by Meg Xuemei X
Numerous darts dropped before us and turned to dirt.
Elvey cursed. “They’re one of the nastiest spells. We were lucky we blocked them before any of them hit us.”
“What kind of spells are they?” Rosalinda asked.
“Death and soul-catching spells,” Elvey said.
Zembyr cursed profusely. “Nasty things! We need to kill Tianna as soon as possible.”
A dark figure in a cloak ran across the space, away from us, but Rosalinda’s knife aimed true and fast. It sailed toward the figure and buried into the back of the fugitive’s skull. The enemy dropped in a heap.
Zembyr sprang ahead of us. When we reached the fallen enemy, Zembyr turned her around to see her face, blood pooling under her head.
“One of Tianna’s black witches,” Elvey said coldly. “They were guarding this place for her.”
The witch must have tossed the spells at us.
Not far from her, steep stone stairs led down into gloomy dimness. That was the entrance point of the evil power I’d felt. My magic pricked, and chills ran down my spine.
Zembyr handed the dagger he’d extracted to Rosalinda. We shared a look and descended the stairs, my White Light shielding us.
The stairs twined left then right. At the bottom of the stairs, a vast underground chamber sprawled before us.
In the center was a black crystal container, enchanted and warded by dark magic. As we moved closer and looked through the sealed lid, we saw a dark heart suspended in it, pulsing like it was living. Hundreds of veins spread out from it, connecting to the standing glass coffins lined up against the walls.
To my horror, there was a living being—either Fae, human, or some other species—fastened to the cords that led to the black heart in each transparent coffin. A terrifying comprehension hit me. They were feeding the heart. Their energy flowed to that living heart as if charging a battery.
“Soul charge,” Elvey whispered under his breath.
He stepped next to me as I went to inspect the unfortunate prisoners trapped inside the coffin. I even saw a white tiger and a dragon in chains among the Fae and humans.
“She’s been using their souls to charge the black heart, and the heart gives her power,” Elvey said. “I’d heard the rumors but never imagined this.”
“We must free them,” I said, wrath roaring in my bloodstream. I knew Tianna was pure evil, but the degree of her horror was just too great. “And then we’ll burn this place down.”
Before I threw out my White Light to break all the glass coffins, Elvey grabbed my wrist. “Not yet, darling.”
Zembyr gasped and cursed. He had gone to check the coffins on the opposite side of the room while Rosalinda stood guard.
He dropped to his knees before a coffin, tears streaming down his face in rivulets.
“Your Majesties,” he murmured, staring up at the coffin.
My heart skipped a beat. What was he saying?
Elvey and I hurried toward him, and I looking at a feeble male Fae and a female Fae who seemed to be his wife. The male Fae had my mother’s eyes, and thus mine, and the female Fae had my mother’s platinum hair color and soft lips.
Elvey sucked in a breath. “They’re your grandparents, King Elrond and Queen Phoebe.”
The king and the queen snapped their attention at me. They were barely alive, hanging onto the last thread of their life.
I clasped my hand over my mouth. Tianna had ruled for nine centuries, which meant they’d been supplying the dark heart with energy in this living hell for all this time.
Recognition bore into their eyes, and at the same time, grief, regret, and soul-weariness swirled in them. In the very depths of their eyes, I spotted a small inkling of hope.
“Daughter to Zuzana, our daughter?” the king asked weakly.
“I’m Daisy Danaenyth,” I said, my voice choked with emotion. “And yes, Zuzana was my mother.” I knew they’d stripped my mother of her title and exiled her, and that they were part of the reason that my mother had been murdered. But looking at the twisted pain and insanity in their eyes, I could no longer hold them accountable.
“We wronged our daughter Zuzana,” the queen said, her glassy blue eyes glazing over as she struggled to get the words out. “We’re paying for our sins. My granddaughter, you’ve come for us. We didn’t know you survived.”
They were the last of my Fae family.
