Chapter 1 Prologue - Unknown
\[Author's Note: Hello! And welcome to the 7th book in the Queen Among Series, the first half of the Gods' Saga. This book is a continuation of the previous books, so if you haven't read them, i strongly suggest doing so, or a great deal of plot, character development and mythology will not make sense, and should you choose to read the previous books after, you will find many of their plots spoiled by reading this book first. Here is a quick list of the books in the series and the correct order to read them in:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1 (also available in print along with my novel Codename: Blackheart)
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation portion of the Gods' Saga Coming Soon)
With that said, on with the book!\]
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Stepping out of the restaurant, a cold chill rattles my bones. I wrap my arms tightly around myself to keep myself warm. Of all the nights to forget my jacket. Thank God the restaurant was heated.
“If you’re up for it, there’s one final place I want to show you,” announces my date. I smile over at him, taking in the excitement on his face. This date has been so wonderful that I’m not in a hurry for it to end.
“Are you going to tell me, or is it a surprise?”
“Definitely a surprise,” he grins.
He takes my hand and begins leading me down the street. Suddenly he gives me a playful smile and starts picking up the pace, pulling me along with him. Feeding off his enthusiasm I let out a chuckle and start jogging along with him. These are not the shoes for this kind of activity, so hopefully, we don’t have to go much further.
Anthony pulls me down one of the side, cobbled streets and I immediately think he’s leading me towards some trendy, underground establishment. Some of the best places in Melbourne are hidden down various side streets you’d never think to check out because frankly, most side streets in the city look like dodgy alleys.
We make it about halfway down when Anthony suddenly presses me up against the brick wall and leans in to kiss me. I quickly turn my face away and raise my arms to put space between us.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snap in shock.
He smiles confidently, pressing himself against me, “Giving you what we both know you want.”
He leans in to kiss me again but this time I shove him as hard as I can, adrenaline giving me strength I couldn’t be more grateful for in this moment. The surprise is enough to get him off balance and put more space between us.
“You think I want to be dragged down some city side street so you can make out with me against a wall? What the fuck is wrong with you?” I spit incredulously.
“Don’t act like you don’t want it, Effie. Besides, I paid a lot for this date, so you owe me,” he says, his tone becoming harsh and his expression setting off alarm bells. Not once all night did this guy give off any red flags! He was sweet, conversational, a good listener, considerate and now it’s like a switch flipped. Was all evening just a performance? All of that just to get in my pants.
“I owe you? I don’t owe you shit! If you expect sexual favours because you spent some money, then go visit the Daily Planet and find a nice woman there to finish you off because it sure as shit isn’t me,” I seethe in disgust.
I start to walk off when I suddenly feel him grab me from behind. He clamps his hand over my mouth, and I immediately begin to struggle as panic sets in.
“I’m getting what I fucking want whether you like it or not, bitch,” he hisses against my ear.
I start to struggle and attempt to scream for help as he begins to pull me further down this side street. All of a sudden he freezes, and I think maybe I have a chance to escape and call the cops, but that plan goes out the window when suddenly the limited streetlamps ahead start to go out…well, not go out so much as become covered in darkness. The air around us has suddenly gotten even colder and is starting to feel suffocating. As I focus my eyes, I feel my stomach drop when I see dark figures moving towards us. I can barely make out the silhouettes in the darkness, but a new level of terror engulfs me when I see multiple sets of glowing purple eye-like orbs in front of us.
The shadows seem to move closer but neither of us can seem to move at all. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. I don’t even know what I’m seeing. I’m trying to will my feet to run, but they won’t. It’s as if they’re glued to the spot.
“This would be a good time to run,” a voice suddenly announces.
It’s like the voice has pulled me out of a trance, enough to allow me to look back and see a six-foot tall native-looking woman with long, flowing dark brown hair and…rainbow eyes!
“Who the fuck are you?” Anthony snaps and I take the chance to wiggle out of his arms.
The woman casually walks over to us, her unbelievable eyes fixed on the shadows as she comes to stand in front of us. “I’m the woman about to save your undeserving ass.” She gives Anthony a glance, her rainbow eyes filled with disgust as she turns her attention back to the shadows. Quickly the shadows – as if sentient – charge forward, fear drowning me from the inside as my heart breaks into a spring. But just as the shadows get close to this mystery woman, she raises her hand, pointing her wrist in their direction. A bracelet on her wrist begins to glow with this opalescent light and suddenly the street is filled with an indescribable high-pitched screeching sound. Anthony and I cover our ears to block out the sound, both watching in disbelief as the shadows disappear as if in a puff of smoke, and light returns to the street.
“What…what was that?” I ask, my heart still pounding in my chest as I slowly lower my hands from my ears.
The woman lowers her arm and turns to face us, “Those were shadow demons known as eyti. They’re drawn to malice.” She directs her menacing gaze towards Anthony and something about it tells me she’s not someone you want to mess with. “Maybe reacquaint yourself with the word ‘no’ and demons won’t want to swallow you whole,” she says acerbically.
“This some kind of sick prank? Some little stunt for TikTok?” Anthony scoffs. “Don’t you have anything better to do or are you just that pathetic?”
She rolls her eyes, not bothering to answer him and I can’t say I blame her. I have no idea what just happened, but I’m pretty sure she just saved our lives, and this sick bastard is immediately insulting her. How the fuck did I end up on a date with an asshole predator?
“I’m fucking talking to you!” Anthony shouts. He lunges at her, and I gasp when I see him raising his fist to hit her.
She gives him a bored expression, raises her hand and to my astonishment, a spark of something like electricity flies out of her hand and shoots him right in the chest. His body convulses and then drops like a bag of hay. I stare down at him wide-eyed then look back at the woman in front of me who looks down at Anthony like he’s nothing more than trash littering the street, which he is.
“You really should vet your dates better. If I were you, I’d take this opportunity to get the hell out of here, and maybe consider reporting him to the police,” she suggests with a compassionate look on her face.
I gulp and nod furiously, “I…I don’t know what the hell just happened but thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she says with a warm smile.
I turn on my heel and begin running down to the main street. As I’m running I feel a strong gust of wind from behind me and can swear I hear the sound of large wings. I turn to look back from where I came, immediately becoming uneasy when that woman is nowhere to be seen. The only person left in the street is an unconscious Anthony, and for my sake, I hope he stays that way. I look all around but that woman is gone.
I shake off the unease and sprint out of the side street, grabbing my phone out of my purse and calling 000 while I think of how I can explain to the police what happened without sounding like I’m completely insane. I figure I’ll just stick to telling them about how my date tried to assault me and leave out the rest because at this point, not even I believe what just happened, but whoever that woman was, I hope she knows how grateful I am.