Page 19 of A Book of Royals and Deities

“I will die this night, but he will not find you. It will hurt him more to have you betray him alongside me.” She smiles like a woman scorned, but sadness bleeds into her lifeless eyes. “It’s been a long time since I’ve done something that’s good. I’ve killed endless amounts of your kind just to try to feel something again. To be the cold-hearted queen he wished for. When I was changed, all emotions bled out of me, more than I bled outat every delivery of the royal children that he made me keep having. He corrupts them one by one. My youngest daughter—she’s different. She was not born corrupt, and the king never paid any attention to her. She is the only child I chose and could love. She made me want more for her than this life. My son, the heir, he is very much like his father, and he will not stop. Something must change this cycle. I had given up hope that anything ever could change. I stopped praying to the deities the day I was changed.” I didn’t know that vampyres hoped for anything. “I was fae once. I was alive. I lived and loved my family. Like this,” she says, gesturing to her vampyre features, “all I want is death, and I definitely will dance with death tonight.”

I think she wants to die. I will end up dead with her when the king catches up to me. “No distraction is going to be long enough for me to get away. He has flying creatures to chase me!”

She places the box at my feet. “I am not alone, stupid girl. You will have a few days’ ride ahead of him, and he won’t find you. There is a boat waiting to take you close to the Nightwell city. There is a barrier, but that book will get you through it. Just take it out and walk in.”

I shiver even thinking of touching that book. It feels wrong. “Again, why me? I don’t believe you that hurting him is the reason you are using me.”

“Check the bag on the horse,” she cryptically offers. “I’ve been watching you and your family for a long time, Avaluna.”

My blood runs cold, and she waves to the thick palm trees about a mile away. “Go and fucking smile, young one. You’re about to be free.” She tilts her head to the side. “You look the most like her. Except for that one blood slave my son found. Her name’sStory Dehana. Did you meet her?” I nod. “I tortured her myself and I tasted her blood to see…I was right.” She pauses as she talks so casually about hurting Story. “And when the king gets his hands on her, it won’t matter what my son wants. If you find her alive, tell her to run and hide before my husband ever sets his eyes on her.”

The queen leaves; nothing but a rustling of the sand is left and that box. I look down at the box, feeling the immense power stretching out of it before reaching for it with shaky hands. Even touching the box feels wrong, and I shiver from head to toe. My eyes widen as I see the mountain shake, right before rumbles and blasts explode into the night. The entire mountain caves in on itself, black smoke pouring into the air as I stumble back. She blew it up. She wasn’t alone. The king should have never underestimated his queen. She might be a monster, but she isn’t right at this moment.

I turn and run straight for the palm trees and the princess waiting for me. I’m still surprised to see her, two black horses waiting in the middle. She is all in black, a cloak hiding her silver hair, but her clear blue eyes find mine. “We must leave. We have a three-week ride ahead of us, and it takes two weeks to travel the sea. Anything could go wrong and if you aren’t up for this, run away now.”

Caelina is the last person I thought I’d be running away with. I don’t know her or trust her, but here I am. The best chance I’m ever going to get. I’m back in the forest. A black cloak lies on the saddle of the horse I’m taking, and I grab it, chucking it on to hide my own red hair. I slip the box into a bag attached to the horse’s saddle, pausing when I see the other book in there. The Twilight book I was hiding under the bed. The queen knewI had it. I frown as I close the bag and climb up onto the horse, thankful for all the travels the king took me on.

He taught me how to be a blood slave, but also how to ride, how to be fast, and I am using that to escape. I look at the princess, the one who looks so much like her mother, who just saved my life. “My name is Avaluna. As long as you keep your teeth away from me, princess, I won’t run.”

The princess nods once. “Caelina. Not princess. I want nothing to do with my royal blood. It’s the name my mother gave me in secret, and I’m using it now. I hope you can ride well.”

I nod before I touch my horse’s neck and silently thank the deities as the sky fills with black smoke, and the ground shakes so hard the sand shifts under my feet. My heart leaps as I look at the desert stretched out in front of me and lead my horse into it. She runs like she can feel my heart race, like she knows what this moment means. I finally let the rage I’ve held deep down burn through my blood, and I promise never to dampen it again.

In all the years I’ve breathed the warm air of the Lightsun lands, it suddenly tastes like freedom.

Chapter Twelve

Page Twelve—Can a being be held in a book?

Alaugh of mine gets swallowed by the wind as I sweep down past the barrier of magic that’s wrapped tightly round the burnt city. It’s almost see-through, a shimmering veil of white, but I can’t exactly see outside it even when I’m flying this close on Maeve. Her red wings glitter in the sunlight, rays shining right through them, and I smile at how beautiful she is. I follow the line of the barrier straight towards the coast, Maeve easily flying, guided by tilts of my body as we are getting used to each other. I know that this is freedom for her too. She was trapped there, unable to see anything but the inside of that mansion. We both are free now, even if Kyrell is not.