My throat closed up, but I managed to squeeze the words out. “How do we save them, Elvey? How do we free them?”
“You can’t,” the king said. “It’s too late for us. What’s left of us is but one last breath and one last sliver of our souls. We’re already drained. It’ll be the ultimate kindness to kill us. However, parts of our souls are trapped inside the black heart. Only when Tianna dies, and you kill the heart, will our souls and all the other tens and thousands of souls trapped in the black heart be set free. We’ve been here the longest since our powers were greater than any others and she wanted us to suffer. Others came and went. When they expired, she brought new ones to replenish the harvested souls to fuel the heart.”
Zembyr had gotten to his feet, looking shell-shocked. Rosalinda moved closer to us but didn’t forget her guard duties.
“What does the heart do?” Elvey asked, but I figured he already knew the answer. He just wanted a confirmation.
“It is linked to her,” my grandmother said. “It gives my youngest daughter tremendous power. The more souls the heart consumes, the more powerful she is.”
“That’s why there are rumors that she can’t be killed,” Elvey murmured, his thumb tracing his bottom lip. He did that sometimes when he was thinking. “We’ll have to kill the heart to kill her, so she won’t be able to resurrect.”
I turned on my heel. “Let’s destroy the black heart now!”
“No, granddaughter,” the queen called. “It’ll be a mistake.”
Elvey grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him.
“The heart can’t be killed by normal methods, love,” he said.
“The demigod is right,” the king said, regarding him, though talking seemed to be growing more and more difficult for him and the queen. They were bone-tired and dying. “Tianna once gloated to us about her secret, believing we’d never be free. She wanted you more than anyone because your power comes from the stars. But she failed to take your soul, so she managed to blood bond you.”
Rage coursed in my bones. The bitch had tried to harvest my mate’s soul.
“My husband is no longer blood bonded to Tianna,” I said, my dragon fire sparking in my eyes.
The old queen looked at us with satisfaction. “Our vengeance has finally come. We’ll soon rest, my king.”
She revealed more of Tianna’s secrets. “Tianna isn’t all herself. She merged with the demon king. Two foul entities cohabit in her body. When she stays in Sihde, she wears her Fae face. And when she travels to the demon realm, the demon king takes over. The portal to the Hell Region is here somewhere. Don’t let the abomination escape to the demon realm.”
Now the warning of the forest spirits finally made sense. “Be aware of the double faces and two foulest entities in one.”
No wonder Tianna’s magic was so powerful she could trick and ensnare a demigod.
No wonder my White Light couldn’t take her down.
The old king and queen knew all about their evil daughter’s dark secrets, except for the most crucial one—how to destroy her and the heart.
That was what we had to find out next, but I knew that secret didn’t lie in this chamber. Then where?
As if reading my thoughts, the queen said quietly, “You’ve found us. You now know part of your evil aunt’s secrets. Now go and find the way to destroy her. Make us proud.”
“I can end your suffering now, grandparents,” I said, tears flowing down my face, “if that’s what you want.” They wouldn’t make it even if I finish off Tianna.
A sorrowful smile ghosted the queen’s pale face and d
ull blue eyes. “You’ll only alert her. You need to have a plan to kill her before thinking of freeing us, child. Strategy matters. We can hang in here a little longer. We’ll wait for you.”
“I’ll return for you,” I vowed.
“And for your dragon father,” the old queen said. “He’s trapped inside the black heart, unable to reunite with your mother.”
Her words seared my heart like a hot iron brand. My lips trembled at the near-physical pain.
“We need to go now, love,” Elvey said. “Tianna’s spies must be tracking us. We can’t afford to alert her with what we’ve unveiled.”
As we hurried by the glass coffins, the prisoners inside begged, “Free us, please.”
“Kill us,” others cried.
“Save us,” more pleaded with us.
My heart fractured for all of them.
I’d thought being cursed and losing my three mates was a horrible burden to bear, until I encountered these tens of thousands of souls and had to carry their burden, misery, and curses.
