by E. M. Knight
“You don’t understand,” I say. “Someone must have taken over. It would have been me, before, but this time it has to be The Ancient. The coven’s vampires would not announce the King’s death.”
She looks closely at me. “Are you sure?” she asks.
I think I hear a trace of… despair… in her voice.
“I remember it clearly,” I say. “He had me pinned with magic. But then, something inside me awoke, and I broke through the shield. I had him against the wall. I tore his heart out.”
“Just like that,” Beth murmurs.
I grunt. “Yes. Just like that.”
She sighs and stands up. “I think it’s time to ask your caretakers to rejoin us.”
I start to tell her not yet, but she’s quick to the door.
She opens it, calls out for them. The four vampires come back inside.
I eye them each with suspicion. “What was that place you sent me?” I demand. “Can you do magic? Can I?”
Their leader steps forth. “No,” he says. “None here but her have command of the Elemental Forces.”
Beth gives a grim smile. Tension is high in the air.
“Then how did you get rid of the poison, and the curse? How did I break out of Logan’s bonds in that horrid place?”
Quickly, I relay the story of what happened just as I did for Beth.
“The gifts that come after many dozens of centuries in the blood are in some ways comparable to magic,” they reply, cryptically, when I’m done.
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is all you will receive.”
I feel the pressure of the influence press into me. I fight it, but cannot do so for very long.
Very soon, I submit.
“Fine,” I grunt. “Fair enough. As for Logan: is he dead?”
“We were not there with you when you left him.”
I shake my head. “It felt wrong. He should have put up more of a fight. And how was I able to break through the barrier?”
The old vampires look at each other. One is about to speak when Beth steps through.
“Allow me,” she says.
All eyes turn to her.
“I suspect,” she begins, “that it had something to do with what Cierra had done. You were her vessel. She sensed you were under threat through the now-expired link. She must have channeled magic through you to break you out of the bonds.”
The vampire I take to be the leader of the four speaks. “Yes. I suspect that’s true.”
“What about Logan? What was he doing there? How did he even get there? Is he really dead?”
“That all depends on the severity of the harm you caused. This world, and the Demon Realm, and the Dream Realm are all connected. It is possible for one to transverse from one plane to another, without any knowledge or skill in the arcane arts.”
“You mean in magic,” I say.
He pities me with a small smile. “Yes.”
“So is Logan dead or not?” I’m starting to grow angry at the lack of a direct answer. “I should be dead, after what happened to my body on the journey back, yet here I am, alive and breathing.”
“None of us can say,” the vampire addresses me. “If Logan came into the Demon Realm directly in the flesh, and you destroyed him, then yes, he is no more. But if he was only there in part, accessing that world through the Dream Realm, then there is a chance he survived.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I growl. I’m tired of the damn sickbed, so I swing my legs over the side and rise.
The sudden change in elevation was a mistake. Immediately, I see spots in my vision. A dizziness takes me.
Beth is by me in a flash, holding me up in support.
The moment the fit passes, I push off. I don’t want to display any additional weakness in front of these impressive vampires.
“What are your names?” I ask.
“Lucian, Vasile, Razvan, and Acacius,” Beth tells me, pointing them out in turn.
I look at Vasile. “You lead the coven?”
“We are not a coven in the sense you mean it,” he explains again. “But yes. I am the strongest.”
“You are bound by the same hierarchy as all the others of our kind,” I observe.
Vasile bows his head. “Of course.”
“Then we must beg you for your help.” I glance at Beth. “We come here chasing the truth. You are not engaged with the outside world, but you mentioned already knowledge of the rising threat. I believe our interests are aligned. Between the six of us—” I look at each of them in turn, “we can guarantee prosperity for the vampire race.”
Vasile looks at me for a long moment, not speaking. I feel the immense power contained within his body.
I am hungry for it.
Suddenly, he flicks his hand one way. On the gesture, the other three vampires disappear—moving so fast, once more, that not even my eyes can see them go.
“We will go to a more private place,” he informs us, and then very deliberately walks toward the door.
I exchange a look with Beth, and then we both follow.
“Are those the vampires you knew before?” I ask her in a whisper, as we trail after Vasile.
She shakes her head almost imperceptibly. “No. But these are even more impressive.”
I stop and take her by the arm. I look into her eyes.
“What happened?” I ask her.
She frowns. “What do you mean?”
“Up there,” I gesture at the ceiling. “What happened to you, when you used your magic to help get us through the door?”
She hesitates. “I don’t remember.”
“You lie,” I hiss. I glare over at Vasile. He has not slowed down for us. “You will tell me later,” I say, and then step quickly to catch up to him.
Vasile leads us into an enormous, domed chamber. The walls are a deep red marble, infused with a scattering of black. Bookshelves are carved into every single opening, and thick tomes fill out every last bit of space.
In the middle is something that looks very much like an altar. Vasile steps up to it. He places his hands on the stone, closes his eyes, and says a few imperceptible words.
