Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,135

I realized that I was hanging limply in between two guards who were dragging me through a hallway.

I tried to lift my head, to fight back, but given the pain pounding through my skull, I couldn’t quite manage it, and all I could do was stare down at the purple rugs on the floor. They zipped by one after another as the guards dragged me along. All that damned Mortan purple blurred together, increasing the ache in my mind, as well as the magic rising up inside me . . .

The rugs vanished, but my gaze locked on something else that was the same shade of purple—the tunic of the turncoat guard who was dragging Young Gemma through the woods.

I was ghosting yet again, but this time, I didn’t mind the trip back to the past. It was preferable to whatever Maeven had planned for me in the present.

So I followed along and watched the guard strong-arm Gems into the campsite clearing and throw her down in front of Alvis and Xenia, who were still kneeling on the ground.

“Gems!” Alvis cried out. “Are you okay?”

Before she could answer, Captain Hanlon stepped up and slammed his fist into Alvis’s face. The metalstone master toppled over onto his side, groaning with pain.

“Alvis!”

Gems reached for him, but the guard who’d forced her into the clearing twisted his fingers into her hair and hauled her upright, the motions sharp enough to bring tears to my own eyes.

What a sad little creature you are.

A voice filled Gems’s mind. She glanced over at Young Leo, who was standing at the edge of the woods.

He stared at her. You’re a mind magier just like I am. I can feel how much power you have, even more than I do. And yet, you just stand there while your friends are about to be slaughtered. I was right before. You are soft and weak.

Leo’s face remained calm and blank, despite his cruel words. Gems growled and lunged toward him, but the guard yanked her back.

Captain Hanlon gestured at the other guards. “Now that we have the girl, kill the man and the woman—”

Xenia snarled and swiped out with her talons, ripping open the stomach of the guard closest to her. Beside the ogre morph, Alvis pushed himself back up onto his knees and lunged for the sword lying on the ground. He grabbed it, then swung the blade, catching another guard across the knees and making that man scream and tumble to the ground.

Xenia and Alvis both surged to their feet and stood back-to-back. Xenia extended her bloody talons, while Alvis clutched his sword, but they were outnumbered at least six to one, and they weren’t going to survive the fight. Everyone else in the clearing knew it, and so did they.

Regret rippled off both of them, especially Alvis. I lost Everleigh, and now Gemma too. I should have done better. I should have done more. I should have fought harder.

Xenia’s lips twisted into a fierce, silent snarl. Fucking traitors. I’ll kill as many of them as I can. Maybe I can kill the one holding Gemma, and she can escape into the woods. Maybe Gemma can live, even if Alvis and I can’t.

Soft and weak. Leonidas spoke again, his voice dripping with even more disdain than before.

Gems flinched as their thoughts crowded into her—my—mind, and her angry, panicked gaze zoomed back over to Leo again.

“Why are you doing this?” she yelled. “What did we ever do to you?”

Because you’re too soft and weak to stop us, he replied in a cold, matter-of-fact tone. Soft and weak . . . soft and weak . . . soft and weak . . .

He kept chanting the words over and over again in his mind, taunting her.

“Shut up!” Gems screamed. “Shut up!”

Her hands clenched into fists, and rage rolled off her in palpable waves, along with the faintest tremors of magic. Something like satisfaction gleamed in Leo’s eyes, and he kept right on chanting, his voice louder and crueler than before, until it boomed like thunder in my own mind.

“Kill them!” Captain Hanlon ordered again.

The guard tightened his grip on Gems’s hair and hauled her backward. She kicked and flailed and thrashed, but the man easily pulled her along with his strength magic.

“No!” she screamed. “No! No! No!”

But no one listened to her, and Hanlon and the other guards advanced on Xenia and Alvis, who were still standing back-to-back. Leo continued to watch from a safe distance, although he grimaced and