The Reign of Queens: A Kingdom of Diamond Antlers Novel

by Zachary James

  Wayloran’s bride would’ve been spared, but I heard the hitch in her breathing and the fast beat of her heart as she woke up when I entered the chamber. So I covered her mouth and watched the plea in her eyes as I took her life away. Blood lust is something that can’t be described in simple words. It’s a complicated emotion only few can muster and once you’re hungry for the taste of blood, the pull in your body is too overpowering. That’s why I’m here now. I followed the pull in my gut and I happily watch Wayloran sleep in the hot blood cascading down his wife’s throat.

  I saunter around the bed, so I can drag the blade along his sharp jawline. His features are soft in sleep, but I know beneath that handsome face sleeps a wicked monster with evil intentions. The coppery smell of blood fills the room and stifles the scent of mildew and the sweat on Wayloran’s forehead and palms. The summer-like heat is seeping through the glass window, making the room suffocating. His hands are large with thick fingers. I remember how they felt on my waist and breasts. Memories of the way he violated me and touched me, ruining my humanity. No longer will he be able to lay a finger on another helpless girl. Never again will he be able to touch someone the way he touched me. Maybe I should start by removing his invasive fingers.

  Thinking better of the thoughts, I place the tip of the blade against his throat. Some people say killing someone in their sleep is cowardly, but I find it more exciting! When people are sleeping they are vulnerable and easily over powered. Being a Fae also allows me to hear the slow beat of sleep rise into a fluttering panic and lastly fade away with their life. I wait for a second too long, drinking in the thought of Wayloran’s blood spreading across the blanket and mixing with his wife’s.

  I hear footfalls down the hall, but ignore them. It could just be a passing servant. The door swings open and I turn the blade away from Wayloran’s resting throat before dropping into a crouch facing the frail maid who steps into the chamber. She looks to me and the blade and lastly Wayloran’s still, unmoving wife. The maid’s heart pounds a million times a second and the room quickly fills with the sour smell of fear. The girl’s amber eyes widen and she screams. Her cry gives me goosebumps and I look away from her and dive on top of Wayloran. His green eyes open and he looks to me. Shit. He thrashes and writhes beneath my weight and I aim the blade at his chest. Lifting my arm high, I notice the recognition he has of me take over his panicked features.

  A heavy piece of furniture cracks against my back and the pain bounces down my spine and through my adrenaline filled veins. Wayloran rolls onto the floor. I pull myself together and off the cooling corpse in his bed. I have never received training for fighting, but the primal Fae instinct inside me knows exactly what to do as I whirl the dagger behind me. The maid’s cry echoes through the manor and she falls to the floor with blood trickling from between her shoulder blades. Wayloran is causing me to take innocent lives. What a shame. I guess we both take innocence, but just for different reasons.

  Gathering my skirts I get off the bed and stomp on the frail mortal beneath me as I enter the illuminated hallway. The chestnut paneled walls are decorated with beautiful portraits and paintings made by artists I do not know. The red carpet makes the hall have a warm feeling of home. Wayloran rounds the corner and bounds down the stairs and I can’t help, but giggle. If he knew about the Fae than he would be aware that we are born with immortal strength, grace, and power. Our bodies are made to run five miles in minutes, but I want him to run. I want to follow my prey like the hungry predator that I am. Let’s play some cat and mouse then.

  Once I reach the bottom of the steps I hear the front door slam. Following his panting breathes and pounding steps, I run from the house and bound onto the cobblestone street. The manors pass in a blur and the cold night air rips through my hair, pulling long uneven strands from my moon white braid. Wayloran’s scent fills my nose and I stop at the alleyway. It isn’t long before I drag him from a vagrant’s home of trash.

  I pin his sleep-weak bones against the stone wall of a large mansion. Pressing my forearm into his chest, I let lightning travel from my core, through my veins and along my bones, so it can sparkle in my palm. “You’re going to have to be quicker than that,” I whisper and let my breath blow along his cowering face.

  “Please, please, I didn’t know-“I slam him against the wall. He winces as I cut off his apology.

