The Reign of Darkness

by Britney Jackson

  “I could blind them,” Rose said, “with my power. If I were to put enough pressure on their eyes, it’d impair their eyesight. Until they fed. Would that work?”

  “A good warrior can fight blind,” Ligeia told her. “You’ll need to knock them out. A severe enough head-wound should do it. Just don’t decapitate them.”

  “Dang it,” Rose said sarcastically. “Decapitating people is my favorite.”

  Ligeia frowned worriedly, as if she weren’t sure if Rose was being serious or not. “I don’t want to lose my warriors. I don’t mind injuries. Just…no killing.”

  “I got it, Ligeia,” Rose said with a smile. “I’m not going to kill anyone.”

  “I appreciate that,” Ligeia said, “my Eklektos.” She bent at the waist, her black braid falling forward, as she bowed to Rose. “I must go—before I’m seen.”

  Rose opened her mouth to ask Ligeia not to bow, but then, she thought better of it—since she was obviously in a hurry to get out of sight. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me,” Ligeia said, her dark eyes wide. “No, seriously. Don’t. I never saw you, okay?” She turned to leave. “This conversation didn’t happen.”

  “Right,” Rose said awkwardly. “But thank you for…not helping me.”

  Ligeia frowned. She shook her head and then retreated down the hall.

  Rose watched, as she disappeared around the corner. “Okay. Telekinetic head-wounds. Then, interrogate the Psycho-Queen. Sounds simple enough.”

  —

  Rose stepped inside the cell, freezing in place, as the scent of blood filled her senses. She glanced around the cell—if you could really call it that. Somehow, she doubted a prisoner from any other family would be kept in a room this nice.

  Lavish furniture filled every corner of the room—a long, couch-like seat, much like the one in Rose’s room, a large bed, covered in red silk, a bathtub…

  Rose did a double take, as she realized where the scent of blood had been coming from. In the corner was a large, glistening, marble bathtub, full of bloody water. A naked woman lounged inside it, her dark brown hair matted with blood.

  “Oh, good,” Rose muttered. “I was worried you’d be doing something crazy.” She lifted her eyebrows at the blood-red water. “Like…bathing in blood.”

  The queen barely acknowledged her presence. She simply lifted her wrist to her mouth and sank her fangs into it. Metal bracelets—the only things she had on—slid down her arm, as she tilted her wrist, adding more blood to the water.

  “Pretty sure the point of a bath is to wash the blood off,” Rose mumbled.

  “Why bother with perfumes,” the queen said, as she watched blood pour from her slender wrist, “when there is no better scent to a vampire than blood?”

  “I can think of many reasons,” Rose said. “Most of them involve sanity.”

  “Is that something you think you have?” Queen Hypatia asked. “Sanity?”

  “Depends on how literal we’re speaking,” Rose said, keeping her gaze on the floor. “I have my own…darkness to fight. But I don’t go around slaughtering people or bathing in blood, so…” She shrugged. “I guess I have more than you.”

  “My mind is perfectly healthy,” Queen Hypatia told her, “unlike yours.”

  “Still not the one bathing in blood,” Rose mumbled under her breath.

  Queen Hypatia stood, suddenly, blood dripping from her slender form.

  Rose immediately spun around, waiting for the murderous queen to put some dang clothes on. She heard the sticky sound of the queen’s footsteps, as she crossed the room without drying off. “Well, that explains the dried-blood scent.”

  “Why are you looking away?” Queen Hypatia said, the rustling of fabric following her voice. She laughed softly, “Don’t tell me that the Eklektos is shy.”

  “You’re the mother of someone who looks my age,” Rose said under her breath. “Even if I weren’t shy, I’d still feel a little weird about seeing you naked.”

  “My daughter is at least ten thousand years older than you, just like me,” Queen Hypatia said. “Well, ten thousand years older than your body, anyway.”

  “Body?” Rose repeated. She turned around. “What does that mean?”

  Queen Hypatia continued looping the sash around her waist. Despite her strange, blood-filled bath, her golden skin looked surprisingly clean of blood. “Slow down, my Eklektos,” she said, smiling. “You’re getting ahead of yourself.”

