Dark Reign

by Rachel Jonas

  The familiar feeling of resentment filled me, and I welcomed it. I could only imagine how he was already justifying having me put to death. I knew I should have laid my pride aside, and resorted to explaining or even groveling, but I just couldn’t. The part of me that was so much like my father wouldn’t allow it.

  My sense of fight or flight seemed to be broken, even more so than usual. I felt reckless. Like I physically couldn’t back down from defending myself, even though I was keenly aware of my own mortality at the moment. I wanted nothing more than to find a way back to my team, and while I knew that could only be done if I was alive, I still hadn’t talked myself into bowing before him.

  Yes, I, Corina Prescott, thought I had the prince all figured out now. However, with two little words, he made me question that completely.

  “I knew.”

  My thoughts evaporated into thin air—every defense I readied, every insult I conjured to spew at him if he, inevitably, dragged me away from here kicking and screaming.

  But … with what it seemed he just admitted, I was at a loss.

  Maybe I misunderstood. Maybe I’d somehow missed the context, so I had to ask.

  “Knew … what?”

  His steely gaze settled on me, and a breath hitched in my throat now that I owned his attention once more. I felt a sense of heaviness that came over him as he prepared to answer.

  “I knew about your condition,” he confessed. “That you’re epileptic.”

  I blinked several times, but didn’t speak.

  “After Dr. Driskel conducted his examination, we had a briefing in the study. That’s when he brought it to my attention.”

  I felt my brow tense as confusion set in further.

  “And you didn’t let him dispose of me?” I uttered quietly, letting the pieces settle into place. “You chose to keep me anyway?”

  There had been so many opportunities for Julian to rid himself of me, but he hadn’t taken any of them. Starting with the Sentinels at the gala, again after the doctor revealed my condition, and I got the feeling he’d rescued me again tonight despite my lack of memory.

  “I don’t … I don’t know what to say,” I breathed.

  “You don’t have to say anything.”

  There was a long stretch of silence while the full weight of his actions settled with me. It was only now that I realized something.

  Something I may have known all along, but denied because accepting it would have made me question everything I held true.

  It was possible that, despite all I believed I knew about this prince that … I was wrong.

  At least in some ways.

  “Do you feel okay?” he asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

  Guilt racked me because I’d thought so many terrible things about him, too blinded by my own pride to realize he’d been genuine all along. The evidence of this was the fact that he left me breathing.

  I swallowed hard, nodding. “I’m fine.”

  Between statements, I did a quick self-evaluation before saying more.

  “Actually, I feel more than fine.”

  Julian blinked a few times as if this revelation struck a chord, and then my gaze slipped to his lips when he wet them.

  “Listen, Corina, there’s something I need to share about today,” he started, and that dreadful look came over him again. “I found you in the alley after you ran off, but … you weren’t in good shape.”

  That stiffness returned to my posture, and I couldn’t help but to wonder what he meant.

  “Your shoe was stuck in the fence, so I gathered that you attempted to climb it, but—”

  “Wait, I—”

  The words ceased in my throat as more details came back to me. I remembered being beside the dumpster, and then thinking I stood a better chance of getting further away if, maybe …

  “You fell,” Julian revealed. “And it was bad. You were cold and pale, and there was blood. Everywhere. So much it took a while to figure out where it was coming from. I did everything I could to get you to a medical house, but Elle’s scan revealed that we didn’t have that kind of time.”

  Glancing down at my limbs, I frowned and pressed a hand to my abdomen, then the back of my head. And that was all it took to jar my memory. He was right. The chain-link fence was slick from the rain and I’d lost my footing.

  Julian’s eyes were wild when he dared to look into mine, which had begun filling with tears.

  “What are you saying? W-what did you do?” I stammered.

  The sympathy in his gaze made me nauseous, with the dose of reality that came with it.

  “I did what I thought was best,” he confessed. “I did what I had to do to save you.”

  My chest felt tight and I pulled the cover away from my legs, swinging one over to rush from the bed, no destination in mind. All I knew was I needed to go, needed to run from whatever this nightmare was because, if I understood, it ended with him doing ‘whatever it took to save me.’

  I’d been bitten.

  A massive arm reminiscent of a tree trunk caught me around my waist, and I meant to fight him off; however, shock left my limbs weak and my thoughts scattered.

  “I know this was the last thing you wanted, and I know you don’t understand, but … please,” he begged, “you have to know turning you was a last resort.”

  My lids slammed shut when he finally said the words. Hearing them spoken out loud made it real, and I didn’t want it to be real.

  Julian would never understand the devastation, but this thing he’d done was worse than death. In an instant, every hope I had of escaping and my life miraculously going back to what it was before, had just been snatched from beneath me. There was no longer any chance of being welcomed back into my world, because … I was now a part of his.

  “How long?” I asked, my voice quivering with every syllable. “How long until the transition is complete?”

  With his arm still locked around me, with my body slowly leaning into his, as sadness set in, he answered.

  “Sixty days.”

  And there it was, the countdown had begun.

