In that crucial moment, the queen’s arm rose, her fingers sprouting long, brittle nails, preparing to swipe Toni.
But Jon screamed a warning in sync with Dannan. She saw Jon run toward the queen’s hand, waving his arms at her. “Toni, no!” he hollered in a raw cry of anguish, just before he struck the air with his sword, narrowly missing the queen’s arm and falling in front of her sharp claws.
Everything happened in slow motion for Toni then.
Dannan toppled, skidding across the floor on his butt and crashing into a wall, his head snapping back and forward before lolling to the side.
But it was seeing Jon, thrown high into the air, deep gashes of crimson across his neck and chest, that made Toni scream her fury, cry out in utter despair.
She saw Nina hiss from the corner of her eye, heard her scream the word “No!” as she flashed her fangs just before sinking them deeply into the queen’s neck. She fell backward to the floor, collapsing against the broken marble.
Angria reared her head back and screeched a mournful wail as Marty and Wanda used their swords to slice her head off.
With everything Toni had, she rammed the knife into Angria’s chest, plunging deeply, using her legs to push the blade in as far into her as she could, until only the carved handle was left exposed.
The queen’s body shrunk right before her eyes, shriveling and trembling until she returned to her former size.
A sneer crossed her lips as Toni used her last ounce of energy to widen the wound with the blade, driving her hand into the queen’s chest, her anguished cry echoing throughout the decimated ballroom when she pushed her way through bone and vessels and blood and yanked the queen’s heart out, throwing it to the ground with a sob.
Her shoulders slumped as sorrow sank in, deep and gnawing, making her body weak, her bones melt as she fell from the queen’s bloated body to the floor and scrambled to reach for Jon’s lifeless hand.
She gripped it tight, tears pouring from her eyes.
So close.
She’d been so close
Chapter 17
Toni blinked, her gaze taking in the disaster area the ballroom had become. Flowers, torn to shreds and wilted, covered the floor, ice melted in enormous puddles filled with chunks of marble and broken candlesticks.
The grandfather clock lay on its side, smashed, its springs spilling from the guts of its body. Dannan’s big blue frame was crumpled in a corner, unmoving after the blow he’d taken when he’d tried to distract Angria for Jon.
The queen’s body had disappeared into the ether, and Toni was glad for it, or she might have been tempted to fry her to a crisp.
And she still held Jon’s hand—or the real Prince Iver’s hand—and that was all she needed, she thought, as she lay unmoving amidst the rubble.
She gripped Jon’s cold, unmoving fingers tight, refusing to let go as tears filled her eyes. He’d taken the hit for her, taken it like the stand-up guy he was, and she was never letting go.
She’d stay on this damn floor until she rotted and Angria’s mutated bats picked the flesh from her bones, but she wasn’t letting go. She’d failed him. She couldn’t bear that she’d failed him.
“Dannan? Please say he’s all right?” she asked on a croak to anyone who cared to answer.
“He’s okay. Still breathing, just passed out. Now, kiddo…I need you to hear me,” Nina said, kneeling on the floor next to her, her pale face haggard as she leaned over Toni’s body to look down at her, her eyes full of anguish and weary with exhaustion. “Let go of him. Please let go.”
But she shook her head. They likely all thought she was insane, but she didn’t care. She would never let go. “No. No, I won’t. I finally found somewhere to be, someone to be with, and I’m not leaving him. I left once. I won’t do it again.”
Marty muffled a sob, her hair topsy-turvy, her once-beautiful lavender dress all but hanging off her body. “Sweetie, give me your hand. You’re not making sense right now. You’ll come back with us. I swear to you, Toni, we’ll take care of you. You’ll come to Buffalo. You’ll stay at the house with me and Keegan and Hollis. Eventually, you’ll work at Pack—that’s our cosmetic company. You’ll be amazing. Harry, my brother-in-law who works in accounting, will train you. He’ll love you, too. I know it hurts right now, honey. I know it hurts almost more than you think you can bear, but we’ll help. You’ll never be without us. Please, Toni. Please let go.”