Read Online The Passionate Queen (Dark Queens Book 2) by Jovee Winters - Free Book Online Page A

had me going limp in his arms. I’d thought that torment would never end, and now it was over and I could breathe once more without the sting of pain behind it.
    “Oh, Lena.” His voice cracked. “I thought we stood a chance, thought that you and I—”
    It was the hardest thing I ever had to do to stand up and move away from him. Looking down at his bent head, I whispered, “We can no longer meet, Ragoth. The fates have other plans for us.”
    I ran, ready to turn my back on him forever, forget about the boy who’d become a man and made my heart beat with both misery and joy, but a sight worse than death stopped me cold. I shook violently as Hagar’s monstrous shadow came barreling over the ridge.
    “You!” he roared, and quicker than I could even blink, he struck me. I was so shocked that I stood there, letting him take me down to the dirt path without much of a struggle.
    Hagar’s fetid breath was in my face as he said, “I’ve found ye now, git. Just wait till Zerelda learns of yer foul treachery.”
    He licked his lips, exposing what few teeth remained, and those blackened at the gum line.
    I struck at him with my fists.
    “Get off me!” I grunted, trying in vain to wiggle out from beneath his absolute, unyielding weight.
    He slapped me. So hard my ears rang, and I tasted blood on my tongue.
    “You lit’le whore, running off to meet wi’ a boy.” Something thick and hard bumped into my thigh.
    I shuddered, my screams turning raw with fury.
    He would not rape me; I would not allow this. I would kill him first.
    But as I thought what I would do to him, suddenly his weight was thrust from me. Disoriented, I sat up to my knees, blinking back the sudden, shocking bright light of Ragoth’s dragon light.
    Hagar gave a mighty shriek, rushing for my dragon with wildly flailing arms. But even a half ogre was no match for the King of Beasts.
    Ragoth never even toyed with Hagar; he simply opened his mouth and swallowed him whole.
    I stood frozen, my mind a swirl of absolute nothingness as I tried in vain to understand what it was I’d just witnessed.
    Dragons ate meat. Humans—even half ogres—were meat. But I’d never seen Ragoth’s bestial nature on display before. I’d always known what he was, but seeing it for myself, I trembled.
    I couldn’t even look away when he transformed back into his man form. Sea-glass-colored eyes were haunted as they stared back at me. His stomach slightly distended from what it normally was.
    I hated Hagar.
    The man had been a foul, lecherous fiend, who in all likelihood would have attempted to rape me were it not for the fact that Ragoth had still been here.
    Mere yards separated us, but I couldn’t seem to make my feet move. It was as though someone had tied boulders around my ankles; I was fixed in place.
    He swallowed hard as he ran his fingers through the ends of his jet-black hair. “Lena, you are hurt.”
    I shook my head. Not even really hearing what he said, because I could only seem to focus on one thought. “You ate him.”
    The trees shook, as though even they were now aware of the true danger that Ragoth posed even to them. Beside me was a field of flowers, whispering violently to one another. I could only hear snatches of conversation, but the one word I kept hearing over and over again with the heavy weight of fear behind it was, “dragonborne.”
    In a matter of hours, all of wonderland would know about what’d happened here.
    My trembling turned more violent. “Oh my goddess, you ate him. You ate him. You ate—”
    Ragoth was beside me in an instant, wrapping his arms around me. And even though his touch was so familiar and comforting, my brain couldn’t stop from screaming at me that I needed to get away.
    I tried to move, but his strength was absolute.
    “I didn’t think, I didn’t...” he mumbled, shaking his head with wide, terrified eyes. “Lena, you can’t hate me. I did what I did to protect you. You can’t hate me.”
    My brain told me