Witch Queen (32 page)

I couldn’t eat. I just drank some water as
they wrapped Leo in my bedding and took him away. Celeste promised
that his body would be burned, and he would have a proper Anglian
burial. I didn’t ask where they could burn a body inside the
fortress.

So it was with a heavy heart that I stood in
the arena and waited for another round of witch trials to begin. I
searched the crowd for a glimpse of Fawkes, but he was nowhere to
be found.

A tight lump had formed in my throat, my
eyes burned, and I strained to keep them dry. I would not cry. Not
today. I had already cried enough.

The witch king rose from his seat and
surveyed the arena. His dark eyes finally settled on me. His gaze
intensified, and he looked strangely satisfied and wary at the same
time. I looked at Price Aurion. His silver eyes locked on mine with
the same unwavering amusement that I had seen before.

Was he satisfied about what had transpired
between me and the queen the night before?

Of course he knew, just as she had known
about my helping the men in the oubliette.

“Welcome to the second day of the witch
trials, my fellow witches.” The king’s voice boomed. Everyone in
the audience leaned forward.

“I know why you all have come.” He paused to
smile.

“You want to uncover the truth of the
outrageous claim made by this female.”

A round of low applause echoed in the
arena.

“I won’t delay it any longer,” he continued.
“Let us see how she fares against the last two clans. Only a
true
steel maiden will be able to defeat them.”

The king clapped once. “Begin!”

I braced myself for my next magical fight. I
assumed a
fighting stance and
waited.

The white-haired male, the shifter witch,
moved first. His grin was evil, and I tried to steady my nerves as
the magecraft on his chest pulsed with yellow energy.
There was no kindness in his harsh, yellow
eyes.

“Today is the day you die, half-breed,” said
the shifter witch. “I’m going to feast on the blood under that
pretty skin of yours. You’re going to regret the day you left your
human
world and set foot in ours.”

Part
of
my mind, the logical
part, screamed at me to save the men, to give up and let the
witches win these goddamn trials. But something else possessed me
and commanded me to stay and fight. I wouldn’t give up. A hot rage
cut through me, and I let it feed me with a new wave of
adrenaline.

“
I’m not
dying, not today,” I growled, surprised at the fury in my own
voice. “I’ll kill you before you try, shifter.”

And then the witch began to chant in a
language I didn’t understand—quietly at first, but then louder
until he was practically yelling. His magecraft flared, and he
ripped off his clothes until he stood before me completely naked.
His bones cracked, and he grew in width and in length as his body
began morphing into something else. Fur spread from his back,
covering him with a thick white pelt, and black fur grew on his
face. When he reared up on his hind legs, he must have been eight
feet tall. On all fours now, the creature let out a growl through
his menacing fangs and flexed his hideous claws.

He had become a giant wolf, a creature of
nightmare, too big to be natural. I recognized it immediately. It
was the same white wolf we’d seen watching over the human slaves in
the fields. Wiscar.

I growled. I was going to kill that
bastard.

The wolf roared and lunged. In two great
leaps he was on me, and I barely twisted out of the way in time. A
massive taloned paw swept across the space where my midsection had
been a moment ago.

Cheers went up around the arena. I didn’t
know whether they were for the wolf having nearly killed me within
three seconds, or for the fact that I’d
survived
the first
three seconds.

The
wolf charged
again, and I spun and dove to avoid the impact. I needed to keep my
head. I rolled back onto my feet, but a taloned paw had connected
with my right thigh, and the force of the blow sent me sprawling to
the ground.

Something sharp pierced my back
, and I went sailing into the air
again.

I cried
out as I hit the ground some twenty feet from where I had been.
Tears of pain flooded my eyes, and blood poured from deep gashes in
my back. I fought against the agony and nausea. My own healing
magic began to course through my veins, and I could feel the
itching and tingling of my skin stitching itself back
together.

The
ground vibrated
under
me, and I could smell the musky stink of wet dog. I rolled away
just as the giant beast’s paws pounded the earth where I had lain a
second before.

I limped
to my feet
with my
weapons clamped grimly in my hands. The world spun, and I shook my
head to try to level the ground as another wave of nausea hit
me.

S
omething about
the trial witches’ magic interfered with my healing powers and kept
me from recovering fully. Maybe Fawkes had been wrong about my
blood magic. Maybe I had too much human blood to counter their
magic. Or maybe the trial witches were just too strong, and I was
too weak.

“
Kill
the human whore!” some witch shouted.

“
I want
to hang her skin in my parlour.”

“
Kill
the bitch!”

The
laugher that sounded around the arena made me angry, and a quick
glance at the winning smile on the witch queen’s face sent me into
an even more primal rage. It was like everything that had happened
to me so far hit me at once. I remembered the priests, the Heart of
Arcania, Jon, and Leo’s murder. I saw red. Blood red.

“
For the
slaves,” I swore.

I
balanced
on the tips of
my toes and gripped my blades as I prepared to strike. I screamed
and jumped onto the beast’s back. Its fur was slick and slippery,
but I managed to hang on and plunge my knife between its shoulder
blades. The creature roared in surprise and swept its great paws
behind its back in an attempt to catch me. It bucked and reared up,
but I hung on to the blade between its shoulders and pulled myself
up higher on its back.

In the
few moments o
f clarity I
had, I knew what I must do.

