All The Queen's Monsters (The Queen's Slave, Book 3)

Three: Split Between Worlds

"THERE WAS THIS SADNESS IN HIS EYES. THE KIND YOU SOMETIMES SEE IN THOSE WHO WANT TO DIE, BUT LIFE WONT LET THEM."

-MARK WASCHKE

Where Does the Good Go

By: Luca Fogale

&

Power

By: Isak Danielson

E L I Z A B E T H

I ran, hordes of rabid vampires behind me, their snarls and red eyes, jagged fangs and bloody drool flying from their lips in their haste to get to me. My powerful legs kept me just free of their reach. My feline body was lined with scratches from their broken talons, and I had to periodically zigzag to dislodge them from my back. Grim certainty led me to make the decision to lead them straight into the heart of my mother's domain. These were Hades's creatures, his abominations, and since he was momentarily occupied or missing, my mother was no longer his vessel. I had yet to learn just how he had managed to call an army of them, much less use her to do it. The rabids had no cognitive mindset, their only desire was to drain the closest food source of their blood. While I ran, my dinner plate sized paws led them in a wide arch through the mountains. My breath steamed in the cool air and I was grateful as my wounds began to heal.

I fought hard to deny the crippling pain in my chest, the absence of Azalea in my mind and heart was a near fatal blow. I knew once I had completed this task that it would likely cripple me, and I could not say this moment if I would be able to resist the desire to tear the earth apart to get her back. Shoving the anguish aside as much as I could, I focused on the task at hand, a feeling akin to satisfaction roaring through me when the town and castle rose into view. My lips curled up around my hooked canines and I roared a greeting, the vibration echoing through the horde at my back as they scrambled after me. The forest floor melted into cobblestone when I reached the city streets and with a powerful leap through the front of the city gates I just barely made it to the rooftops, the herd of decaying monsters now dead set on the thousands of pure blooded vampires that had lived so contentedly until now. Forgotten in their bloodlust, I crouched low and slunk along the tops of the buildings, pleasure stirring in my gut as thousands of dying screams echoed in their wake.

My mother wanted a war, well, now she had one.

S I E N N A

I clutched Maggie close to me, my heart pounding a mile a minute as we fled through the forest, wolves and human alike fleeing from fire and death. I couldn't think, or breathe through the smoke, hearing the piercing yelp as a wolf that had been running beside me fell with an arrow through the throat. I forced myself through the anguish and panic, leaping over fallen logs, rocks, anything that lay in my path. I wasn't sure how far or how long I ran before the shouts and clanging of steel faded behind me, only that I was lost, everything was lost. The screams of dying soldiers rang in my ears. The forest passed me by in a blur, and before I knew it I'd stumbled upon a tiny cabin, unoccupied judging by the vines that scoured the dark wood all the way up to the roof, and the broken windows. Still, I approached hesitantly, my arms tightening around Maggie. It was amazing in a horrifying way, how quickly I'd gotten used to the wolves ability to scent out danger from miles away. My puny human ears couldn't hear shit except for what I made up in my head.