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The night came in all its freezing glory. Wind whipped through the windows, swirling around me in a mini twister. My breath created frost on the air and my teeth chattered relentlessly.
I had no idea how many hours passed while I shivered in the dark. My fingers numbed about the same time as my toes, and since then I had just stared out the window wondering what horrors the queen would bring with her the next time she entered the room.
By the time the sun rose, I could hardly keep my eyes open. My fingers had gone numb and my knees had long since given out. I knelt on the cold floor with my arms spread wide by the chains.
I closed my eyes, letting my mind drift to Henry. Pain shot through the center of my being, right to the core of my soul. I wanted to tell him I loved him one more time. I wanted to see his smile and hear his laugh. I wanted to feel his tender touch lighting my skin on fire. My mind shuffled through random memories, sustaining me, reliving them through every breath I took.
The warmth of the sun heated me and made the hideous death room almost bearable. Bright rays danced on the blood pool, making the walls shimmer red.
My stomach growled, but I ignored it, concentrating on the magic inside me. While the iron shackles kept me from tapping my magic to impact anything around me, like undo these god-awful restraints, I still had mastery over it inside my skin. I wielded it against the death that crept through my blood, slowing down my demise.
With each second, I could feel the light inside me decaying. I had no idea how I would beat the queen at her morbid game, but I needed to live. I needed to survive long enough to plunge a blade into her dark heart and banish the dead.
The squeak of the door pulled my eyes open, and I glanced at the procession of lifeless soldiers. They took spots as sentries around the room.
It wasn’t until two soldiers dragged in a violently moving sack that dread sucked the air from my lungs. Curses as dark as the queen herself flew from inside the burlap, and when it was cut open, Domino fell onto the floor on his hands and knees in front of me.
I gasped.
His gaze lifted to mine. His eyes widened, and he stilled. All fight left him, and the horror reflected in his eyes tore at my insides.
“You must not give in,” he whispered. “No matter the cost.”
I swallowed the bile that burned the back of my throat. The queen’s kill room was only meant for death. Those that entered never left. My chest squeezed as I stared at Domino’s deep, soulful eyes.
I opened my mouth to ask where the others were, but Queen Odette stepped into the room before I had a chance. My mother trailed behind the queen still holding my sword. Sunlight glinted off the metal, screaming its harmful intent.
If they had Domino...
My skin broke out in a sweat, and any chill still set in my bones disappeared with the flash of hot fear. Blood flowed like lava in my veins pumping hard enough for me to hear the dull thunder. My throat dried out. Swallowing felt like someone had shoved a handful of rough sand in my mouth.
Queen Odette stepped behind Domino and grabbed his hair, pulling his head back far enough for me to see the tendons press against his skin. His Adam’s apple bobbed. She pulled a blade from her belt and held it to his throat. “Give me your magic and I’ll spare him.”
Domino stared at me. Fear flashed in his eyes as he whispered, “Don’t.”
The queen yanked on his hair and whispered a dark incantation that stripped him of his voice. He shook his head, defying her without words.
I clenched my jaw as tears blurred my vision. “No.” I forced the word between my teeth despite every fiber of my being screaming to save my friend. The decision tore me apart just as effectively as the blade slicing through Domino’s throat.
Blood splattered over the front of me.
I shuddered, blinking as the horror of the moment sank in. I tilted my head back and screamed my sorrow, my fear, my oath. I couldn’t reconcile the goodness I professed with the refusal to do the one thing that would have saved him.
The queen waited until Domino no longer twitched with any hint of life. His eyes glazed over as the last of his blood trailed into the pool. She dropped him to the ground and stepped over him, approaching me. She wiped the knife with the hem of my skirt and slipped it back into the sheath before crouching in front of me.
She studied my face. “You killed your friend.”
“You murdered him.”
“You could have saved him,” she said and stretched to her feet. “You had the power to change his fate, and yet you chose to let him die.”
I glared up at her. “You enjoyed killing him,” I said, but her words had crawled under my skin like a scarab beetle.
Her slow smile chilled me. “Ex mortuis resurrexerit credent,” she said as she raised her hand in the air. Black smoke flew from her fingertips and wrapped around Domino, seeping into his mouth.
His eyes flew open and his vacant stare choked a hiss from my tight chest. His reanimated form climbed to its feet and crossed to stand in one of the empty sentry spots.
The chains holding me rattled with the force of my shakes. My gaze traveled over the rest of the room. There were six vacant sentry posts. My gaze shot back to the queen.
“Perhaps a painful death will change your mind.” She snapped her fingers.
Another sack was dragged in. Simon came out fighting, his red hair matching the hue of his face. He got a couple of blows in before he was subdued. Struggling, he was dragged in front of me.
My throat tightened when he stilled at the sight of me. His eyes widened at my blood-covered clothing. Fury filled his eyes and his struggles resumed.
“You bloody arses! You hurt my princess!” One arm got loose, and he pounded the guard who still held him fast. He didn’t realize he couldn’t hurt the army of the dead with his fists.
The queen stepped out of the shadows and fisted her hand in the air in front of her.
Simon went rigid, and his eyes bulged. Then he began to scream.
It was so high-pitched and full of agony that I winced. I opened my mouth to speak, to beg the queen to stop this madness, but Simon shook his head, despite his continued scream. His gaze was focused on me, even as each blood vessel popped, spreading red over the whites of his eyes.
“Stop!” I yelled, and the queen’s hand relaxed.
Simon fell to his knees, gasping for breath. His hoarse whisper of “Do not,” and the sharp warning in his gaze closed my throat.
He knew what this room meant. They all knew it because they had seen just as many horrific things as I had within these walls before they stole me away.
“Will you give me your magic?” the queen asked.
Simon shook his head.
I clenched my teeth. Tears blurred my vision and heated my cheeks. “No,” I whispered.
When Simon’s screams resumed, another piece of my soul died.
By the time Simon passed from this world, I felt like I had been the one gutted. I hung in the chains, gagging between sobs as the smell of human excrement mingled with the sickly sweet stench of blood.
The queen crossed toward me and put the tipoff her dagger under my chin, forcing me to raise my gaze to hers.
“Are you ready to comply?”
“No.”
Ruse, Klen, and Wally were paraded in one by one, with the same horrifying and bloody results. Each more horrific than the last. And every one of them told me not to give in. Not to agree to the queen’s ransom.
I wished I had the time to tell them how much I loved them. Instead, I sobbed apology after apology until they all sounded as empty and hollow as I felt.
The queen sheathed her blade and stood in front of me. “You could have prevented their deaths.” She pointed at the five new foul-smelling sentries whose bodies continued to purge the last vestiges of their humanity.
Her stomach rumbled, and I glanced up at her with a glare.
“This killing business always makes me ravenous,” she said and crossed the room. As she stepped into the doorway, she said, “There are still two more, but I will save those until after I satisfy this hellish hunger.