The Passionate Queen (Dark Queens Book 2) by Jovee Winters

everything. And it’d consumed my mind, and my body. I’d spiraled into darkness and confronted the truth.
    My soul was bound to wonderland.
    Which meant Zerelda hadn’t lied.
    Which meant...
    I looked at him at the same moment he looked at me.
    “I can never have you,” he whispered, “if I take you, I kill you.”
    “No.” I shook my head, even though I knew he was right. I could try to hide in the wilds of wonderland, but Zerelda truly did own my soul. She would find me.
    She would always find me.
    I’d never been my own after all.
    My love, my best and only friend, stayed with me in those woods until the sky turned pink with the first rays of light. And then without a word, he held out his hand, took me in his arms, and gently walked me back to the cottage one last time.
    Zerelda stood in the doorway wearing a large smirk and knowing eyes.
    “Tried to leave, did ya?” She cackled, “I told ye, girl, ye can never leave. Now,” she yanked me in by the hand away from Ragoth who looked forlorn and full of fury, “You’ve a king to see.”
    In that moment I wished he would have killed her. Eaten her the same way he’d eaten Hagar. But he didn’t, because hurting her would have killed me and my dragon would never, ever hurt me.
    ~*~
    Ragoth
    I ’d finally pledged myself. I was a man true. I could have any woman in all the lands as my own (were they of noble blood), but here I sat, perched on the edge of the King of Heart’s castle’s parapet, watching with my heart locked in my throat as the only woman I’d ever love walked down the aisle to meet him.
    The grounds overflowed with guests of all kinds. Monsters, fairies, humans, and animals.
    This castle wasn’t that much different from mine. The polished stones gleamed like the brightest marble. A moat surrounded the keep, currently full of sirens singing a hypnotic tune as Lena marched robotically forward.
    I knew her like I knew myself. Her vacant expression, the paleness of her already pale flesh; she was soul sick.
    But she’d never looked more ravishing to me.
    Dressed in a resplendent gown of rich brocaded gold and deepest red. Her golden hair was pinned high on her head by a crown fixed with diamonds the size of my talons.
    But still her skin glowed that unearthly shade of fine blue that made my heart beat violently in my chest. Her doll-like face that’d always been so clean and fresh, now bore paint. Rouge on her cheeks, bloodred lipstick, and one eye had been painted over with a red heart.
    I dug my talons into the stone, at war with myself. I wanted to swoop down there, snatch her up, and never let her go again. Even if we could never know the taste of each other’s flesh, but we’d tried that and failed.
    I’d almost killed her in the process and I could never harm her again. But maybe if I could figure out a way to regain her soul and kill every one in wonderland and...and...and...
    My ideas stank of desperation, because I had nothing to offer her. Even if I could somehow regain her soul, she and I could never be together. Not intimately. A lifetime of being naught but one of many treasures in my nest, she’d never know the feel of me inside of her. She would be little more than a porcelain doll, lovely to gaze upon, but never to be played with.
    She was a woman; she would have a woman’s needs. I already had a man’s need. I wanted to rut her, violently and passionately, and then slowly, decadently, trailing a line of kisses down her spine with the type of reverence she deserved. But I couldn’t worship her as I desired.
    Not until she became nobility; only the irony was, the moment she did, I lost her anyway.
    She was nearly to the king’s side now.
    He stood surrounded by a bevy of knights dressed in red-and-gold armor. His face was cold and impassive. His eyes looked upon Lena with possession and calculation. Dressed in similar shades as she, he bowed deeply when she neared him then, taking her hand, planted a kiss on her palm and