  The silence crept in again and I felt the exact moment Julian’s grip loosened.

  “I understand you’re upset and probably want nothing to do with me, but I insisted on being here when you woke up,” he shared, standing to his full height. “Telling you myself felt like the right thing to do.”

  My gaze lifted when his height stretched above me. He took steps toward the door and that stupid feeling ravished me again. The one that made me enjoy being held by him a moment ago, the one that left me with an odd memory of what had never happened.

  A kiss.

  I could feel it even with so much distance between us—his mouth pressed to mine. It was this very feeling that made me need him despite still having so many thoughts and emotions taking over me.

  “Wait.”

  At the sound of my voice, he stopped, glancing over his toned shoulder to level a look toward me.

  “Yes?”

  I panted wildly, as I fought the overwhelming and strange urge to run to him, to forget all about only having eight weeks of humanity left. I didn’t give into it. Instead, I spoke words to him I never imagined I’d ever speak.

  “Thank you, for … saving me,” I clarified. “I can’t imagine that was an easy decision.”

  The hard look set in his eyes, softened almost instantly. Right after, a faint smile graced his lips. “Of course.”

  This time, when he turned to leave, I didn’t stop him. I was alone, just me and my thoughts.

  Brokenhearted and hopeless, I sank beneath the covers and clutched them to my chin. This was as bad as it could get. I’d reached rock bottom, but, for some reason, I couldn’t find it within me to be angry with the one responsible for taking me there.

  I faced the wall, wondering what this meant for my future. It was then that a silver clutch resting on the bedside table caught my eye. My fingers went to the smooth satin and I brought it to me
, suddenly feeling like the contents were pointless to have.

  My bracelet … in the coming days, the venom Julian used to heal me would heal me of everything, including the condition I’d lived with for life.

  My com … I couldn’t face my team with this news, couldn’t break their hearts by telling them what had become of me.

  With my emotions running so high, I’d forgotten a major piece of this puzzle. Julian hadn’t even brought up what the repercussions would be for him. Turning a human was forbidden. So many times in so few days, he’d broken the rules on my behalf, each time to save me.

  I’d been nothing but trouble to him, and yet this time … he’d committed a crime that was punishable by death.

  Don’t be dramatic, Cori. I’m sure he wouldn’t have done this if that rule applied to him.

  … Right?

  His father had more authority than anyone in the entire Dynasty. While I was certain this offense wouldn’t show favorably for an emperor-to-be, he must have already figured a way out of it.

  That was the only explanation I had.

  It was strange to think that I, both, owed him my life and blamed him for having taken it away in a very different way.

  Still, through it all I saw his heart, and this was just so unlike me.

  I felt … soft toward him. I wasn’t ever soft toward anyone—except, maybe Riot. What wouldn’t I give to have her sitting beside me right now. She, like the others I was forced to leave behind, was deeply missed.

  I didn’t bother stifling the tears after thinking of her, of them. I promised myself that once I’d taken a few hours to mourn, I would pull myself together and refocus on finding a way to finish what Blackbird started before time ran out for me.

  There was officially an expiration date.

  Sixty days.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Julian

  “Where are you going? The others are waiting in your study to speak with you,” Elle called out after me.

  I’d been caught, veering toward my bedroom instead of downstairs where I’d have to face my brothers, tell them what I’d done, tell them I hammered the final nail in my coffin tonight.

  Turning, I found a sympathetic stare set on Elle’s face. “I just … I need to gather my thoughts.”

  She took a step closer, clasping her hands together. “For what it’s worth, I believe you’ve done the right thing, Your Highness. You saved her life,” she added. “Because your heart, your soul, are both pure.”

  I didn’t know what to say other than, “Well, that makes one of us who’s sure of that.”

  My gaze remained down while I heard her taking steps in my direction again, but lifted when she placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “Don’t be afraid to go to them,” she stated. “Your brothers love you and won’t be quick to judge. Just … talk to them,” was her final advice on the subject.

  I did dread the idea of having to face them, but there was more. My gaze met Elle’s, and the comforting smile she wore faded.

  “Was it … difficult for you?” she asked, only keeping me guessing a moment as she continued. “I mean, was it difficult to control yourself?”

  She was referring to the bite.

  Before the fleeting moment today, I only indulged in feeding on a host one other time. It was during a drunken night of celebration with the guys, before Roman was off to begin his studies. One of Levi’s connections granted us access to a nearby harvesting camp where we feasted on a teenage girl. She’d been marked for disposal due to her failure to conceive—in a time before the blood shortage was acknowledged, a time when our people were more wasteful—so we were given permission to do with her as we pleased.

  That night, we brought that girl dangerously close to death with the little blood we left in her, but … the experience changed the four of us. Yes, the taste was unmatched when it was so fresh, but there was no missing how it had turned us into savages, reduced us to behaving like roamers with no self-control.

  Drunk or not, it was then that we deemed ourselves too evolved for such practices, and permanently swore to only consume blood after it’d been tested, processed through the proper channels, and then served in a glass.

