Discovery of a Queen: Chapter 24

“Well, well, well…” I grit my teeth as Malick’s voice rings out over the sounds of the battle raging around us. “I truly shouldn’t be surprised you let yourself out, little queen. After all I’ve done to you, it’s only fitting you’d escape.” I’m going to rip the satisfied smile I know he has on his face from his lips through his asshole if it’s the last thing I do.

His voice seems to be echoing from everywhere, so it’s hard to pin down where he’s approaching us from. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, focusing on finding his unique signature out of the battle around us. I spin to my left just as the fighting starts to part to let Malick through. Caleb’s arm wraps protectively around my waist, a low snarl rumbling in his chest. I melt a little on the inside. Thanks to the fully formed mate bond, I can feel that he doesn’t doubt my ability to take care of myself. No. He wants to rip Malick to shreds before charring his remains simply because he hurt me.

I feel his pleasure at my statement.

He chuckles darkly, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

I turn my attention back to Malick. With a grin, I state, “You’ve pissed off some very powerful ladies.” I force my tone to sound bored, evening out my expression. “They want us to clean house. You’re obsolete, Malick.”

Malick, in full archdemon form, approaches Caleb and me. Malick’s eyes flick over to Caleb’s arm, which is draped around my waist, and his eyes narrow. The way he’s so solely focused on the two of us surprises me, it’s as though the battle continuing around him doesn’t exist.

“I see you’ve killed my mage, little queen.” He studies me again, tilting his head as he does. “That wasn’t very nice, you know. Now I’ll need to find a new one.” He sounds petulant, and he folds his arms across his chest as though he’s about to start having a tantrum in the middle of the damn battlefield.

“Look, it’s your fault for picking a lying sack of wasted witch flesh in the first place. Don’t do that next time, and I might be able to avoid killing her. I don’t know what to tell you.” I salute him. “That bitch had it coming, and you know it.”

“I suppose you’re right, little queen.” Malick sighs dramatically, appearing completely put out. His gaze once again lands on Caleb’s arm around my waist. Caleb holds me tighter, and Malick’s eyes narrow, a frown marring his face.

“While I’d love to catch up over a nice cup of coffee, I have things to do. Demons to kill. I’m sure you understand.” I feel Caleb brace beside me as my body coils to attack.

,” Caleb, his voice mixed with that of his dragon, rumbles.

I allow my dragon’s voice to mix with mine.

I let my magic flood my system, both my normal queen magic and my demonic magic. The combination is heady. I form a large broadsword and hand it to Caleb as we square off against Malick. I choose to go with a larger form on my khopesh. I want to keep one hand free in case I need help focusing my magic.

Malick’s laughter rings out over the battle around us, a spear suddenly appearing in his right hand. He approaches us with a smug smile spreading across his face. I know how lethal he can be up close. I mentally nudge Caleb, reminding him to keep his distance as much as possible.

“Don’t forget, little queen,” Malick taunts, “you’ve got my essence inside you. Do you really think you’ll be able to fight the darkness that courses through your veins now?”

I feel Caleb stiffen beside me, but he remains silent. I send him soothing thoughts through the bond, promising to explain everything to him when this is done. He doesn’t seem worried that I’ll lose myself to the darkness. The feelings I get from him suggest he’s more pissed that Malick injected any part of himself inside me. I fight not to roll my eyes.

My attempt at reassurance fails as I feel his rage spike.

I fight the urge to facepalm.

Men are the worst. Cavemen who think with their dicks, every single one of them. I swear.

His rage shoots higher.

I can’t believe I’m soothing him over the fact that I got injected and turned into some sort of demon hybrid. And they say women are the weaker sex. Right.

“I don’t need to fight the darkness, Malick.” I allow my eyes to bleed black as I push Caleb and his butthurt temper tantrum from my mind. “Light cannot exist without dark. Life cannot exist without death.”

Caleb and I launch ourselves at him. Despite having our training cut short thanks to my kidnapping, we move completely in sync. We trade blow for blow with Malick, quickly, furiously, and with as much power as possible. I feel my bloodlust rise the longer we hack away at each other. The scent of demon blood is thick in the air and mixes with the fragrance of my community’s blood. This only fuels the beast within me that wants to bathe in the blood of my enemies. My protective instincts flare to life as my dragon lets out a shrill battle cry.

The noises of the battle fade as I embrace the darkness within me, until only the sound of my pounding heart thrums in my ears, punctuated with the clash of our weapons. Sweat breaks out and drips down my back, but I’m not tiring. Quite the opposite. I’m just getting started. I feel as though I could do this forever.

Caleb’s voice is soft and distant in my mind.

The screams and cries of my community flood back at such a high volume I wince. I was allowing the darkness free rein. The goddesses said to use the darkness within, not let it use me. Steadying myself, I focus on keeping a balance within me as I continue to swing my khopesh at Malick.

But attacking him like this isn’t working. I need to use my magic. I allow it to swirl out of me, letting the khopesh vanish from my hands. I thrust my arms out toward Malick, and shards of diamond-hard rock fly at him. He’s too slow throwing up a shield, and the rocks slice at his body and wings. I don’t give him time to recover, blasting him with a wave of fire next. Caleb is circling around behind him. Good, I’ll keep him distracted.

I raise my hands toward the sky, and a bolt of lightning slams down on top of me. I gather it around my form, allowing it to crackle along my skin. With a sudden burst of released magic, I shoot it out. Malick has trouble dodging it, and a scream tears from his lips as the blast hits him. Caleb, who has finally made it behind the archdemon, shifts and starts spewing fire.

I rip the earth open below Malick and slam it shut, trapping him up to his knees. This is it. I can feel his energy draining. I’m going to fry this douche canoe off the face of the planet. And it’s going to feel amazing.

