Page 54 of The Darkest Night

“Wait.” Violet frowned. “The Trial of Blood?”

Miles’s confused gaze swung from Violet to Bryony. “Wasn’t that barbaric practice banned centuries ago?”

“What’s the Trial of Blood?” Mae said blankly.

Nikolai met her puzzled stare. “It’s a battle to the death between the Sorcerer King’s children to assess their magical abilities and bloodlust. They have no choice in the matter. To refuse means instant execution.”

“The first Sorcerer King instituted the custom thousands of years ago,” Bryony explained at Mae’s horrified expression. “The practice eventually fell out of favor and was formally outlawed after the fourth Sorcerer King came to power.”

Mae’s eyes rounded. “Wait. The fourth Sorcerer King? You mean, there have beenseveralof them?!”

“Yes.” A heavy sigh left Bryony. “As you’ve no doubt surmised from your brief involvement in our world, not everyone yields to the men who have proclaimed themselves our leaders as successive Sorcerer Kings. There have been many wars over the millennia between the Sorcerer Kings and the humans gifted with the knowledge of magic. The most brutal skirmish took place during the Middle Ages and ended with the Treaty of Argentheim, when a truce was reached between the leaders of the other magic councils and the Dark Council, to stop the massacre of thousands of magic users.”

“The accord was tested on a few occasions in the centuries that followed, the most prominent incidents being the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries,” one of Bryony’s advisors continued somberly. “For the most part, the High Council and the Councils of the Moon and the Sun have been forced to overlook the worst of the Sorcerer King and the Dark Council’s transgressions, in exchange for the fragile peace that has lasted to this day.”

Nikolai couldn’t help the bitterness that surged through him at their words. He knew the rest of the magic world had been powerless in the face of his father and the Dark Council’s overwhelming strength and dominance. Still, it infuriated him that he and his fallen half brothers and sisters had been left to suffer at the Sorcerer King’s hands, while they averted their eyes and lived in their ivory towers.

“Vedran resurrected the Trial of Blood fourteen years ago,” he said coldly. “At the time, he had twenty children. All of us were forced to participate in the selection competition, despite previous Sorcerer Kings keeping the entry age to fifteen years. The youngest to perish during the trial was only ten years old.”

Several of the coven members swore. A muscle jumped in Bryony’s jawline.

“Vedran?” Mae repeated.

Nikolai ground his teeth. “Vedran Borojevic is the name of my father, the sixth and current Sorcerer King.”

He looked down at the table, the memories from those two dreadful days and nights searing his mind all over again. He had been sixteen at the time and had had no idea on the morning his father gathered all his concubines and children in the amphitheater at the top of his palace that his hands would be drenched with the blood of his siblings by dusk.

“I was surprised he even allowed me to participate in the trial. Of all of my father’s children, I was the only one who could not use black magic. It was a flaw for which my mother and I were often whipped and beaten, for as long as I can remember.” His jaw ached as he spoke, his words choking in his throat. “I would have had two more brothers and a sister had the Sorcerer King not killed them while they were still in my mother’s womb. It seems his distaste for her white magic was matched only by his lust for her body, hence why he always saved her from death. So he could violate her all over again.”

A hand landed gently on his knee. Nikolai turned his head and met Mae’s gaze. Anger burned in her eyes, as well as a wealth of compassion. Her touch gave him the strength he needed to continue.

“By the time night fell on the second day and the moon shone down on the arena where the trials took place, only Oscar and I were left standing,” Nikolai said in a haggard voice. “Though we were on an equal footing fighting skills wise, his magic was more powerful than mine. Sensing my imminent defeat, my mother begged the Sorcerer King to spare me. Oscar—” He stopped and swallowed convulsively, his heart twisting with a fresh wave of agony. “Oscar killed her with a single blow to the head. He claimed she had distracted him. Though he was livid, our father agreed to overlook his transgression, even though trial participants were officially forbidden from harming spectators.”

Nikolai shuddered as he recalled the jeers of the Dark Council and the insane look in his father’s eyes that night. It was as if the Sorcerer King had been trying to push him past his breaking point. To see his rage explode and know his true feelings.

To test if he truly had the potential to be his heir, even if it cost him his favorite concubine’s life.

Chapter 27

Nikolai took a painful breath.“I don’t remember much else after that. When I woke up in my room, I realized that instead of letting Oscar finish me off, the Sorcerer King had spared me. It was only later that I found out that had been his plan all along.” A bitter chuckle left him. “He needed two successors, in case one ever fell to his enemies. With Oscar and I the last of his children standing, he always intended to stop the fight before one of us killed the other.”

“That man is a monster,” Mae growled.

Nikolai blinked and met her furious scowl. Something lightened inside him then. Though he had made allies who had helped him survive the Sorcerer King’s court and his life as one of the Dark Council’s minions over the years, he had never had friends before. True friends. Men and women who would stand by him through thick and thin.

He had a feeling Mae, Violet, and Miles would be that kind of people.

That’s if Mae ever forgives me for what I did.Guilt left a sour taste in his mouth at the thought of the secrets he had yet to reveal to her. Resolve filled him.I’ll just have to make her understand the reason for my actions.

“I made a vow the night Oscar killed my mother.” Nikolai frowned. “That I would not only find a way to avenge her death, but that I would stop Oscar and my father. Even if it meant selling my soul to the devil.” He met Bryony’s stare squarely. “So, I kept my head down and I waited for the right opportunity to strike.”

The New York coven High Priestess watched him impassively in the taut silence that followed.

She stole a glance at Violet and Miles. “An…ally of ours warned us something was going to happen in New York. And that it likely had to do with the Witch Queen’s prophesized awakening. How did you and the Dark Council find out this would not only happen, but that it would take place in my city?”

An ally?Nikolai cut his eyes to Violet and Miles.She must be talking about someone they know.Understanding dawned. He stiffened.So, that’s why they were ready for the fight that night!

Nikolai decided now was not the time to question them or Bryony about their source.

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