  “You knew everything. You knew I was barely old enough to be a woman, and you knew that I couldn’t fight back when you took advantage of me. I was chained to a wall like an animal and you just relished in that.”

  He only grows sorrowful. “What could I do?” He pleads for a merciful outcome.

  “You didn’t have to pay Rywell and go through with what you did,” I growl. The more he stares at me the more I want to kill him. The song in my ears is singing a promise of death.

  “You weren’t supposed to escape. You were the only thing my brother wanted. He just wanted a child…” What the fuck? Reyluke just desired something to control and be on top of. I wouldn’t have trusted that man with a woman made of muscle let alone a child.

  “If he wanted a child he should’ve treated me like one, but all he did was use me as a personal whore!” I am starting to get sick of looking at his tanned features and I let my sparks fly. The blue chords dance along his body and crackle with blinding light. The few vagrants inside the alleyway scurry off into the darkness before something stabs into my stomach and I drop my hold on him. I quickly pull away and place my hand on the burning. An old rusty blade he must’ve grabbed from the ground protrudes from my abdomen. Wayloran’s convulsing body slides to the ground and I slam my booted foot against his face making his skull crack against the wall and blood fly from his nose and mouth. Spitting on him I walk from the alleyway and stumble into the street leaving his body to rot alone.

  If I remove the blade I can heal. I do so and wait for the warm feeling to fill my body, but it doesn’t. I haven’t gotten hurt since the Tree of Light was chopped down. Oh no. this can’t be happening. The magic from the tree allowed the Immortal to heal fast, but now we are left mortal in the healing process. Any wounds will bleed until it’s clotted and if not treated, we will get infection. The Immortal have now become mortal.

  <<>><<>><<>>

  ~Ariadae~

  My army is gone. My men are gone. What was left of them? Nothing. My mother will always be a threat, but this sort of attack can’t go justified as a win for Solaria. This ends now. I will go down there myself and solve the dispute between our kingdoms. I will stop the war that has been waged for centuries. The men who began the battle no longer walk this earth, so why must our kingdoms suffer? Why must we wage a war of dead men? I have only one option to stop this and to end everything. I will tell them about my mother. She not only plans to take my kingdom, but during the summer, when I was her prisoner for a month, she said to me that she will enslave every mortal kingdom and make them do her bidding… starting with mine. The only way for me, and the other mortals, to beat my mother and her army of abominations is to work together and fight her. What else could we do?

  I don’t say anything to the council as we finish the meeting. I barely heard a word anyone said after I received the information of the state of my army which is nonexistent. Zube is at this table for a reason. He holds all of the records and information of Equadoria and its politics, economy, army, etc. What felt like hours are only minutes before Zube calls off the rest of the meeting. I stagger and weave through the mumbling nobles and bound down the hall. Maids call to me and I brush them off and leave their voices behind me, like dust beneath a rug, like my army beneath Solaria’s sword. So many families lost loved ones. People who were dearest to them and I feel their pain. I lost Novid, Gaston, Seri, even my father…if he was here he would know what to do. He would know who to talk to and what to say to the families of his soldiers. What can I do? Who will I talk to? What will I say?

  Slamming my bedroom door I strip off my revealing dress and take out my
braids. Through a waterfall of collapsing tears I saunter to the bathroom and place my crown on the sink and slide into the tub. Using my power, I turn the knob and let the water slowly fill the tub and steam up the stone chamber. A hole has opened in my chest and I can’t fill it. Friends, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers all of them dead. I don’t care how…I don’t want to know how. All I want is tear the flesh from the Solarian king’s body and hang him from the gallows before his entire kingdom. Equadoria is now left to nothing, but the guards and sentinels walking through the streets.

  My sobs echo so loudly I barely hear the hesitant knock at the door. I don’t answer and the knocker enters the room anyway. Ice blue eyes burrow into my naked body.

  “You look horrible,” Jax whispers and I chuckle through tears. It’s an exasperated, dry sound. I can only imagine my tear stained cheeks, puffy green eyes and my dripping, matted down hair. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I violently shake my head. I want to think about nothing. I want so badly to forget what Samuel told me, but it won’t leave my skull. It’s locked in an imaginary cage and I seemed to have lost the key somewhere in the darkness.