I looked up to the queen witch, and when her
eyes had widened with the recognition of what I was about to do, I
plunged my dagger into the base of the wolf’s skull. I cut the bone
and flesh so violently that
the
vibration rang up my arm.

I
could feel the life flowing
from him. He wavered, and I leapt off the creature and landed on my
feet.

The
shifter
witch collapsed next to me, dead.

CHAPTER 28

I
DIDN’T HAVE TIME to admire my
handiwork, or to give my best smile to the queen, because just as I
stood up, I was hit in the chest by a blow of magic.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

I hit the ground hard and heard my hipbone
crack. The pain shot through my abdomen and forced me to double
over. When I looked up, the last trial witch was standing over me.
Her long blue hair billowed wildly behind her, and the hatred in
wet her eyes sent a tremor through me.

“Wiscar was many things, but he was also my
friend. You took him from me,” hissed the witch.

Her magecraft sparkled with yellow light.
“He made the mistake of letting his guard down, and his arrogance
cost him his life. But I don’t make mistakes. I end them.”

I staggered to my feet, wincing at the pain
in my hip.

“It was either his life or mine…and I chose
mine. And I will every time.”

“I
will
kill you, you know,” said the
witch calmly. “You might be skilled with a blade, but I’m skilled
with dark magic and no blade can withstand that kind of power.
Especially not a tainted human pretending to be a steel
maiden.”

“We’ll see.”

“If you reject your claim now,” she
continued, “if you swear an oath to our witch king that you are
not
a steel maiden, that this was just some ridiculous
attempt at gaining attention from our king…I will spare your
life.”

My eyes narrowed. “I doubt the witch king
will spare it though.”

The witch smiled. “Probably not. But his way
would be less…
painful
than mine. I will make sure to spill
all
of your human blood, every last drop, until your vessel
is empty. A blood sacrifice is the most sacred sacrifice that we
make to our Goddess. It would be an honorable death. It’s your
choice.”

“Choice?” I raised my brows. “Since when do
I have a choice? The witch queen ordered you to do this, didn’t
she?” I asked.

The dark witch didn’t answer, but the slight
rise of her eyebrows suggested I was right.

I stood my ground.

“I’ve never claimed to be anything other
than just me. And if being me also means being a steel maiden, then
so be it. I cannot change who or what I am, just as you cannot
change who or what you are.”

Her grin was terrible. In her arrogance she
was convinced of her own magnificence and power.

“You’re a fool. You think this is bravery,
coming here and putting on a show? It’s stupidity. Any
real
witch would have surrendered because they would have known that
they could not win against me. It just goes to show that you are
not a real witch, but a human beast whose life is about to
end.”

I yanked my witch blade from my waist.

“Maybe I am a fool, maybe I’m not even a
real witch. But I’m definitely not a coward. And I won’t be bullied
by a queen bitch.”

The witch lunged forward in a wave of rage.
She summoned her dark magic, and the pendant at her neck flared as
it unleashed something dark inside the witch. With a laugh she
flicked her hands and a thread of magic shot at me.

I swung my sword in a feeble attempt to
deflect the magic, but I knew my weapons would be useless. The
blunt force of her magic hit me like a boulder on my chest, and I
stumbled back. At first I felt nothing, just a tingling. But just
when I thought that maybe, just maybe, my blood magic would be
strong enough to resist her magic—the pain started.

I managed to retain my grip on my sword by
my natural reflexes, but it hung uselessly in my hand. The threads
of her magic pulsed through me until I could only feel the pulsing
of my blood. I could barely feel my fingers at all. The magic
spread like a firestorm through my veins, burning my insides. My
chest ached as it contracted, tightening and tightening, until I
felt like I would be crushed from within. I spat up blood in an
attempt to breathe, but my lungs were swollen with liquid.

“Yield!” A voice echoed in my ears, but I
suspected it was just my imagination.

Through my blurred vision, I could barely
make out the dark witch. Her clenched fists were blazing with dark
magic.

As my chest caved in, every rib cracked,
split, and bent under the invisible force that was crushing me from
the inside. I collapsed to the ground, writhing. I opened my mouth,
but I was unable even to scream. I could feel my bones snap and
crumple into dust. I couldn’t move my fingers. I couldn’t move at
all.

But then, a familiar tingle sparked low in
my middle and ignited. My blood magic was countering the dark magic
and defending me. I could feel my bones itching and tingling as
they healed. I could feel them rebuilding throughout my torso. I
could move again, but just barely. My body was soaked in sweat, and
my heart pounded as my blood magic fought fiercely to defend me, as
though it knew it was now or never. But it was not enough.

As I tried to stand, the witch hit me from
all sides at once, sending blast after blast of deadly dark magic
into me again. I could barely hear her laughter as my blood gushed
into my ears. I dropped to the ground as another wave of magic
lanced into my body.

I felt the heat of the energy, running up
and down my body and setting every nerve on fire again. The image
of Jon appeared in my mind’s eye. Then the winning smile on the
swollen lips of the queen flashed in my mind, and then I imagined
the wild expression on the king’s face.

“You cannot resist my magic,” taunted the
witch as I saw her shadow move closer to me. “No witch nor human
can resist my power. Yield.”

But I didn’t yield

Another thrust of magic sent me rolling to
the ground again, and I screamed as I thrashed in breathless
pain.