A Darkness Awakens

by Helena Lancaster

  “I should be going. I already had Rínae inform the Queen to be expecting me,” John spoke quietly.

  He watched the four adults and gave them all a nod. This was the first time he would be leaving without saying a proper goodbye to any of them. He could not blame any of them for remaining quiet. One couple was grieving the loss of a child, while the other was trying to support their closest friends through their grief. He closed his eyes briefly to prevent a tear from falling out as he took one last glance at the broken and lifeless body of his grandson before opening the portal to return to Ilysia.

  Résalyn sat in her private study looking out the window at the Línael Sea. The water rolled in waves of deep sapphire until it reached the sandy shores not far from the base of the castle. The beach had been her eldest daughter’s favorite place to be and she found herself staring at it with longing when she missed her most.

  “Mother,” she could hear the voice of her younger daughter speak.

  Janélyn was devoted and strong willed. She was always determined to not let her sister’s absence prevent life from being lived. It was just that some days Résalyn needed to escape into the grief that Kélinae’s leaving left her feeling.

  “Janélyn, has something happened?” she asked as she turned from the window to look at her daughter.

  “Nothing at all has happened, mother,” Janélyn responded. “Rínae said that John is coming to speak with you.”

  “And only me. Do not try to stay when he arrives.”

  “He told her that it would be a difficult conversation. What if it is about Kélinae?”

  “If it is about your sister then I will inform you of it.”

  Janélyn let out a defiant sigh. Résalyn did not respond. Her younger daughter always had the tendency to be overdramatic and it had gotten worse in the seventeen years that her firstborn had not been around. Her daughters were so different from one another. Kélinae was porcelain skinned with curly, auburn hair and eyes the shades of honey while Janélyn was olive toned with long, golden hair and dark emerald eyes. In so many ways, Janélyn was almost her twin in appearance while her eldest’s Witch blood shone through over the Fae. It made her wonder just what her firstborn granddaughter looked like. Sinéad was not two days old the last time she saw her but already had the look of her mother. Little Rovén, however, had already proven that he would be almost identical to his father. Seventeen years had passed since her eldest daughter left with her children. It had been nearly two decades of worry and grief.

  “Are you sure you should talk with him alone?” Janélyn questioned to break their silence.

  “John is a friend and your sister’s father, Janélyn. Whatever he has come to discuss I can handle. I am not broken because your sister took her children and fled in fear,” Résalyn snapped at her daughter in response.

  “You have told me so little of the why.”

  “For the good of us all.”

  “How can it be for our own good if my sister ran away with her children?”

  “It is quite complicated.”

  “I gathered that when William stormed out of this castle in anger.”

  “It is not me he blames for her leaving. He only blames me for not stopping her.”

  “You knew?”

  “Of course, I did but now is not the time for me to explain all of this to you. Should your sister never return it is you that will rule our people when I am gone. I need you focused on more important matters.”

  “Like the possibility of war?”

  “Exactly. Now please go and attend to your duties. I will be speaking to John alone when he arrives.”

  She could see the frustration in her daughter’s face. It was likely that she would have more understanding if she knew the truth about her elder sister’s departure. Résalyn just never felt it was a burden that Janélyn needed to share. There was too much at stake if the full truth became common knowledge and reached the ears of the Empress. Léla would be an even bigger force for them to defeat if she knew the full truth and she would do anything to prevent that from happening.

  Résalyn continued to stand there with her eyes trained on her younger daughter. There were no more words between them. Silence filled the room faster than a fog over the Ulcastrían Mountains and it only took a few moments of it for Janélyn to leave as she had been told. She could tell that her daughter was not happy when she went to leave the room. It became more obvious when Janélyn opened the door to leave to find John standing on the other side preparing to knock. She watched quietly as her daughter only nodded and continued to walk from the room.

  “I have not seen you this often since we were together,” she observed as John entered the room and closed the door behind himself.

  “And now we are both happily married to other people,” he responded with a smile.

  “You will always mean something to me. I am happy that we have been able to find friendship.”

  “Oh, Résalyn, you know as well as I that we would have never truly lasted.”

  She laughed at his response. He was more right than he knew. They had proven over time that they would always be better as friends than they ever were as lovers.

  “Rínae warned me that this would be a difficult conversation,” she professed. “Should we sit down?”

  “I think that would be best,” he affirmed.

  She gave him a small nod before leading him to a small sofa and taking a seat. She sat up straight with her hands in her lap as she watched him sit in the empty space beside her on the sofa. His quietness made her wonder if this was not news she would be expecting, which made her quite nervous.

  “Has something happened to our daughter?” she asked him curiously.

  “I do not know. I have not heard from her in nearly two years now,” he quickly answered. “But she is not the reason I am here.”