  “What do you want to talk about?” he asks and I only shrug. What else is there to talk about? “We can think of something…are you excited for your birthday?”

  “Why should I be,” I croak through a raspy voice. My throat is raw and my mouth filled with cotton. “I’m immortal now and I will never look a day older than sixteen, so it’s not like it matters.”

  “Just because you’re immortal doesn’t mean you lose all mortal mentality.” I roll my eyes at him as he sits on the floor next to the tub and rubs my shoulder. “I mean, sure, you have powers and you won’t die from age, disease, or infection. You also heal incredibly fast, but those are just perks, Dae. Think about this as a gift. Not a curse.”

  “Sometimes I just think to myself…would any of this be happening if I didn’t wake up? If I didn’t survive my father stabbing me, I wouldn’t have to be here and watch my kingdom crumble to the ground.”

  “If you didn’t survive, you’d be leaving your kingdom to crumble on everyone who loves you. Me…Zube…Jeremiah, we’d be left to fix the kingdom and I don’t think we could. I wouldn’t even be coherent without you.” His words lift my heart and make me smile. The soft concerned tone of his voice makes me only think that his words are true. Fae can lie, but right now Jax isn’t.

  I pull my knees to my chest and Jax rises. He kisses the top of my head and I grab his wrist. “Wait,” I whisper. “Don’t leave me.” He nods and pulls off his shirt. Dropping his pants and trunks he steps into the tub and looks at me. I pull the cord from his bun and let his night black hair fall in shaggy waves. “It’s so long.”

  “I know,” he smirks and winks. I howl in laughter.

  “I’m talking about your hair, you freak.” He joins in on the laughter. He lifts his calloused hands and glides his rough fingers along the jagged white scar on my shoulder. When I was trying to escape the Summer Kingdom an archer shot an arrow and tore open my shoulder. Throughout our nightmare in Elkwood the wound kept opening, so we cauterized it. Burned the skin closed because the constant pursuit of enemies kept it from healing.

  “Why hasn’t this healed,” he whispers. I look to the marred skin and look back to his concerned features.

  “I didn’t think it was supposed to heal.”

  “Of course it’s supposed to heal, you’re immortal.” I am a curse. I am a never aging or dying body. My blood is worth the world, my bones are stronger than titanium, and my skin heals in what takes mortals weeks, but for me, its seconds. I have never tested what would happen if I got cut or hurt, but when I returned home from Elkwood I never wanted to go back in. I didn’t want to risk getting cut, broken, or bruised. I no longer wanted to fight for my life, but now it’s different. What life do I have to lose? I am going to live forever anyway.

  My heart flutters and a chill rattles my body and I look to the bedroom.

  “What is it? Jax questions grabbing my face and pulling my attention to him. That’s when I smell it. The scent of salt from an ocean and the sweet aroma of lilies.

  “My mother is here.”

  Chapter Four

  ~Ariadae~

  Jax lifts himself from the tub and I look between the door and the shifting cords of muscle on his body as I do the same. I follow him and he is wearing his pants before I even finish securing the silk robe. Something shifts in the bedroom and I hear a door creak open. The sound of a soft beating heart begins to fade away becoming distant. I look to Jax instantly.

  “She’s going into the library.” My voice is barely a whisper, but he nods like I said it normally. What would my mother be doing in Equadoria? Unless she is here with her army, I don’t think she’d be stupid enough to come alone. Jax slowly opens the door and sneaks into the darkness of our chambers. Although I am shaking like a scared kitten, I will my feet forward and follow him. Approaching the golden beam of light that illuminates the room, Jax loses his patience and kicks in the door of the library. Last time I saw him he was a hulking bear with curling horns protruding from his skull. Now he is purely human looking, aside from the immortal beauty and the pointed ears. His violet eyes flicker between Jax and me. Darwin grimaces and holds a small sack of dark leather.

