Black Crown (The Darkest Drae Book 3)

by Kelly St Clare

  The emperor turned, hands still at his back, his facial features fixed in an impassive mask I was certain male Drae were born with. “I have spent my entire life serving this realm. I came from the Draekon desert with the goal to leave a legacy the Drae could be proud of. But the Drae began to rise against me. My own people denied the aid necessary to obliterate our mutual enemies. I was forced to look for a different route to success. I sent Irdelron and my Druman to give them a choice. There is no way to straddle a line when it comes to war. If you aren’t for, then by default you are against, and the Drae refused to join me,” Draedyn said, his neck tightening as he reigned in his emotions.

  Ouch. They mustn’t have liked him at all. No surprises there.

  Draedyn’s hands curled into fists.

  He continued his history lesson. “Irdelron and the Druman were forced to slaughter them and bring me the female Drae. I took every precaution I could with those of my kind. I collected the Phaetyn, knowing the healers could help the females with child, but we lost so many. And then there was Draehl. I remember the reports of your mother’s progressing pregnancy.” His eyes flicked to mine and I stilled. “I visited her, felt you kick her belly. I watched over her. She was not my mate, but I felt the same protective draw to what she carried in her womb—to you. I was desperate for you. I forced Phaetyn after Phaetyn to heal you and her, but she continued to decline. I remember when the Phaeytn queen poured her vitality into your mother.”

  The creeping darkness, the color of rotting garbage, reached me, sucking the air from my lungs as it clawed up my body to my mind. I reached hands to my throat, but there was nothing there I could pull against, no way to free myself.

  “I was told she died, just like the others, by the midwife. But I remember, weeks later, being informed of Draehl’s betrayal.” He straightened and inhaled through his nose, tipping his chin slightly. “Yes,” he said, drawing out the word. “Years go by, but memories of betrayal remain, and recompense will be paid.”

  My eyes watered, and I whimpered from the lack of air.

  He glanced at me, his eyes widened, and the creeping power fell away like water down a sluice on irrigation day.

  I coughed, wheezing to fill my lungs.

  He clicked his fingers, and the door swung open. “But I do not blame you. Which is why I would welcome you into my empire, heir-daughter, with a gift.”

  I drew my hand across my watering eyes to clear them. The dark power still lingered around the edges of the room, and I focused on it, forcing myself to stare until I was able to distinguish the dark-green power hovering over the floor like wet soot. Curious. I turned my thoughts inward and searched for my Drae tendrils of energy. The lapis lazuli threads were there, locked outside my mind by a shield of Draedyn’s emerald powers. His shield looked just like a thick-cut gem wrapped around my head, separating my mind from the entirety of my Drae side. I tried to think about shifting, but there was no way to access, let alone wield my power.

  A light tread outside the doorway announced someone’s arrival.

  29

  I turned and scowled, my heart twisting with dislike and distrust as another piece of my missing memory came back.

  “Kamoi,” I greeted coolly. A tiny sliver of doubt, the thought that Kamoi might have been forced to do what he’d done, was all that kept me from launching off the bed and strangling the Phaetyn prince.

  He’d been sitting on Draedyn’s back when they captured me. And it was the reason he’d been there that had my fists curling into tight, white-knuckled balls. Phaetyn could see through my veil. When I’d been searching for Lani, I’d let my Drae shield lax in order to glimpse the gold of her veil around the army.

  But I’d had the Phaetyn veil up.

  Kamoi had been Draedyn’s eyes. The Phaetyn guided the Drae straight to me. I was here because of the prince’s failure. He either hadn’t been able to lie well enough or worse. His only decent decision in their capture of me was he’d had the guts not to give up the entire army.

  “Ryn,” he said, his voice quivering as he shifted his violet gaze to the floor.

  “Is Kamini al’right?” I asked, jaw clenched.

  He dipped his head.

  Barely. I deserved a mite more attention than that considering he freakin’ gave me up! A growl slipped through my teeth, and my body trembled with rage.

  “Yes, heir-daughter. This Phaetyn has proved most helpful. But you don’t know the half of it,” the emperor said, amusement lacing his voice. “Would you like to know all that he’s done?”