  “I can’t slow down,” Rose said. “I only have so long before I’m caught.”

  Queen Hypatia looked up at her, her brown eyes wide and manic. “Oh,” she said, her lips curving into an amused smile. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

  “No. I’m not,” Rose said, her brows high, “and I have no doubt that I’ll get caught because, unlike Kara, I am not good at sneaking in and out of places.”

  “Aww,” the queen said, “you should give yourself more credit than that.”

  “No, seriously,” Rose told her, “I knocked over a statue on my way here, and it broke. It was very loud. I’m sure someone will come in to arrest me soon.”

  “Arrest the Eklektos?” the queen laughed. “You are naïve, aren’t you?”

  Rose watched with a scowl, as the queen squeezed the bloody water from her brown hair. Despite all of the weirdness, she really was beautiful. Just…clearly out of her mind, as well. “Only because no one will tell me anything,” Rose said.

  Queen Hypatia grabbed a golden crown from her nightstand and placed it on top of her wet hair. Unlike Princess Myrinne’s tiara, the queen’s crown was aged—rusted, even. Some of the stones had fallen out, leaving only holes to hold their places. They obviously hadn’t made her a new crown in a while. She stepped toward Rose, a sly smile curling at her lips. “Why have you come, my Eklektos?”

  “Either that’s a rhetorical question,” Rose said, “or you’re really stupid.”

  The queen just smiled. “Did you come for the ones I killed?” she hissed, leaning closer. She held up a finger, her smile widening. “Or the one I didn’t?”

  Rose’s bright blue eyes narrowed. “I think you know why I’m here.”

  But Hypatia just continued, as if she’d never said anything. “Or,” she said excitedly, her brown eyes wide, “did I succeed, after all? Is that why you’re here?”

  “Oh, no. You failed,” Rose assured her, a spark of red glowing in her eyes. Her voice lowered to a growl. “Believe me. If you’d succeeded—if you’d hurt Kara worse than you did—you’d be seeing a different side of me right now.”

  The queen stepped back, watching her warily. “The Eyes of Shadows.”

  Rose froze, her brows furrowing. “What are you talking about now?”

  A cruel smile curved at the edges of Hypatia’s lips. “Do you think they’re on your side? But I’m not?” She stepped closer and whispered, “Ask yourself this, then: who’s keeping secrets from you? Who’s lying to you? Because it’s not me.”

  “Just because you like to announce your craziness,” Rose muttered, her eyebrows lifting, “doesn’t make you trustworthy. Besides, I think you pretty much proved that you weren’t on my side when you put a sword in the woman I love.”

  “You don’t understand,” Hypatia said. “You don’t know your future.”

  “Because I don’t have precognitive abilities,” Rose said, “and you don’t, either. Zosime does, but oddly enough, she hasn’t slaughtered anyone lately.”

  “You’re right. I don’t,” Hypatia said, “but I do know the prophecy.”

  Rose frowned at that. “The prophecy that only your daughter knows?”

  “Not only,” the queen corrected. “It was known by all of the high priests and high priestesses before her. Myrinne was the last, but she wasn’t the first.”

  “Are you saying that you were a high priestess, as well?” Rose asked.

  Queen Hypatia threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, no,” she said, as if she found Rose’s question ador
able. “Why would a queen become a servant?”

  “A servant?” Rose asked. “You consider your high priestess a servant?”

  “They considered themselves servants,” Queen Hypatia corrected. “The past tense is important. Since there are no more left. Or so my daughter thinks.”

  Rose’s eyebrows quirked up at that. “What do you mean? That she thinks someone is dead, but they’re not?” she guessed. “Are they outside this kingdom?”

  Queen Hypatia smiled at Rose’s rapid-fire questions. “I think you know.”

  “Erastos, right?” Rose assumed. “She said he died, but I’ve seen him.”

  Queen Hypatia’s brown eyes widened, flashing with delight. “Have you?”

  Rose winced, suddenly not sure whether admitting that had been the best idea. “Maybe. I don’t know,” she backtracked. “What do you know of Erastos?”

  The smile that curved at the edges of the queen’s lips was both cruel and lascivious, all at once. “I knew him in many ways. Long ago. He’s changed, now.”