  “I missed you, princess.” Darwin drawls, his voicing echoing through the silent chamber. I missed his heart. I almost killed him in the Summer Kingdom, but I had missed.

  “It’s queen, now.” I answer. He only laughs and waves away my words with a dismissive hand. Every muscle in each of those fingers would easily tear me to shreds. He is a very old and powerful Fae. Although I am powerful in many ways, I am much younger, a mere dust particle on his years. The question ripples from my throat, “What’re you doing here?”

  “Oh right. What are they calling you now a day? The Queen of Titanium Antlers was it?” he laughs and ignores my curiosity. “Well I must be on my way.” I shudder at the thought of his teasing and playful nature of murdering people. He probably created the expression playing with your food because he loves doing the latter.

  “Do you really believe your leaving?” Jax asks as he pulls a large sword from a small umbrella tin that was transformed into his personal armory. Jax stalks into the library and Darwin backs up slowly. Their game keeps continuing with every step. “Shut the doors.” Jax orders and I quickly make work of the lock. I can’t tell if what I did was the right or wrong thing. I just locked myself in a room with two immortal warriors that want nothing less than to tear each other apart.

  Following the train of this thought I step towards the hearth where the heirloom bow hangs above the mantle.

  “Don’t move.” Jax growls without even glancing in my direction. He prowls towards Darwin who only backs away between two large towering bookshelves.

  “You tell your queen what to do?” Darwin laughs and his voice bounces around the room and echoes into my skull. Although Jax said not to move, I need to defend myself if Darwin tries to come after me. I’ll have to move as silently as possible.

  “She’s just smart enough to listen to me,” Jax purrs and metal swords whine against one another. I take two steps within the loud clash. I notice how Jax doesn’t deny me being his queen, but in many ways I am. It’s a smart tactic though, not letting the intruder acquire information. Jax adds, “Why are you here?”

  Swords scrape and scream and someone is slammed against the bookshelf which teeters on its legs. If that shelf falls over, the hundreds of books on the shelves will litter all over the library and desk, but will also start a chain reaction of shelves falling. The thought of the crushing weight pushes me forward another six steps. Just two more and I can grab it. It’s so close yet so far.

  “Why is the queen of Equadoria listening to a Fae prince?” I groan at Darwin’s question and he chokes out a strangled giggle. Jax must have his arm on his windpipe. Two more thuds and knuckles crack against bone and a
strangled growl erupts in the library.

  I shout, “Jax what’s going on?”

  Another thud resounds in my pointed ears and the bookshelf begins teetering again. This time the weight rocks the twenty foot wooden tower. A chill rattles my body and immediately my brain tells me it’s going to fall. My Fae senses are always aware, that’s how I knew Darwin was here before I even smelled him.

  Reaching into the darkness of my core I lift and control the glowing braid of my power. Projecting my hand towards the bow helps me direct my ability. It’s what Jax told me when he trained me to wield my Telekinae ability and not let it control me. As if on command the bow rolls from the mantle and flies into my grasp as the rocking shelf begins its dissent. An ear shattering explosion hammers into my skull as wood splintering crackles like thunder through the library. Books rain from the falling shelves and they collapse like fluttering birds. The hard covers hit me like hammers on my bones and I can’t stop the scream that rips out of my throat. I lose the bow in the clutter and roll away as another shelf crashes right where I was standing.

  Jax suddenly goes flying past me through the air and slams against the wall. His eyes are shut as he slumps to the ground and his sword clatters to the stone tile. Looking towards Darwin I watch as he runs towards the door. I need to get Jax up, but I also need to stop Darwin. I knowingly grab the pommel of a rapier and angle the blade at the hulking beast that has just yanked at the iron door handle. My voice is like honey on bread as I purr, “Where are you going?”

  Darwin’s shoulders bounce as if he laughs, but I know better. He would get me in a useless position and then laugh. Darwin looks back to me and grimaces in the candle light as he whispers, “Back to the Summer Kingdom.” Before I can react he throws a book and it slaps my skull. Falling to the ground I hear the thud, thud, thud, of my heartbeat and lastly the iron lock snaps. He’s going to get away. I have to act now!