by Lora Darc
“Sorcerers can be a fickle, disloyal bunch, brother,” said Prince Xaris. “Perhaps it would be better for Morgin to make them see the error of their ways. Though they fear our rage equally, they could be persuaded to follow Morgin as he is still the most powerful sorcerer in the Nightlands.”
“I would agree,” replied Prince Cyre. “But Morgin has been occupied with his own personal business as of late. He’s been gone the last couple nights.”
“I was told he has returned,” said Prince Sethris. “He’s brought some woman back with him. But he refuses to say who.”
“You know how Morgin can be. Private and insatiable.” Prince Xaris shrugged.
“I’m not so sure this time,” said Prince Cyre. “He hasn’t been himself lately…”
“Whatever his issue, I’m sure he will come around and tell us what troubles him,” said Prince Xaris.
Danielle noticed them glance at her. Prince Cyre on her right leaned in and stroked her arm. “I won’t be gone long... only a night or two,” he said softly.
“I will join you, brother,” said Prince Sethris. “I can easily quell the dead while you take care of the sorcerers.”
The crow prince nodded in thanks. “We will leave tomorrow at moonrise.”
They discussed other matters within the realm, but Danielle paid little attention. All she could think about was Prince Sethris’ news about Prince Morgin.
He had returned. With someone else. But why?
Danielle needed to know. To understand. Hope began to drain from her at the thought that he may no longer want her. Besides the fear that she would never have the chance to gain his energy for the key, she also felt the cruel pangs of rejection. Funny to think how she ran from him in the beginning and now he was running from her and it actually bothered her.
She stayed with the princes until they had cause to disperse. They each kissed her goodnight and she was taken back to her room.
Unable to sleep, Danielle sat out on her balcony looking down on the city, deep in thought. She told herself if it weren’t for her need of Prince Morgin’s energy she wouldn’t care. That she would just wait for him to call on her. But the sharp ache in her chest told Danielle she felt otherwise. She needed to see him. She couldn’t wait any longer.
That night she hatched her plan. Her fear of Prince Morgin’s rage and punishment made her hesitant at first but, regardless, Danielle had to take the risk. Tomorrow night she would go to his chambers and beg him to take her.
***
Danielle waited until a little after moonrise when she was almost certain she wouldn’t be seen. Most servants didn‘t bother to prepare her until after high moon and the nightwomen wouldn’t leave their rooms until around then either. The only ones milling about the halls would likely be a few choice servants and maybe a few nobles, but they had seen her walking about before and were never suspicious. There were guards stationed close to Prince Morgin’s quarters but, if she could make it passed them alright she wouldn’t need to worry about any others after.
Danielle combed out her hair, letting it spill into waves around her shoulders. Out of her wardrobe, she took out a long, dark blue dress with silver trim. The fabric was thin and fit to her body perfectly. The V neck hung low and the slits in her skirt exposed her soft thighs and delicate hips. She fixed herself by the mirror and noticed the dark splotches moving up her arms and down her legs. Frowning, Danielle found some covering powder the servants had used before and concealed the marks as best she could. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do much about her hair or nails.
As a final touch, she put on a pair of cream-colored thigh high socks, remembering Prince Morgin’s room being a bit more chill. She slipped on her slippers and went for the door, pausing once to look around the room. The note she left Melina was on her vanity stand, stating she was taking a stroll and would be back soon. She couldn’t afford to have the head servant find her gone without some explanation.
The curtains to her room blew around heavily as a storm began to pass nearby. Danielle quickly walked over and pulled them closed. As she stepped from the room, she heard the first traces of thunder rumbling in the distance.
The halls were eerily silent. Through the skylights and narrow windows, flashes of lightning brightened her way. Danielle came across a few others wandering about but they paid her little attention. She made her way down a part of the great hall and through various corridors until she came to the entrance to Prince Morgin’s side of the palace. Darker and quieter than the rest, Danielle tread carefully, feeling like she had stepped back in time and was once again sneaking through the dark halls of the palace, hiding in the shadows, waiting to encounter a monster.
The black marble door with Prince Morgin’s emblem came into view and Danielle crept toward it, only to pause before it’s intimidating height. Breathing deep, she placed her hand on its cool surface. Uncertain whether to knock, the choice was taken out of her hands when the door softly creaked open. Jumping back, Danielle saw the swirling darkness before her. It seemed to beckon her inside.
Hesitating for a moment, Danielle stood firm, then—before she lost her courage—slipped quickly into the darkness.
The darkness blinded her for only a dozen steps before she broke from the dark tunnel and stood within the tall antechamber. Without hesitation, she walked to the door on the other end and stepped through the short corridor into Prince Morgin’s bedchamber.
To her great relief and disappointment, it lay empty.
She was relieved because as she approached the bed she saw no woman lying there as she feared. But to where Prince Morgin was then she didn’t know. She saw an orange glow flickering from an open door on the opposite end of the room and made her way toward it.
At the doorway, Danielle looked in on the very library where she had first encountered Prince Morgin. Shelves of books were connected all along the first and second floors, the spiral staircase stood to her right, and the great fireplace sat at the very back. Windows above the second floor showed the storm passing by.