  Résalyn raised an eyebrow at him. She knew it had been a while since he had spoken to Kélinae but had not been privy to just how long it had been since he last spoke with her. That alone was enough to make a difficult conversation, though it did make her wonder what else could this be about.

  “Then what is going to make this difficult?” she inquired.

  “It is about her children,” he replied nervously.

  “Have you always known where they are?”

  “I have but I made a promise to our daughter to keep it secret.”

  She observed the man next to her quietly as a heavy sigh escaped his lips. He even kept their daughter’s children a secret from her. For seventeen years he had known exactly where they were. Her eyes narrowed a little as she tried to not get angry.

  “All this time you knew where they were and who was raising them yet you never told me?” she questioned as anger filled her voice.

  “I promised our daughter they would be safe, Résalyn! I could tell now one!” he exclaimed loudly.

  “And the adoptive parents?”

  “Are good people and leaders of the resistance movement that has started in Corinthia.”

  “Do they know who they are?”

  “I have adamantly refused to tell them multiple times.”

  “Then what is wrong?”

  She watched him closely as his eyes closed tightly for a moment. It gave her the intense feeling that whatever had happened was not good.

  “Our granddaughter is absolutely beautiful and looks very much like her mother,” he stated with a smile.

  Résalyn instantly smiled at the thought of Sinéad looking just as she predicted.

  “Just as I believed she would,” Résalyn declared. “Does she even have the same hair?”

  “Indeed, she does and she’s learning to better use the full extent of her gifts.”

  “So what the Oracles said was true.”

  “Every word of it, Résalyn.”

  She could feel the fear in her rise. This was just how Kélinae felt when she revealed the words of the Oracles to her. Her own granddaughter truly was born out of prophecy
and in many ways, it terrified her.

  “And Rovén?” she asked. “Did he still grow to look like William?”

  “The very image of him,” John answered sadly.

  The tone of John’s voice was sad. She knew him well enough to know the sound of his voice when he spoke of difficult things. Whatever had happened that caused him to come to her and share all of this with her must have occurred with their grandson.

  “I know you very well, John, and I noticed the change in your voice,” she observed. “What has happened with our grandson?”

  She looked at him intently as she watched a single tear escape from one of his eyes and fall down his cheek. Her heart was pounding so loud it was as if she could hear the sound of it beating in her ears. She needed to know!

  “Tell me!” she commanded him.

  “Résalyn, this is not easy…” he began.

  “I care not for knowing whether or not it is easy, John! You will tell me!”

  “He was killed today. Our grandson is dead, Résalyn.”

  She felt as if her own heart stopped upon hearing those words. How could this be? He was still little, happy, overly energetic Rovén in her mind. How could he be gone when he never got to see her or his parents again? This just did not seem possible for her mind to understand.

  “No!” she shouted as she stood to her feet and began to walk towards the windows.

  “I do not want it to be true either! I had met with him in Tordéalín. He had expressed to his adoptive parents that he wanted to know about his birth parents. I had just told him everything when the village was attacked by Vampires. He helped Rínae and I fight for that village, even insisted I send Rínae to Corinthia for his sister and friend to help us,” he reported.

  She could feel the hot tears as they started to fall. Her grandson was gone from this world and she never got to see him all grown up.

  “I am not sure of many of the details of his death but of one detail I am certain, he was murdered. I do not believe a Vampire took his life either because our granddaughter saw it happen. Her account of it identifies that whoever did kill him, is gifted with the element light,” he continued.

  “Sinéad fought and watched her brother die?” she questioned in confusion, her sadness becoming evident in her voice.

  “And she is as broken as the couple that has raised our grandchildren as their own. They want him buried in Ilysia.”

  “He is my grandson. There is a place for him on our lands.”

  “Résalyn, they do not know he is our grandson. All they know is he is the son they have raised as their own.”

  “He will still be buried with honors. He fought for this land.”

  “And he will be buried as James and Katie’s son Zak though we know the truth.”

  “They changed their names?”

  “Not completely but Sinéad is now called Addí.”

  “And I am supposed to look at her as if she is not my granddaughter?”

  “You do not have a choice right now, Résalyn. She is far from ready to know the truth.”

  “Promise me that we will tell her one day.”

  “When the time is right she will be told exactly who she is. I promise you that.”

  “I need you to keep that promise. I was going to wait but now it seems I cannot. I will be sending envoys to the resistance in Corinthia very soon.”

