A Little Night Muse(66)

                “Josh, you shouldn’t have come. Now you’ll be trapped too—”

                “If I shoot the Queen, will that free us?”

                She hesitated. “No. And her power holds phae here that should never be freed.”

                “Something worse than snake-women who can turn men to                     stone?”

                She lifted her chin. “The other side of inspiration has always                     been paralysis.”

                “That’s not going to be me.” He pulled her toward him and                     kissed her, hard. “Which way do we run?”





                                      Chapter 12

                Through the chill of exposing her true nature, Adelyn                     felt the heat of Josh’s unfailing grip. It roused her where she thought nothing                     would again.

                “This way.” She tugged him into a stream of phae fleeing toward the nearest corridor.

                Behind them, the throne room was in an uproar. The                     will-o’-the-wisps, freed all at once from their marble prisoner, shot through                     the room like sparking bottle rockets. Tiny fires flamed in their wake.

                The Queen screamed, a furious cry that cracked through the                     stone illusion more thoroughly even than Josh’s iron bullet.

                The whole structure of the phaedrealii trembled at the Queen’s rage, and in the corridor, the                         phae cowered.

                Josh hauled Adelyn around them—beings strange and stunning—as                     if they were nothing more than inconvenient boulders in his field. Her heart                     thumped with painful pride at his determination. She supposed a man who worked                     with unyielding metal and recalcitrant cows wouldn’t allow himself to be                     sidetracked by mere phae.

                They sped through the corridors where the walls were                     terrifyingly blank. The Queen’s power should have held her illusions in place,                     even against an intrusive iron bullet. She ruled for a reason.

                Something had the phaedrealii more                     rattled than a bullet overhead.

                But it was no longer Adelyn’s concern. Whatever inspiration she                     had given the phae, it was no longer her place. She                     had shed that illusion with her glamour.