Cautiously Danielle went into the room, stopping at the long table covered in books and scrolls at the center. She peered over it to the long-backed chair near the fire and saw it sat empty. She placed her hand on the table and walked around it, making her way down. As she searched around, Danielle spied an open book on the table, showing a page she had seen many times before, one she had burned into her memory:
The key orb drawn in dark purple ink and beside it the ingredients and directions on its making.
Danielle frowned in confusion, then a shadow shot passed her and she jumped.
“Who’s there?” Danielle could barely keep the nervous shake from her voice.
“Mistress?” breathed a voice in disbelief. From under the table, Kril appeared. The gremlin climbed to the tabletop and gazed on her with shock and fear. “You shouldn’t be here! If the Master finds you—”
“Kril.” Danielle placed a hand over her chest and sighed. “Kril... where is he?”
The little gremlin shook his head. “I am not entirely certain. He comes and goes as he pleases, no need to tell us. But he could be back at any moment. Mistress, if he sees you here…”
“I know... but I have to see him. To speak with him.”
Kril looked about him nervously. “He’s been in a terrible temper. He seemed strange even a few nights ago. But something has him riled up very badly now. When he returned with that woman…”
“Who? Who was she?” Danielle asked.
“Afraid I don’t know. But they took to talking and the more she told him the more Master grew rigid and angry.”
Danielle shook her head, not understanding.
“You should go now,” the gremlin said. “If he catches you... I don’t think he’s in his right mind. I can’t say what he might do.”
With this sudden disturbing knowledge, Danielle realized her great mistake.
“I should never have come…” she whispered. She searched around the
room and fear suddenly gripped her. “I will go.”
Kril nodded in agreement. “I will show you out, Mistress. Not to fear.”
But, as he went to lead her out of the room Kril went still.
By the doorway, the darkness that had swirled around the entrance into Prince Morgin’s rooms now spread through the whole room beyond, drenching it in darkness.
“Kril... what’s happening?” Danielle said, trembling.
The gremlin cowered. “Too late... I’m sorry, Mistress, too late. He won’t let you leave.” Then he bolted, flying up the stairs and disappearing through a door.
Danielle stood frozen. She stared into the darkness and it seemed to reach for her. She shook her head and stepped back as the shadows shifted and twisted and out from them Prince Morgin appeared. Like a great demon spawning from the underworld, he stood before her. Tendrils of shadows weaved around his body, through his fingers, and around his legs.
Then, like a receding wave, the darkness drew back, until it was only the prince before her.
Danielle remained unmoving, forgetting her place as she stared at him, unable to look away.
Prince Morgin glared down at her with cold eyes. His hands hung in tight fists at his side and his tail swung like an angry cat.
“My, you are really something aren’t you,” he said in a frighteningly venomous voice. “Tell me truthfully, do you take great pleasure in pissing me off? To shock me? I say you’ve done a superb job so far, I must admit. The very first time we met you thwarted me and stunned me with your reckless actions; your wild abandonment of any consequences.” Prince Morgin slowly stepped toward her and Danielle made to back away. “Or perhaps you long to be punished. I dare say you will be… after everything I know now. Tell me, Danielle...” as he backed her into a corner he got very close. He brought his hand up to her necklace of vials and hooked his finger around a single chain. “How far did you get in acquiring the ingredients to remake the key?”
Danielle stilled, turning cold as ice.
“Hmm?” Prince Morgin tilted his head. “What, nothing to say now? You really didn’t think I wouldn’t find out? Careless mistake. But, I admit, I am rather impressed. You really had me and my brothers going for a minute. But now your little deception is over. And I’m sure they will share my feelings when I tell them of your little plan. Now... if you won’t talk, I suppose I’ll just have to piece the rest of this awesome puzzle together myself.” With that, he gripped the rest of her necklace and tore it from her neck. The chains melted away and the gems turned back to vials, dropping to the ground. The key star too fell and rolled away.
Danielle cried out and lunged for them but the prince grabbed hold of her neck and pushed her back against the wall of books, a few falling to the floor. Though his hand didn’t tighten around her, he kept her in place with unimaginable strength. Danielle gripped his wrist with her hands and quivered.
“Please…” Danielle said.
The prince snarled. “No. None of that. No more pleading to be spared. That little trick might have worked on my brothers but not me.” He released her and quickly gathered up the vials. He placed every single filled vial on the table and stood incredibly still, looking down on them with the last empty vial in his hand. He stood silently for a long moment with his back turned to her and Danielle began to notice his body shaking and a strange growling noise coming from his throat.
For a crazed minute, she thought he was weeping. Then realized she was very wrong. He was laughing.
His laughter grew until it filled the library. An invisible wind blew at the fire and seemed to dim its light considerably. Danielle cowered against the wall unable to move.
