novelxo Discovery of a Queen: Chapter 20
My eyes fly open, my lungs frantically filling with air. Panic surges through me when I realize I’m tied down. Despite my eyes being open, my brain can’t seem to process what I’m looking at. It’s still focused on trying to figure out why I’m restrained, on the panic flooding my system, and the remnants of my heightened protective instincts. Jackknifing my body, I rip through the ties and fly upright. I mentally take stock of my body since my last memory is of being in excruciating pain. While I’m not completely healed, I’m good enough to be up and about.
Something isn’t right. I’m torn from my thoughts as I blink a few times to get my eyes to clear. When I finally open my eyes again, I’m staring around a barren room. Confusion and alarm swamp me since I’ve never been in this room before. I inhale, attempting to learn where I am, assuming I’m still on pack land.
I don’t scent my community.
Instead, I inhale again, and my blood runs cold and my eyes widen. Demons. Oh, this is so not good. Very, very not good. And to make this day complete, my dragon is gone…again.
The bitter taste of panic begins to rise in my throat. Malick. His fucking mage stripped me of my dragon while I was passed out. I really need to kill that asshat. Both of them, I need to kill both of them. This is the second time they’ve stripped me of my dragon. Don’t they know how damn rude that is? They’re making things far more difficult for themselves, really, because now I need to rip them apart with my bare hands. I could have just killed them quickly, but they’re forcing me to draw this out. I bet it’s a kink thing.
I study the room around me. I’m sitting on a single bed. It has a threadbare fitted sheet and nothing else. Thankfully, I’m still fully clothed. If they’d had the audacity to remove anything, I wouldn’t need my dragon to light this mofo on fire. There’s a door directly in front of me, no windows, and only a chair next to the bed. Which is mildly creepy.
Please don’t tell me Malick has been watching me sleep. Because that’s a hard fucking pass. We clearly need to talk about boundaries before I kill him. You cannot be tying people down and then watching them while they sleep, even as a villain.
I feel like that’s just basic common sense, but villains clearly work off different rules. But why do they always have to be so damn creepy? I want to encounter a non-creepy villain. Just once. It’s like I’m on a hunt for a magical, sparkly unicorn. But hell, I’m not supposed to exist either, so there has to be hope, right?
My legs move to swing off the bed when I suddenly find myself tied down again. Well, this isn’t going to be pleasant.
“Why, you’re awake, little queen!” I struggle against my bonds, grinding my teeth at the sound of Malick’s voice as he strolls into the room. “I’m happy to see you survived your little stunt.” He sounds so condescending, which makes me want to throat punch him.
He smiles down at me, and I have to fight the urge to spit in his face. How the hell did I end up here with him? I try to remember more, but the last thing I can clearly recall is diving into Shane’s head, after that it’s all pain. Did Malick attack while I was doing the mind dive? Panic for my community works its way up my spine, and I desperately try to reach for my dragon again. Nothing. The silence sends searing pain through every nerve ending.
“I’m sure you want to know how you came to be in my care. All in due time, little queen. All in due time.” He leans down to stroke my cheek with the back of his fingers. I shudder. “Right now, I am merely here to make sure you’re adjusting well.”
“Adjusting?” The word bursts from my lips before I can stop it.
“Indeed! After your little brush with death, I need to make sure you’re strong enough for what’s in store. I can’t exactly have you dying on me, now can I?” Malick chuckles as he watches me, his lust-filled eyes burning my skin. I try to call on my magic, but that doesn’t come to me either. Malick tsks. “Little queen, you underestimate me. We’ve stripped both your dragon and your magic this time. Can’t have you hurting yourself.” How did he know I was trying to use my magic? Something is very, very wrong.
“I suppose I should give you some answers. You really should be aware of what’s going to happen to you.” He cups my cheeks with his hands and leans down to press his lips against mine. My body instantly goes rigid, and I turn my head, breaking the contact. “Soon, you’ll be begging me to kiss you, little queen.”
“Over my very dead body,” I snarl.
“No, thankfully you won’t need to die for this process to work.” Everything inside me stills. Process?
