Queen of the Vampires: Snow White Reimagined with Vampires and Dragons (Seven Magics Academy Book 3)

by RaShelle Workman

  Ryden lifted into the air and turned to face me. “I see. Well, we are here if you need us. And remember, their fates are in your hands”. She pointed at the creatures in the forest and I swallowed back the sudden fear in my throat.

  I was a child. Barely eighteen. What made me think I could defeat the vampire queen? I swallowed again. “I know. I’m going to speak with Sharra, see what she has to say. I will do right by them.” I waved a hand toward the trees and those within. “I’ll do right by you,” I added. “One way or another, I will end this.”

  Ryden bowed. “Sharra is at the castle. She’s completely out of sorts, worse than usual. Until last night. I don’t know what’s changed, but my spies inform me she’s ecstatic about something. So be careful.”

  “Thank you, Ryden.” I stepped off the porch and headed down the dirt path toward the castle and my destiny.

  The pixilette landed on my shoulder. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  I was touched by her offer and I did want her company. But I wouldn’t be putting her or anyone else in harm’s way. I was the Seal. Dealing with the vampire queen was my responsibility. I would handle her alone. “You’re welcome to come as far as the castle. After that, I’ll go by myself.”

  Chapter 27

  At the castle gates, I said goodbye to Ryden. With as much confidence as I could muster, I used the Seal to melt the wrought iron portcullis before stepping through. I expected to see guards or be rushed by Sharra’s drone vampires. But there wasn’t a single living creature around.

  With each step, I realized there wasn’t a sound except the clop of my Converse on the cobblestone walk. It was eerie and I steeled myself for whatever came next.

  When I reached the large front entrance, I thought of knocking, but pushed that aside and I threw open the doors. Sharra stood in the entryway, waiting for me.

  “How lovely of you to come, Snow White. Although, if you had any manners, you would’ve knocked.”

  “I guess I don’t have any,” I said, trying to sound tough. Nervous jitters fluttered inside my stomach. I took my stance, my feet apart and my shoulders squared. My hands were at my sides, poised to strike if necessary.

  Sharra didn’t move, almost like she were made of stone. It was like one of those old American cowboy standoffs. We were both waiting. For what, I wasn’t sure.

  The entryway was extravagant, with heavy red material draped along the tops of the windows. An enormous chandelier, lit by lanterns, hung in the center. From the foyer diverged four different hallways. A double staircase circled to the second floor and a landing above.

  Finally, I decided to speak first. “You know why I’m here. What I want.” It was a statement. I could see by the conceited haughtiness on her face she knew this was the end. After today, our lives would be altered. She believed my body would be hers, and I would die before I let that happen.

  The power of the Seal pulsed through my veins, spread through me like wildfire.

  “Why don’t you step into my drawing room? I can see it’s been days since you’ve had blood. You shouldn’t starve yourself so.” She tsk-ed me as she moved toward one of the halls.

  Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how long it was, but she was right. The thought of blood caused my fangs to press against my lips.

  Sharra nodded and a goblet filled with red liquid appeared in one of her hands.

  I knew it was blood. The scent wafted to my nose. My fangs extended further.

  “Here,” she said, smiling sweetly.

  “I don’t want it, Sharra.” I shook my head and held my breath.

  Her lips were painted a bright red. Thick but perfectly placed eye shadow adorned her eyelids. Her long black hair had been curled and was piled atop her head. A single tendril snaked down either side of her face. Light blush covered her otherwise porcelain complexion. She wore a floor-length red velvet dress. A black leather corset bound her waist and ribcage. It pushed her breasts together, giving her all kinds of cleavage.

  She smiled as I glared. “Fine, then. More for me.” She tipped the glass, gulping down its contents. A drop fell on her chest. She snapped her fingers and a vampire appeared from one of the hallways. He placed his arms behind his back and slowly licked the blood from her skin.

  I turned away. My throat burned with longing. “Are you ready to call it quits?” I asked as soon as she sent the vampire away.

  She giggled like I told a hilarious joke.

