by E. M. Knight
I tense and wait.
Nothing happens.
Well that’s a bit of relief. But very slight. If Morgan booby-trapped anything out here, it’s unlikely she would have had it sprung on me upon my first step.
It would happen much farther out, when I’d be feeling safe and secure and have my guard down.
I grit my teeth. I refuse to let it happen.
I take another step.
Raul looks back at me. “So far, so good,” he comments.
“Let’s wait until we get to the throne before deeming it a success,” I say.
I take a series of very slow, very careful steps, treading over the ground as if it were quicksand.
For all I know, it might be. A pit could open up and swallow me whole.
“Still good?” Raul asks.
“Yes,” I say.
He reaches out to offer me his hand. I take it.
“You know, I don’t think we should be seen doing this in public when I’m Queen,” I say.
His eyebrows go up. “Why?”
“It’ll make me look like I’m relying on you. Like I’m still just the silly girl who was brought here to fend for herself.”
“Nonsense,” he says. “The coven vampires respect your strength.”
“I’m not going to blindly lead on that,” I tell him. “I’m not going to be some dictator.”
He looks at me from the corner of his eye. “What will you be?”
“A protector,” I say on instinct.
He blinks. “That’s… admirable.” He lowers his voice. “But don’t let any of the others hear that out loud. Our vampires would not take well to that.”
“Yeah, yeah, that much I gathered.” I look up into the trees ahead. “If I were her,” I tell Raul. “I would set the trap there. After the first row of evergreens. Maybe… maybe to make it look like the Narwhark got me.”
“But the Narwhark is dead.”
“Something nobody counted on.”
He stirs. “Are you sure she...” he chews the inside of his lip. “Are you sure she would have set up a trap? If anything, I think she’d be pretty certain she succeeded. You got out of what she did to you, how? Not through any skill Mother knew you possessed. It was through something that the danger unlocked in you.” He stops and looks into my eyes. “I don’t think anybody could have counted on that.”
I pause. I don’t want to readily admit it, but he’s right. I only survived by fluke. Morgan and Phillip were certain they’d get away with changing the trajectory of the succession.
“I still can’t take any risks,” I say stubbornly.
Raul nods. We walk on.
I tense again when we pass the first line of trees. But nothing untoward happens.
We make our way through the woods. I’m reminded of how he and I came back here after being given the offer in The Crypts.
“What do you think Logan is doing now?” I ask. “Lots of time has passed. He must think we’ve rejected the offer.”
“I don’t think he’s hasty enough to make an enemy of us,” he says.
“But he already did,” I probe.
Raul shakes his head. “He and his clan were the aggressors, but it was mostly a showing of strength. I would bet anything that he wants our covens united. It’s how vampires do these things.”
“So he attacked, destroyed the castle, killed our villagers, almost killed you, in order for us… to be an ally?” The suggestion is ludicrous. “Don’t forget what he and Beatrice said they want.”
“An Earth covered in eternal night.” Raul grunts. “Truth be told, Eleira… a lot of vampires share that vision.”
“But there’s no way that would work! Sunlight is essential for life. For trees, for humans, for animals, for everything. It would destroy the entire planet.”
“You’re forgetting that we exist outside of that cycle.”
“No. We rely on living things. Without those to kill—” it shocks me, but maybe it shouldn’t, at this point, how easily I say those words. “Without those to kill,” I repeat, “we won’t have any blood. We are the harbingers of death, yet we require the living.”
“Look around you. The Haven was covered with night for five hundred years. These still grew.” He touches the trunk of a tall tree.
“I know,” I mutter. “And I keep asking myself ‘how?’ I think the wards must have had something to do with it. The trees were feeding on the magic, or the sunlight the wards kept out somehow got redirected to them, or… something.”
“Is that possible?” Raul asks. “You’re the witch. You would know.”
“I hope it is,” I say under my breath. “If it’s not, even if the immediate resurrection of the wards is a success, in time, it will turn to failure.”
Raul’s eyebrows go up. “So you don’t know?”
“I wasn’t exactly left with a handbook on how to protect this land,” I snap. “Your Mother did me no favors there.”
“Hm,” he grunts.
“Don’t do that. I’m as ready now as I’ll ever be.”
“No. We can look through the archives, go into Morgan’s private study, search her notes. We might find something.”
“We already did that, remember?” I ask. “And even you said so yourself, when you went on that search. You found nothing.”
“I found a scroll,” he says. “Moonlight activated it. And then it was taken away.”
“By the white dog, as you already said.” I cast my eyes around the forest. “I would be fascinated to see this creature.”
“No,” he says. “No, you would not. It wasn’t just some dog, Eleira. It was massive. Very, very, strong. It radiated power.”
“What did it look like again?”
“Like a massive wolfhound.”
“Well, I want to know what it is,” I declare. “If it’s hiding in our land, we will find it. I won’t have another threat like the Narwhark causing panic and frenzy.”
“I suspect,” he says slowly, “that the animal is long gone.”
