The Reign of Queens: A Kingdom of Diamond Antlers Novel

by Zachary James

  When I reach the throne room I stop my sprint and begin to run down the steps, taking two at a time. Lunan and Acacius wait at the doors of the castle and gesture for me to hurry up. Just as my left foot reaches the landing of the stairwell the throne room doors explode and wood flies everywhere through the chamber. I shield my skull. The sound of beating wings and the screams ripping out of Molaris are deafening.

  “YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY FROM ME!”

  I let the lightning Prometheus gave me crackle to life in my fingers and the electric blue bolts dance across my body. I feel Molaris’ fingers graze my head and she screams in agony as a thick cord of electricity races through her nervous system. She retreats to circle high above and I notice her starting to descend for Lunan and Acacius. My pounding heart begins smashing against my chest in uneven, painful rhythm.

  “RUN!” My throat rips as I scream through the entry hall and I know that every Vampyre in this damned castle, on this island, has heard what is going on and is awakening to see the ruckus.

  Molaris dives. Wings flap and push her downward so fast she seems surprised. Acacius darts forward and jumps against the wall. Lunan follows. I realize that the wall isn’t a wall at all. Instantly, as if they vanished, the doors to the castle fly open and Molaris, unable to stop herself, soars right through the doorway into the bright, noon sun, burning in the sky.

  Her blood curdling cries makes my skin crawl and my blood run cold as I join Lunan and Acacius to walk through the doors. Molaris tries to use her wings as a shield from the sun, but all it does is cover her large black membrane wings in large red, bubbling blisters that seem to grow and pop as quickly as boiling water bubbles. I look at the glistening lake and the cliff that is to my left.

  “What have you done?” Molaris chokes on her words as blood fills her throat. I’ve never seen a Vampyre die in the sunlight, but I’d enjoy today to be the first time.

  “I’m ending what you started,” My threat falls onto her like a blanket and she sighs. “Never did I want to kill you, well that’s a lie, but I never would have done this if you hadn’t made me.”

  Acacius walks over and grabs my arm, “We need to go.”

  Lunan comes up behind me and begins pushing me with Acacius to the woods. I yank myself free from their gentle hands and stare at them in disbelief. “Don’t you want to watch?” I ask the two of them. I know Lunan may not, but I am positive Acacius does. He spent centuries sharing her bed against his will and he was never able to break free of her. Now he is getting the chance to be separated from his maker and never be burdened with sharing her bed. But instead he grabs my wrist and starts pulling me again.

  “As much as I’d love to see her die,” He glances down at Molaris who is now crying beneath the dome of her boiling wings. He releases my arm. “We have to go, now.”

  A part of me doesn’t understand why he is so desperate to leave, but I look into his eyes, the scarlet irises are getting ready to beg for us to leave, so I grab Acacius and Lunan. I close my eyes and ignore the smell of boiling flesh, thinking of green grass, tainted by the salt from the sea. I imagine the feeling of rocks and sand beneath my toes, and then I see the spot where the ground meets the horizon in my mind.

  Light flashes like lightning before my closed lids and my feet slam against stone like I had jumped. The sound of grass whispering in the wind kisses my face and fills my ears. I focus on the noise of the churning waves. When I open my eyes I see the cliff meeting the horizon and for a second I think I imagined the wrong spot, but when I spin in a circle, looking past Acacius and Lunan, who stagger on uneven feet, I know I have reached the right spot. No Molaris will plague us or reach these lands, hopefully. I walk, step by step, closer to the cliffs edge and let the wind rustle my wavy black hair. My lacey undergown is thin and peasant-like. My pointed ears can be hidden by my hair and I look out at the clouds kissing the horizon. No longer does the ground meet the blue sky, now dark blue churning waters clap against the pale blue veil that is surrounding the bright yellow sun.