  I felt like an idiot. Why would she abandon her way of life? She had been winning for more than six millennia. Why change what worked so well? Especially when her only obstacle was me.

  “Is that what you want? Me to quit?” She took a step toward me.

  “Yes,” I said, anger and fear blazing through me at once. “Let the creatures be freed from this place. Allow balance to be restored.”

  “And what happens if I agree? Do you kill me? What’s your plan, dear Snow?” She had her arms crossed and a sultry smile splayed over her face.

  I turned my attention to her pointy black shoes. I couldn’t meet her eyes. The truth was, I didn’t know what would happen to her. Up to this point I did what I was told. Someone said I was the Seal and that I needed to rebuild the magics. I believed them. Someone said to see Abernathy, I did it. Someone said, go confront Sharra, and I agreed. And now, here I was. What did I want? What was right? “Ugh.” Sharra was messing with my head. I stepped toward her. “You got any more blood?” Might as well build my strength.

  Another glass appeared in her hand. “Of course.” Her smile grew bigger when I took it and chugged every drop. When it was gone, she took the glass and it vanished. “Before we begin all of this unpleasantness, I have something to show you.” She wrapped her chilly fingers around my forearm, and we whooshed into a round room. I was there once before.

  Hundreds of female worker vampires sat on what looked like stone bleachers. Opposite the door were two thrones. To the right was a group of girls, and a sheet of ice blue magic surrounded them. The girls seemed tattered, beaten down. Their clothes were dirty as were their hair and their bodies.

  Shocked by the sudden movement, I touched my head. “Who are they?” I asked, but I knew as soon as the words left my mouth. They were the remaining marked. She rounded them up like cattle. Girls like me who were marked at a young age and then bitten by their hunter. Some were already full-fledged vampires. They must’ve drunk from their hunter and true loves. The rest were still revenants.

  In particular, one full-fledged vampire stood out. She was regal. Tall, creamy brown skin and curly black hair. Her eyes were the color of liquid night. Her face seemed familiar somehow and I realized she was the other marked Sharra had chosen.

  When her eyes found mine, her face hardened, and she glared at me like I was the enemy.

  “These are the marked. Destined to die,” Sharra said quietly.

  Some of the girls began to cry and wail. Some tried to escape. Others stood like soulless zombies, allowing themselves to be pushed around. They were awake, their eyes open, but they saw nothing. Except the regal girl. The one I knew was Sharra’s second choice. Sorrow pricked my heart and Abernathy’s words filled my mind. “You need your friends, your family. Without them you’ll lose.” Not that his words could help me now. I hadn’t listened and I was already here. My friends, my loved ones weren’t. They were safe. And that was my plan. Keep them from any more harm.

  Raising my chin, I rotated away from the girls, focusing on Sharra. “That’s crap and you know it. I’m here to prove you and your stupid words wrong.”

  She went over to the girl with curly black hair and touched her cheek. “Pocahontas, would you sacrifice yourself for me?”

  Pocahontas bowed. “Of course, Sharra.”

  “See?” Sharra cackled, a chilling, mirthless sound. “I suppose I should’ve known you would never be ready to understand what I’m trying to do, but this one.” She pulled her hand away, pressing her lips into a tight line. “They’re mark
ed, but I can only choose one. Many haven’t even gone past the revenant stage. They are beautiful and sweet, but they haven’t completed their transformation.” She spun and stalked over to one of the thrones, sitting with a huff. “You think this is what I want? For them to die?”

  “I don’t think you care one way or the other.”

  Sharra smirked. “Perhaps you’re right.” Discomfort carved across her face. “These many years I’ve suffered, knowing what had to be done.” She slammed her fists against the armrests. They shattered. Her emotions shifted so quickly, I struggled to keep up.

  “What else can I do?” she continued. “To live and continue to rule, I need a new body. That means marking and choosing as necessary.” She raised an eyebrow. “Vampires were the first. I am the oldest and wisest creature on the planet. If anyone understands the tough decisions, it’s me.” She raised a brow. “And I am one of the seven magics. An original vampire. Without me, there won’t be balance. Have you thought about that?”