  I pushed the vivid memory from thought. “I managed okay.”

  Elle studied me a moment longer.

  “Then, there’s something else troubling you. Would you like to talk about it?” she asked. “Not that I have to remind you, but you do know I’m programmed to keep any and all secrets, so—”

  “It’s not about trusting you,” I cut in, stewing over the craziness whirling inside my head. “It’s just that … something happened in the alley today. Something I’m not sure how to interpret.”

  “Maybe I can help,” she offered, hopeful.

  I didn’t speak right away. While Elle was highly intelligent and intuitive, I didn’t have much faith she’d get it. The interaction between my world and Corina’s was complex, molded by deep-running history and social order.

  “When I found her, she mumbled a word I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around,” I began, holding Elle’s attention. “She was asking for her mother.”

  For quite some time, there was only silence; a deafening indicator that I hadn’t been crazy to think there was something strange about that.

  “What do you think it means?” she asked.

  That was the million-dollar question.

  “I think it means we can’t put off finding out where she came from. I think it could mean that, maybe the sentinels were right about her. Maybe she is part of something bigger, possibly affiliated with known terrorists.”

  It made me sick inside to consider it.

  “Like Blackbird?” Elle’s eyes stretched wide with the question, and even more when I nodded.

  “Yeah … like Blackbird.”

  Saying that name was like uttering a curse word among my family and my father’s advisors. That one girl had cost them so much—their reputations at times, credibility, pride.

  “So, why don’t we ask her?”

  I chuckled at Elle’s suggestion. “Because, regardless of how fond you are of our guest, Elle … she’s a liar,” I replied. “A good one.”

  I zoned out, recalling how so many had rolled off Corina’s tongue in such a short amount of time.

  “You don’t trust her,” Elle restated, “but you returned her things without going through them. That must mean you trust her just a little, right?”

  The innocence in her expression always made things seem so clear-cut, even when they were complicated, and an absolute mess, like they were now.

  However, trust had little to do with it. I returned Corina’s things out of respect. Respect I hoped she’d return some day. With this being my home, it was up to me to set the tone for how we were to get along here. I held off on breaching her privacy because if I gave in to the curiosity, there would have been no undoing it. Assuming I found some way around being jailed or worse for what I’d done, I hoped that, one day, Corina wouldn’t feel the need to keep so many secrets.

  “You may not understand why you’ve handled Corina the way you have, but I stand by what I said. Regardless of who she is, where she came from, I still believe you did what was right,” Elle assured me. “You’re bound to her by a legal contract. One stating that, for the rest of her natural life, she belongs to you. And I know others might disagree, but I believe that should include protecting her,” she added with a smile. “At all costs.”

  It hadn’t been easy to resist prying into Corina’s personal affects, but now I didn’t feel like an idiot for placing my respect for her above curiosity. Having Elle’s seal of approval on the decision meant a lot because she’d proven to be well-versed in a language I admittedly knew nothing about. A language I hadn’t taught her because I didn’t speak it.

  Elle spoke woman.

  Because of that, I took her word on this one. I’d taken the right steps today and it was just a matter of time before Corina
came around.

  Elle walked off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Eventually, I backtracked toward the steps, deciding to do as she suggested, and brave whatever my brothers had to say about what I’d done.

  They were present when I returned, carrying Corina in my arms. They saw the blood covering us both; saw the state she was in at the time.

  No, I hadn’t said a word to them as I took her to the Blue Suite, for Elle to get her cleaned up to rest, but … they may have known. If not that I’d turned her, they could at least guess I’d bitten her. It wouldn’t have taken much to put the pieces together, though. Once everything came to light, I could imagine there would be one question they’d all want an answer to …

  ‘Why?’

  The problem was that I, myself, had yet to figure that out. All I knew was I had to help her, had to save her … had to keep her with me.

  ***

  Levi

  Footsteps echoed somewhere outside the study, and I exhaled sharply.

  A thick silence hung in the air. We’d all been pacing while we waited—Roman back and forth in front of the fireplace as flames roared inside it, Silas in front of the window. Finally starting to feel the effects of the whiskey I nursed, I ambled near the bookcase.

  Confronting his father was supposed to be Julian’s only task today. How had that endeavor ended with the gruesome scene we witnessed—Julian rushing through the door slathered in blood, carrying his newly-purchased Doll? More blood oozed from a fresh bite wound on her throat, which appeared to be half-healed. Only, she couldn’t possibly have been healing.

  Because if she were, that would mean what we saw was more than the aftermath of a feeding frenzy gone wrong.

  I was almost certain the others hadn’t noticed that one, pertinent detail. If they had, there would have been at least some mention of it, considering the implications. So, for now, I kept it to myself. My hope was that he’d come with some explanation other than the conclusion I reached on my own.

  There had to be another explanation.

  No one made eye contact as Julian’s steps carried him to the couch where he dropped down to sit. It became abundantly clear none of us were eager to initiate a conversation, so it was he who eventually took it upon himself to break the ice.