her skin started to bubble and roil, turning transparent as the cells began to disintegrate. She dropped to her knees, her hands still lifted to take the power of the Shadows into her body.
Her hands were the first to turn to mist. The transformation slipped up her arms, over her torso, and drained down into her legs.
As each inch of her body turned to shadow and mist, Crisanne’s screams became more terror filled, harsher and eventually burbled from her ruined throat.
The last thing to dissolve into mist was her head, and her eyes, trained on me with a mixture of hatred and fear before they dissipated with a soft pop.
“To Hades with you fool, for God hath tired of you.” I barely managed to get the words out. My lips felt numb with weariness. My muscles wobbly. Dialle caught me as I started to fall and lifted me into his arms.
We left the Shadows and I spent the brief moments it took to travel to his court with my head heavy on his shoulder.
Empty again.
It had been good while it lasted.
But I could tell as Dialle settled me into his soft bed and kissed me gently on my forehead that I was an empty vessel again.
And my real problems had only just begun.
Chapter Seventeen
So Goes the Queen
Alas the queen hast lost her pow’r, her every hope denied,
But fate hast bid her love acquire, and love dost fate comply.
My eyes opened and I took a quick physical inventory. Other than a residual soreness, I felt fine. I stretched and tested the extent of my achiness, finding it mildly alarming but nothing I couldn’t deal with.
Next, I took stock of my emotional health and found it surprisingly positive.
I hadn’t solved my power-loss issue, which pretty much still cut me out of my role as queen to Dialle’s king, but at least I’d saved him from Crisanne.
The Puka King could take his place as Council Sovereign and Dialle would have time to find a new queen.
Pushing that depressing thought aside, I tried to focus on the positives, or I would crawl back into the fetal position and never come out. For example, I’d found new hope in the fact that I’d been able to temporarily hold power within my grasp when dealing with Crisanne.
Maybe something could be done. At least I had an option to explore.
Out of habit, my gaze slipped upward, looking for the large cracks that had started to show on the ceiling above the bed.
They were gone.
I sat up and looked around. All the degradation that had occurred over the last weeks since I’d lost my power had been healed.
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I took it as a good sign. Maybe Dialle would have more time than I’d thought to find an appropriate queen to replace me.
The double doors opened and Dialle strode in. He was dressed in tight leather pants and one of his gauzy white shirts, his smooth, golden pecs showing in the deep vee of the shirt.
He carried a tray laden with something that smelled wonderful. I wasn’t sure which I was more excited about…the food or the yummy male specimen delivering it.