  I hadn’t. And she made sense, sadly. Maybe that’s why Abernathy wanted me to talk to her instead of killing her. He understood there couldn’t truly be balance without her.

  It didn’t change the fact that she wasn’t sharing, but consuming. Stealing. Keeping magic for herself. That was unacceptable. If I learned anything, it was that tyranny never won out in the end. People would always fight against oppression.

  “It is your choice,” I said. “You’ve been alive for a long time. When will it be enough?” I leaned toward her, my hands out, imploring. “Release the supernatural creatures. Allow them to roam freely once again. When your time in the body you possess is finished, then be done. Go your way.” She would die, but it was about damn time. No one should live as long as she had, especially since she did so at the expense of others. It was absurd.

  Sharra leaned back against her chair. “Perhaps you’re right. Maybe I should stop. Life is hard, and it just gets harder.” She snorted. “I’ve accomplished all I could possibly want anyway.” She closed her eyes.

  I took another step toward her. Behind me was a flurry of voices. The worker vampires were restless. Sharra’s words disturbed them. Or excited them. I couldn’t tell. Sadly, I understood their excitement. She said everything I wanted to hear. “At least step down,” I pleaded.

  Chapter 28

  “You are a senseless, foolish girl, Snow White,” Sharra said quietly. Her eyes were still closed, but her words tore through me and held on like a vise. When her eyes finally flashed open, they blazed with fury. “How about I start killing the marked now? Liberate them from their miserable lives.” As she spoke three of the girls fell forward, out of the sheet of magic surrounding them.

  “Noooo!” I yelled, rushing over to the nearest body. I knew before I reached her that she would be dead, but I had to try anyway. Her face was frozen in terror, eyes wide as though they witnessed horrors even in passing. I felt for a pulse on her neck. She didn’t have one. Nausea rose in my throat.

  The remaining girls screamed and tried, once again, to escape. But the magic held them fast. Each tear, every cry of pain, tore at my insides.

  More senseless death, I thought.

  I moved over to the next girl, hoping against hope she still lived, and checked for a pulse. Nothing.

  “Listen to them die. Their screams are like music,” Sharra shouted.

  I glanced at her for the briefest moment. She looked deranged. Several more girls fell forward. One smacked into my shoulder, knocking me off balance and onto the floor. The rough surface scratched my arm, but it healed immediately. I gently lifted the dead girl and laid her on the ground next to the others.

  “Stop. Stop it,” I ordered.

  “Make me,” she hissed. Four more girls fell.

  I pushed aside my devastation and stood. My whole body shook with frustration and fear. I had no idea what I was doing. I’d been alive eighteen years, had almost zero life experience, and I decided to go up against a vampire more than seven thousand years old. Sharra was right. I was a senseless girl. But as those thoughts swirled inside my head, another image flashed strong. It was of the time Sharra brought me to her realm and I killed some of the workers.

  I could retaliate. A death for a death. The power of the Seal burned through my fingers. I whipped around, lifted my hands, and shot two bolts of red light into the workers nearest me. They immediately began to burn, flames engulfing their skin as they screamed in agony. I held my breath against the stench of their burning flesh. “Stop,” I shouted, looking at Sharra.

  She snickered and four more girls fell to the ground. “Kill them. They know their place and will gladly die for me.”

  I lowered my hands. I wouldn’t kill uselessly. “But you did care for them the night you brought me here. You screamed when they started burning. You were upset. You were—”

  “Faking it,” she finished with a shrug. “It was for their benefit,” she said, waving a hand in the direction of her vampires. “Yours as much as theirs.”

  I stared at her in disbelief and heard the alarmed whispers of the worker vampires.