Malick pulls out a needle that’s filled with a black liquid. Just the sight of it sends me into a panicked fit against the bindings tying me to the bed. I have no idea what the hell is in that needle, but I don’t want to find out.
“You see, I’ve found that injecting other species with my essence allows me to form a bond of sorts with them. It makes them part demon.” My struggles increase. “Do you want to know what I hope to achieve by injecting you with as much of this as I can?” No, I really bloody don’t.
“I’m going to bind you to me.” He pauses, clearly for dramatic effect. “As my mate.”
My eyes snap open for a second time. Did I pass out? I test my bonds only to find that I’m securely attached to the bed. Damn it.
“Ayla.” The whisper is barely there, but I cling to it. Caleb! The mating bond! It’s still there! I try to pinpoint it in my mind, but it slips away. No!
“Caleb! Caleb, please tell me you can hear me!” I try to reach for my bonds with my community, but I can’t find those either. Once again, I’m completely alone. I never thought I would resent the silence in my mind, but now it creates this chasm inside me that aches with every breath. My body starts to shake at the realization that I may not be getting out of this. Without my bonds, without any connection to my community, no one can track me. I’m still not sure how Malick captured me, but my community could be completely wiped out. Stabbing pain shoots through my chest at the thought. No. There’s no way Kelly or Olivia would have allowed that to happen. I have complete and utter faith in them.
I need to come up with a plan to find the damn mage and take him out. I refuse to even think about binding with Malick as his mate. Every cell in my body rebels against the thought, so it’s easier to focus on other things. And the only way to get out of here is to take out the mage, and get my dragon and my magic back. Reclaiming my magic should open up the bonds again.
Shit. The realization slams into me like a runaway train. I’m essentially human. That leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I’m physically stronger than a human, but it won’t be enough against Malick.
How the hell did he get this far? Trapping a queen and ripping away her dragon and magic is no easy feat. To keep the spell up, he had to be draining other sources of power. Was the mage syphoning off others?
The sound of the door opening halts my thinking. A stunning woman, well over six feet tall with long, blond hair and striking blue eyes, enters the room. Mage. Despite not having my dragon, I want to snarl at her. I don’t need my magic to see the corruption pouring off of her. It’s disgusting.
“I’m so glad to see you awake.” Her accent isn’t British. South African maybe? Possibly Australian. “Lord Malick told me that you had an adverse reaction to your second dose, so I decided to come see how you were fairing for myself.”
Second dose? I frantically try to evaluate my body to see what’s different, but I can’t tell if anything has really changed. How many doses are they planning on giving me? And what the hell do these doses do?
“Anyway, you seem to be fine, but I’ll need to do a full examination of you to be certain.” I hadn’t realized that the mage had continued talking while I was having my mini-internal freak-out.
“What exactly is this doing to me?” Play it cool, Ayla. Play it fucking cool. Don’t seem too interested. Just interested enough. Yeah. You’ve got this.
“I believe Lord Malick already told you.” The mage’s voice takes on a condescending note, as though she thinks I’m too stupid to follow along. “You are being given Lord Malick’s demonic essence. It will not turn you into a demon, but it will change certain aspects of your DNA to allow for a viable pregnancy.”
Viable…pregnancy? I shake my head. But I physically can’t mate with a creature that isn’t an alpha male dragon. That’s how the magic of it all works. When the goddesses created queens, this was the stipulation to keep our strength and magic strong. What the hell is Malick hoping to gain by—I internally gag—getting me pregnant?
I can feel the panic slowly working its way through my body, like ants crawling over every inch of my skin. I try to breathe deeply to avoid having a full-blown meltdown. I almost died only to wake up in the hands of an archdemon who apparently wants me to be his baby mama. There’s still so much I don’t understand. My vision starts to go fuzzy, as though I’m looking at static on an old TV. My entire body goes numb.
“Oh, good. So glad I can accommodate some little hell-spawn as it rips its way out of my vagina. Just what I’ve always wanted.” Word vomit. Great. This is how I’m handling the situation. Word vomit. “What would we name them? Here little Timmy! Time to light the world on fire!” And it just won’t stop. What the hell is wrong with me?
