Page 56 of The Witch Queen

She spits the last words. Rage crackles in my blood and I call my shadows. They explode outward, tossing Jacquetta away. She scrambles to her feet as soon as she hits the ground and flings her knife at me. I duck before it impales my face, then prepare to launch my shadows again. But I’ve no sooner called them than roots shoot up out of the ground and twist around my body. One slithers around my neck like a noose and squeezes. I grapple with it, my breaths shortening. My shadows respond at once, rending the roots in half and freeing me. Still, I stare at Jacquetta, stunned.

How thefuckwas she able to do that?

Jacquetta grins, evidently reading my expression. “What’s wrong? Can’t fight without that shadowthingto do your bidding?”

Thing.Shade, I assume she means. This has gone on long enough. I am going tofinishher. At my command, shadows descend upon Jacquetta in a storm of fury. She’s faster than I imagine. She dives and dances out of their reach, her lips moving in the words of her own spells. Yet more roots erupt from the ground. A branch swings from above and nearly knocks my head off. Sweat breaks between my shoulder blades as we battle, my breaths sawing in and out of my lungs. But I don’t slow down. At long last, one of my shadows succeeds in tripping Jacquetta. I dispatch another wave of shadows before she can find her footing. She’s hurled backward, smacking into the trunk of the tree behind her. I seize the opportunity and throw my shadows around her like ropes. She wriggles within their clutches, snarling like a wet cat.

“It seems I can fight just fine,” I say, crossing the clearing.

She just sneers at me. “Go on, then. Finish what you started for once in your life.”

I forgot how much I hate her. The fire in my blood blazes hotter. My power surges inside me and I set it free. Shadows slam into Jacquetta’s chest and burrow between her bones. Deep within the beating core of her heart, I can feel the pulse of her latent magic.

Do it,that voice again.End this.

I should. But something holds me back. Not affection—not for her. I want something else. I lean closer to the other witch, our faces inches apart.

“Ask me to stop,” I command. “Beg for your life and perhaps I’ll spare you.”

Her expression screws into a snarl, her face pale with pain. She’s too stubborn to die, I reason. She’ll beg. Kneel before me. And then I will—

A feral yell breaks my attention. A Follower barrels out of the brush, weapon raised.

“Long live the true que—” he shouts before my shadows stuff down his throat.

But he wasn’t alone. Several others tear out of the forest. My hold on Jacquetta loosens, freeing the other witch. I expect her to bolt into the trees, but she picks up the nearest weapon and uses it to deflect a Follower.

“What are you doing?” I call, dodging another blow.

She elbows a man in the face. “What does it look like?”

Like she’s fightingagainstthem. But I assumed Jacquetta was on their side. Why else would she be here? I don’t have time to puzzle it out and fall back into the fighting. But after battling Jacquetta, my power is waning and I won’t last much longer.

A blur of black swoops past me. At first, I think it’s another arrow. But it’s a bird—a crow. A nearby Follower screams as the creature’s talons sink into his face. There’s a sickening squelching noise and then blood gushes from his empty eye socket. Another crow, and thenanother, descends from the forest canopy, until there’s an entire murder winging around us.

“What the hell is this?” Jacquetta shouts over the tumult.

I shake my head, bewildered. I hadn’t called the crows. Was it Shade? I scan the darkness in the distance, but I don’t see my Huntsman. And Nox is long gone.

Thunder rumbles, deep and ominous. A gust of wind rattles the tree branches, the air suddenly thick and charged. I startle as a streak of lightning spears from the sky. It hits a nearby oak, splitting the massive thing right down the middle. The tree groans, a series of sharp cracks emanating from its core.

“Run!” I call. “It’s going to fall!”

I sprint in the other direction, but an anguished cry has me skidding to a halt. One of the Followers grips Jacquetta by her hair, the other witch’s head pulled back and her neck bared to the Follower’s knife. And Jacquetta’s power must be exhausted as well, for she’s not fighting back with her own spells.

Leave her,that old voice screams.

I should listen. Jacquetta deserves this. But I can’t. Not because I care about her. But because, whatever happens next, Jacquetta is mine to punish.

Mine to destroy.

And I can’t do that if she’s already dead. The tree groans again, wood splintering. In seconds, it will flatten them both. I don’t waste another moment. The Follower howls as my shadows pummel into her. She releases Jacquetta and I crash into the other witch, shoving us both to the side just as the tree smashes onto the ground with a deafeningthud.

For a few breaths, all I can do is lay there, my ears ringing with the remnants of my panic. But then I register the scent of juniper. Jacquetta is pinned beneath me. Her chest rises and falls against mine in shallow bursts. Her pulse pounds through the thin skin of her wrist, where my hand still grips her arm. Her blue eyes meet mine and my own traitorous heart speeds up at seeing the silver spangled within them. At feeling her beneath me like this, our lips close enough to—

“Your Majesty!” Guards break through the trees, shattering the spell between us. “Are you hurt?”

I clamber to my feet, putting as much distance between Jacquetta and me as possible.