Page 72 (1/2)

At least not until Angelina was escorted inside

XXIV

The look on Angelina’s face terrified me almost as much as her presence in this room She was far too calm for what she must have witnessed

Xander’s screams were primal as he clawed his way to Eden’s discarded body There were several guards around him, yet no one moved to stop him The sob that escaped his lips, as he lifted Eden’s head, was heartbreaking, and I was unable to look away, even when Angelina silently found her way to--that tangible charge that Eden always carried with her, the energy that would tell me she was still with us But the space around me was empty, devoid of any indication that Eden was alive It was a terrifying sensation

Xander clutched Eden to his chest and shrieked at the elderly woman atop the throne "How could you? Why would you do this to her?"

She looked at no one in particular when she said, "You think you’re the only one with spies, Alexander? Did you think I wouldn’t find your underground hideaway eventually? You can’t defeat a queen" Her voice was so majestic, so filled with self-assurance, that it was hard to i her place on the throne And then her gaze fell to Xander as she ordered, "Get hiuards to separate hiht to stay by her side He was struck in the ribs, the stoled when the queen’s ed him away

And Max shouted after them "Get your hands off of hi, filled with uarantee of retribution I feared for those he’d set his sights on

Khei

From somewhere outside, on the vast lawns of the palace, there was the distant sounds of popping Gunfire, I thought, although I barely had ti outside these walls Not when there was a aging within this very room

But the queen heard it too, and her head snapped up as she gestured--an unspoken command--to the st

out er to do her bidding

Yet it was Angelina who drew my attention as she knelt down to the woht notice what she was doing as she brushed her shtly, across Eden’s bloodied forehead Just the whisper of a touch, and over so quickly that I doubted anyone else had even seen it

I waited,to happen

And then I heard it Just the barest rattle of breath escaping Eden’s mouth, the sole indicator that she wasn’t yet dead It was quite possibly the sweetest sound iinable I wished with all my heart that Xander could have heard it too

"Well, well, well" The cutting voice of the queen interrupted my moment of satisfaction "It seems we have not one princessbut two" Her elina, who moved back to my side "And I certainly don’t have need for the both of you"