26. Chapter 26
I cursed, struggling in the golems’ grasps until, by sheer luck, I broke free. I drew on my magic to fight back, but the spells flickered and died, the aether drawn into the symbols scrawled on my chest. Rowena stood before me, holding her palm up, and I saw my power gathering there, pulsing obscenely while she smirked, draining my magic.
I wished I had more time to marvel at the phenomenon, but I had only one chance to escape before my sister’s spell once again rendered me helpless. Years of resisting mental torment had strengthened my mind’s defences, but I never had to fight both physically and within my mind, and I was struggling.
Rowena’s smile grew wider with each passing moment. She knew exactly what was happening to me.
Corrupted Moroi crowded in behind the Lich King as he observed my attempts to fight with a bored expression and slightly raised brow.
‘Are you sure you can contain him?’ he asked Ro as more monsters entered the room to subdue me. I flipped up my daggers, cutting my way to freedom, but as soon as I despatched one, two more took its place, and without my magic, the outlook was grim. Still, I knew giving up meant a fate worse than death.
‘Once I have him in chains, yes,’ Rowena answered. ‘He already can’t cast. As for his fighting prowess, I’m sure you can take care of it, my lord.’ Her voice was so indifferent that I couldn’t help looking at her in horror. Triumph and cruelty warred for dominance on her face, transforming it into a mask of terrifying disdain.
A memory flashed before my mind’s eye: the vjesci, moments before I dismantled his forced existence in the dungeons of Varta Fortress.
‘ Trust nothing your sister says. ’
I should have listened. Instead, I’d walked into a trap, right into my own worst nightmare.
‘Give up, Alaric,’ she jeered as I sank a dagger into another attacker’s heart. ‘Didn’t you want us to be one big, happy family again?’
‘My only family now is safe in Varta Fortress,’ I snarled through clenched teeth. I was fighting like a demon, my enemies piling up beneath my feet as I took one step after another, closer to the window, closer to freedom.
He’ll eventually run out of monsters , I thought, hissing in pain when a Moroi’s clawed hand ripped through the fabric of my shirt, gouging chunks from my skin. My sister frowned, watching my fight with disbelief as I gained another step closer to the window.
‘My lord,’ Rowena said, ‘if you want me to fulfil my promise, we can’t let him escape.’
Raw power hit me in the back, sending me to my knees. Thorny vines sprang from the walls, binding me. My daggers clattered to the stone floor as Cahyon placed his hand on my sister’s shoulder before his stare bored into my mind, his power forcing my submission.
‘Surrender, Alaric. You are strong, but I am immortal, and this land will do as I order,’ he said when I continued to repel him.
It was a miracle that I could still think, and I saw the frown on Cahyon’s face. He hadn’t expected my resistance, but the shard of Annika’s soul within me seemed to disrupt hostile magic, protecting me in a way I didn’t realise was possible.
That tiny shard of the woman I loved fought against the combined force of a dreamwalker and the damn Lich King, protecting my mind even when my body had been defeated. I was losing the battle, and I knew it. Worse, as long as I was alive, my sister had a link to Annika.
It was my turn to protect my domina.
I let the thorns rip the flesh of my wrists as I scrambled for my daggers, thanking the Dark Mother when my fingers closed around the hilt of the closest one. I turned the blade inwards, twisting and straining to press it to my throat.
Forgive me, my love, I thought, throwing myself forward as the palace convulsed. The last thing I saw was a raw stream of aether streaking down to rip me apart.
***
‘Don’t move. You’ll only make it worse,’ said a soft voice, and I felt soothing cold moisture trail across my throat.
‘Annika?’
That’s all I managed to say, my voice dry and broken, but even as I asked it, I already knew the answer. The person near me was not my Ani, despite her gentle and caring touch. I forced myself to focus, meeting the gaze of my healer.
The woman was dressed in a loose garment tied at the waist with a hood that covered her head. A brass mask covered her face, and only her brilliant, bright green eyes were visible.
‘Who are you?’ I asked.
‘She is Lara, an uncorrupted healer of this dead kingdom.’
My father’s voice awakened memories I wanted to stay buried, and it took me a moment to compose myself.
‘Cahyon needs a virgin healer?’ I asked, Lara’s hand still on my throat.