  “Where are we?” Acacius questions and I’m surprised he doesn’t remember. When I turn away from the cliff I see Acacius and Lunan looking around them, but neither of them notice the looming shadow about ten miles away. The rolling grasses of the eastern cliffs go on forever. Until they reach the mortal kingdom Alpri, the place where Acacius created me in an alley when I was dying. The eastern cliffs border the eastern coast of Abella and Alpri is about ten miles inland from the cliff’s edge. Farther east, across the sea, is Crimson Island, the place we just came from. The distance is so far, yet too close for my liking. As if suddenly coming down with the flu, my head becomes light and my vision blurs in and out of focus. Everything is twisting and turning and I hear Acacius jumping to my side “Are you alright?” He mutters in my ear.

  Lunan’s hands are beneath my head as the world twists and the clouds and sky become all I see. “The jump was too much for her,” he tells Acacius and I want to say Lunan is right, but lips can barely move. All I feel is a subtle drip of liquid from my nostrils and ears. I know its blood because I can smell the sweet aroma slice through the salty air. My view of the sky vanishes and the ringing begins in my skull. Everything goes black and my body becomes numb. Suddenly, before I even realize what is happening, my body is being moved, dragged, touched, tended, and I can’t even say the words that I am awake and I feel everything, but see and hear nothing. I can’t do anything. Whatever I did in trying to get here has been a mistake. I begin to wonder if I have died, but then my nose fills with the scent of an herb and I am pulled back to consciousness.

  Part Three

  Garden of Fire

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  ~Ariadae~

  The fate of the Winter Kingdom was left to Lhys as Kane, Jax, Zube, and I begin descending Archaic Mountain. The pine trees that cloak all of the Archaic Mountain Range rise high above our heads, blocking out the blue sky, dotted with white tufts. The snow is denser, moister, on this side of the mountain because now we are heading south, towards the Mortal Kingdoms. February has past and it is the dawn of March. Spring will be arriving soon in the northern region of Abella, but as for the south, the heat never dies. Winter for the mortals is just chilly nights and warm days with nipping breezes, lucky humans.

  “It feels like old times,” Zube mutters, looking down at his thick boots. Sentinels within the castle in the Winter Kingdom offered him armor and thicker clothing, but he denied, though grateful for the offer. He currently wears a night blue tunic, white shirt, and the large heavy supplies in bags and satchels on his back. All of us have received multiple types of clothing for our trek across Abella and we even took precautions bringing crowns, a symbol of power only mortals love. The human kings and queens see the accessory as power, wealth, and strength. The High Fae only see the crowns, coronets, and diadems as what they are, accessories. I once believed that the crown was my father’s shining jewel, but now I can only imagine the coronet of dark thorns he wore within his final days. My stomach pangs and bile rises in my throat. I push aside the thoughts of the man who killed me and look over to Zube.

  “But now, we have much better odds,” I chuckle, smirking to myself. No longer do we need to fear the Foresaken and the horrible monsters within Elkwood. Now we are beyond the enchanted forest of Faerie’s, monsters, and magic. We have arrived in the human, boring, bland part of the world. Zube being here reminds me of the one person we are missing, Jeremiah. I want him back in my grasp and I want to hug him so tightly that he could never be taken again, but I can’t get him with no soldiers. I can’t bring this group of warriors back into the Summer Kingdom because I don’t know what we would find there waiting for us.

  Jax chuckles as does Zube, but Kane just looks down the mountain, watching his footfalls for roots and rocks that make the uneven terrain beneath us. If we were to fall and start rolling it would hurt like hell. It’s been about two weeks since the Proving and I still hate Kane. A part of me understands what he did t
hough to have me become his mate and accept the bond. It’s not like I would’ve accepted it otherwise and I’ve grown to start liking the High Lord, but he doesn’t deserve forgiveness for what had lied about. I am his equal in every way and it feels good. I am not beneath or above anyone; we are one in the same, two sides of the same coin. We are connected forever through our mating bond making us allies forever, well work partners forever. The bond is supposedly stronger than marriage and love, but I will not be marrying the male who lied to me and manipulated me to be forever bonded to him. It’s unbreakable though and will last as we ascend into Nirvana and join Prometheus’ pantheon.

  I gallop a few steps and match my gait to Kane’s. He smirks at the ground.

