City of the Enchanted Queen Read online

  She glared at the woman and fought even harder, attacking stronger, with more vigor and determination than the last blow.

  It wasn’t long before she could see the duchess weakening, becoming winded. Apparently, no one taught her how to breathe when fighting. Even though she only looked slightly drained, Sophia needed to end this woman. If only she could nail a deadly blow.

  Despite her appearance, the duchess was skilled and able to deflect each attack, parrying with a blow of her own which continued to surprise Sophia since the woman always seemed so frail. Yet, she fought like a hardened warrior.

  Sophia needed to up the tactics and her own defenses if she had any hope of defeating the woman. She called on her magic, pooling inside her and waiting to be let loose.

  After the next parry, she threw her fist out. A blast of light shot from her hand. The duchess quickly ducked out of the way and the blow hit the stone wall on the far side of the throne room.

  The duchess smirked and held her sword at the ready. “You’ll have to do better than that, dear.”

  Sophia groaned inwardly. This woman was baiting her, trying to trick her into losing control over her magic so she could win and get the people on her side again. All her efforts of restoring Madison to the throne would be lost and the duchess would likely succeed in killing off the last remaining heir of Nighthelm.

  Over my dead body.

  And that’s exactly what it would take for the duchess to succeed. But failing wasn’t an option Sophia would accept, and she fought harder. Used her magic more. And before long, the throne room was a mess of disintegrated stone.

  If she didn’t end this fight soon, there wouldn’t be a throne left for Madison to sit on much less a stable room.

  Still, Sophia didn’t lose focus. She was taking her life, freedom, and her cousin’s throne back. She was taking her family back. The duchess held too much control over her and the people of Nighthelm for too long, and Sophia wanted to make sure the woman couldn’t hurt another person. Never again.

  With a feigned attack to the left, Sophia used her sword and stabbed the duchess’s side. She cried out as her knees nearly gave from under her. Blood seeped through her well-fitting, expensive dress. But the woman seemed more angered by the cut and glared at Sophia.

  The duchess reached for the amulet, glowing even brighter.

  Smoke seeped from her pores and shadows seemed to grow around her.

  Her form started to shift and grow, melting and darkening to black. The shadows covered her body, creating a shroud. Her hands thinned and turned boney and frail. The mist surrounded her like a fog, and when it was all over, the Nameless Master stood before Sophia.

  She took a step back to process what she just saw and couldn’t bring herself to make sense of the corruption of the duchess’s soul for the number of times she had to have taken the form of the Nameless Master.

  Bright lights erupted all around Sophia as images sprang to life in blips and flashes. Her world faded until she was consumed by the memories. By the truth of what happened all those years ago.

  Running.

  Pain.

  Fear.

  She and Madison ran side by side, hand in hand through the halls in the belly of the castle. Madison—this girl was family. A sister.

  No, that's not right...

  Cousin.

  Sophia had no sister, no family but Madison and her parents, the king and queen. They adopted her. In the depths of the memory, where emotion blurred with the walls, skewing reality, Sophia could only remember that her parents were dead, long dead, at this point. There was no home anymore, no sense of family but Madison. Besides the halls of Nighthelm, Sophia had nowhere else to go.

  Now, she was faced with more loss and running for her life.

  Behind them, grimms charged through the halls. Screams of children and adults alike echoed around her, propelling her forward, fueling the fires of her terror. Screams would end abruptly, or with a guttural moan, and she knew she had to keep running to stay alive. The grimms were here for her. For Madison. Anyone who hid them, anyone who stood in the way would die.

  And she would be next.

  Madison pulled on her hand, tugging hard as they fled to keep her as close as possible. “We have a friend waiting for us," she said, panicked and out of breath. "He will take us to safety.”

  Another little girl grabbed Sophia’s hand, and she knew it was her friend from the kitchens. Sophia loved going there and playing with the little girl. She considered her a sister as well.

  But the grimms had caught up and the little girl was gone. She still couldn’t remember the name of the child, but they were close, and her face was as familiar as family.

  They ran until her legs ached and her lungs burned. They had entered a tunnel in the mountain and encountered a vexsnare. Covered in blood, they couldn’t hide from him. Madison tucked Sophia into a small hole in the side of a wall and sealed it with a small boulder.

  With tears streaming down her face, Sophia watched the shadows on the walls move as Madison screamed. Grimms and a vexsnare.

  The screaming stopped. And there was so much blood covering the walls. Sophia couldn’t hold in her sobs any longer. Something inside her heart broke. Inside her soul. Everything burned and numbed, and though her insides were ravished with fire, her skin felt like it was covered in ice.

  That’s when the Nameless Master found her.

  But instead of killing her, the woman said in her gravely, raspy voice. “I may have use for you yet. Come along, child.”

  The images around her imploded into shimmering dust that cascaded around her and the Nameless Master.

  “You… You killed my family!” Sophia growled out the words. Rage and magic boiled beneath her skin, ravishing her nerves, begging to be released. But that was what the Nameless Master wanted. For her to lose control over herself. To prove she was nothing but an anima contritum. A thing that was too dangerous to live unless controlled by her.