Elvey pulled me into his fierce and gentle embrace. You won’t carry anything alone. I’m always with you.
“We’ll return and set you free, I promise,” I told the trapped beings. “But you need to hold on a little longer.”
Some of them who had more strength than others cursed me while my companions and I left them behind.
Even though Elvey wanted us to take off as soon as possible, he checked every coffin, eyeing the unfortunate occupant inside, his muscles twitching in his clenched jaw. Some of them must have been his old friends.
He stopped at the last coffin the longest, his star-blue eyes filling with agony.
Inside the glass was a Fae. She looked different than any dark Fae. Her silver hair had lost its shine. She was alive, though it seemed there was no life in her. She stared at Elvey, recognition sparking in her ice blue eyes—eyes that must have looked like the clearest sky before her capture. She opened her pale lips, wanting to tell him something, but no words came out. She was too weak.
“Who is she?” I asked.
Her gaze swirled slowly to me.
“Light Fae Princess Nerida.” Elvey swallowed hard, as if there was a shard of glass stuck in his throat.
They knew each other. Had they been lovers?
I felt so sorry for them.
Elvey snapped his head to me. “It’s not what you think.” He turned back to gaze at her with tenderness.
Her lips moved, and I marked out the words. Don’t leave me, Elvey, please.
In this state, she couldn’t even shed tears.
“I’ll come back for you, Nerida,” Elvey said hoarsely. “I promise. I’ll never abandon you. I won’t leave you like this. I’ve finally found you.”
He raised his hand toward the coffin that trapped her, and a wall of transparent bubbles formed a shield around her.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A shield that will keep her life force from flowing to the black heart,” Elvey said.
“Then shield all of them,” I said. “And shield my grandparents until we come back for them all.”
A look of grief darkened Elvey’s eyes. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to help others. My magic can shield only one person and link her to my essence to preserve her. Even if I can shield them all, it’ll alarm Tianna as soon as the black heart is deprived of the regular energy feeding. Plus, most of them are beyond saving, including your grandparents. All we can do is free their souls when we return.”
I knew he was telling the truth.
“But Nerida is in worse shape than my grandparents,” I said.
The veins in his temples jumped. “I’ve been looking for her for centuries,” he said, pain slicking in his eyes again, “just as I’d been searching for you. I can’t bear to see her hurt like that.”
She was so important to him that he was feeding her with his own life force. Was she more important to him than I was? It was horrid of me to even think of that and to feel jealousy when she was like that. I banished the green monster to the dark recess of my head.
“We have to go, until we come back.” I urged him.
Unable to bear to look at the princess again, Elvey pulled me to run with him, as if he wanted to run from his own past and all of darkness and nightmares in the world.
I broke free of Elvey’s hand, halted by the black crystal vessel, and stared through the lid at the black heart pulsing powerfully, greedily, and menacingly. There were tens of thousands of innocent souls, including my father’s, trapped in its great evil net.
I raised my twin daggers, my feet ready to kick off the lid, and plunged my blades into the black heart.
“Not yet,” Elvey said, pulling me away with his demigod’s strength.
Then he used his magic to make the corpses of the demons and the witch disappear and put on glamour to make the temple look the way it had been. Tianna wouldn’t discover the ruse unless she came in person and investigated in depth.
I would bet that while she was engaged in the Challenge with me, she wouldn’t go anywhere, especially since she had the hot-as-fuck dragon princes adoring her and fighting for her affection.
As we ran out of the temple and down the stone stairs, with the black dragon flying ahead of us, all I thought of was the need to get to my former consorts and save them from Tianna.
The demon king/dark Fae queen had consumed tens of thousands of souls. She wouldn’t spare the dragon princes once she was tired of them. She’d covet the dragon souls’ immense energy.
