Page 28 of Queen of Darkness
“Come.”
“Yep, on my way!” I said, hurrying after him.
He took me past two corridors that had been blocked by cave-ins. We skirted around piles of debris from where the ceiling had fallen in. This section of the castle hadn’t survived as well as the rest. Nor did it seem as occupied. Dust covered the floor, without any footsteps except those left by Drakul and me.
“What’s down here?”
“Shame.”
Drakul brought me to a door. It seemed no different than any other, but it was very obviously his destination. He gestured at me to go through. I approached the door, gently twisting on the handle and pushing it inward.
The room on the other side was dark. My wolf’s sight lit the shadows in shades of gray. It was a bedroom. Or ithadbeen. Someone had thoroughly trashed it. The bed was broken, the footboard half-ripped away, sheets shredded and cast everywhere. Paintings on the wall were covered in some dark, dried substance that my gut told me was blood. The table was in pieces, with high-backed wooden chairs cast to the four winds throughout the room. Tables were caved in as if a body had landed on them.
“What happened here?” I whispered, stunned at the ferocity of the attack. The sheer anger necessary to do something like this.
“Shame,” Drakul repeated.
“Aaron, I mean, Alaine. He did this? Is that what you’re trying to say.”
“Alaine. Elenia. Shame.” Drakul gestured as if expecting it all to make sense.
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
Drakul’s eyes blazed with renewed intensity. “Shame,” he repeated yet again.
“Yeah, I got that,” I said, wandering into the room. Maybe there was something in here that would help unravel what the chatty vamp was trying to tell me. I doubted it. There was nothing left intact.
I walked to the middle of the room, turning back to Drakul as I took in the devastation, trying to figure out why someone would do this.
He said two names. Not one.
Spinning, I stared Drakul down. “Aaron and Elenia. They did this. This is because of a fight, isn’t it?”
Drakul’s eyes burned down to tiny spots. He moved his head up and down.
“How interesting,” I said, considering the room and the location. “He brought Elenia here, to where he was born? They had a fight. In his room. Apparently, they have a bit more of a history than he’s revealed.”
Drakul turned and left the room without saying anything more. Perhaps it wasn’t his place to.
My mouth flattened into a firm line. That was fine. Aaron would be here soon. Then he could explain this.
It’s past time I got some answers.
Chapter Fifteen
Ieventually found myself back in the great hall. Drakul didn’t seem concerned about me exploring the rest of the castle ruins, but that didn’t produce any of the revelations I hoped it might. Many of the passages were blocked from cave-ins, which drastically reduced the places I could go. I found a few rooms that looked more suitable for staying in, having been updated sometime in the past century, but that was the extent of it.
“Probably shouldn’t be surprised,” I muttered to myself as I sat on the throne, looking down at the table. “You can’t even tell from aboveground that a castle was here once. It’s all been overgrown. Of course, most of it would be gone by now.”
Leaning back, staring up at the arched roof overhead, I tried to picture what this place must have been like in its glory days. What had life been like for little human Alaine, long before he’d been turned into a vampire? What was his purpose? Was he a kitchen boy, destined to slave over ovens? Or maybe his lot was in one of the other trades. Blacksmith’s apprentice perhaps, or maybe a hunter, stalking the surrounding lands to bring back meat for his lord.
Maybe he was the Lord’s son himself. Being trained in the arts, how to fight, and act like a noble. Learning how to rule.
Running my fingers over the stone chair, I tried to imagine a young Aaron sitting in it, much like I was now, trying it on for size. How old had he been when he was taken? Vampires didn’t age, which would put him probably somewhere in his twenties, maybe early thirties. Was he already sitting on the throne? Maybe he’d sacrificed himself in a noble gesture so that the rest of his people would live.
Questions burned in my mind.
Voices echoed through the chamber. I sat up straight, recognizing Fred. That was faster than I’d expected. Either he’d found Aaron without issue, or something had gone wrong.
