The Devouring Queen
“I choose you.”
Then I kissed him, tasting death and forever, and pushed the shadow blade into his heart myself.
The beast roared once, victorious, and poured into me instead.
When I stood again, the courtyard was silent.
Every vampire, every wolf, knelt.
Because the Queen they saw wore one face now.
And she was smiling with too many teeth.
I looked up at the moon, red as the heart I’d just consumed.
Then spoke, voice layered with both Elaras and something older than both.