  The Nameless Master attacked in response.

  Sophia blocked and parried, arms growing tired from the constant fighting. But the attacks kept coming. If she didn’t do something to tip the scales in her favor, she just may lose control of herself and end up causing a catastrophic eruption that could disintegrate what was left of the throne room at the very least. The entire castle at most.

  And she couldn’t do that.

  She had to defeat the Nameless Master. Failure wasn’t an option.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Sophia

  Sophia cursed under her breath. As if fighting off half of Nighthelm’s army and the duchess wasn’t enough for one night, now she had to fight the Nameless Master.

  Again.

  Never mind figuring out how to declare her cousin as heir to the throne.

  Everything seemed almost insurmountable. But even as she faced off foes with impossible odds stacked against her, she was strong and capable. Resolute, she squared her shoulders and aimed her sword at the creature. The duchess was beyond help. She was so desperate for power, she corrupted her very soul to become a creature of darkness and death.

  She learned the first time they had fought that the Nameless Master was powerful and strong. But strength and power be damned. Sophia would defeat this woman if it took her very last breath to do so.

  “You would stoop this low for control and power?” Sophia asked.

  The Nameless Master responded in her grating voice, “I would stop at nothing to keep what I deserve.”

  “How can you say that? You don’t deserve the throne. You have destroyed lives, families, and manipulated the city and the guard.”

  Sophia dodged another blow from the creature that used to be the duchess and was knocked back a few feet with the next attack.

  “Yes,” she said in her raspy voice. “I even broke you, ripped apart your soul. But you’ve outgrown your usefulness and become nothing but a pain in the ass. Now, I will finish you.”

  The Nameless Master
released everything within her, attacking with vicious force. She fought without pause and no holds barred. Sophia struggled to keep up as she parried the strikes. She stepped wrong and got a nice slice of the blade along the left side of her torso. She hissed in response to the pain.

  Sophia’s muscles ached and her rapidly beating heart felt as if it were going to burst out of her chest. She drew in a deep breath and focused, knowing she was running out of steam. Things were looking grim.

  The Nameless Master sensed Sophia’s exhaustion, and she looked ready to deliver her final blow. Edric, Ezekiel, and Andreas showed up with his wraith brothers. Madison stayed as far behind as she could, remaining covered by the wraiths surrounding her, keeping her safe.

  Sophia returned her gaze to the Nameless Master. She tightened her grip on her weapon and leveled her sword at the woman. The odds had just turned in their favor.

  Or so she thought.

  The Nameless Master went around Sophia and charged right for Madison.

  Oh no you don’t.

  Sophia ran toward Madison, slid on the side of her thigh, then pivoted to her knees and stood as the Nameless Master was in the middle of a downward stroke of her sword. Sophia’s blade met with a blast of magic that tossed the Namless Master back on her ass.

  “We’re not done yet,” she told the corrupted form of what used to be the Duchess of Westray.

  The creature stood with what seemed like a growl. “When will you stop getting in the way of matters that don’t concern you?”

  “She’s my family!”

  Sophia attacked. The sword glowing with the magic within her. Despite the wound in her side causing her pain. The Nameless Master got in a few good shots with a slice across Sophia’s thigh and a few nicks on her arms.

  She couldn’t get an edge over the creature.

  Grimms rushed into the room. Growls and screams filled the air as Sophia continued to face off with the Nameless Master. She grew distracted, checking over her shoulder to make sure Madison was okay. Sharp claws scratched at Sophia’s chest, snapping her attention back to the fight.

  Two can play that game.

  Sophia pulled on her dagger and used both it and her sword to fight the creature. Anger pulsed through her body as memories played through her mind. Sophia had a family once, a loving childhood that was destroyed be the duchess who craved power so deeply, she killed that family and broke her soul.

  With each thought and memory, Sophia attacked a little harder.

  With each memory, her heart broke a little more.

  She forced back the tears and kept attacking a little quicker and harder, knocking the dark creature back toward a wall.

  She worried for Madison and her men. Always trying to angle herself in a way she could observe through her periphery. But the Nameless Master used every instance to keep the attention on her.

  “Kill them all!” The creature’s voice burned Sophia’s ears.

  Was this it? Was this the moment her men died? Could she save them and Madison and end this fight once and for all?

  If Sophia had a say in it, no one would die before the duchess.

  She kicked the woman back against the wall and held up the sword, glowing as bright as the sun and said, “Enough! I, Sophia Delmonte, niece to the king, declare my cousin, Madison Averell, rightful heir to the throne of Nighthelm. You, Duchess Anabelle Tryst, Steward of Nighthelm, will relinquish your hold on this kingdom or die.”

  “I will never surrender to you!” the raspy voice said.

  Sophia leaned in closer, aiming the sword at the Nameless Master’s chest where the blackened heart would be and prepared to shove the blade through, magic and all. Her attention shifted to the glowing amulet. There was something about that thing that pulled on the back of Sophia’s mind. She made a connection.

  The duchess didn’t shift into the Nameless Master until after it had started to glow. The amulet had to be the source of the power. That had to be what gave her control over the grimms.