Immediately, the illusion shifts. The walls disappear, the rooms vanish, and we are looking out at an endless sea of stars.
“What is this?” Beth asks, voice full of absolute wonder.
“This,” Vasile says, “is a representation of the solar system.” He looks one way. “Over there are the constellations that speak of the change that is coming.”
“The prophecy,” I say.
“Yes,” he nods. “Parts of which have already been fulfilled.”
“By the girl?” I wonder. I have not had any contact or news about Eleira or The Haven since my last encounter with her.
Beth looks at me, not understanding. “What girl?” she asks.
I am caught by surprise. “All you’ve done, how far you’ve maneuvered yourself, you don’t know?”
She stays mute, maybe ashamed.
“Eleira is at the center of a prophecy that binds all vampires. She is with the other half of Logan’s family, inside The Haven.”
“I’ve heard her name before,” Beth admits. “But only in passing.”
“You never thought to inquire about it?”
She fixes me with an unamused look. “I had more pressing, more personal aims to see to.”
Vasile turns our attention back to him by manipulating the vision of stars so that we zoom into a certain formation.
“This is what the entire prophecy is based on,” he says. “It is the very foundation of everything that is happening in your world now.”
Beth and I look at it. “What is the relevance to us?”
“Only this.” He pans the vision out, and then zooms in from another angle. “You see this duplicate, the two-pronged shape?”
Beth nods. I incline my head very slightly.
“It shows that the prophecy is not reliant upon one woman, but two. A
nd if they do not find each other, if they do not work together, calamity will strike.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eleira
The Haven
I push away the byzantine parchments in front of me with a grunt.
“It’s not working.”
Felix raises his eyes and gives me one of his looks. “This is not the sort of thing that can be rushed, Eleira.”
I try not to let my frustration show. We’ve been here for the better part of the night, and I am no closer to understanding the ancient language than I was when we began.
“I thought, as a vampire, I’d be able to catch on a lot more quickly.” I remember the tarot cards Morgan once gave me and think of the ease with which I can speed through English books.
I expected the same sort of learning advantage here.
“This is something entirely new to you,” Felix reassures me. “Your mind is able to speed through concepts and ideas you already know. Learning something absolutely new, something that is entirely unlike any language in existence today, will take time.”
“We don’t have the luxury of time,” I grumble.
Felix’s eyes light up. Just a little bit.
“Says who?” he asks. “You resurrected the wards. The Haven is protected. You even said it is now impossible to get to us through the Paths.”
“Be that as it may,” I sigh, “we’re not exactly the only relevant coven in existence. If we cower and hide, the world will pass us by.”
I push away from the desk and stand. I start pacing the room. “Morgan was content to have The Haven remain a relic of the past, of the age in which she was born. I am not. We cannot be oblivious to what is happening outside. We haven’t dealt with the threat from The Crypts. We haven’t dealt with Cierra. Hell, we haven’t even dealt with those unnatural creatures underground!”
“You can only focus on one thing at a time,” Felix says. “If your mind is scattered, that is why you do not do well. If all those thoughts pervade your thinking while you’re supposed to be focused on this—” he motions at the materials before him, “—it’s no wonder you are having trouble learning.”
I give him a sly look. “I thought you said I was being impatient.”
He looks at me in consideration. “Would you like to know what I really think?” he asks me.
I cross my arms and stare him down. “Tell me.”
“I don’t think you’re ready to learn,” he says. “I think you are using these lessons as an excuse to avoid confronting the things that scare you.”
“Excuse me?” I demand. “If you haven’t noticed, thus far, we’ve only had one lesson. And a fragmented one at that!”
“You need to address the bigger issues plaguing your mind,” Felix says gently. He lowers his voice. “You are afraid you won’t live up to our first Queen.”
I bristle. “Are you trying to make me angry?”
He shakes his head. “Certainly that is not my intention.”
“Then what about the suggestion you made to Phillip?”
“What about it?” he asks, his face a picture of innocence. “I already explained the rationale behind my behavior.”
“I don’t buy it,” I sniff.
“Yet you accepted it at the time.” He stands up, too. “If I may make a suggestion, Eleira, while we are still in private?”
I motion him to go ahead, spinning my hand impatiently through the air.
“As Queen, you cannot afford to be seen wavering. You make a decision, and you stick to it always. Except—” he lifts a finger, “—in the face of new and contradictory evidence. But when nothing that might have influenced your decision in the first place has changed, you cannot change your mind, either.”
I exhale, very slowly. “That does make sense,” I admit.
“I can guide you through the maze of power you find yourself in,” he offers. “I told you that once before.”
“Yes, and I accepted your wisdom,” I agree. “I think you are skirting the point. What do you really want to tell me, Felix? Speak freely. I will not hold honesty against you.”
He hesitates and then replies. “It was a mistake sending Raul and Phillip after the Forsaken Sisters.”