  “Now?” Rose repeated. “How would you know him now? I thought they kept you prisoner in this room. How could you find out anything from in here?”

  “My dear Erastos and I had a bit of a,” the queen paused, “connection.”

  Rose’s eyes widened, as all of the innuendo suddenly clicked in her head. “Umm,” she stammered, suddenly horrified, “but wasn’t he like…your brother?”

  Hypatia scrunched up her face in confusion. “Where did you hear that?”

  “Princess Myrinne said he was her uncle,” Rose explained, “and if you’re her mom, then he’d have to be your brother. Or brother-in-law, at the very least.”

  The queen’s face relaxed, and she laughed. “Brother-in-law, of course.”

  “You say that like it’s normal,” Rose said, “but you know it’s not, right?”

  Queen Hypatia rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t like I chose to marry the wrong brother. The king showed interest in me. I wanted to be queen, so I married him.”

  “Romantic,” Rose muttered sarcastically. “So, when did you decide that one brother wasn’t enough for you? Was it the first family dinner or the second?”

  “Your jokes are cute, my Eklektos,” Queen Hypatia sneered, “but I know you were with the Lion before the Wolf. I know you know what it’s like to fall in love with someone at the wrong time, to love who you were never meant to love.”

  Rose’s chest tightened at the reminder of how she’d fallen for Kara—of how she’d fought so hard against it, not wanting to hurt Kallias. “How could you possibly know that?” she asked nervously. “And why did you say Lion and Wolf?”

  Hypatia stepped closer and whispered, “Because I know the prophecy.”

  Rose wasn’t sure if that was supposed to answer the first question or the second—or both—but it wasn’t much of an answer to either. “The prophecy that Erastos told you,” Rose assumed. “The high priest and brother of your husband.”

  “My husband was a madman,” the queen said. “He wasn’t the victim.”

  “Never said he was,” Rose muttered. “But you calling someone insane—after slaughtering your own people and bathing in blood—is kind of hilarious.”

  “Oh, I’m not crazy,” Queen Hypatia laughed. “I’ve just seen the Light.”

  Rose’s eyebrows lifted. “Which is exactly what a crazy person would say.”

  “No,” the queen said, her smile fading. She stepped forward and pressed a long, blood-stained fingernail against Rose’s chest. “The Light,” she whispered.

  Rose glanced down at Hypatia’s blood-stained finger, and—as gently as possible—pushed it away from her. “Yeah, I heard you the first time. Still crazy.”

  “You don’t get it,” Queen Hypatia said. “This was all meant to happen.”

  “Yeah,” Rose said, drawing out the word. “Still sounding crazy, lady.”

  “It’s the prophecy,” Queen Hypatia said. “You must read the prophecy.”

  Rose frowned. “Wait. Read? This…prophecy—it’s written somewhere?”

  “Every high priest and high priestess studies it,” the queen told her. “It must be protected and guarded. It isn’t safe for the common eye. Long ago, there were scrolls, but my daughter destroyed them—ensuring that she’d be the last of the high priests. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have notes and journals, still.”

  “Why should I believe you?” Rose asked. “You hurt the woman I love.”

  “She could ruin everything,” Hypatia said. “She wasn’t part of the plan.”

  Rose narrowed her eyes at that. “The plan?” she repeated. “What plan?”

  Hypatia clutched her chest. “Oh, no. I’ve said more than I should have.”

  Rose rolled her eyes, officially sick of this woman and her mind games. “No, you didn’t. You said exactly what you meant to say. Do you honestly think you’re the first person to try to manipulate me? Forget it. It’s not even worth it.”

  The queen watched in disbelief, as Rose turned to leave. “But you came to me for answers!” she objected. “Don’t you want me to tell you about the plan?”

  “Not anymore,” Rose said, heading toward the door. “It’s not worth it.”

  The queen panicked. “Wait! You don’t know everything! Those people I killed at the feast—they weren’t the first. I’ve killed hundreds! Thousands, even!”

  Rose glanced back at her, giving her a bored, unimpressed look. “Okay?”

  “That’s it?” Queen Hypatia said. “You don’t care that I’m a serial killer?”

