Book 16 - Page 81 (1/2)

With each foot closer to his target, Rune grew more enraged. Tonight she would die. Her long immortal life would end.

Yet even in the midst of his fury, he kept thinking of the mysterious male in the dungeon. Rune could tell Orion hadn’t wanted to f.u.c.k him—or break him. So what was his interest? Why save someone like me?

Lifetimes of triumph? Rune craved that so badly, he shook.

First, vengeance. He set upon Magh’s guards. Moving so fast he was a blur, he used his fangs to tear out their throats before they could yell.

Inside the queen’s chamber, he gazed down at her slumbering form with revulsion. His sweat mixed with demon blood and dripped from his forehead, splatting her face.

She woke, eyes widening as she drew a breath to scream.

He s.n.a.t.c.hed her by the throat, throttling her. “The monster you made has returned to its creator.” He traced her to his dam’s grave, then released her.

She rubbed her neck. “H-how did you get free? Did you offer s.e.xual favors to a traitor?”

“Guard your tongue, Magh. Or I’ll take it from you.”

Her gaze darted to the burial mound. “What do you want from me?”

“Payment.”

Expression calculating, she stepped closer to him. “I can give you a castle filled with gold.”

“Think it will be that easy? How much are you offering for my mother’s life? For the centuries you forced me to wh.o.r.e?” Every dawn, to be under that sword . . .

“And you obviously loved it!” she hissed. “Offered freedom, you still preferred to mate creatures for coin.”

“Loved? As you love to torture me? You’re maddened with desire for your whipping boy, and it guts you!”

The truth was there on her face.

“If you harm me, my offspring will avenge me,” she told him. “Saetthan will take your head with his ancestors’ sword. The last thing you’ll know is t.i.tanian steel.”

“No. Because I’m going to hunt down your sp.a.w.n and all of theirs. Saetthan will fall like the others.”

“That’s your plan? My heirs are guarded far better than I was. Most live in other dimensions. How will you find them?”

“One—at—a—time.”

She swallowed. “Will you murder me first? Burying me here?”

“Pollute my mother’s grave site with your foul body? Never.”

Confusion. “Then what?”

“I thought about taking a like retribution. Selling you into wh.o.r.edom, and watching customers brutalize a former queen. They’d pay extra for you to wear your crown,” he said, relis.h.i.+ng her look of horror. He’d always envisioned centuries of revenge on her. Yet that would take time and involve risk.