“Gods... you have truly stunned me into mindless disbelief,” Prince Morgin whispered as he calmed a little. “A human... a mere human was able to acquire nearly all the necessary ingredients to remake my key. I don’t even want to know how you got the ones from the Night Lords, though I’m sure it wasn’t very hard after what that witch did to you, and their total weakness against seduction by a lovely woman, human or not. But my brothers... now that is something to truly wonder about. I can’t imagine them being seduced enough to consider giving you their energies. The only explanation then would be that they have come to care too much for you and trust you... and you took advantage of them. Your heartlessness is to be commended. Even by my standards, playing with other’s feelings is a cruel endeavor.”
Shaking now with rage, Prince Morgin lifted his hand and the vials floated up into the air, circling one another above him. “I admit now I too grew to care for you like my brothers. When I watched you find your pleasure before my very eyes—by my doing—the intense, seeming impossible emotion had struck me then. The idea, of course, terrified me. How could I feel this way for a human? The obsessive wanting, the lust, the need to possess... that was all well and fine. But to love... no, that was beyond me. So I fought. And my need for knowledge—for understanding—grew. Once I discovered you had come on to some strange power and had confessed to me about the witch who gave it to you, I felt there had to be more. I didn’t expect you to tell me so I went looking.
“It took me a few nights to find the witch. After our battle with the Night Lords, the swamplands were destroyed considerably and the woman fled. But, when I finally found her I forced her to tell me everything. And she did. She told me how she gave you the power not only to feel pleasure in pain but to be able to seduce others. Then she told me how you asked about the key and how she had given you a copy of my very recipe. Then I started putting the pieces together. The Night Lords protecting you, the abnormal attachment to that damn necklace. I only speculated at first, but when Lord Torquel mentioned to me that you had asked for the old key, I knew.”
And then Prince Morgin smiled wickedly at her. “You almost had me... but I figured out your little scheme and now you can’t use me like you did my brothers. Now we shall know how you really feel about us when you realize there is no escape.”
With that, Prince Morgin turned his hand into a fist and the vials began to crack before him.
“No, please!” Danielle cried. But Prince Morgin didn’t stop. With a wild growl, he swung out his arm and flung the vials into the fire.
The fire burst into a rainbow of colors, sparking and crackling. The heat was immense and the light blinding. Danielle fell against the wall and covered her face against the awesome wave of fire and Magikal energy. When the fire finally died down, Danielle curled into a ball and began to cry.
The silence in the room save for her weeping was awesome. When Danielle finally glanced back up at the prince, she saw him watching her with a disturbed expression, his body shaking.
“Well?” he said finally. “How do you feel now, girl? Disappointment I’m sure. But what of my brothers... what of me? Fear? Pure hatred? Show me. Bare it all on me now. Scream and cry and beat your little fists against me if you like. I want to know now... how do you feel? Because I can tell you how I feel now. Nothing. You’re just like the other humans who came here. You’re not special. And I don’t want you. That’s right, I don’t!” he shouted the last few words at her then turned from her. With an ugly snarl, he gripped the back of his chair and threw it across the room where it hit a shelf, causing dozens of books to topple to the ground.
Danielle winced, cowering before him. His breathing—fast and heavy—and his eyes like twin flames, made him look like a wild beast. He turned and didn’t look back at her and, for a long time they stayed that way until Danielle finally had the courage and strength to stand.
She gazed on him with tear-stained eyes, unable to form words. Then Danielle did as he asked and searched her feelings. She was deeply disappointed and distressed, there was no denying that. All her efforts had been smashed to pieces before her. She had come so close to finishing her quest, and now there was nothing.
But with the disappointment came a shocking discovery. She was not horrified to find herself once again stuck in the Nightlands. In a way,
she was strangely relieved. It had been fear that had driven her before. Fear and longing to see her world again. But as time had gone on those emotions had been slowly replaced by guilt. And finally, she could come to terms as to why.
She loved it here.
In the beginning, it might not have been true right away. But despite her fears, the princes had given her pleasure she had never experienced before, in a way she never thought possible. It was all a strange nightmare turned into a lovely yet forbidden dream. When she’d been given power, her fears had lessened even more and it was then she could rise to new levels of pleasure.
What she felt now for the princes wasn’t terror. Even now, with her way back to the world of light gone, Danielle could see nothing had changed.
“You want to know how I feel,” Danielle finally spoke. Though her voice shook, she did not falter as she pushed herself from the wall to walk toward Prince Morgin. Only when she was close enough to touch him did the prince turn to face her. He glared down at her but Danielle didn’t sway to his intimidation. She placed her hands on his chest. “I feel... no different at all.”
As she raised her hands up to his neck Prince Morgin went rigid, his cold glare falling away, replaced with a baffled stare. Before he could speak, Danielle gripped the back of his neck and pulled him down to her while lifting herself up on her toes. Their lips met and Danielle crushed herself against him.
Prince Morgin was unresponsive at first and Danielle feared she had made her final mistake. But, as she began to pull away, he suddenly gripped her tight and deepened the kiss, clasping the side of her neck to keep her in place. He coaxed her with his tongue to open to him more and Danielle did. She let him in completely.
When they finally pulled away to catch their breath, they locked eyes and, like a cord being struck, a dark wave of desire shot through them both. A desire that had been building for too long and was ready to burst.
