Queen of the Underworld | Book 3

• twenty-two •

//Song: Love and War - Fleurie — seriously play it. It's worth it.

I turned away unable to take the sight, ready to empty the contents of my stomach on a nearby seat. I froze midway to the nearest chair when my eyes fell on a girl.

She couldn't be more than twenty. She was deathly small almost like she hadn't eaten in months. Her collarbone protruded from her skin, her wrists were small and bony. Her thin lips were wane and pale, her skin just as equally pale as if she hadn't seen the sun in years. Her long black hair was loose down her back, the ends of which grazing her elbows.

It was her sunken, heavily shadowed eyes that stopped me in my step.

They were blue. And I'd only seen that color before on one other person before.

I swallowed my fear and looked at the girl with new eyes.

She may be the daughter of my enemy.

But she was in danger. She couldn't stay with whatever happened in the Throne room.

"Hi," I said quietly. Quietly since she looked like a deer in headlights, ready to run away. Maybe that was what kept her alive--that she had been hidden or ran away at the first sign of trouble.

I reached a hand out to her. "I'm Emmy, take my hand. We're getting out of here."

Her blue eyes looked at my hand then back at me. "Emmy."

Her accent was strange, heavy.

I nodded, trying to smile. "Please. We need to leave. We need to find my friend Damien."

She suddenly smiled, her eyes lighting up in recognition. "Damien." She tilted her head as she looked at me. "You're the queen."

"Please," I repeated, ignoring her as I neared. If she wouldn't come to me, I'd specter her to safety against her will. "We need to go."

She shook her head. "No. I need you here." She nodded towards the mess of bodies behind me. "Did you like your present?"

I blinked. Breathless, I asked, "Present?"

She nodded with a smile, placing her hands behind her back. "I wanted to be in your good graces when you returned." Her accent again was strong. She walked up the steps to the throne, keeping a careful distance of the carnage in front of her but not disturbed by it as she passed it. "Are you not pleased?"

I took a hesitant step back.

"Tenebrous is evil, after all," she said plainly as she turned back towards me on the pedestal. "They have to be stopped. I have culled your enemy, it is only fair that you do as I request."

"Which is?"

She stood in front of the large Throne. My throne. "Give me back what's rightfully mine by birth. I am Mal, daughter of Robyn, rightful queen of the Underworld."

I dug my heel into the tiled floor, feeling dark magic steel my core in peace with my resolution. "No."

She sat on the throne in front of her. "You did not want to be queen. I am here to grant you that request, why are you fighting it?"

"Damien is the rightful king of the Underworld. Not you."

She frowned as if confused. "His father was illegitimate. He stole it from my father." She tilted her head and looked somewhere behind me. "Is that not right, Asmodeus?"

Asmo appeared from behind me, looking at me down his nose as he approached Mal on the throne. "That is correct, Alteaza."

I watched Asmo in astonishment. What was he doing? Why was he lying to the girl? Why was he standing next to her as she sat on my throne?