THORN QUEEN (ds-2) by Richelle Mead

Author:Richelle Mead [Mead, Richelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Paranormal, Mystery & Detective, Romance, Urban Fantasy, Demonology, Prophecy, Shamans
ISBN: 9781420100976
Publisher: Zebra Books
Published: 2009-08-01T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I stood there for several long seconds, staring at Shaya but not really seeing her.

“Thank you,” I said at last, my voice unnaturally flat even to me.

She hesitated, eyes worried. “Is there…is there anything I can get for you?”

More wine, I thought. But I shook my head. Wine suddenly didn’t seem strong enough. I wanted to go home just then and raid my liquor cabinet, seeking solace in my own home and its bed, not this godforsaken Dark Ages fortress. The wine was going to make transitioning between the worlds harder, though. It wasn’t impossible but would hardly be as smooth as usual. No, it seemed I might be stuck here for a while.

“I need to see Volusian,” I said.

She stepped aside for me, and though I didn’t ask for it, she followed me solicitously as I headed downstairs, down to the keep’s dungeon. It seemed darker and drearier than it had last time, but maybe that was the wine. Jasmine’s cell was easy to spot because four guards stood in the hall outside it. I reached it, and through the bars, I saw Volusian standing in one corner, perfectly still, with his arms crossed over his chest. Jasmine sat as absolutely far from him as she could, her face equal parts fear and sullenness.

“What do you want now?” she snapped. I didn’t even look at her.

“Volusian,” I said. “I have an errand for you. I’ll watch Jasmine while you’re gone.”

Volusian walked forward, passing through the bars and coming to stand in front of me. “No doubt my mistress has a more urgent task.”

“Moderately. I want you to go back to Tucson and bring me the bottle of tequila I keep in my liquor cabinet. And don’t scare Tim.”

Volusian remained motionless in that way of his. “My mistress grows increasingly creative in her ways to torment me.”

“I thought you’d appreciate it.”

“Only in so much as it inspires me to equally creative means to rip you apart when I am able to break free of these bonds and finally destroy you.”

“You see? There’s a silver lining to everything. Now hurry up.”

Volusian vanished. With him gone, Jasmine grew bolder. She hurried to the front of the cell, holding the bronze bars as best she could with her bound hands. “When are you going to let me go?”

I sat down against the hall’s wall, opposite her. I wondered if she’d try any of her stunted magic with me around. “When are you going to stop asking?”

“You’re a real bitch, you know that?”

“Look, little girl,” I growled. “You do not want to mess with me tonight. I’m not in a good mood.”

Jasmine was undeterred. “I can’t believe you’re keeping me in here with that…that thing! That’s just cruel and sadistic.”

“Wow, sadistic’s kind of a big word. I didn’t think you’d stayed in school long enough to learn that kind of vocabulary.”

Her glower darkened. “When I get out, I’m going to kill you.”

“Then you and ‘that thing’ should get along beautifully, seeing as he spends all his time plotting my grisly death too.

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