  “Hello,” He mutters and I feel the excitement flutter within his chest. How he thinks this could be a good thing, I’m unsure. “How is my mate on this fine morning?”

  I punch his arm and he chuckles and rubs the already forming bruise along his thick bicep. “Don’t call me that,” I whisper and flick my eyes to Jax. He has changed since the Proving. There were multiple brawls between him and his brother before we left the Winter Kingdom last night, but I understand why. Kane, although having good intentions, still manipulated us and basically ensnared me into his love. It’s not even that I love Kane, it’s just I can’t ignore our connection, our bond. Jax was my past lover and I know it pains him to see me with Kane, but the High Lord of the Winter Kingdom and I haven’t even kissed, or touched one another, besides punching or hugging. The day after the Proving I had broken down to tears. Sick horrible sobs that had me trembling beyond control and I sat before a faelings portrait in the street, surrounded by the burning candles. I couldn’t stop the onslaught of sadness and grief, but I thought I was alone. I wasn’t. Kane had come walking by and saw it was me on the ground. I didn’t ask questions or even recoil when he wrapped his arms around me and just held me as I wailed like a child. I was still mad at him for what he did, but at that moment it didn’t matter. We haven’t even discussed what happened that night. Nor do I want to.

  “Where do you want to go first?” Jax quirks from beside Kane, holding up a yellowed parchment, inked with the locations and kingdoms across the jagged rhombus that is Abella. “We could go west to Janari. It borders the western edges of the Archaic Mountain Range and we could stop at Febrei afterward, making our way down the continent.” He trails the path with his fingering stopping on Janari; a small black castle is roughly drawn onto the paper. Then he loiters on Febrei, a slightly different, but similar castle. Then he crosses Marzia, adjacent to Febrei at the center of the continent, and cuts straight to Alpri, a trading capital and an overall wealthy kingdom. The large citadel, ruled by a High Priestess, is growing along the Eastern Cliffs.

  “Or maybe we should start at Alpri,” Zube cuts in, peeking over Jax’s shoulder at the map. They seem to keep focusing on the northern Mortal Kingdoms that border the divide- Archaic Mountain Range- but what they aren’t thinking of is how I plan to reach Lunaria, at the southern peak of Abella and the bordering kingdom to Solaria, the enemy kingdom that decimated my army. I plan on ending the feud between our kingdoms. I don’t need my mother knowing of our rife and going to the king of Solaria for support. I also can’t handle more than one enemy at the moment.

  “What’s that?” I hear Zube click and I look ahead. Between the trunks rising into the sky and the melting snow I see what he is talking about. A large wooden structure is straight before us on the path. I quickly jog over to the strange structure. The ground beneath my feet changes from dirt, snow, and roots to smooth cobble. A long path is traveling farther down the mountain; it’s a road for merchants and may have been the path my father followed to speak with his allies amongst the mortals. The wooden structure, which is as tall as me, is actually a toppled over wagon. On the light gray stones are envelopes and boxes and threadbare sacks tied shut with tawny yarn. I look over the packages and wonder how this huge cart would’ve spilt or toppled. That’s when my eyes lock onto the large slashes and claw marks down the side of the wood. Blood is speckled along the driver’s seat and the mare that would’ve been pulling him along is long gone.

  “Look around,” I say, spitting orders to my friends for the first time in a long while. “Whoever was traveling through here was attacked.”

  “But from what?” Jax wonders out loud.

  Kane looks from Jax to me, then to the span of trees opposite of the road. “Isn’t it obvious? Evaflora attacked the Winter Kingdom, which is only about a mile up the mountain from here.”

  Zube sniffs the blood and claw marks on the wagon. “Human,” he mumbles.

  I pick up one of the water-stained envelopes and flip it over. A blue wax seal of a crown in the center of a large star isn’t broken, telling me that the attacker had no need to commit this act. What makes matters worse is that I know the symbol. My heart begins thudding repeatedly and I crack the wax quickly and unfold the paper. I skim over the words and read every paragraph of the warning.

