All Chapters of Dead Queens Don't Kneel Twice: Return of the Beheaded Empres: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

CASTIEL'S POVThe door burst open.I stepped back immediately. My body moved before my mind could catch up. I put distance between myself and Nessa, my hands dropping to my sides. My jaw tightened. My wolf growled low in my chest, furious at the interruption, at the violation of this fragile moment.The man who entered was massive. Broad shouldered. Thick neck. He wore the black and gold uniform of the palace guard, but it strained against his frame like it had been tailored for someone smaller. His face was all hard angles and sharp edges, with a nose that looked like it had been broken more than once. His eyes were pale. Calculating. Cold.And his smile—that fucking smile. It was wide, mocking and dripping with false courtesy. It made me want to punch his teeth down his throat. He stepped into the room with exaggerated care, his boots clicking against the stone floor in a slow, deliberate rhythm. He looked around like he was surveying his new kingdom, his eyes moving over the furni

VALERIUS POVI sat on my throne, staring at the three figures before me with barely concealed annoyance.My fingers drummed against the armrest. My jaw was tight and my patience was wearing thin. I had been in the middle of something. Something enjoyable. Something that had been making me feel very, very good. A maid. Young. Pretty. Terrified. I had been in the middle of breaking her—watching her squirm, listening to her beg—when one of my guards had burst through the door with some urgent news about my future Luna.And now I was here. In the throne room. Dealing with this mess. This absurd, infuriating, utterly unnecessary mess.The guard—Dren, his name was Dren—stood before me. He was a pathetic sight. His chest was bandaged, blood seeping through the white cloth in a slow, steady ooze that stained the fabric a deep, ugly red. His face was a ruin. Three deep gashes ran across his cheek, raw and angry, the flesh still glistening with moisture. His uniform was torn, hanging off his f

VALERIUS POVI sat behind my desk, staring at the three advisors before me. They were pale. Trembling. Sweating. Good. They should be."The order is simple," I said, my voice flat. "Exterminate them. Every man, woman, and child in that village. Leave nothing standing. Burn it to the ground."The eldest advisor—Lord Whitmore, a sniveling coward who had served my father before me—stepped forward. His hands were clasped together, knuckles white. His voice quivered when he spoke."Your Majesty, I must protest. The village in question has been loyal to the crown for generations. They pay their tithes on time. They've never caused trouble. They—""They harbored a dissenter." I leaned back in my chair, letting the words hang in the air. "They gave him shelter, fed him and even protected him from my soldiers. That is not loyalty. That is treason.""One man, Your Majesty. One dissenter among hundreds. Surely the punishment—""The punishment is death." My voice was ice. "For all of them."Lord

NESSA'S POVThe knock came at dawn.I was already awake. I had been for hours, staring at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the stone, listening to the distant sounds of the palace waking up around me. Sleep had become a stranger. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face. Every time I drifted off, I heard his voice. Castiel. Always Castiel.The knock was sharp. Insistent. Three rapid taps that echoed through the silence of my chambers like a hammer against a coffin lid.I didn't move.Another knock. Louder this time. More demanding."Enter," I said. My voice was flat. Hollow. The voice of a woman who had run out of tears.The door swung open. Four maids filed in, their steps synchronized, their faces carefully neutral. They wore matching grey dresses, their hair pulled back in severe buns. They looked like soldiers marching into battle. And in a way, they were. This was a battlefield. Every moment in this palace was a battlefield.I sat up slowly. My body ached from another sleep

NESSA’S POVTears burned behind my eyes. I blinked them back. I couldn't cry. Not here. Not now. Not with so many eyes watching. The veil hid my face, but it couldn't hide everything. It couldn't hide the way my hands trembled. It couldn't hide the way my chest heaved with the effort of holding myself together.I felt it.The ache. The longing. The loss. The desperate, clawing need to run to him, to hold him, to tell him who I was. To tell him that I was his mother. That I had never stopped loving him. That I had come back for him.But I couldn't.Not yet.Soon.I would find a way.I walked toward the dais. Each step was a battle. Each breath was a war. But I kept walking. I kept my spine straight, my face blank behind the veil and my eyes forward even as my heart screamed at me to turn back.Valerius watched me approach. His smile widened. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction, with amusement, with the particular pleasure of a man who believed he had already won.I climbed the steps, st