We reach the edge of the clearing. I am delighted to find Felix beside the throne, along with the guards. He’s holding the sphere under one arm. It gives off a very dull, but nonetheless noticeable shimmer.
“You made it,” he smiles. He starts to approach. “We—”
“Wait!” I stick an arm out. “Don’t move.”
He freezes. “What is it?”
I glance at Raul, then, on a whim, rip away and race to the throne. My heart feels like it’s going to rip out of my chest when I reach it, it’s pounding so hard.
I wait a very terse second. When nothing happens. I exhale a sigh of relief.
“What happened?” Felix asks. “What was that all about?”
“I think Eleira decided to sprint to the finish line,” Raul says, with a smirk. He looks at me. “Congratulations. You made it through unscathed.”
“Now, to figure out how to use the torrial,” I mutter.
“About that,” Felix says. “I think I may have stumbled upon the key.”
I turn to him. “What?”
From behind his back he takes out that godforsaken goblet, the one that has caused so much trouble for me.
“See the rubies on the inside?” he asks, tipping it to me.
“Same as always,” I say. “So?”
“Ah, but the goblet has many twins.” Felix gestures to the guards. One of them ducks behind the throne and emerges with a hefty-looking chest.
He brings it over and puts it down before my feet. “My Queen,” he says, then bows and goes back.
Felix gestures at the chest. “The others are in there.”
I reach to open it, but Raul grabs my hand. “Wait,” he says. “Let me.”
After a moment’s resistance, I consent.
Raul sits back on his heels before the chest. He snaps the two ceremonial golden locks open.
Then he flips up the top.
Inside are two rows of eight molds, shaped for sixteen goblets in
all.
Most are empty. But three have their intended object inside.
“Where are the rest?” I ask Felix.
“Scattered by the wind,” he says cryptically. “Nothing to be done about it now. These are the ones we have. It never occurred to me to check them before. I assumed them all replicas, all made for the same thing.”
“So?” I ask. “Aren’t they?”
“They are,” he agrees. “But what I failed to consider was the possibility of what lies beneath.”
I narrow my eyes. “What do you mean?”
“If you’ll permit me?” he asks Raul.
Raul eyes him warily, then steps aside.
Felix produces a small blade and wedges it in the crack between the outer casing and the inner velvet lining. He applies a bit of force.
The inside element pops free.
“Ah,” he says, lifting it up. “There we are.”
I marvel at the chest, as below, three opal rings are embedded in the space.
There is a spot for a fourth, however, that is missing.
“Look familiar?” Felix asks.
I shoot a look at Raul. He nods.
“Yes,” I say. “They’re like the ring that was given to me to prevent the transformation from taking hold.”
“The one that was supposed to shield you from us finding you,” Raul notes.
Felix smiles. “But that, of course, was never its true purpose.”
I frown. “What do you mean? And speak plainly, please, because already, we are running low on time.”
I chance a look at the sky and see how far the moon has traveled already.
“I mean this. I don’t think it coincidental that Raul found the ring and sneaked it to you as a little girl. I think our former Queen placed it for him there, so he would do it.” He looks at Raul. “The chest has always been in my possession. You did not go through me to get the ring.”
“No,” Raul admits. He looks at little sick. “I didn’t.”
“How did you find it at first?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “The details don’t matter. Only that—”
“Tell us,” I insist.
“Mother showed it to me, all right? A long time ago. As much as I hate to say it, Felix is probably right. She told me the things it did, then left it unattended, unguarded, as a trinket in her room, for many, many years. When it finally clicked that I could protect you with it—when I read the prophecy and saw the stars aligned for your birth—I stole it. And gave it to you. To try to hide you from us.”
“But Morgan was clever,” Felix says. “She had been planning this all for an extraordinarily long time. I don’t think she intended to steal the succession from you back then, however.”
“Then what?” I ask. “What is so special about the ring that it links back to the throne? And if you haven’t noticed, I no longer have it,” I thrust my hand out. “It was lost somewhere in the rubble.”
My eyes glide over the ruins of the castle and the massive hole in the ground nearby.
“I believe the ring was meant to prime you for tonight,” Felix says. “Just like the goblet expedited your transformation. The rings offered the opposite. But together, the two elements collide to do something altogether different.”
“And that is?” I ask, unconvinced.
Felix gestures to the bottom of the chest. “Put another of them on, and tell me.”
I start to comply, but then Raul steps in front of me. Again.
“What if it’s dangerous?” he asks Felix. “How do you know—”
“Oh, for the love of...” I mutter, and duck under him to slip one of the rings on.
I wait for that wave of dissociation with the vampire to take me. But it doesn’t come.
In fact, nothing does.
“It’s not doing anything,” I say.
Raul growls. “That was unwise.”
“Try another,” Felix suggests.
I take the first one off and go for the next. I pause and wait for the unwholesome feeling.
“Nothing,” I say.
“And the last?” Felix asks.
I sigh and pick the third one up. As soon as I touch it, however, a spark jolts through my arm.
