Vengeance of a Queen: The Resurrection of Queens, Book 2

The next morning, a soft knock rouses me from my and Malcolm’s tangled heap. Thankfully, he’s still sleeping deeply. He hasn’t rested much since we brought him home, which has worried me, but it seems multiple rounds of sex wore him out. I reach out to run my fingers through his hair before heading to the door. I’m reluctant to leave him, even for a few minutes.

Cracking the door, I see Kelly standing on the other side. She offers me a soft smile.

“Sorry to wake you,” she whispers, “but I wanted to let you and Malcolm know that Connor and I talked about Malcolm’s plan to reach out to Malick. We’re in.”

I blink. “You are?”

She nods. “Yeah. I know Connor was a little heated, but I see the merit in what Malcolm wants to do.”

“Not to pry, but have you two…?”

She shakes her head. “Not yet.” She blushes. “He was in the infirmary until yesterday. When things got heated last night, I accidentally shifted and couldn’t shift back until a little while ago, so we spent the night talking through the bond.”

My lips twitch. I don’t want to laugh at her, but that’s very common for a new shifter. Heightened emotions can cause us to shift unexpectedly.

“I’m sure Connor offered to help you learn to control the shift, but if you want someone else to work with, let me know.”

“Thanks.” She laughs. “It’s certainly awkward suddenly shifting into a wyvern when you’re turned on. We were both pretty surprised.”

“It’s typical, but you’ll get a handle on it. I don’t know anyone who’s as on top of things as you are.” I pull her in for a hug.

“I’m going to get to work trying to locate Malick. I’ll let everyone one know once I have something. I can’t promise anything, and I may need a magical boost. I’m still learning how to use my other powers.”

“Hey.” I hold my hand up. “All that matters is that you’re trying. Thank you.”

A few days later, Kelly and I are outside, practicing controlling her shifting abilities. She’s getting a lot better, but she still shifts whenever she gets turned on, which has her a little cranky. Not that I blame her. If I couldn’t have sex with Malcolm because I couldn’t control my shifting, I’d be pissed as hell too.

“I think I can make contact,” she says as she lies on the grass, panting. “With Malick. I think I found him.”

I bolt to my feet. “What? When did this happen?”

“Last night.” Kelly sits up and tilts her head to study me. “If we’re going to do this it needs to be all hands on deck. Darcy is the only one still against this.”

I nod absentmindedly. Malcolm, Connor, Kelly, and I talked to everyone the last few days in an attempt to get everyone on board with Malcolm’s plan. Darcy is still very much against reaching out to the archdemon.

I understand her reasoning, but the enemy of my enemy and all that. He has information we can use. We don’t need to keep him alive after we get it.

“Do what you need to do to get ready. I’ll go get Ayla, and we’ll talk to Darcy.”

“Liv…” Kelly’s soft tone stops me from rushing away. “Don’t push her too much. We can’t lose her.”

“I know.” I sigh and tug on my braid. “I won’t go balls to the wall, and I’ll help tone Ayla down.”

Kelly snorts a laugh. “Good luck with that.”

Yeah, trying to contain our best friend is like trying to trap a tornado. You don’t.

Once I track Ayla down, we head off in search of our newest bestie. There are only a few places she haunts so it shouldn’t be too hard to find her.

“You’re sure you’re on board with this?” I ask Ayla. “You’re not just doing this to shut me up, right?”

She throws me a look that screams I should shut up right now and rolls her eyes. “Do I do things like this if I don’t want to?”

“No.”

“There you go.” Valid point.

“How are you feeling?” I gesture to her abdomen.

“All I want to do is eat and sleep. I dream about food, Liv.”

I laugh, not in the least surprised by this admission.

“But I feel fine. Healthy. Stronger. Caleb says I’m moody—whatever the fuck that means.” She huffs and crosses her arms.

I have to fight the laugh that wants to bubble up. “Men are so stupid.” She shoots me another look because I can’t quite keep the laughter from my voice.

We finally track Darcy down in the gym. She’s been coming here a lot since her injury. I think it has something to do with the feeling of helplessness. She was powerless when she was with Malick, and then again during the cave-in. She doesn’t want to feel like that again. Not that I can blame her.

“Hey,” I say as I take a seat on the floor against the wall.

“I know why you’re both here.” Darcy sounds pissed, so this is going to go really well. “Fine. Do it.”

Well…that wasn’t what I was expecting.

“Darcy,” Ayla murmurs.

“No. Look, it’s fine. Dante, Xin, and I talked it over. Malcolm is right. You’re all right. There’s more to gain here than there is risk. Especially after what Malcolm overheard.” Darcy massages her temples as she turns to look at us. “It doesn’t sit right, and probably won’t ever sit right, but I shouldn’t be the block here.”

She lowers herself in front of us and starts to stretch out. “Just…promise me we’ll have every protection we can think of.”

I nod. That’s fair.

“Absolutely,” Ayla assures her. “We aren’t going to go into this half-cocked, and I’ll even let you be the one to kill him.”

Darcy grins. “As much as I’d love that, killing him would require my queen powers to come in, and I’m not sure I want to wait that long for that asshole to die.”

“Valid point. I’ll let you tell me how to kill him.” Ayla smiles at Darcy, who nods in agreement.

“Deal.”

“Okay.” I stand. “Let’s go contact a demon.” Five words I never thought I would ever utter in my life.