  Kamoi flinched horribly, his pale skin blanching beyond what could be normal, even for a Phaetyn.

  I dragged my attention from his cowering frame to my father. Wariness snagged under my ribs, tugging on my chest in a way that made my skin crawl and my feet tingle with an urge to flee. I pushed off the scratchy burlap sheet, scooted to the edge of the bed, and with fluid ease that bespoke my father’s permission, I stood on the opposite side of the bed to Draedyn and Kamoi, closest to the door.

  “What do you mean?” I asked quietly, my gaze darting between them. My heart thudded an uneven rhythm, and the word betrayal rang in my ears. There had to be a point to Draedyn’s little show, and my gut churned, a warning that what came next wouldn’t be good.

  Draedyn shifted, his body angled toward the Phaetyn prince, and arched an eyebrow. “The Phaetyn’s service began when he first contacted me a month ago.”

  A month ago?

  Kamoi stumbled back a step.

  “I was in the Zivost forest a month ago,” I blurted, frowning at Kamoi. Before I could put the pieces together, Draedyn continued his reveal.

  “You’d just arrived,” Draedyn said, not shifting his eyes from the prince. “You’d brought back their ruler, if I’m not mistaken, and this prince objected to your plan. Rather than protest publically or raise a rebellion, he reacted . . . sorely.”

  I frowned. My father was the emperor of understatement, but the odd deflection did little to ease my trepidation.

  “Sore enough to leave the forest in pursuit of me, his alleged enemy”—Draedyn spread his arms wide like a benefactor expecting a hug—“to offer information in exchange for you and the Phaetyn throne.”

  I blinked. No. That couldn’t be. I wouldn’t believe Draedyn’s lies—

  “Tell her,” the emperor ordered. “Tell her how you helped me, dissident.”

  Kamoi rotated, half-turned toward me, and stuttered, “I d-drugged the d-drink I gave you, Lani, and Kamini, so that none of you would be able to access your powers. Lani couldn’t get the barrier up—”

  “You,” I whispered, the shock robbing me of my voice. “You let Draedyn in.” I couldn’t even believe my words. “The lemonade tasted strange. Lani was out of it. My head was foggy.” My eyes rounded as I turned toward the possibility this wasn’t all a lie. My chest tightened with Kamoi’s betrayal. “You let Draedyn into Zivost forest.”

  “I let him in to make sure the throne went to those who had always held it, to someone who understood it,” Kamoi replied loudly, his face going red. “You were supposed to take Lani, not Kamini. I let him in to protect my people—”

  “You let him in for yourself,” I shouted, stepping toward him with balled fists. I remembered the need to take the Phaetyn with the crown to Draedyn, and realized Lani was alive only because Kamini had been wearing her silver crown. “You let him in because you wanted power. You bastard!”

  He licked his lips, and his gaze darted around the room. “Kamini would rule us—”

  “You would rule behind her,” I cut him off with my sarcastic retort. “You wanted someone you could control.” I thought of all his untoward advances, all the times he tried to kiss me, and my stomach turned. “All this time?” I asked, sick with understanding. “Your pursuit of me . . . You wanted to rule so much”—bile rose in my throat, and I swallowed the sour revulsion down—“if not through your sister, then me through marriage.”

  He watched me now, his v
iolet eyes fixed on me carefully. He had to be wise to the danger of an angry Drae, even if I was the lesser of the powers in the room.

  “Since you came to Verald?” I pressed him. “Has the throne always been your objective?”

  He quirked a silver brow, and I wondered how I hadn’t seen the faux-charm oozing out of his pores and the silkiness dripping off his words clearly until this moment.

  “Yes,” he answered plainly. “I would see my people, the Phaetyn, restored to their former glory.”

  Former glory? The Phaetyn had been renowned healers, and I stared at Kamoi, my eyes narrowing as I thought of my time with him. I shook my head, recalling our journey from Verald into Gemond. Not once had he done anything to heal the land. Not once had he done anything to help anyone that wasn’t also helping himself.

