Chapter 39

Thorne

The world twisted and turned inside out as we passed through the portal, and then it spit us onto the shattered remains of my home.

There were no more protection spells.

I staggered forward, my boots crunching on fragments of what used to be the castle”s grand entrance.

Around me, Caer Far lay in ruin. The walls were broken in like a row of jagged teeth, allowing the monsters to ravage through the city and into the castle itself. My heart pounded, even knowing Alys and Coril and my mother would’ve been long gone to safety.

Behind me, the boots of the Snake Queen’s soldiers shook the marble floor. How had the protections on the city been broken? Why could the Snake Queen open a portal into our home now when we had always been free of her?

Memories pulled at my heart, reminding me of the few memories I had of my father, which all centered around the warm heart of Caer Far; stories in front of the fireplace, being tossed up and down in the great hall and giggling as he caught me in his arms, sitting on the edge of those walls, our feet dangling far above our city.

I’d always thought one day, I’d come home, when Edric was gone and Kaelan no longer needed me.

But home had been destroyed.

I felt the Snake Queen”s eyes upon me, watching my every reaction with an unreadable expression.

”Beautiful destruction, isn”t it?” she murmured, her voice a soft hiss that cut through the stillness. ”Now you’re lord of nothing.”

I had brought this destruction to Caer Far by helping Kaelan and sending him here to Alys. I had offered up my own family, my castle, my legacy. Seraphine’s monsters had ravaged it all in vengeance.

With King Edric’s permission.

None of this could’ve happened without him.

“It’s just stone,” I said.

”Of course,” she replied, her tone dripping with feigned sympathy, ”just stone.”

It didn”t matter that Caer Far was in ruins. It didn”t matter that the stones beneath my feet seemed to mourn. The only thing that mattered now was the living, breathing present – and the people caught in its merciless tide.

Monsters swept into the room in a writhing mass of snapping fangs—often directed at each other—so dense that the ground seemed alive with them. It turned my stomach to see the monsters I’d fought all my life in my home.

But I stayed still, though my heart beat faster, prepared for war once again.

Seraphine came between them, a monster loping at her left and at her right. Where was Kaelan?

I was caught between mother and daughter, each with their own army.

”Mother,” Seraphine greeted her.

”Daughter,” the Snake Queen’s voice was cutting. Her guards shifted uneasily, the clutter of armor and sense of tension discordant in the air. “I see you’ve realized you could never be queen yourself… so you will have to imitate another?

Seraphine”s smile was cold. “You’re just disappointed I’m not imitating you, Mother. You always wanted nothing but a copy.”

The Snake Queen shook her head. “I’m so disappointed I thought you would be the last heir. I thought you were the one who was worthy.”

”You can’t be that angry at me, Mother,” Seraphine said with a smile. “After all, you’ve come to my wedding.”

I stood still, the ruins of Caer Far stretching out like the bones of a fallen giant behind me. The ground beneath my feet trembled as the first monstrous beast from Seraphine”s entourage lunged forward, provoking the Snake Queen’s guards, who ran forward with their swords and spears.

A cacophony of roars and hisses filled the air, the sound visceral, as if the very earth was screaming in agony.

The clash was immediate and horrifying. Scaled beasts with fangs dripping venom snapped at guards, crunching through their armor. Claws met armor with sickening thuds, rending flesh and spattering the marble with dark ichor. Mangled bodies of the fallen were trampled underfoot as the battle surged back and forth, neither side gaining ground.

The Snake Queen”s eyes glinted with a cold calculation, while Seraphine watched with a detached fascination, as if enjoying the chaos she had orchestrated. I could only watch in horrified paralysis, knowing any step I took could be my last.

”Look at you,” Seraphine sneered, her voice cutting through the din, ”standing there, powerless. You couldn”t even protect your precious home.”

“It’s just a city to me,” I said.

It had been the place that protected my sisters and held the memories of my father. But my home now was with Hanna.

Seraphine”s smirk faltered.

”Where are Kaelan and Hanna?” I demanded, my voice hoarse with urgency and dust.

Seraphine”s amusement was as clear as the twisted joy in her eyes. ”Oh, Thorne,” she cooed mockingly, ”still playing the hero? You don”t even know where dear Hanna is?” Her laughter was like the hiss of serpents, sliding over the cacophony of battle. ”Would you like to see my favorite pet?”

A shiver ran down my spine. My heart raced, not just from the danger on every side, but from the thought of what Seraphine might have done to them. I clenched my fists.

Kaelan entered the room, but he moved with an unnatural grace, his gaze fixed on Seraphine with an adoration that was wrong, all wrong.

Was it a ruse, like we had planned? Kaelan was clever, a master of deception when the situation called for it. He could be pretending, seeing Seraphine through whatever enchantment she”d woven.

