Page 18 of A Book of Royals and Deities

“I always wanted a sister. Any sibling, really. My mum told me about Story before I met her. She told me about this girl who she had to send to be a blood slave but she had promised to keep her safe. My mother told me about Story’s father, who led a fae and vampyre rebellion with my uncle too. They were raising people in secret to try to get some freedom. He was known as one of the bravest powerborn, and he even convinced hundreds of vampyres to side with him in secret. They wanted the world to change.”

He sighs before continuing. “Her father had elemental power, and he was in the army. Unstoppable, some said. Of course, they were found out, and they were ripped apart by the vampyres for sport and to show everyone that freedom is a dream that will never come true. They hunted all the families, anyone who knew, throughout the city. It was brutal, horrible, from what my mother told me. She said, to this day, she doesn’t know how we survived and how Story did with her mother when all the other families were killed. But, apparently, her father stood there inthe end and told them all that one day a fae is going to rise and burn all of it down.”

He lifts his eyes to look me straight in the face. “When I first met Story, I knew it’d be her. She was scared, terrified, but she never truly gave up, even when she said she did. I saw in her eyes she didn’t. I told her to burn it all down because those were the words from her father. Because she is brave, courageous and special. I don’t think there’s probably a single person in this world who will ever deserve her love, but you have it.”

He stands up and walks right up to the bars that stand between us. “For that reason alone, I’m going to ask something of you.”

I nod once, curious about what he could want from me. “Ask.”

“When the prince turned me and I woke up, he informed me that he had Story’s mother. I thought she was safe and kept a secret, but clearly not.” He touches the bar. “He said that if I didn’t bring Story to him…he’s going to turn her into a vampyre.”

“Why didn’t you tell her this?” I bite out. That fucking prince is dead when I face him. Story’s mother is all the family she has left, and I know she loves her. Fuck.

“My mother told me all about Story’s mother and how fierce she was about protecting her daughter. She wouldn’t want me to tell Story, because we both know she would run to the prince to save her mother without a second thought.” My blood runs cold. “Story might hate me when she finds out the truth, but it’s a risk I am taking.”

“And making me take too.”

“You love her, and telling her would mean you lose her.” He shrugs as I grit my teeth. He is right and I hate it. “Here’s ourdeal. I won’t tell her anything that the prince told me about her mother, and you make the deal to kill me if I ever become a threat. If something happens again—you end my life. I didn’t die and go through all of this to keep her alive for nothing. I can’t end it myself, but you can end my life quick. The prince is cruel, and he plays games. His obsession with her probably rivals your own.” He looks away. “Make the deal with me, Moon king, to stop him from ever touching her again.”

She’d hate me for agreeing to this when I just promised no more lies. “Fuck!” I rub my face. I know she’d absolutely hate me if she knew I was making this deal. But there’s no way in this world or in the next that I will let her go running to the prince. I think we can get the barrier down, and then we’ll go after her mother together. It’s not a lie, but a way of buying some more time before I tell her. It still feels wrong. “You have a deal, Kyrell.” I turn and touch the handle. “And no one loves Story like I do. I do this to keep her alive, even knowing she might never forgive me. The prince, when I get my hands on him, he’ll know a worse fate. He won’t ever touch her again because he will be too busy learning what it is like to be ripped apart by the moon.”

Chapter Eleven

Page Eleven—I search for the books.

I search and wish they would find me.

Iwipe a line of blood from my arm, dripping from the fresh bite mark on my shoulder. It’s a sore spot that will hurt every time I move, but it will heal eventually, like all the others. Sometimes I run my hands over my scars, the thousands of them that litter my body like artwork, and remember the time when there were none. When I was a starving kid in the orphanage, who just wanted someone to love her. Sometimes I wish I had died in that orphanage. Other times, I’m glad I was chosen by the king.

The king lies naked next to me on his stomach, and there is a dead fae woman on the floor. He killed her before having sex with me, and I did nothing but smile. I did nothing but pretend I don’t feel sick to my stomach every time he is inside me. Every time he drinks my blood and groans how perfect I am. How he would turn me if he didn’t love my blood. If he didn’t love me. I don’t think he understands what love means. I don’t think I do.No one has claimed to love me except for him, and if this is what love is, then I don’t want it. I’d rather spend a lifetime without love.

I stare at the only marks on the king’s body. Burns in a decorative mark, and sometimes I think the shape almost looks like a tree with strange symbols woven into the branches. I’ve never been brave enough to ask him what happened.

I only know he is a king of a race he created and dark magic must have been involved. That book still haunts me, and it’s been two weeks since I heard it last. I’ve made every excuse I could to avoid going back into the mountain because I don’t want to hear that voice. I don’t want to see those creatures, even if they are flying in the skies day and night. Those awful screeches fill the silent night, and I wince. I’ve struggled with sleep since getting here, and I doubt I will ever sleep well while the Silkvir fly above me.

