Read Shadow Queen for Free Online Page B

dug into the sand as he walked toward her. He kneeled down
and locked onto her fading gaze.
    His eyes were red with ice blue piercing from
their center. They burned with sadness.
    He opened his mouth to speak, but she could
not hear his words.
    Astrid fell into the darkness, his face
lingering in her dying mind.

Chapter Four
    Luthen looked out over the approaching
desert. He sneered, disgusted by the ugly landscape. Soon ,
he thought , I will be rid of this miserable island. Then it’s on
to bigger and better things.
    He hated Lythia, with its landscape overrun
with humans, dwarves, and other riffraff. It was certainly nothing
worth conquering.
    But there were others worthy of his rule.
Other people and other worlds. Other times … he had seen
them. And Wilhelmina had the power to bring them to him.
    Though Luthen had only been dead for a small
amount of time, or at least it seemed small in Death’s realm, he
had learned much. Seducing Wilhelmina had been the easy part. She
was lonely and angry at Death, feeling she had been cheated into
his service. It was simple to convince her that she should be
ruling in Death’s place. She even agreed to allow Luthen to rule
the worlds of the living. Together, we will unstoppable , he
had said. Wilhelmina was held captive by his every word.
    Luthen smiled, reveling in his wicked
thoughts. What Wilhelmina did not know was that he planned
to kill her as soon as her role was complete.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    Astrid stirred from a deep, restless sleep.
She felt the warmth of a nearby fire on her face. Her hands
struggled against the weight of a heavy fur blanket. She pushed
hard against it and raised herself up.
    Her vision slowly fell into place. Fuzzy
shapes snapped into focus. She was in a cool, dry cave. The small
fire burned in its roughly hewn hearth, casting shadows on the red
rocked wall.
    A shadow stirred from behind the fire. Astrid
cowered from the movement, her hand fumbling for a weapon. Strong
arms wrapped around her struggling body. She cried out, her voice
exploding from her chest in a jumble of words and screams.
    “ Shh! Silence, little one. No harm
will come to you here.” His voice was warm and smooth like the
rustle of desert sand.
    She sank deeper into his arms, too weak to
fight. She could feel the fever creep back over her clammy skin.
The fire-lit cave blurred and slipped back into the darkness.
    Astrid’s sleep was haunted by unfamiliar
faces. They drifted through the inky black, their eyes hollow and
their mouths full of sorrowful howls. She found herself falling
past them. Her hands reached out to them and only grasped air.
    A bleak and rocky horizon reared up beneath
her. It grew closer as she plummeted toward its broken maw. Her
mouth hung open, caught up in a jagged scream. The force of her
body slamming into the rocky ground sent her lunging from her bed
of furs.
    Dappled sunlight cascaded across her shaking
body. She had never felt so fragile.
    “I almost thought you’d never wake up.” Ethen
greeted her with a wide smile, the worry fading from his gaze.
“Luka healed you—it was amazing! But there was nothing much he
could do about the fever besides waiting it out. I almost
thought—”
    “—Ethen! Stop rambling and help me up.”
Astrid shot him a quick smile as she reached out for his hand.
Ethen jumped to steady her as she pulled herself to her feet. The
thick fur cover slid away leaving her shivering in her sweat-soaked
under clothes. “Where are my things?”
    “Oh!” Ethen scrambled across the cave to heap
of clothes in a far corner. Astrid’s legs buckled, sending her
swaying. She tilted toward the ground but was caught by a strong
grasp. The dappled sunlight was suddenly blotted out. She turned
her gaze toward the shadow. Pure yellow morning light danced around
the silhouette’s outline. Feathers burned bright red around his
face, framing it in soft flames. The blaze continued down from his
head to his shoulders. From his shoulders,