“Whoa,” I say. “I definitely felt something.”
“Careful,” Raul warns.
I nod, then slowly slide the final ring over my finger.
Immediately I’m assaulted by a wave of nausea. My vision spins. I try to take a step, but can’t hold my balance, can’t tell up from down.
I fall and hit the ground hard. Raul is right away at my side, cursing and trying to rip the ring off.
“Wait.” My head comes up. “Don’t. Stop.”
He looks at me, not understanding.
But the nausea, the dizziness, the sick feeling is already fading. All I’m left with is a warm simmer in the pit of my stomach.
And when I look at the throne, I see that it’s glowing.
Felix is smiling from above. He offers a hand up.
“As I suspected,” he says. “You had to have worn all four.”
“Do you…?” I ask. “Does anybody see that?”
I point at the faint light emitted by the crystal structure.
“I don’t see anything different,” Raul says.
“No, but it is different,” I say under my breath. I approach the throne slowly, in sudden awe. “I can feel new life pulsing through it,” I whisper. I look up at the sky. “And yes, I was right. It’s aided by the moon.”
A smile of triumph slowly spreads over my lips.
I take the steps up to the seat. I turn around and carefully plant myself down.
The power in the throne surges. I gasp as it sears into me.
But it’s a wholesome power, it’s complete, and it’s utterly pure and bold.
It is entirely untainted by anything else.
Raul’s eyes widen. “I see it now,” he says. “I see the glow.”
“That means the torrial is active,” Felix notes.
“Yes,” I say. I smile wide. I’ve never felt this much power before, never thought it’d be possible. “The link has been formed.”
“Incredible,” Felix murmurs.
“Raul?” I address my one-time protector. “Call all the vampires here. Tell them their Queen is ready to cast their coven into eternal night.”
With this much power, I think, there’s not a being in the world, man, witch, or vampire, who can stop me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Dagan
In the desert around The Crypts
I feel the most relief I can remember feeling, as a vampire, when the sun finally sets and the burning rays are no more.
I collapse in the sand and take deep, vital breaths.
The past few hours have been horrid.
It was not so bad at first. The beginning of the journey, even though it was in the strongest heat of the sun, pained me. Of course. But it did not truly start to be unbearable until I had gotten hours and hours in.
Then the wall I built in my head against the pain broke. It cracked, it splintered, and the sudden rush felt so bad that it made me scream out loud.
The pain was horrid… but being stuck in the middle of the desert, with no escape or reprieve in sight, made it many times worse.
For a few moments, I had contemplated digging under the sand. It is not unheard of for vampires to take such shelter in the earth. Frowned upon, maybe, because it is deemed unclean… but it was a possibility to me in that moment.
Ultimately, I fought through it, conquered the pain, and continued the arduous, wretched journey onward.
For I knew what awaited me if I was caught.
I roll over. I look at the dark sky. I give myself a few more moments to collect myself and then push off.
My entire skin feels like it’s been branded with a never-ending succession of hot irons. But the pain is fading.
Thank the gods my vampire blood is strong.
I look around and am caught by surprise when I see mountains in the distance.
Seems like I covered a lot more land than I thought.
Guided by the North Star, I identify those mountains as owned by my coven.
After a moments’ deliberation, I start for them. We have an outpost there. I still hold senior rank, nothing’s been stripped from me. And despite my decision to let Riyu go, I can easily claim I am going about the King’s business.
Riyu ducked into a portal, after all, and got away. It is my duty to find him.
Too bad such an explanation would never fly with Logan.
But the King… I grunt. The King is not the man I swore my life to. Not anymore. I don’t know how long it will take for the madness to totally ruin his mind.
When it does, will the others stay loyal? Will my army? Will the guard?
Most of all… will The Ancient?
It all hinges on that utterly mysterious and unpredictable vampire. Logan founded the coven himself, but he now relies on The Ancient for strength.
I don’t know why The Ancient is loyal to him. Only Logan does. What deal could they have struck that permits the entire coven to feed on The Ancient’s blood? Moreover, what is in it for him?
With a sour chuckle, I realize the only way I can ever depose Logan is if I get The Ancient on my side. That is an impossibility.
Good thing I fled, then.
I reach the base of the mountain and let my senses flare.
Immediately, I go on high alert. I smell blood.
Human blood.
After my journey through the sands, I can think of no sweeter reward,
So I race through the trees, succumbing to the vampire in full.
I discover a small Serbian hunting party. At least that is what their language sounds like. Three men, tents surrounding them, sit in front of a fire with their phones out and water boiling, oblivious to the danger lurking nearby.
I lick my lips with greed. This is too easy.
I rush forward and pick off the first before his companions can blink. He’s gone from their midst in a flash. I pin him against a tree, my brutal strength readily crushing his spine.
I sink my fangs into his neck. I drink as deeply as I can. It doesn’t take long for him to die.
I discard the empty body. My hunger compels me to drink more.
I turn back to the camp.
