Free Fairy Tale: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 3) by J.A. Cipriano

done, but I was a battle-hardened warrior, and to my knowledge, Kishi had never really been in the field. That she did it without batting an eye was a little scary.
    “Physics? I am unfamiliar with that type of magic.” The Queen’s voice had that lilting quality that made me think of Gaelic folk songs. “You Dioscuri are always so interesting. Perhaps after I peel the flesh from your bones and build a tea set from them, I will study this physics.”
    Fear struck me like a knife to the face and terror tore a scream from my throat. I stumbled backward, clutching my temples as blinding panic made me look frantically around, desperate for a place to escape. The Beretta slipped from my hand and clanged to the ground at my feet. Tremors ran down my spine, and my knees shook so badly that I collapsed to the marble floor. I tried to reach toward my gun but my hand was shaking so badly that it seemed impossible.
    Kishi was on the ground a few feet away, curling her body into a tiny ball. The shotgun lay on the ground beside her. The Queen of the Bright and Hot leaned close to Kishi’s fallen form wearing a thin silver cloth that left little to the imagination.
    Her hair was like polished sunlight as she reached out and trailed one hand along Kishi’s cheek. The Queen’s skin gleamed like amber, glowing from within like a fire flickering just below the surface. Giant dragonfly wings that glittered like strings of opals were tucked down her back in a way that reminded me of a wasp folding up its wings.
    “You killed my brother, the Breaker of Rage and Flame. He is the one I send to break my enemies, to crush their will and drive them from my lands. Now my brother is gone and all I have is you to make up for it.” The Queen turned and smiled at me with lips the color of flame.
    She strode toward me and touched my chin with her hand. Burning heat exploded down the length of my body, tightening my muscles and forcing a small scream to escape my lips. I tried to swallow, but my mouth was dry, so dry. She bent her mouth toward me while effortlessly pulling me to my feet with her hand.
    Her lips brushed against mine and electricity crackled in the air around us. It hit me like a crashing wave, shaking my knees so violently that I lost my balance and fell. She caught me, wrapping one of her arms around my waist and pulling my armor-clad body against her. The metal dented against her form, warping and bending in ways I didn’t know it could.
    She was so warm, so hot, that it was like being swept away in a tide of molten chocolate. She bit at my ear, her teeth nicking me and spilling a little blood. I tried to scream, but she swallowed it with her mouth.
    “You taste like power,” she cooed in that maple syrup and honey voice. “Do you want me to let my power sweep over you? I could make you enjoy this. I could make you beg me to eat your flesh, to taste your blood. Would you like that, Dioscuri?”
    “No…” My voice came out in a hoarse whisper.
    She leaned closer, putting her ear nearly to my mouth. “What was that? I can’t hear you.” Her breath was like spattering oil on my skin, and I bit my lip to keep from screaming. My hand fell to my side, my fingertips brushing against the pommel of Isis. A tiny spark leapt across the back of my brain like shattering ice, like crystalline spider webs crackling along the surface of a frozen pond.
    My fingers wrapped around the hilt of Isis, and her soft dual voice of an old, aging crone and a defiant, young princess cooed in the back on my mind. “ There is more to life than lust and heat and glistening, suntanned bodies. There is the dark, the gloom, and the tragedy. There is pain and terror. There is knee-shaking, gut-wrenching agony .”
    I felt Isis reach out to me, running her cool, protecting hands over my too warm flesh, tightening my grip on my katana. Her voice was like the soft coo of fall in my ear. “ No matter what happens, there is always Shikuhakku