It didn’t matter that they’d turned on me in order to lift the final piece of their curse. I wouldn’t want them to suffer that horrific fate at Tianna’s hands. I wouldn’t want anyone to suffer that fate.
It was time for them to see my adversary’s true colors.
17
Elvey, Rosalinda, Zembyr, and I returned to the Red Palace. Adrian returned to our main army outside Sihde. He needed to lead them. Before he took off, he kissed Rosalinda, and the Fae warrior returned his kiss fiercely, instead of pushing him away like I thought she would.
When we entered the throne room, the court session was almost over. Tianna and the dragon princes had left. One of Tianna’s servants told me that the dark queen was in the Lotus Lounge with the dragon princes. It seemed that the servants weren’t all that loyal to their dark queen, either.
According to them, the princes had insisted on entertaining Tianna after I hadn’t responded to her summons. Apparently, she had been furious beyond belief at my ignoring her.
I was more queen than she could ever be. The throne was mine. It always had been. And it would be mine. She had stolen it from me.
Elvey and I headed to the Lotus Lounge, with Rosalinda and Zembyr trailing behind us.
The lounge had a grand foyer that opened into what looked like an outdoor garden.
Jax—Tianna’s captain—and a few guards in red armor blocked the entrance.
“You don’t have permission to enter,” Jax said haughtily.
“Careful when you speak to Her Majesty, Jax,” Elvey drawled. “I’ll only say this once. Queen Daisy doesn’t need permission to walk in her realm. Move or I’ll remove you.”
Jax spat. “I serve only one queen, and it is not the dragon bitch.”
Rosalinda and Zembyr stepped forward, ready to strike Jax down. The enemy captain and his five guards moved toward us, more than eager to spill blood.
Tianna’s supporters were bloodthirsty and loved destruction more than anything, but for Tianna not to forfeit the Challenge, they couldn’t spill blood unless it was to defend themselves. If my warriors struck them first, they’d all fall under the blade of the punishing power of the unseen force.
I raised a hand to stop them.
Jax’s lime-colored eyes flashed with evil delight. He spat again, “Dragon mongrel, you’ll never be my queen, just like your whore mother, who didn’t deserve to be the queen. She opened her legs for a filthy dragon and—”
“Let him go, please, Elvey,” I said, quiet authority in my voice.
Elvey turned to me with a raised eyebrow, then acquiesced and dropped Jax.
Before the guard could get up from the ground, my bonding magic lashed out on its own. My magic seized his sick mind and twisted.
“Love?” Elvey asked, a questioning look on his face. “Maybe we should take it easy?” His worry that I would violate the rules of the challenge radiated toward me.
“No worries, my king,” I said with a syrupy smile. “I didn’t shed blood. I was only playing with his mind a little.” Wasn’t that another nice loophole? “And I won’t kill him. At least, not yet.” My voice took on a menacing tone.
Jax grasped his head with his hands and collapsed on the ground. I didn’t offer him the gift of death, and he wouldn’t die easily. He was living in his own nightmares. His face twisted grotesquely, and his mouth opened to scream, but no sound could come out.
I could be just as cruel as my evil bitch of an aunt.
The other guards behind him all paled and stepped back, leaving the entrance unguarded.
Flashing a dark smile, Elvey threaded his fingers with mine, and we treaded through the garden.
Zembyr and Rosalinda guarded the entrance.
I paused at the archway as moans of pleasures from Tianna and flirty laughter from my former consorts hit my ear. I was so familiar with the sounds the lightning dragon, the ice dragon, and the fire dragon made. Sounds only I had ever elicited from their mouths. I froze, sharp shards of ice piercing into my heart and clogging my throat.
Clusters of plants and blossoms blocked my sight, but Tianna’s continuing moans of lust led me toward them. Elvey’s fingers tightened around mine, offering me comfort and strength, but for the first time, he failed.
I unraveled my fingers from Elvey’s and sprinted toward the sounds, as if I could stop something bad from happening, or reverse time to stop it from ever happening.