Will I ever be free? Or is this the life that I’m going to have now and absolutely nothing else? I climb off the bed and go back to the bathing rooms to clear off the blood and other things from my skin. I’ll never truly feel clean, but it helps. The water’s freezing as I wash myself, but I’m not waking any fae to get hot water. They are all run off their feet helping the Silkvir riders that have started to appear. Thousands of them, and all the vampyre riders ride their Silkvir well enough that I know the king has been training them for years like he claimed. They are fast, trained and deadly. There is going to be a war, and the dragon riders have no idea what is coming.

I scrub at my skin, again and again, desperately trying to get rid of stains only I can see. The feel of the king on me. My skin is red raw when I finally drop the scrubber into the dirty, bloodstained water and climb out. I dress lightly in a thin dress that was givento me by the workers here. It wraps around my shoulders, glossy soft material, and it covers me from my neck down to my wrists, hiding all of my scars. It will also stop the bugs from snapping at me in the heat. It’s never truly dark here, but the light fades to orange in the middle of the night, and I prefer it. I head outside the front of the tent, just for some fresh air. The hazy, thick, humid air slams into me like a wave of the sea.

I remember swimming in an oasis in my village as a kid. It was my very first memory and last one I have of my parents being happy. My mother’s shiny red hair, my dad’s cheeky smile. I remember this heat, how good it felt in the warm water, and for a moment I let myself be back there. My wet hair falls around my shoulders, and I hear a dripping noise. I assume it’s my hair, but something makes me look at the royal guard vampyres outside the front. They don’t move. I frown at them, wondering why they’re so still until I find the source of the dripping noise. Blood is pouring down from their necks, and I stumble back. A gasp is the only noise I can make before a slender hand wraps around my mouth. I can’t scream.

The queen leans into my back. “Silent.” She tightly wraps her arms around me, and everything moves so fast that I can’t breathe. I gasp in the air, trying to focus on anything at all as I’m dropped onto the sand. The queen stands over me as I crawl backwards, the hot sand burning my hands. We’re far outside the village, and no one will hear me scream here. “Don’t scream.”

“Please don’t kill me.” I put my hands up in the air. “Please. You know I don’t want to be with him. It means nothing to me. I want to live and I…” I search for more words she wants to hear. “I’m just a toy to him. You’re his queen.”

She laughs and if it wasn’t this woman, I’d say it was a pretty sound. The queen’s silver fangs flash in the orange light, and they match her soft locks of hair that fall down her shoulders. “You believe I’m a monster, and I am one. I crushed every inch of my good heart until it never beats. I did that to save my life and that of my children. You do the same every time he touches you. Am I correct?”

My heart races so fast, and a cold sweat drips down the back of my neck. “Yes. Are you going to kill me? Drain me?”

She sweeps out the red gown she is wearing, moving to a rock and perching comfortably on it. “Do you know every blood slave that he’s taken to his bed has red hair? Every single one looks like his previous wife. His obsession with her never ends. He chose me because I reminded him of his home in the Dawn Dynasty, where I was born. My mother, she married a distant relation to the crown and had a prince before she remarried and had my sister and me. My brother would never have taken the throne, he didn’t have enough royal blood, but he was invited to court often. I had no royal blood in me, not a single drop, but I was dragged along with him. I wish my mother and brother never took me.” She looks up at the sky. “In the Dawn, the stars used to look like orange burning flames at a certain time of night. I haven’t seen that in so long. He never allows me to travel to my old home because he knows if I look into the past, I might remember who I am underneath the monster.”

She pulls a metal box out from under the rock and slightly opens the lid. I feel the horrid magic from the book hit me in the chest, and I put my hand up between us. She shuts the box before the book can talk to me. “You know what this is and what it means for me to have stolen it. I cannot stop the riders of the Silkvir, but I can do this. My husband thought nothing could remind meof home, but he didn’t look at our youngest daughter for long enough. She looks just like my mother and sister. She is my home and my reminder.” She lifts her head high. “I have done terrible acts and I do not regret them. I had to pretend in order to keep my daughter alive and to see out my plan. I knew he would find the book in the end.”

“Why are you telling me all of this? Why take me?” I question, climbing to my feet with confidence that I don’t feel. The queen is talking about her “terrible” acts like they aren’t mass murder and torture of thousands of fae. I’ve heard what she is, and she has always scared me more than the king. “I don’t understand what you want.”

“You need to leave, and I need you to take the box with you. There are few fae with the power in their blood left to be able to travel with the book and not be turned by it.” The queen rises to her feet. “There’s two horses in the palm trees behind you, and my daughter is on one of them. She knows not to touch the box or the book and to let you lead. She’s going to protect you as far as she can, but she has her own way to go to make sure her father can’t find her again. Take this book, go to the mansion, to the dragon riders. It needs to be returned to them before the king flies.”

“Why don’t you just take it yourself?” I wave my hands out. “I’m just a lessborn fae blood slave, and you’re trusting me with this?”

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