  “Lani’s still alive, you idiot.” I growled. “Your ‘people’ stand at her back, not yours. They have never stood at yours, never once done anything by your order. Kamini led the rebellion against your parents, not you. You think the Phaetyn will ever allow you to remove Lani from power?” I crossed my arms. “You’re power hungry and desperate, but you’re a moron, Kamoi.”

  His eyes brightened, his lips pursing with anger. He strode toward me with a heavy stride.

  My eyes flashed, shifting Drae, and I whipped my hand in front of me, feeling my fingertips grow into talons. I slashed at him, his perfect face hiding the ugliness within, marking him as a warning.

  Kamoi gasped, flinching sideways as he covered his cheek with his hand. He pulled his extremity away and stared at the silver blood now staining his fingers and smeared on his face. Rivulets trickled down his neck as he turned to meet my gaze.

  “Does Kamini know?” I asked after a heartbeat of silence.

  He glared at me, clutching his cheek. “No. And she won’t. Your father has promised me your hand.”

  My hand? I could guess our marriage was just a contingency plan for if Kamini’s rule didn’t work out. Or maybe Kamoi planned to usurp her too. The idea of marriage was laughable. If Draedyn meant it, he could shove it. I was mated. I turned my back on them and stepped away. I’d go puke in the bathroom and crawl back into bed for a thousand years. No way was I ever going to be within inches of Kamoi—

  A rushing sound crescendoed, a roar echoing in my ears, and I began to turn, to face the emperor, but halted as Kamoi stumbled forward with a gurgling strangled sound. He hunched over, coughing.

  Silver blood.

  I blinked, but the image didn’t change.

  Great mouthfuls of vibrant blood poured from the prince’s mouth, saturating his silver robes, and splattering onto the dark floor between us. Warm droplets splashed onto my bare feet.

  “Kamoi?” I whispered. My gaze dropped to his stomach as he glanced up to the shining, dripping talons exploding through his stomach. And the black droplets dripping off their tips. Draedyn had cut himself. The wound was lethal.

  Kamoi was only upright because my father stood behind him, the force of his deadly talons up against the solid bones in Kamoi’s torso. Clutching the Phaetyn’s silver hair, my father yanked Kamoi’s head up.

  I stumbled away, crashing into the side of the bed and falling to the floor. I covered my mouth with both hands, and my vision tunneled. I gasped for air, dropping my head between my knees. One, two, three breaths later, I looked up, and my stomach roiled.

  The emperor propped a hand between the prince’s shoulder blades and pushed.

  Kamoi slid off the talons spearing him from back to front and fell to the stone, landing in a pool of his own blood, splattering me and Draedyn with death.

  I retched, bile burning my throat as blackness oozed up the Phaetyn’s chest, streaks inching up over his face. The black spots widened and branched at a rapid pace until the prince was nearly covered with the stain of Drae-poison.

  Kamoi’s sputtering spasms slowed. He blinked, his gaze locking on me, and reached out as if I could help him now. He mouthed words I’d never hear. And then his eyes turned glassy.

  And all was still.

  I stared at the Phaetyn prince, watching the last of his blood pool beneath him.

  “You killed him,” I said dully, ears ringing. My feeling, my emotion disappeared. I couldn’t deal with Draedyn and feel. I couldn’t deal with death and hurt. I locked away my emotions, vowing to never let them out while I was in this black palace of evil. I couldn’t respond with sentiment, not now, maybe not ever again.

  “I betrayed a betrayer,” Draedyn said simply. As simple as his clothing now stained with silver blood. As simple as the black stone floor which reflected the evidence of death. His power was simple, straightforward, easy to comprehend, and effortless. That was what this demonstration was about.

  He shook his head, denying my conclusion. “There are dozens of other ways for me to demonstrate my power if I felt you needed further proof. I have merely killed your enemy, heir-daughter. Though,” he said, using his sack tunic to wipe the silver from his huge emerald talons, “I’d expected you to kill him yourself as retribution.”