“Silence.” The mage’s voice is laced with power and my lips instantly stop flapping. Well, damn. That’s not fair. She gets to use magic, but I can’t. Rude. “Much better.”
The mage makes her way over to me, drawing blood, pressing down on random body parts, and placing her hands over my head. I’d fidget a lot more if I wasn’t tied down. I don’t like her hands on me. Something about her makes my skin crawl, and I’m actually happy my hands can’t reach my body, or I’d be itching all over. After several minutes the mage sighs and walks toward the door.
“Wait,” I call. Thankfully whatever power she’d put into her voice didn’t have long-lasting effects. “Who are you and why are you helping him?”
“My name is Katia. Why I work with Lord Malick isn’t any of your concern. Luckily you’re healthy and not suffering any ill-effects of the injections. We’ll be able to give you the next dose in the morning. Food will be brought up, and a servant will come by so you can relieve yourself. I don’t suggest you try anything, queen. Lord Malick wants you alive, but that’s the minimum requirement.” With that, Katia leaves.
Okay. So I need to take her out quickly.
“Ayla?” Caleb’s voice drifts through my mind, but no matter how hard I try to find the bond, it isn’t there. I know that when I try to call out to him, he won’t hear me, and what I’m hearing is the first sign of insanity.
The next time I wake, Malick is sitting in a chair by my bed. What a creep. Thankfully he isn’t staring at me. He’s studying a file that’s thick with old papers instead.
“I can’t seem to find any indication of you anywhere in my records.” He doesn’t bother glancing up. “It’s as though you never existed, yet here you are. Who was your mother, little queen?” He finally looks up at me, his eyes drilling into mine as though the answer is there, just beyond his reach.
“I’m not here to answer your questions.” I put just enough snarl into my voice to sound threatening despite my predicament.
“Oh, but you’ll find that you are.” He waves his hand dismissively in front of his face. “No matter. That can all come later. Shall I tell you a story, little queen? I’m sure you’re dying to know why your kind was really hunted to extinction.”
I remain silent. I don’t want to encourage or discourage him. But he’s right, I am dying to know what really happened. Knowing why the queens were hunted will explain why my sisters and I had to be in hiding our entire lives. Why Mother had to die. Hopefully, it’ll unlock the rest of my memories. Or at least help me make sense of them anyway.
“About a thousand years ago,” he begins. “I first heard a prophecy.” I want to roll my eyes. Of course there’s a prophecy. When isn’t there a prophecy? It’s so cliché. “It said that the Fates would be reborn and that if one should fall, the gates of Hell would open.” My blood runs cold. “As I’m sure you can imagine, the archdemon who opens the gates and allows Morningstar free once again will be lauded a hero and will be granted limitless power. And so, I set out in search of the Fates.
“The Fates had notoriously always been born of queens in the past, purity of the bloodlines and whatnot. It was safe to assume they would be born to queens once again. But try as I might, I couldn’t find them. It’s entirely possible that with the cleansing they were wiped out. But it’s probable that there is another way to open the gates.” He pauses, a grin spreading across his face. “A child. One born of queen and demon lineage.” He shrugs. “You see, the Antichrist is a real person. Well, will be a real person. But queens cannot mate with anyone other than an alpha male dragon, or so we were all made to believe. No species can reproduce with demons. It’s not possible. We’re incompatible. Unless we ease the way first.”
“The injections,” I whisper, unable to stop myself.
“Indeed. My brother and I discovered that through a series of injections, other supernatural creatures were able to carry our young to term. Once the other archdemons found out, they realized what Valik and I intended to do.” Malick sounds angry, his eyes far away. “Instead of helping us, they decided to kill the queens instead. You see, not all of the archdemons want Morningstar to rise again. Especially if they aren’t going to be the ones to bring about his return. And so, it was decided that none of us would break the seals. Your sister queens were eradicated, my brother was imprisoned, and I was left to fake my death to avoid a similar fate. I’ve finally perfected the injections. You will be the mother of a legion. You will bring about the end of days and open the gates to Hell. You will rule alongside myself and Morningstar.”