My stomach sinks as I think of him and the fact I can’t get him out of the locked room with guards there twenty-four seven. He is safe, I tell myself a hundred times a day, and I will find a way to fix this. I glance behind me at Ziven’s night-black dragon, who commands the sky even in the middle of the day. Brythan lookslike endless darkness of a starry night as he flies fast across the air, and I watch him with a grin on my lips.

Even when they are a suitable distance away, Ziven’s eyes stay fixed on me and even through the space, I can feel some buzz in the air between us. Maeve sweeps down suddenly and I nearly fall off, a near scream echoing from my throat that I refuse to let out. The first time I yelped when I actually fell off and Maeve had to catch me, Ziven laughed for the entire evening. That asshole is not getting the satisfaction. We might not be enemies anymore, but damn, he can annoy me better than anyone else.

I’m slightly getting used to the turns and manoeuvres Maeve takes, so I don’t feel like I’m going to fall off at every swift dive or turn into the currents of the wind. My feet dig into her scales, holding on, as she suddenly rears up just before the water’s edge of the sea. Her claws rush through the water before she flies back up into the air, heading straight back towards the mansion.

“Why do you always do that?” I question. “Touch the sea?”

Her soft voice answers me when we are getting close to the mansion. “The Twilight Dynasty lands are wrapped around by sea, and I was hatched on a beach. I miss the lands I lived in and my family, who are all gone.”

Sadness nearly overwhelms me, mine mixing with her emotions. I lean down, almost lying on her back, and give her the best attempt at a hug. We don’t talk often, as Ziven explained, it takes a great deal of their magic to communicate with us. “I’m sorry you lost them all. I wish…well, I wish they could have been hidden, too.”

“The vampyres will pay.” I smirk at the revenge in her voice, and I realise that I haven’t been frightened since I became a riderand nearly died. I’m not scared of the prince finding me when the barrier is down, not now that I have Maeve as my dragon. “He will be the first one we burn until there is nothing left.” I sense she can see my memories, or she somehow knows, because she often replies to me when I haven’t spoken. It’s something to get used to, and I don’t disagree with her. Seeing him burn alive would be considered a dream come true for me. I don’t like death, but some people deserve it.

My bones ache with the amount of strength I’ve had to use to hold on, and I’m glad for all the training Ziven made me do so I actually have muscles to hold on with. Flying every morning and evening has been one of the hardest training sessions, and I actually miss the training rooms. The training rooms are now a home for homeless fae, so it’s not possible to go there. Ziven still has everyone doing laps around the forest and flight training every day. Daegan hasn’t been seen flying since the day the barrier came down, and neither has his army. It’s been six weeks since the mansion spell broke, but it feels like years. Six long weeks which have been nothing but political arguments and stopping Ziven from ending the lives of all the Sun Dynasty people Daegan sends with messages.

Getting out of the mansion is my only relief from the constant stares. The people are divided between following Ziven, the one who was there for them, or following Daegan. Most have sided with the Sun, and Ziven doesn’t seem to particularly care, so his charming self isn’t persuading many. He’s not let anyone actually join the Moon Dynasty, whereas Daegan is offering up a place for anyone who’s willing. Ziven’s only interest at the moment is making sure Daegan stays far away from me, Hettie, and the rest of his people. I know with absolute certainty he doesn’t want to deal with any of this.

I look down past Maeve’s wing at the field of tents in the thick forest, so many of them that they merge into one large red fabric covering. As we start to go lower towards the clearing in the forest where most of the dragons land now, I look across the tips of the city in the distance, like I can see the fenced in area where the vampyres are and they’re starving. Daegan’s made it very clear no one’s allowed to give them blood, and that includes the children, so they’re locked in there like animals.

Most of the fae want them dead, but some of them do not. Some of them were treated kindly and cared for, like the professor was with me. Sometimes I wonder whether a death would be nicer for them at this point, because if we’re trapped in here permanently, then the fae will end the vampyres out of spite and hatred. I don’t know if anyone could stop Daegan if he turned his army on the trapped vampyres. The people are angry and they want revenge. Now that they’re starting to learn the truth about everything, about what the vampyres did to erase our history, our royals and power…they want the world back.

It’s a rebellion powered by dragons, plain and simple, but when they are free, they will burn through the world.

Maeve lands in the clearing with a ground shaking thump, and the nearly dead leaves on the trees fall off around us. Her big claws rake up mud from the ground as she lowers herself closer to the ground for me. Brythan lands as I slide off Maeve, and I stumble a few times before managing to stand straight. Maeve taps my back with her wing as she stomps over to the entrance, pushing herself up against Brythan, who walks in after her. Ziven walks over to me, and his lips twitch. I hold a finger up. “If you laugh, I swear I’m asking Maeve to eat you.”

The bastard smiles. “I’m not laughing.” The twitch of his lips tells me he desperately wants to. “But I’d prefer to eat you.”

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