Queen of Myth and Monsters (Adrian X Isolde, #2)(82)

I had no choice but to march against both vampires. This was more than a matter of freeing Lara.

“And our army?” Isolde asked, looking at me.

“I have one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers at my command,” I said.

Some were already stationed in the territories I had conquered across Cordova—Jola, Elin, Siva, Lita. Some were left to maintain order, some to rebuild, and on the rare occasion the villagers organized to attack, they suppressed uprisings—but none of those rebellions had been vampire-led.

“How many can you send to Lara?” Isolde asked.

“Half,” I said. “Among them, some of my most skilled warriors.”

“You do not mean to leave Revekka, my king,” Tanaka said.

I looked at my viceroy—the man who ruled in my stead. He was not a fighter by any means, but he was intelligent and wise, and I often appreciated his council.

“I do intend to leave Revekka,” I said. “This is a greater threat, and I will be at the front of my army to face it.”

“Revekka needs you,” he argued. “What will your people do when they watch you march out of your kingdom when they are under such duress?”

“Perhaps rejoice that their lands will not turn into a battlefield.”

“There is more than one type of battle, Adrian,” said Tanaka. “And your people have been fighting it. They are afraid of it, and you are their only line of defense.”

“Let me lead the soldiers to Lara,” said Daroc. “I am your general.”

Daroc was my general and second-in-command, but he was currently not fit to make decisions, much less lead an army.

“I am their queen. I will lead them,” Isolde said.

“You have never led an army,” I said and looked at her. “And you aren’t going alone.”

“I won’t be alone. I will have Killian,” she said.

“No. I will lead my army,” I said, an ache forming at the back of my head, and with that familiar echo of pain came dread. Fuck. I was not ready for this. “I will decimate Alaric’s army, and I will find Julian and skin him alive.”

“And what are we to do about Ravena?” Tanaka asked. “What of the crimson mist and the blood plague? What about all these monster attacks?”

“We tried to banish the crimson mist,” Isolde said, “and I was beaten within an inch of my life for it.”

“So you would punish the rest of Revekka for the actions of a few?”

“I am not punishing anyone,” she said. “As I have said explicitly before, the only way to fight Ravena is with magic. Do you have any, Tanaka?”

“Solaris does,” he said.

“He does not have magic,” Isolde said, her voice so severe, it echoed throughout the chamber.

“Whatever his power,” Tanaka grated, shifting his gaze to me, “your people are turning to him faster than they ever caved to your rule, Adrian.”

“I have handled Solaris,” I snapped. My headache was growing stronger by the second, shooting pain to the front of my skull. Soon, I would not be able to see. “You will rule in my absence with my noblesse, and you will instruct our people to reinforce their homes, to build up great fires, to not wander beyond their villages. And when Ana wakes from the deep sleep she was beaten into by the very people she has cared for, you can ask her what she would do about Ravena. Are we clear?”

I took the silence that followed as acceptance.

“Tanaka, take my orders to the noblesse. Gavriel and Daroc, ready my army.” I looked at Isolde, adding, “We march out at dusk.”

***

I made it to my study before the first of Dis’s attacks forced me to my knees.

“Fuck!”

I let my head hang and tried to crawl to my desk, hoping I could lift myself into my chair, but my head pounded, building pressure behind my eyes, and I could not see.

I heard her laugh in my mind—the sound like a chime, far too beautiful for her wickedness—and then she spoke.

“Just because you do not say my name does not mean I do not know what you are up to, my pet.”

Another shock of pain lanced through my head, and I fell to the floor, unable to move.

“Tell me how you think you can be free of me when I created you,” she hissed, and it felt as though she were in my ear. I turned my head toward her voice, and while I could see nothing, I knew she was here because she was the darkness. She was the night that fell upon the world and the inky sky between the stars. “I gave you everything, even your lover. Shall I take her back?”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I would dare,” she said. “Do you think our pact means anything to me when you are plotting a way to destroy me? If she dies, she dies, and you will not follow. This world is your hell to live in, Adrian. You have created it.”

“If you touch her…” I began, but my voice trembled, unable to carry out the threat I wanted to make.

“What?” Dis snapped, her darkness sinking into my hair, pulling it back. “What will you do, Blood King? Will you beg Asha for vengeance against me? I am afraid she has found her own path forward.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I am not the only one who can create an incarnate, Adrian,” she said. “Did you forget what you really are? My hand upon this world. What power do you have that I did not grant?”