  Rose shrugged tiredly. “Honestly, at this point, I’ve met so many crazy, serial killers that it’s just…lost its spark,” she sighed. She lifted her eyebrows. “If you really want to shock me, you’ll have to give me a bigger twist than that.”

  “I didn’t have anything else,” Hypatia said. “I thought that would work.”

  “Then, goodnight,” Rose said with a sarcastic bow, “Your Craziness.”

  But as she turned to leave, the queen cried, “Erastos told me to do it!”

  Rose froze, her hand gripping the doorknob. “And…there’s the twist.”

  —

  Kara watched as Princess Myrinne took the supplies back to the cabinet. “So, your mother is,” she began, as the princess raised an eyebrow, “interesting.”

  Princess Myrinne rolled her eyes and closed the cabinet. “Not to me.”

  “I bet the family reunions were very lively with her around,” Kara said.

  Princess Myrinne’s nostrils flared. “Mostly just awkward,” she muttered, carrying a bowl of salve to Kara. “Can you just…stop talking about my mother?”

  “Yeah, I’ll stop,” Kara said, “if you tell me why you haven’t killed her.”

  Princess Myrinne froze, her fingers in the bowl of salve. “My mother?”

  Kara’s light blue eyes narrowed. “Oh, don’t clutch your pearls, like you have no idea what I’m talking about,” she scoffed. “She slaughtered your people.”

  “Some of them,” Princess Myrinne admitted. “But she’s still my mother.”

  “How often does she do it?” Kara pried. “Because I know it wasn’t the first time. How many times have you watched, as she slaughtered your people?”

  Princess Myrinne looked down, her jaw tightening. She scooped some of the salve onto her fingers, to apply to Kara’s wound. The salve smelled of vampire blood and something else—something floral. “Could you kill your own mother?”

  “If she was a crazy, homicidal bitch?” Kara asked. “Well, I did almost kill my ex-lover a few times, didn’t I? If it weren’t for her telepathy, I would have.”

  Princess Myrinne circled around the bed—to get better access to Kara’s back, where the sword had pierced her. She didn’t even cringe at the sight of the gruesome wound. She’d clearly seen wounds like this before. “Lean forward,” she demanded, as she began the wipe the salve around the wound. The combination of vampire blood and medicina
l herbs mended the skin almost instantly. “If you would so easily kill someone you love, then perhaps you’re just as evil as she is.”

  “Perhaps I am,” Kara said easily. “But I’m better at my job than you are.”

  Princess Myrinne stopped applying the salve and straightened, glaring at the back of Kara’s head. “I imprisoned my own mother for them. I gave up being a high priestess to rule—when I never wanted to rule. How am I bad at my job?”

  “How many of your people died because of your mother?” Kara asked.

  Suddenly uncomfortable, Princess Myrinne returned her attention to the wound. “It wasn’t my fault,” she insisted. “What could I have done differently?”

  Kara chuckled bitterly. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said with a smirk. “Have you tried not hiding behind your warriors every time Mommy comes out to play?”

  Princess Myrinne plunged two fingers into the wound, watching as every muscle in Kara’s body tightened in pain. “I’m sorry,” she said with a growl. “The salve is a bit oily.” Her pale blue eyes narrowed. “It seems my fingers slipped.”

  Kara laughed, even as she tensed in pain. “Careful. Rose is bound to me.”

  The princess immediately removed her fingers, glancing toward the door. “Where is she, anyway?” she said suspiciously. “I figured she’d be by your side.”

  Kara straightened, still trembling from the pain. “She went to our room,” she lied. “I asked her to get something for me.” She tilted her head back, wincing as pain pulsed through her insides. “Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?”

  Princess Myrinne’s gaze shifted back toward Kara. “What do you mean?”

  Kara’s lips tilted up at the corners. “You’re a bitch—just like Mommy.”

  The princess growled, but at least this time, she kept her hands to herself. Or fingers, as the case may be. “What the Eklektos sees in you, I will never know.”

  “Yeah,” Kara said, her jaw tight. “I wonder about it myself, sometimes.”

  Princess Myrinne sighed, “Are you going to tell the Eklektos what I did?”