Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,10
never grew tired or sated from hunger.
This wasn’t what I expected.
It wasn’t what I’d planned on happening.
Knox was mucking everything up, even though technically, me being in heat wasn’t his fault. However, I still blamed him because he was an asshole.
Dark witches had messed with things that they shouldn’t, calling up dire wolves from Hecate’s tomb and using forbidden dark magic. I never thought I’d enter the Nine Realms and discover that Knox had told the truth, let alone to figure out he’d sprinkled a lot of sugar over the details of what was going on here.
Whatever was happening, I had to stop it before dark witches slaughtered more innocent people. The only way to do that was to get ahead of Knox and find witches who weren’t playing in the middle of this mess. Someone powerful was leading deadly, evil witches onto a very dark path that they wouldn’t survive. I would make damn sure that happened.
First, I had to figure out how to shake the alpha male gnawing on my butt cheeks and nipping at my heels. I spun as a shadow moved over my shoulder, staring up into the other male’s eyes that pushed my every damn button on purpose.
“Hello, Puppy,” I muttered, standing up.
“I’m your escort tonight, pretty girl,” Dimitri stated softly, offering his elbow as I slipped my hand through it, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Well, then, escort me, handsome.”
Chapter Four
Soraya, Deep within the Kingdom of Vãkya in the Palace of Magic
Standing in the line of witches chosen to serve Ilsa, High Queen of Witches, I swallowed against the need to spew my lunch, or what little I’d held down after watching body after body added to the large, unending human grid we were building at her behest.
Slowly, my eyes moved to my sister, hearing her eternal scream, calling my name, Soraya, echoing on repeat in her mind. I couldn’t save her from what was coming. I hadn’t been strong enough to prevent this evil bitch standing before us from taking my sister, so instead, I joined her coven to save myself, and I’ve done horrid things to reach the notice of the high queen, doing whatever it took to get here.
Instead of finding my sweet baby sister, I’d found a mindless follower in some kind of stasis serving Ilsa unquestionably. Julia was only a mere twelve moon rotations around the Nine Realms, too young to be this lost within the darkness so soon. Whatever Ilsa was doing, it was sucking the life from the witches at an expedited rate, allowing dark magic to take everything from them too soon. It was pure, undiluted evil that was swallowing the young witches whole.
Scraping sounded against the marble floor, reminding me where I was and in whose company I stood. Turning toward the sound, I examined Ilsa, positioned beside the large window. Her cruel, blue eyes scanning the endless miles of corpses, creating an enormous, winding power grid that fueled her infinite reign of terror. The hair on my neck rose as Ilsa moved her cold, dead gaze to the witches entering the room.
“We have a problem,” Kalan announced. She was one of the witches sent to murder an entire village to add to the grid, spreading wide into the Nine Realms.
Ilsa tilted her raven-colored head, glaring at the newcomers. She nodded toward the shadows while her magic flowed endlessly through the room, slithering against our flesh. It was a warning, the power raw and smothering to those within its reach.
“I don’t feel the power that should have added to the grid, Kalan.” Ilsa turned toward the corner, nodding her head again slightly, and my eyes narrowed as I inspected the empty space.
A tremble of unease trickled down my spine as magic pulsed thicker in the room until my body threatened to bend and yield to the woman before me. Kalan’s blackened eyes turned, noting the witches who stood silently while Ilsa decided our fates.
“That’s the problem, Mistress. We were interrupted before we could seal that grid and add the magic to your amassing powers.”
“By whom?” Ilsa hissed, her blackened teeth clenching as my stomach churned with the grotesque visual her character and person had become.
“We don’t know who she is, but her power was… different. The magic she unleashed as a warning was unlike anything I’d ever felt.”
Ilsa turned her dead eyes toward Kalan. Sweat beaded on my nape from the coldness of her stare. Hatred boiled to the forefront, and Kalan’s failure sent my