  “Zube,” I mutter. “Do you recognize this?” He glances at me, eyebrow quirked. Kane and Jax continue circling the scene looking for more pieces of evidence that may be lying around. Zube stumbles over the mess of letters and packages and finally reaches me, pulling the letter from my fingertips.

  His eyes read the first line before he glances up at me. His hazel-green irises, flecked with brown, are filled with every inch of the panic and grief I feel. “Yes,” He stutters on his words. “These were the letters I was going to have delivered to the Mortal Kingdoms before your arrival.”

  “What?” Jax comes around the side of the wagon. He looks toward Zube and me and to the warning of our oncoming arrival between us. “Zube you sent those over two weeks ago.”

  “Yes, I know,” Zube mumbles. His throat bobs. “Janari is only twelve miles from this rendezvous point.”

  “Guys!”

  We all look in the direction that Kane had vanished.

  “Come here,” He calls. “You’re going to want to see this.”

  We all leave the wagon and the attack scene. Whoever Zube had deliver those letters is dead. The innocent mare is gone, but likely murdered. But what makes matters worse is that only twelve miles away is a city full of mortals. If the attack on the wagon happened last week…I shake the horrifying thoughts from my mind and weave between the tall pines until I see Kane staring outward. I pick up my pace and run past Zube and Jax and I would’ve kept going if the sight hadn’t stopped me. My knees slam against the cold hard earth. Tears swell into my eyes and Kane just looks at the mess with a glazed over face. His eyes unreadable.

  Children, human, hang from large iron hooks in their middle amongst the trees. Blood paints the forest floor, staining any leftover snow red. Women and men’s corpses are scattered around the forest clearing in different states of decay like the Forsaken had brought the humans out here over a series of days. I thought my mother was trying to enslave all the humans on the continent, not make them into paint and toys to be thrown around. I understand that she has hatred towards the humans for the curse the Tree of Light placed on the Forsaken for killing mortals, but why go on a vengeance parade? The curse transformed the succumbus Fae centuries ago! No human still alive today would know what those beasts are unless they travel through Elkwood, which is unlikely. If this is only a few miles away from Janari than what does the kingdom look like?

  Kane lifts me off of my knees and pulls me away from my living nightmare. Jax and Zube can’t peel their eyes from the sight as we all charge off into a sprint towards the Mortal Kingdom. This happened a week ago and how many Forsaken made that horrific killing field; graveyard more like it. The wagon was relatively intact, so maybe there wasn’t too many Forsaken, but if only a few abominations created that… What could an army of thousands do? What did my mother created to defeat me in this war we are waging? We have grown to bigger and larger attacks on one another. There will be an oncoming day where my mother and I shed the blo
od of one another, a day when our armies will fight against each other.

  I thought the clearing of dead children, women, and men was bad, but now my stomach rises into my throat and my heart sinks. I’ve never seen Janari, but when I break through the forest and officially get off the descending ground of Archaic Mountain, I know what’s before me isn’t right. The Troglodyte General I killed said he needed a passage into the Mortal Kingdoms and the Winter Kingdom was in my mother’s way. Apparently that’s not so because the Forsaken have reached the Mortal Kingdoms. The Troglodyte horde that entered the Proving colosseum wasn’t the only parade carrying blast wax. They were just the distraction.

  I step towards what’s left of Janari, a human kingdom of innocent lives. All that’s left is a finger deep layer of grey-white ashes.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  ~Fayla~

  A sour liquid flooding down my throat yanks me from the impenetrable darkness that had taken over me. I spit the vile juice from my mouth and look around the dimly lit room. All I’m wearing is a white shirt, with the sleeves removed, and a pair of tight, smooth, brown pants. I don’t recognize the chamber or even the clothes I am wearing. I try not to panic as I roll on the table I lay on.

  “Glad to see you’ve awoken,” a female croaks from the shadows and I roll off the table completely and try to land on my feet, only to clatter to the floor. “Oh! Dear! You are much too weak to be walking about!” She runs around the wooden table and grips my shoulders. With surprising strength she raises me back up onto the wooden slab and as much as I want to fight, kick, and attack this stranger, I can’t focus on anything, but the heavy exhaustion that is bleeding through every part of me.