“Take what is yours and come home,” she said. The memory of that gleaming black gem, of the crown Mab didn’t deserve to wear, flashed through my head. The rage followed—the illogical drive to tear it from her skull and make it mine. I couldn’t shake those thoughts, couldn’t get that unending pit of rage to go back to sleep within me. It was a fire, consuming my every thought, as I took a single step away from the woman in front of me. Her snakes slithered closer, reaching out with fangs descended—
