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

whispered, “Zelena.”
    Fire churned through my belly. Jets of steam frothed from my snout. I wanted her to shove him away. Wanted her to stomp her foot and show the type of passion with him that she’d so often shown to me.
    But Lena was cold, and completely detached from the situation around her.
    A priest, dressed in a smock of black and white with hearts painted all over it, intoned deeply, “Do you, King Charles of Hearts, take Zelena Hermosa to be your bride?”
    “I do.” His voice was a deep, steady rumble.
    The priest’s beady eyes turned to Lena’s. “And do you, Zelena Hermosa, take King Charles of Hearts to be your sovereign and king in all things?”
    Her eyes, the clear beautiful blue, looked up then, and I knew she saw me. Somehow she’d known I’d be here, known I couldn’t stay away. I shook my head softly.
    A lone tear slipped from her heart-shaped painted eye as she whispered, “I do.”
    With a roar I could no longer contain, I spread my wings wide and screamed my fury to the heavens. Below me, I heard the cries of the wedding party, saw the humans and monsters scatter and scrabble for cover.
    I shot from the tower, launched myself into the sky, and with powerful strokes I sailed through the heavens. Raging, ready for war, for violence, wanting nothing more than to kill and hurt anything that came across my path.
    But nothing did. And so I flew, blasting jets of flame from my mouth, drowning in a white-hot pain so intense I thought I would implode from it.
    She was gone to me. Forever. My Lena, now the Queen of Hearts, mine no more.
    ~*~
    Zelena
    I sat on the edge of the bed, cold from head to toe. The crown sitting on the mattress next to me almost seemed to mock me.
    I’d never seen Ragoth like that. I’d heard his pain. And when everyone else scattered, and Charles had ordered the knights to the tower to slay the beast, I’d stood like a lone sentinel, staring up at the sky, wishing with everything that was inside me that he would have turned back for me, would have taken me in his claws, and flown us far, far away from all the madness. Even if it did kill me this time.
    To at least know one more moment of pure ecstasy in this life would have been worth any cost.
    But my beautiful devil boy had vanished, and I felt void.
    Empty.
    I’d never seen the type of luxury that Charles had. The bed I sat on that could have slept twenty, the plush carpet beneath my feet, and the trove of jewels at my disposal. The fine-stitched clothing I’d always secretly wanted.
    After the nuptials, Zerelda had given Charles my soul, and he’d given her a stockpile of jewels and coin to make even the dragonborne envious. She’d struck it rich; Zerelda would never want again.
    Never need for anything.
    And though I hated her, I’d foolishly hoped that she would have looked at me with something halfway resembling kindness. But she hadn’t. She’d merely turned on her heel and marched away.
    Charles was somewhere in the castle. Soon he’d come to me. Soon he’d join with me, and I would lose every last vestige of who I was. I would become just like him.
    And the little I knew of him, it chilled me to the bone. He was pompous, arrogant, unyielding, and cruel.
    He’d not laid a hand on me other than that initial kiss, but I could see the way he studied me. I’d become another pawn for him to use. He would fill me with his seed and his power, and my will would be gone.
    I’d thought there couldn’t be anything worse than Zerelda or Hagar, but I’d been wrong.
    The door opened, and his stately, handsome figure rested against the doorframe. Dressed in a golden robe, his feet were bare and his head without a crown. He looked more human than I’d ever seen him, and the fear that had me feeling as though I would puke abated just a little.
    Charles would never be Ragoth, but maybe we could at least be friends. Maybe someday there could be respect.
    But any sliver of hope I’d possessed vanished with his