Page 58 of A Kingdom of Death & Darkness
My eyes flick to my mother, or what remains of her, to find she’s already looking back at me. I understand what all this means, perhaps more than the others. She won’t be here once this task is completed. When Boris goes, the Dead go with him.
He bound them to himself. He’s their true leader. If he hadn’t been foolish enough to discard them, they could have been his army.
And instead, they’re hers.
Crymson sidesteps Boris’ lunge, and he goes sprawling across the marble floor, right through a puddle of blood left behind from his dead warriors. The Dead howl and hoot in delight at seeing him so weak, but they don’t interfere. It’s not their kill. They understand that. Part of them still fears the brutal King, and Crymson would never ask them to be brave again. They’ve suffered enough.
“Get up,” Crymson orders the Blood King.
My mother steps over to us as Crymson taunts the King, her eyes bright like the woman she once was despite the crazed sheen. She reaches up and touches us each, once, carefully, gently. Christian, Carver, Delilah, and then finally, me.
“My sweet boys,” she coos. “My baby girl.” She looks at all of us. “My love has never dwindled for each of you. I loved you truly.”
Boris snarls and rushes Crymson again, and she lashes out with claws I’ve never seen before. Those claws tear a large gash across his shoulder, making him howl in anger and pain. Crymson only laughs before she snaps out her arm and grabs him around his meaty throat. His nails rake across her pale flesh, but she doesn’t flinch. She just holds him aloft, her face split with all the fury of the Dead in this room.
“It’s time for your reign to end, Your Majesty,” she snarls. Her fingers tighten as she leans in. “This is for every Promise you broke.”
There’s no gutting, no brutal death. One moment, he’s held in her hand by his throat.
The next, Boris explodes from his neck out in a rain of bright red blood,,,
FORTY-ONE
Crymson
The Dead beginto collapse one by one almost immediately. There’s no cry of pain or shock. Just a gentle relieved sigh with each who dissipates into ash. It lingers in the air all around us. I stand at the dais, Boris’ blood coating my skin and everything else around me, watching as the Promised are freed from their eternal prison. Finally.
My heart feels lighter and somehow also heavier as each one disappears, but I know it’s because of the Queen of the Dead slowly walking toward me. I know it’s because of the understanding between us.
I had to rise, so she could fall.
The Dead Queen places her slender palm against my face, and I don’t shy away from it. I don’t cringe or cower or flinch. I hold strong just as she has all these years. She deserves no less.
Carver wraps his arm around his mother from behind, holding her tight, his shoulders shaking with a sob he doesn’t let out. Gone before he knew her, gone again when she was found.The pain he must be feeling, that they all must be feeling. I can’t even imagine.
I never knew my mother. But I feel family all around me now.
She pats his arms as he holds her, but her gaze remains on me.
“Thank you,” I breathe, my voice choking on the emotion in my throat.
Christian comes forward and touches her shoulder, giving her strength in the only way he knows how. Emotion I’m not prepared for flickers in his eyes, but he doesn’t break. Thorn wraps his arm around her shoulders from the other side, holding her just the same.
She smiles. “Thank you, Crymson Vaine,” she murmurs. “For freeing us all.”
She tilts back her head as the last Dead falls, and slowly, her flesh begins to flake away. If it wasn’t so horrifying, she would almost be beautiful like this, burning away to the ash she rained down outside. My men hold onto her until there’s nothing left to hold, until the sparks and ash float away on the wind, free at last.
It’s only then that I realize I’m crying, that my face is wet with tears I hadn’t known were leaking. I wipe at my cheeks, but they don’t stop. They flow as free as the Blood Lands now are.
Outside, the sun penetrates the smoke and ash for the first time in what must be centuries.
And all bow to the new Queen of the Kingdom of Blood and Thorns...
EPILOGUE
Crymson
There arenew graves in between the Thorn Kingdom and the Blood Kingdom, now one. There are no Vampire Lands or Fae Lands. There are only the Dark Lands. No longer are we split between two kingdoms in one realm. No longer do we live in fear from Boris’ rule. We are one. And I lead them all.