I always suspected that would be his opinion. “Why?”
“Because it exposes them to great risk. Raul is capable, have no doubt. So is his brother. But they are part of the Royal Blood. They, and you, are the trio that gives the lifeline to our coven. Yes, you are Queen, and your blood is still your own. You were given the transfusion that makes you one of us, yet that is not a blood bond of the sort that exists between brother and brother, mother and son.”
I narrow my eyes. “What are you getting at?”
“That a new lineage has to be made. When you have children with Raul, only then will your blood truly be cemented in—”
“What?” I cut him off. “What are you talking about? Children?”
He nods very slowly. “Of course.”
“Vampires cannot procreate.” My gut seizes up for some unknown reason. “Morgan made that very clear to me.”
“Ah, but no matter how powerful Morgan was, she did not know all.”
“Are you saying… that we can?” I ask.
He holds his hands up. “I am only telling you the one and only way to truly, and perpetually, link yourself to our coven.”
I bite the inside of my lip and slowly shake my head.
“That advice is not very much use if it is not actionable,” I tell him.
He smiles. “The Forsaken Sisters might know a way.”
Unconsciously, I run my hands over both arms.
If I am totally honest with myself, I have to say that I am dreading the idea of coming upon them in this world. They represent too much power, too much of an unknown, to be totally trusted.
“Why do you say that sending Phillip and Raul was a mistake?”
“Because they can be caught. Or ambushed. After James abandoned us, they are the only two parts of the coven with true Royal Blood.”
I walk back to the desk and lower myself on the edge of the chair. “What is the significance of Royal Blood?” I ask Felix genuinely. “Now that I am Queen, Queen as an outsider, what relevance does the original blood have?”
He gives me a tight smile. “You just stumbled upon the answer yourself. It is the true original. This coven, and Logan’s, depend on it.”
“Depended,” I correct. “Not anymore. The transfer of power is complete. I am fully Queen. What could take precedence over that?”
“A great many things,” Felix says cryptically. He turns and looks at the door. “By your leave?”
“No, you cannot go!” I exclaim, angry at him for trying to weasel his way out of explaining like that.
“The lesson is done,” he says, sounding suddenly testy. “Let’s not waste more of each other’s time. If you are not even willing to listen to me, I think we would do well to postpone this conversation to a later time.”
I shake my head and stand facing him. “You’re not making any sense,” I begin. “You—”
Without warning, the door to the room bursts open.
I spin to it. Geordam is standing there, fierce as an arrow.
“What?” I explode. “I told you, you can only interrupt if it’s a case of life or dea—”
“It’s Morgan,” he says. “My men discovered her body underground. And—” he looks at Felix, then back to me, “—she is still breathing.”
Chapter Thirty
Raul
In the Yukon
I trail half a span behind Phillip, making sure to be extremely cautious watching his every move.
I eye the black collar around his neck. Even with it in place, I do not feel entirely comfortable with the idea of my younger brother, corrupted as he is, free to roam the outside world.
When Felix first revealed the collar to me, and quickly demonstrated it on himself, I was not sure if I would resort to using it. I did not like the id
ea of hamstringing someone so close to me, of stripping him of his abilities.
But I made up my mind on the flight. Phillip’s suggestive, dangerous remarks were the final straw. I could not simply ignore them or think of them as jokes.
Every joke has a shred of truth to it. And the picture those disparate words were painting for me of Phillip’s mind made me uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable, but not scared. I am not some newly-made fledgling still clinging to his human ideals. I’ve been in the blood for more than five centuries. And even if the latter part of those were spent in relative peace, I still hold all the experience of my first few decades close to my heart.
The idea of the collar unsettled me at first. It seemed a perversion of some sort of moral code, of some set of values held deep within me.
I asked Felix what would happen if it were clasped on the neck of a regular vampire.
He called forth a nearby Incolam to demonstrate.
We put the collar on his neck. But the ends, instead of snapping together, simply repelled each other. The collar fell off.
After that demonstration I tried it on myself.
The same thing happened.
That was all the assurance I needed, past Felix’s word, that the collar would only work on a wielder of magic.
And there it is, proof, right in front of my eyes, of the veracity of that claim.
“You’re awfully quiet, brother,” Phillip notes, not turning back. “What sort of morbid thoughts are on your mind?”
“Nothing of import to you,” I snap. I look around at the never-ending trees. “How far away are we?”
“I told you, we’re searching,” Phillip emphasizes. “We will only know the way after we find the first landmark.”
“And that is?” I ask, more than a little impatient.
Phillip scoffs a laugh. “You want me to tell you? Take this wicked thing off my neck, and I might be more generous.”
“I told you,” I reiterate. “It’s there for your own good.”
“Coward,” Phillip mutters.
That little snide remark makes my anger flare.
I run up to him, grab him by the shoulder, and throw him against the nearest trunk.
Before he can regain his composure, I’m on him, pressing him to the wood.