The Queen's Conquer

Chapter 43 : Downfall

Evigheden • [iv-ê-den]
Eternity; forever; never ending; infinite time; furation without beginning or end.

🖤

~+~

~ Samuel ~

There are many things I'd rather be doing right now—more useful things—than watching the sparks and small flames of this fire crackle in the pit of these woods.

And what's worse is I can't stop replaying the words Anastasia had mindlinked to me—to all of us only moments ago; what we had taken with that information and then instructed her and Max to do given we'll be dead if we even attempt coming within a hundred feet of Mylithia's walls to save them from utter destruction and death.

"We'll wait, alright? We stay here, we keep in contact, and we wait. It's the best thing we can do." I barely recognize Liam's voice with the warble of worries and possibilities running through my head. Most of which are courtesy of my wolf.

She's in danger, you have to do something.

Rogues. There are rogues everywhere in there.

Your mate is alone with a fucking human. A senseless fucking human.

And her sister...and Markus...

"Sam," Sterling says, ceasing my relentless thoughts. But I continue to stare at the fire as I sit up a little straighter from where I'm propped against a large rock. "She'll be ok."

"Don't give me hope," I spit out, shaking my head with something deeper than disgust. "Your fucked-up brother is in there with my mate." The female seems to remove herself more from the discussion because of my words. But nothing I'm saying is a lie.

We all know his past. We all know what he's capable of. And now that we know for certain he's working with Maddox...

"Anastasia knows what she's doing," Lilith intervenes, crossing her arms from where she stands on the other side of the fire.

"I know that!" I growl out, standing in one swift, powerful motion. "I know that more than any of you! But that place is infested with Maddox's rogues." I point in the direction of those menacing walls. "And what I don't know is whether she can handle getting what we need and getting out of there without being hunted!"

The air falls quiet, my loud and angry words deadening the conversation. But Xander steps up closer to the blazing wood so his face is more recognizable and says, "I'll have warriors stationed close to the entrances and around their perimeter. That way if she and Max happen to stumble into an unfortunate position, we'll be ready to help."

I nod at him. "Thank you, Xander," I say in a sigh, rubbing my palm against my forehead to alleviate my growing headache from this bullshit we've wrapped ourselves in.

"None of this was supposed to be easy," Killian says from where he sits on a fallen log. "And we knew there would be some unexpected problems when we decided to send her in there."

"Yeah, but her sister working alongside Markus? That was something we never predicted or planned for," Liam says.

Sterling shifts her weight from one foot to another before speaking again. "She mentioned Markus was leaving Mylithia because of an urgent request by her father. That my brother's needed presence might have something to do with this 'take-over'."

"But her sister is still staying in the kingdom?" Xander questions.

"For now," Liam says. "She's still one of Maddox's most trusted warriors since they're bound by blood. But we also don't know whether she's already told him that his second daughter is in the kingdom, too."