Queen of Ruin(Book three of the Immortals Series)
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR THE SECOND BEST

"It's impossible." His fingers bounced between the bars on the door as King Eli peeked through at his granddaughter. Just a shell of a woman, Tessa lay catatonic facing the wall humming to herself.

He shook his head and drew up his face in disbelief as he motioned to the blackened spaces Rafik and the guard once inhabited. "Look at her. She's pathetic. She couldn't have caused all this."

"Don't overlook her abilities for what you see before you now." With her arms crossed in defiance, Isoke rolled her eyes and shook her head. With one child lost to her husband's unending grudge, she would hold on to Tessa, no matter the cost. "She is cleansed of her mate completely. Eventually, she will come to her senses and yield."

He cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed Isoke's forehead as he reminded her of their past errors in judgment. "We thought the same of Isabelle, but she would not be commanded. I do not think that is Tessa's way either." Nodding to the new guard to take his post, Eli pulled Isoke into his side as they walked to dinner. "But if you wish to try to tame her, I will humor you for now."

With her face snuggled against his chest, Isoke smiled at her plans falling into place. "Thank you, my love. This war is finally over, it is a new beginning for us all, and we need her if we are to rebuild our numbers."

The shrill wailing of a wicked wind swept across the otherwise still desert as the black cyclone of Teddy's rage settled on the cool sand outside the palace.

When he stepped out of the mist into the night, tufts of dark smoke continued to spring from him like an old locomotive. His black eyelashes pulled together as Teddy called out to Tessa. "Where are you?"

As she took his fingers in her hand and pulled him closer, he made a gun with his finger and pointed to the thick wooden door at the base of the building. Concentrating on it with one eye shut as he clicked his tongue, Teddy pulled the trigger on the hell he was about to unleash. "She's in there. She says they're having a party to celebrate what they did."

An ugly sneer came to Haldir's handsome face as he sniffed back his disgust. "Fuck them. I'll go in from the other end and make sure no one sneaks up on you." Pulling his cursed knife from his belt, Haldir rushed to the far end of the palace as Billy cracked his knuckles and lifted his chin to the door. "Allow me."

The eerie gust of wind carried the pungent scent of perdition's sulfur on it as it rushed through the dungeon hall and alerted the guard that something terrible was on its way.

The guard inched towards the door as the little hairs on the back of his neck came to attention.

He jerked back as the massive black boot kicked through the door, and the towering white-haired warlock stepped through the doorway. His curly hair floated on the breeze of Teddy's building storm as his eyes flashed with a hateful joy, and a tickled grin crossed his mouth. "Knock! Knock!"

Backing away as he began to mist, the guard hit a hard wall of muscle, and an arm swiftly threaded itself around his neck. Like a warm stick of butter, the guard's neck split open with just a touch of Haldir's blade as he sliced him from ear to

ear.

Standing over the dying man as his blood spread under his boot, Haldir's lips curled into a satisfied grin before he spat on the body. "That's one."

"We're keeping score, are we?" His whopping fingers wrapped around the bars on the door, then ripped it off its hinges with ease as Billy looked at Haldir. "I believe we'll both be losing that game this evening."

As he charged past Haldir and Billy, Teddy rushed to Tessa's bedside and scooped her up into his arms. Rocking her against his chest, Teddy kissed her forehead as he pushed her damp hair from her clammy skin. "I'm here; time to wake up now."

Flashes of Tessa lying in a hospital bed covered in blood flooded Haldir's vision, and he clutched his chest as he stepped into the room soaked in crimson. "Jesus, Teddy!"

"She's alright. I got her." Teddy held up his hand. "Stay back!" Pulling her closer, Teddy threw her bag at Haldir as he tilted his head to the hall. "Get behind that wall and don't look."

When he heard their footsteps stop, the air around them boiled as the blackness swept across Teddy's eyes. While his shadow grew long against the wall and the voice of the monster spoke through him, Teddy called his twin flame back from the depths of whatever hellish plane they existed in.

The squealing voices of a hundred wicked spirits left Teddy's chest and moved through Tessa's mind as it cleared away the deep abyss of shock she was drowning in. "Tá sé in am a dhó."

Darkness took over her orbits like the blackest blood of the Earth gushing from the well pump, and her ghostly pale skin flushed gold like the oldest Egyptian mask. The light of the sorceress jetted through the room like the sun rising over the horizon and blasted her warmth across Haldir's skin as he pinched his eyes shut outside.

Reunited once again, they bound their hands together. A bright blue flame rose from Teddy's skin and enveloped Tessa in its healing warmth. It reached out across the room and ignited the bedsheets they sat on, then every scrap of furniture followed.

Sliding her from his lap, Teddy stood and took her chin in his hand as the blaze rose around them. "Let's go play."

Hand in hand, they passed through the room, and the inferno followed with them.