Suddenly, the community members and demons around us start to collapse in waves. I can feel the pull of Malick’s demonic energy as he drains them all, and my blood runs cold as I realize what he’s getting ready to use—death magic. But I’m not given enough time to act before he lashes out and horror floods my body.

A spear of black death magic shoots out toward Caleb. My heart stops and my stomach drops. The world slows, and I can see everything we’re meant to have flash before me. The years of love and laughter, the children, leading a community together, the fights, the makeup sex, the nights spent curled up in one another’s arms, everything. It’s all gone in an instant.

No! Malick has already taken so much from me. I refuse to let him take Caleb.

In the next blink, I’m in front of Caleb in dragon form, a screech ripping from me as the death magic slams into my chest. Caleb’s furious roar is the only thing I hear as I plummet out of the sky. I crash in a heap, instantly shifting back to human. I’m weak. I need to end this now. Caleb’s large dragon body lands over me protectively.

Thankfully, Malick is still contained in the earth. I cough, feeling liquid fly from my lips. I refuse to think about what that could mean. Instead, I allow light to fill me. It floods my cells, warming me until I feel like I’m about to combust. My heart is racing, and with each breath I exhale, more liquid splatters to the ground beneath me. My limbs start to go numb as cold begins to replace my dragon’s heat. My vision tunnels and the only sound I can focus on is my labored breathing. Strangely, I don’t pass out.

The world around me seems to freeze when I hear her voice, my heart stopping along with it.

Tears instantly gather in my eyes as grief swells inside me.

Though I can’t see her, I feel the touch of her hand on my cheek.

Sorrow floods my voice as my tears start to stream down my face.

I feel a gentle kiss brush my cheek.

But it’s too late. I don’t sense her anymore.

When the world speeds up again, I feel power flood my body. This is different than anything I’ve ever felt before.

. My dragon sounds weak and so very far away.

And with that, I explode.

When Malick hit me with his death magic, he was actually hitting me with the souls of my community. He’d stolen them, as well as the energy and life force of the lower-level demons around him—since demons don’t have souls—to launch his attack. And so, when the souls of my community hit me, instead of dispersing as they should have, they clung to me as though charged with static electricity.

Every magic-user can harness the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water. Typically, they’re stronger in one element than the others. As a queen, I can control all of them equally. But as I lie on the ground, my very cells ripping apart, I realize there’s one more element—the soul. Not all queens can harness the souls of the dead as well as the living, it’s a rare gift passed down genetically. My mother didn’t have the gift, but my grandmother did. It’s different from necromancy in that I can’t control a dead body. Instead, I can control the soul and have it do my bidding. In a way, I’m like the ferryman from Greek mythology, assuming I don’t abuse my gift anyway. Helping souls move on isn’t the only thing I can do with them, however, I can create life.

Demons are the opposite of life, everything about them is somehow related to death. Lower-level demons are made up of the souls of evil mortals. The more evil they do, the higher in the ranks they rise. Eventually, they become archdemons. Only Lucifer and the Princes of Hell out rank archdemons and weren’t ever human, while every other soul in hell is some evil twat who was once mortal.

Queens are life. They’re filled with it, brimming around the edges with magic that creates instead of destroys. That’s why we’re the best defense possible. Our magic allows us to create new forms of magic using the very building blocks of life. Being able to harness and manipulate souls makes my life magic far more potent.

And so, as I lie under Caleb, bleeding out, I release the souls Malick stole. They come screaming out of me, panicked and in pain. I urge them to reunite with their bodies and heal, soothing them in any way I can. But that isn’t the only thing I release. Every ounce of magic still swirling in my body goes along with them, causing a massive shock wave to blast through the area. My last thought before I go off like a nuke is that I don’t want any of my people harmed. I know, deep inside me, that my magic will keep them all safe while annihilating the demons around us.

My magic is tied to my soul, it’s what keeps me alive. And I just expelled it all from my body in a desperate attempt to save my mate and my community. I was dying anyway, might as well take out as many of the bastards as I can before I go, right?

But I don’t die. By every right, I should be dead right now. But I’m still alive. My heart is still beating furiously in my chest, and my lungs still frantically try to draw in air to keep said heart pumping. At my core, the thing that is keeping me alive is a small, glowing, golden thread. My mate bond.

, my dragon purrs softly in my mind. I’m too physically and mentally exhausted right now to truly figure out how he’s keeping us alive, but I’m hella grateful. He is so getting a blow job for this. Hell, sex for days if he keeps it up.

My eyes are closed since I lack the energy to keep them open, so I don’t see him shift into his human form. I do, however, feel his very human hands as they run along my body, awe filling the bond as he realizes that I am, truly, still alive. A wave of love, relief, and gratitude washes over me from him, and tears burn in the back of my eyes. This alpha, the alpha of all alphas, has been rocked to his very core, and I’ve never been prouder to call him my mate.

Caleb’s mind gently nudges my own, tentatively assessing my mental state.

He pushes more of his strength through the bond. I grab hold of that shimmering, golden thread and grip it for dear life. It’s my anchor.

,” my dragon answers. I’m still too shocked by what’s happened to attempt to string words together in any coherent form.

I feel Caleb’s confusion, mirroring my own, but we don’t have answers for him right now. Goddess, I’m so tired. I can feel my grip over my thoughts weaken. But I need to know. I need to know if I killed Malick. Did I send that fucker to hell where he belongs?

Even my internal voice is weak.

Don’t worry about whether I killed Malick? That’s what all of this was about. But if Caleb isn’t concerned then that has to mean something. And goddess, I’m so damn tired. But I’m worried I won’t come back if I fall asleep. I’m scared, so damn scared, that this is the end. Scared that Caleb saved us just to have us fade away moments later.

, my dragon murmurs.

And so I sleep.