  I stared at the scratch I’d given the Phaetyn prince. Yes, he’d betrayed me and Lani and Kamini and the Phaetyn people. It might be easier to name those he hadn’t betrayed. But dealing out his justice hadn’t been my responsibility. That had been up to Lani. By betraying us, he’d nearly ruined Lani’s rule before it began, but instead of ruining it, he’d united the Phaetyn behind her. His plan to marry me was bad, but it hadn’t happened. Even in his betrayal of me to Draedyn, I was still alive. I could still do something.

  The creeping emerald darkness reappeared, crawling toward me, and I gathered Draedyn wasn’t impressed with my way of thinking.

  “So that was my welcoming gift, huh?” I asked him, still dazed by the gory scene before me.

  The emperor, my father, stepped over Kamoi’s corpse and ambled to the doorway. We might’ve been discussing the weather if not for the stench of blood and sweat lingering in the air of my bedchamber.

  “A gift,” he said, turning back. His emerald gaze held mine. “Yes, you may think of it as a gift and a lesson.”

  I watched him disappear out the door, my stomach churning. I might have been young, but I wasn’t a fool. That was no gift, and the only lesson was confirmation of his brutality.

  I betrayed a betrayer.

  I lie to the liars.

  I kill those who kill.

  His words were a warning to behave. A firsthand show of the way he ruled his empire—as simply as he seemed to do everything else. Direct and severe.

  I gagged and covered my mouth as I looked upon Kamoi’s body again.

  My mind wasn’t safe. My body was only on lease to me for the time being. But I’d been in places I couldn’t get out of before. I’d had to bide my time, take risks, and probably take a beating or two.

  But right now, I had no idea how I would ever escape this place.

  Draedyn and I were both immortal, but then Irdelron had been immortal too.

  30

  I traipsed through the hallways of Draedyn’s abode, following after two servants dressed in a sack-like tunic closely resembling my father’s. The servants were dressed in black uniforms of a severe cut. As I stared at the servants’ suits, I realized the material was the same as my couch. Nice. Apparently, Draedyn liked things to match: the servants to the furniture and father to daughter.

  How quaint.

  The entire residence was cut into the black graphite cliff. The passages were dark, and I shifted my eyes to see. How did his servants get around without constantly tripping? Maybe he kept them in the dark for sick reasons of his own.

  The two servants stopped walking and took their places on either side of a low and open doorway.

  Murmuring voices swept out of the room toward me, and I tugged at the bottom of my sack. The plain tunic covered me from the tips of my shoulders all the way to my knees. I was barefoot, but I’d torn off a bit of my black nightgown to tie my silver hair back into
a ponytail to keep it out of my face. Maybe I’d get a chance to fight my way out today. Maybe my chest would stop aching for Tyrrik.

  Both were equally unlikely; the first because Draedyn would know escape was my intention, and the second, well, same reason.

  “I go in there?” I asked the sentries.

  Neither of them even looked my way, so I ducked through the doorway, blinking in the bright light of day. That it was daytime was news to me, having come from my windowless pocket of the emperor’s lair, er, abode.

  The room was set with a long rustic table and two dozen plain wooden chairs, many of the seats already occupied. All of my attention was fixated on a wall of connecting doors that had been flung open. I inhaled the briny sea air, quelling the urge to throw myself from the balcony and flap my way to Tyrrik.

  My feet took me in the direction of freedom regardless.

  “Good morning, heir.”

  Just heir? Heh? Was daughter only confined to when we were in private? Was this game for me or the others here? Either way, I hated it.

  “Draedyn,” I answered shortly, not stopping on my way to the balcony.

  There were others in the room. Their conversation dwindled to a stop as I passed. I spared a glance to either side, peering back at them, and inhaled subtly.

  And stopped.

  They were all Drae. Female Drae.

  I glanced once more at the balcony. Tyrrik.

  I had to try, even knowing the attempt was hopeless. If Tyrrik were close, he’d be trying to establish contact. I still wanted to jump off the balcony, but regardless of the manipulation, I now wanted to be here. With a sigh, I turned to the emperor who sat at the head of the rustic table.

  “What is this?” I asked, circling my finger. Hopefully he understood that meant why am I meeting the other Drae.

  Draedyn didn’t stop buttering his toast. “This is the rest of our family. Well, most of them.”