  Sharra sighed as they began to work themselves into a frenzy. “I do care, of course,” she said to them. “Settle down. You were created for a purpose.” Then she looked at me. “Despite what you may think, every creature in Sharra and on Earth is important to me. But I must take cause and effect into consideration.” She smiled genially at the workers who weren’t quite as aggravated as they were moments before. “My need for a new body far outweighs anything else.” She pointed at her workers. “That includes them.” She pointed at the girls who were marked. “Or them.” Then she pointed at me. “Even you, dear Snow. But the difference between you and the other marked is they understand what I’m trying to do.”

  I shook my head. “But why? You’ve had over seven thousand years to live. What more do you need?”

  She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. “I don’t expect you to grasp my rationale. How can you? Your life is nothing but an infinitesimal blip on the timeline that is my life.” She steepled her fingers, resting her elbows on the arms of the chair that somehow reformed. “If you agree to become the vampire queen, allow me to have your body, I will free the rest of the marked. If you don’t, I will kill them all.”

  “What about me?” Pocahontas shouted. “You chose me!”

  Sharra ignored her.

  I didn’t know what to think about the girl. Why would she willingly subject herself to the queen’s wishes?

  “Well?” Sharra asked.

  If I agreed, Sharra could do what she wanted. I wouldn’t know whether she kept her word or not. But if I disagreed, they would all die now. If I said yes, Sharra would possess the Seal. No one would ever be able to defeat her. My mind whirred, back and forth. I didn’t know what choice to make. “Give me a minute?” I turned away, my hands against my head. I needed help. As soon as I thought that, Christopher appeared.

  Like an apparition, he walked toward me wearing his hunter’s garb, a sword strapped to his back. “Christopher?” Relief flooded through my body. He broke the queen’s hold on him. He could help me make the right choice.

  But he wasn’t alone. In front of him was a person with his hands tied in front of him and a burlap sack over his head. “What are you doing?” I asked, relief replaced with worry. “Who is that?”

  He gave me a lazy smile, like this wasn’t a life or death situation. I reached out to take his hand, but he pulled away, walking his prisoner past me and over to the queen.

  “Christopher?” I saw what was happening, but my mind was in denial.

  He released the prisoner. A smirk creased his lips as he lifted Sharra off her throne and kissed her deeply. On the mouth.

  I blinked several times. My eyes had to be deceiving me. But he continued to kiss her, and she was kissing him back. Passionately.

  “What the hell?” I wanted to run away. I wanted to hide, to go back to the night I was bitten and have everything, all o
f my memories, wiped clean. “I don’t understand,” I finally said, even though I was beginning to. Christopher betrayed me. When he first bit me, Professor Pops told me he wasn’t to be trusted. That he desired power above all else. I hadn’t believed him. I didn’t want to.

  After several minutes that felt like hours, they finally broke apart. But Christopher kept his arm around Sharra, his expression one of gloating.

  I still couldn’t believe it. “Are you… really Christopher?” I asked, knowing I wasn’t making sense but too shocked to care.

  Sharra pushed him toward me. “Show her what you brought her, my love,” she said.

  Christopher walked over to the bound man he left standing next to the throne and ripped the burlap sack from his head.

  My breath caught in my throat and two black spots blurred my vision.

  “Dorian,” I whispered. My fingers covered my mouth and they trembled. It couldn’t be.

  Chapter 29

  He was barely recognizable. One eye was bruised shut. His bottom lip was split, and dried blood stained his mouth and chin. His shirt was shredded down the front like a five-fingered lion had ripped into him.

  But it was Dorian.

  He wasn’t dead. Beaten? Battered? Yes. But alive. My heart leaped with joy. I said his name again, balling my hands into fists at my sides. “Dorian.”

  He grunted as though I awakened him where he stood. His good eye peered at me and a smile spread across his glorious, broken face. “Snow?”

  An aching sob tore at my throat. “What are you doing with him?” I demanded through gritted teeth, my gaze flipping from Christopher to Sharra. “Give him to me,” I demanded.

  “With pleasure,” Christopher said, shoving Dorian toward me. I caught him.

  “Missed you,” Dorian whispered, his voice hoarse; he coughed up some blood.

  I fought down the urge to cry. We had to get out of here. He needed a doctor.