  She turned back around to face him. Her tears were evident on her face and she knew that. She hated showing herself this way but John was one of the few she allowed to see her vulnerable. She was born and raised to be a Queen but right now she was nothing more than a mother and grandmother with a broken, grief filled heart. Her granddaughter’s birth had been a signal of hope and she had lived with her daughter’s decision to do whatever she felt was necessary to keep her children safe. Now it seemed like hope was crumbling as someone who served the Empress had taken her grandson’s life, adding to the grief she could only let herself express in private. She would tell no other of this loss yet. She knew that the time was far from right to even tell Janélyn or her husband. For now, she would grieve alone and start preparing her people for war.

  James sat at his desk in his basement office with his head in his hands. He was rubbing his temples in the silence, trying to understand how this could have happened. Zak, the boy he had raised and loved as his own son, was gone, murdered at the hands of an unseen enemy. He had only a single clue to the identity of his son’s killer, the knowledge their element was light. It was not going to be enough for there to be any justice in this.

  He looked up and knocked all the paperwork off the desk in anger. He was doing his best to hold it in and be strong for his wife and daughters, especially Addí. Addí who held her brother in her arms as he died and lost the only biological family she had ever known. Now he and Katie would have no choice but to tell their eldest daughter what they knew of the truth. Perhaps now John would start to tell them what he knew of their parents. He was after all the one that brought them into their home seventeen years ago and the one to return them two nights ago when Zak had been cruelly taken from them. This same man was the only one James trusted to prepare a place in Ilysia for them to have a funeral and bury him in the land he was born in.

  He hit the rest of the papers off of his desk in a fury. He was more than upset. He was more than grieving. He was angry and worst of all, he felt helpless in making the situation any better. He had a family that needed him to be their strength but he felt anything but strong. His head fell back into his hands and the tears he had been fighting started to fall from his eyes in silence.

  “James!” he heard a familiar voice call out, jerking him out of his grief.

  “In my office, Robert,” he answered with a calm shout as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

  He looked up as his closest friend walked in and took a seat in one of the chairs across from him. Robert helped him start this resistance movement and there was no one outside of his own wife that he trusted more.

  “I came over here as fast as I could when I read the paperwork,” Robert said. “Has anyone from the office told you?”

  “Told me what?” James quickly questioned.

  “I take that as a no then.”

  “I’ve heard from no one. It was hard enough having to explain Zak’s death in a way that could be believed here. I have your wife to thank for me having an explanation for that.”

  “You have no idea how sorry I am. He may not have been your blood but he was your son. You loved him the same way I love RJ.”

  “Who hasn’t left this house since they returned that night.”

  “I won’t be forcing him to either nor will his mother. He lost his best friend and the girl he loves has lost her brother. He’s where he needs to be.”

  Robert looked at James and knew he never wanted to know the pain his friend was dealing with right now. They had been friends since childhood and he had never seen James so broken. He knew that he could not stall the reason he was here, not any longer.

  “There’s a more pressing matter that brought me down here,” Robert began to say.

  “What is more pressing than the murder of my son?” James asked in response.

  “Nothing but this could be a clue.”

  “What?”

  “Just a week after Addí’s birthday, Galen left Gemaronica for Rutania with Vera and Shane. Apparently, he accepted a job in Moserovo six weeks ago. I received paperwork today from where they crossed the border. Irína is still in Berdenheim.”

  James instantly gave him a shocked look. Galen Richards took his wife and son but left his daughter here? Gemaronica and Rutania had an unstable peace, the smallest misstep could shatter it in the fragile state that it was currently in. They were part of the resistance, yet the resistance knew nothing of this. Were they walking away from what they had been working towards? Is this why Shane never showed when they left for Ilysia two nights ago? Is this why he nor Galen answered his phone calls for the past f
ew weeks? There were so many lingering questions this news brought them but none of them could be answered.

  “Have you spoken to her?” James asked.

  “I did before I came here. She is as clueless as we are,” Robert answered.

  “You were as in the dark about this as I am?”

  “You know that, James. We trusted them. And after the rumors that John brought us from his network of spies…”

  James held up a hand to interrupt what Robert was about to say. He already knew. John Daesyn had a spy that worked from him from Moserovo and she told him some dangerous truths. The Empress was gaining a foothold in Corinthia and in that city of all places.

  “The Empress’s forces here are headquartered in Moserovo are growing, I know,” James said aloud. “John’s contact even knows who the leader is, apparently she knows them personally. He mentioned this Níkolína was related to one of the leaders.”

  “You got her name?”

  “John Daesyn owes me for never asking more about Zak and Addí’s real parents and taking him at his word. I would not change a thing even if I knew but I know with everything in me that John knows more about them than just their identities. He’s given me too many clues that at least their mother has been a part of his life for quite some time. They’ve lost a son just as I have. Katie and I may have loved him and raised him as if he were ours but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s still their son, whoever they are.”