  With a flick of her wrist, she angled the blade of her sword under the chain and pulled back, breaking it.

  The amulet fell away. And the Nameless Master shifted back into the duchess.

  Sophia stepped away as the raspy screams turned into more human ones. Her form melted to the woman, albeit visibly weakened, as she screamed and fell to her knees, hands clenched into tight fists and a vein popping out on her forehead.

  “What have you done?” the woman screamed at Sophia.

  “I took away the power you never should have had,” she said, standing tall as she realized the fighting had stopped. Her men stepped up behind her.

  “You wretched wench! I’ll kill you if it’s the last thing I do. I curse you!”

  Sophia lifted an eyebrow. Part of her wanted to feel pity for the woman. She still didn’t know what caused the duchess to act out in such away, harboring the corrupting power of the amulet and killing her family just for the position to rule over Nighthelm. But she couldn’t afford pity for such a calloused, evil woman. She deserved death, but most importantly, her family deserved justice.

  The woman raged on the floor then stood and rushed Sophia. Claws splayed out and aimed for her throat. Without hesitation, Sophia dug the dagger deep into the woman’s chest.

  The duchess’s eyes grew wide and filled with the knowledge that her life was at its end. There would be no more corruption in the city. No more death by grimms. No more fearmongering for the people. Her legacy ended with her last breath.

  As the duchess fell limp to the floor, blood mixing with the debris of the nearly destroyed throne room, silence settled like a thick blanket. Not so much as a breath could be heard. It was nearly deafening.

  Sophia pulled the dagger from the woman’s chest and stared at her lifeless body. She avenged her family, but it didn’t seem like enough. When she turned, she froze.

  The grimms stood watching her. Waiting as if to pounce and make good on the promise they gave not so long ago, when she killed one of them. Instead, the leader approached with his head bowed.

  “You saved us.” His voice made her skin crawl. “You earned our respect.”

  Sophia went for the amulet. She found it lying where she cut it from the Nameless Master’s neck and picked it up. It no longer glowed red. No longer controlled the grimms. The Nameless Master would never again force them into her service—they were free.

  She approached the leader and held out the amulet to them. “No one deserves slavery.”

  He took the amulet, nodded, then left with his pack.

  “That was…” Edric said, pulling Sophia’s attention to him. He shook his head, seemingly just as much at a loss of words as she was.

  Madison approached, and Sophia asked, “Are you hurt?”

  She shook her head. “I’m well, Cousin.”

  Sophia turned to her men, all of them having endured injuries of their own. Each one of them nodded. Sophia smiled, grateful each of them were still alive.

  “Now what?” Andreas asked.

  Sophia’s smile grew wider. “We make Madison queen.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Sophia

  Sophia stood in front of the oracles with her men and cousin behind her. Haris paced the garden around the trees, sniffing and swishing his tail. He seemed rather relaxed, which eased her nerves. With the sword of her family and the dagger from Grindel strapped to her belt, she knelt before the great trees, reverent as ever.

  They awakened as an aura surrounded them. Their glowing eyes opened, and they focused on her.

  “Little bird, why do you wake us?” The voices were in unison and vibrated over her much like it had before.

  “To let you know I have done what you have asked of me. I found the heir, myself, and my soul. I did these things with your help, and I wanted to thank you.”

  Great work, you have done.

  The throne is restored.

  Though your purpose is not yet complete.

  Through your d
estiny, dangers still lurk.

  Enemies abound from mountain and air.

  Still truth of history you must seek.

  Others will come to undo the peace.

  To attack the phoenix with foe and magic.

  Take heed of the short days and longer nights.

  Then you may rest your sword.

  The glow around the oracles faded as they returned to their sleep.

  “Well, it’s always good to know more adventure and danger awaits us,” Andreas said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them with a goofy grin.

  Sophia chuckled, hoping that at least they’d be able to enjoy a respite before the next adventure began. “Let’s get back to the castle. We have a queen to crown.”

  As they departed from the oracles and headed for the castle, a dull roar hit Sophia’s ears. It was the people. Word had gotten out about what happened, and they quickly gathered to see for themselves. They chanted to see their queen, but the Nighthelm guard still didn’t believe Madison was the true heir, much less the daughter of the king.

  Sophia sighed. It seemed like there was more work to be done in the city after all.

  They entered the town’s center and Madison placed a hand on Sophia’s arm to stop her. She turned to face her cousin. Madison smiled and said, “I’ll talk to the people and settle this.”

  Reluctantly, Sophia nodded and handed her the sword. “You’re going to need this.”

  “What for?”

  “It is the sword of the kings,” she said. “And it rightly belongs to you.”

  Madison seemed to think that over for a few moments then took the sword, clumsily hanging it on the belt of her dress. She stepped forward and addressed the people and her guard.

  “People of Nighthelm, please be still and listen. I know you fear my cousin because of what she is and the rumors that brought about a certain reputation. However, she was not born this way. She was made. The duchess was not only responsible for the murder of my father, your king, but also for breaking my cousin’s soul in an effort to turn her into a weapon to take over the kingdom for good.