But what if I was wrong? What if Kaelan truly was Seraphine’s pet now?

I watched him, every muscle tensed. Where the hell was Ekardo and Alys? Alys would find a way to return to Caer Far and fight, I was sure. And where was Hanna, with the potion we had worked so hard to obtain? If she was here, the two of us together should be able to force that potion down Kaelan’s throat.

The air filled with the roars and screeches of Seraphine”s creatures clashing with those loyal to the Snake Queen. The stench of blood and venom hung thick in the air.

I turned to face her. ”Kaelan will never love you. And you can’t live as Hanna all your life.”

”Perhaps,” she conceded. ”But I don’t need true love. I just need power… and having Kaelan bow at my feet when he rejected me before is such very sweet power.”

She swept her arm over the battlefield, where the ground was quickly becoming a tapestry woven with the fallen bodies of beasts and the rivers of their spilt essence. ”And power is exactly what Kaelan will give me, as he makes me his queen.”

“He’s already got a queen,” I reminded her.

Seraphine’s smile bloomed, bright and deadly. “Not for long.”

Kaelan was wounded. His chest heaved with labored breaths, his eyes distant and unfocused. His clothes were soaked with blood, and this time, it was Kaelan’s own blood.

“What did you do to him?” I demanded.

“He’s been fighting for love,” she said. “And he’d keep going until he dies for my sake if I demand it.”

Her lips quirked, then turned into an exaggerated face of fear as she rested her hand lightly over her breast. “Especially when he sees an enemy who is going to kill me, and who I am so very afraid of.”

Hanna.

“You’re not going to succeed,” I warned her.

“You’ve been trying so hard to get an antidote to my enchantment,” she said sympathetically. “You’ve even aligned yourself with my mother. But it won’t matter, Thorne. I had to pour so much of that potion down his throat that it poisoned him, ruined him.”

She sounded gleeful.

My heart clenched at the sight; there was no pretense in his suffering. He staggered forward a step, then another, drawn toward the violence like a moth to flame. His hands trembled around the hilt of his sword, due to his wounds, but that didn’t stop him from plunging into the chaos.

Two of the Snake Queen’s guards attacked him, but even badly wounded… he made short work of them. His sword flashed through the air in silver arcs so fast they could barely be seen. I watched as their guts spilled out before they stumbled and fell to the marble, before being swarmed over by monsters.

”Kaelan!” I called out, desperation edging my voice, but he didn”t seem to hear me.

Seraphine watched him with a twisted smile. ”He fights for me, Thorne. For love.”

“Oh, you are tiresome,” the Snake Queen fumed. “Let’s finish this, Thorne.”

“What are you going to do, mother?” Seraphine mocked her. “The monsters are mine. And my wedding altar is waiting, as soon as Kaelan is mine.”

She swept her arm to indicate the wedding altar set up in the shadow of the massive pillars. Candles glowed across its surface, and it was heaped with roses. More roses were being trampled underfoot by the monsters.

“You’re never going to marry Kaelan,” I promised. I would never let that happen to Hanna.

The portal rippled behind the Snake Queen. This time, her newborn monster stepped out, shaky on its legs, its horned head swiveling back and forth as it regarded the world with wide eyes. It was cute, as babies tend to be. For a monster.

Someday, that monster was probably going to haunt us.

But for today, it was what we needed.

“What’s that?” Seraphine asked with a laugh. “You managed to raise one little monster?”

“One little alpha shifter monster,” the Snake Queen said with a smile.

Shifter?A ripple of unease ran down my spine.

I had thought it was just another enchanted monster, hatched from an enchanted egg. But now I wondered what had happened before the egg was tucked into its metal nest in the hatchery.

“Now, Thorne,” the Snake Queen called.

I held out my hand to her without looking back.

She sighed and threw the bottle of potion toward me. I caught it from the air without looking, already moving toward Seraphine.

All I needed to do was disrupt her control of the monsters. The alpha monster, newborn though it was, would do the rest, freeing the monsters from her control… and the Snake Queen’s. It would be up to the Snake Queen to bring them back under her command, though I rather hoped she would die trying.

I raised my hand, blasting my magic toward Seraphine. She let out the shortest burst of a scream before she was frozen.

The monsters stopped. Suddenly, silence reigned.

Kaelan whirled toward us, his eyes wide with alarm. He saw her frozen and screamed, “Hanna!”

He started toward me, murder written across his face.

Then the monsters erupted between us. The winged monsters flew over our heads, wings flapping wildly. Other monsters slithered away or stampeded in all directions. What was left of the walls of Caer Far creaked dangerously as the monsters swarmed over them, freed from anyone’s command.

And as the monsters parted, Kaelan moved toward us with lethal grace.

“Good luck, Thorne,” the Snake Queen said pleasantly. “Save your prince. So he can gut my daughter.”