Book Four: Chapter 191

“Enough!” The queen picked him up and slammed him against the nearest wall, choking him with two hands while pinning his arms with the other two. Her body was dripping with sewage, and the curls of her hair had come undone, making her look like a drowned rat. “If I have to spend the next hundred years in here ripping you to pieces, I will!”

“Mmph!” he called out to the house, hoping that Naia would hear. Already, the memories of his mother were beginning to circle the yard, their words reaching out to him like clawed hands. He had no offensive plan, and his defenses wouldn’t hold up against the emotional assault of his mother for much longer.

The queen leaned in close, revealing that her teeth had become fangs.

“I will chew your goddamn face off,” she whispered in rage. “I will run my fingers beneath your skin, I will—”

Her eyes went wide and she leaned back to reveal that a thick, black tail had wrapped around her throat, choking her off. When she shifted to