Her small, blood-caked feet slapped against the tile floor as Teddy escorted her into the hallway.

Only in dreams had Haldir ever seen her in all her fiery beauty, and when her cold, sinister eyes graced him, he bowed his head to the Mother of Flames.

The part of his daughter that remained, the playful girl he loved, nodded to the stairs and winked at him, but the shrill voices of the underworld rose from her throat instead. "This way, fellas."

Waving her pointy, crooked finger back and forth through the air like a conductor as she prepared to deliver a symphony of destruction and death, Tessa's beast hummed out the haunting tune to Sleep Walk as she glided through the palace. "She's right; that is a catchy number."

Hissing into the air to the enemies that awaited them in the dining room, Teddy made escape impossible for all who dwelled there as he bound them to their tomb. "I ceangal leat go dtí an áit seo."

When they came to the double doors, Teddy brought Tessa's hand to his lips and kissed the back as Jasper came through one last time to remind them that it was alright to finish this by any means necessary. "It's showtime, Sugar." Wrenching his neck to the side, an amused chortle came from the beast who possessed Teddy, and the double doors swung open. The unsuspecting diners' terror didn't compare to Isoke's expression when she fumbled from her chair and shielded herself with it. "We're your family, Tessa."

Tessa dropped her chin and glared at Isoke, then flicked her head back and forth as an evil smile turned up on her lips. "She told you, she's an Idrissi."

As Haldir came to his children's side with his ax at the ready, Billy chuckled to himself as he closed the doors behind him. "Like shooting fish in a barrel."

Her fingers slid across their backs, one by one, as Tessa strolled along the side of the table. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miny..." When she came to Isoke, Tessa lifted her finger then snapped it down at her as her throaty, Southern drawl returned. "Moe."

Nodding back to her seat, Tessa came back to her senses. She wanted to make it clear to her family who was in charge tonight. "Sit your ass down. I don't want you to miss a thing, Granny."

Her whole body trembled as Isoke lowered herself into the chair beside her husband. The dried blood on Tessa's hands was rough against Isoke's skin as she slid her fingers around her grandmother's shoulders and rested her chin at the crook of her neck. A pleased moaned tickled Isoke's ear as it fell from Tessa when she rolled her hand to Teddy. "You may begin, sir."

The amused warlock laughed out as he waved his hands in the air and swung back and forth as he bared the razor-sharp teeth of the beast that inhabited him. "Scream and scurry. There's far too little screaming." The dinner guests did as he commanded them, with the realization setting in that none would leave alive.

While they ran in all directions trying to replace an unobscured exit, the black-eyed demon sank his teeth into the first neck he came to. His face drenched in blood, he turned to Isoke. "I think we ruined your party."

With a 'thwump,' Haldir's hatchet sunk into some random skull, and it was like music to Tessa's ears.

As she held her grandmother in her embrace, Tessa placed her cheek to hers as she enjoyed the carnage unfolding around them. "No, this is the best party I've ever been to." Pushing out her lips as Rafik's sweet face swept through her vision, she shook her head. "Well, the second best."

The back of her fingers caressed Isoke's chin, and she nuzzled into her ear. "See what you made me do." Rubbing the tip of her nose against her neck, Tessa closed her eyes and savored the brutality squealing through the air in the room as the three men slaughtered their sacrifices before their bloody Queen. "You wanted to know what it felt like to be responsible for the deaths of my baby and husband, didn't you?"

Nodding her head yes, Isoke closed her eyes. All she wanted was to end the violence that cursed their lives, and she never dreamed it would come back to her this way. "I am sorry."

"It felt a lot like this." Like a flash of lightning, she grabbed the knife from the table and sank it deep in Isoke's chest. Slumping down in her chair as she garbled out uselessly for air, she grasped at the dagger in her heart.

While she wound herself up for the finale, Tessa's eyes flashed red as she glanced back over her shoulder and strolled away. "You're nothing but a pile of ashes scattering in the wind; that's all you are now."

Teddy peeked over to Billy and Haldir as he wrapped his arm around her back. "I suggest you leave now."

Grabbing Billy's shoulder, the black mist rose from Haldir's feet and devoured them.

Pulling her close to his chest, Teddy wrapped her in the safety of his arms. "All for you."

From the dunes outside the palace, Haldir stood with Billy and awaited the spectacle. The percussion of the blast knocked them from their feet before they even saw the explosion. Looking up from the ground beneath them, Haldir spat the sand from his mouth. "Oh, fuck!"

Where the palace once stood was now only a wall of black smoke and flames that climbed up into the starry sky above them. The ancient man balled his fists into the air beside his head as he trembled and choked out a plea to the gods for his children. "No!"

"There." Grabbing the Viking up from the sand, Billy left him on his feet, then tapped his shoulder and pointed into the thick plumes of darkness. Like a blue sun rising on the blackest morning, the fiery twins walked out hand in hand.