‘I’m not a virgin, you moron, just a Moroi untouched by the blood craving. How else could I heal you after you attempted to slit your throat?’ she snapped, and I belatedly realised that despite all odds, I was still alive.
I groaned. ‘You should have let me die.’
‘I would have, but just like you, I didn’t have a choice,’ she answered, picking up her tools as I struggled to sit up.
I was in the dungeons, chained to the wall with only enough freedom to shift my position. While it was dark and lit only by a single torch, I could see the steel bars of the cell and the mouldy straw on the floor. I yanked at my rusty chains, but they held. Desperate, I reached for the aether, and as the life-giving force flew through me, Lara’s eyes widened, and she pulled away from me.
‘Don’t—’ she warned, but it was too late. Power slid over my body in a chaotic wave of wild magic, and I started convulsing, thrashing like a fish on a hook.
My father’s laugh echoed long after I regained the ability to breathe again.
‘As long as you’re wearing the manacles, you can’t do anything,’ Lara said, closing her bag. ‘I’m sorry, Alaric’va Shen’ra, I would have let you die if I could. I hope you don’t suffer too long.’
She walked away, leaving me alone with the monster I called father, and I finally turned to face him. I knew Cahyon had ordered his golems to seize him, but after my sister’s deception, I thought that, too, could have been a ruse. Yet my father was in the cell next to me, chained to the walls with the same rune-engraved manacles as me.
‘So, she dragged you here like she said she would. You always were a fool, Alaric,’ he said with a shrug, ignoring my assessing stare.
‘So I’m told, but at least I’m here for the right reasons. You served a monster and made Ro into one, too. Yet here you are, chained up like a rabid dog. Who’s the bigger fool, father?’
Roan was quiet for a moment, but the tension in his body told me my words hit their mark. ‘At least I chained him to this land, this palace! But you ... you’re going to set him free. The marks on your chest,’ he gestured at me, ‘you thought I did them, didn’t you?’
‘Oh, spare me your lies. What else will you claim? That you didn’t sacrifice your wife?’ I huffed with disdain, wishing my chains were long enough to reach across to his cell and choke the life out of him.
‘Of course I sacrificed her. She was planning to leave me. Me! After I lowered myself to take her for a wife!’ he shouted.
‘I wish she had. I wish she didn’t just leave you, but had gone to the empress to disclose the vile treatment you subjected her, and us, to ... we were just children. Look at what you did to Rowena—’ I cried, choking on my anger.
He burst into crazed laughter. ‘What I did? You were always too blind to see the real Rowena, the one who watched your punishment with a smile,’ he said. ‘I suppose I can’t blame you. She tricked me too, that beautiful, innocent child always defending you. Dark Mother, how she irked me with her mewling and begging, but now I know it was on purpose. How her pleas always revealed more details of your defiance, fanning the flames of my anger.’
I shook my head, unwilling to believe him. Still, the revelation reminded me of those moments when my little Ro had come to my rescue. Every time she wrapped her arms around me and begged father to stop, she would panic and apologise for some other rule I’d broken. Every time, our father’s face would darken, and the beatings got so much worse.
‘Ha! You see it now, don’t you? All the tears, all the apologies. They had one purpose ... I almost killed you once. Do you remember? Because I do, and gods, how I wish I hadn’t stopped that day.’
‘Why do you hate me so much?’ I asked, almost whispering. Even now, he seemed to revel in the worst day of my youth.
‘Because you are the mage your grandparents always wanted me to be. Because Talena saw in you a strength she never saw in me. She rejected me but waited for you to mature to ... Her prime mate asked to be your mentor, for the gods’ sakes, when I’d had to beg my way into the court,’ he said.
‘You were a rising dark star of the empire, the “saviour” of the Shen’ra family, while I was considered a failure,’ he continued. ‘No one even cared that you were whelped from the filth of a human, but gods, did they laugh at me. The dark fae touched by tal maladie, too pathetic to choose another domina.’ Roan was raving by the end, straining against his bonds as he shouted his hatred through the bars.
‘I didn’t ask to be born!’
‘No, I thought taking a human would cure me, but you were just another one of my mistakes. I hated you for that, but the irony is that you’re the perfect heir. You’ve not only surpassed your father, but also all dark fae, the male blood-bonded to the goddess’ chosen—’
He was blessedly interrupted by the creak of a door in the distance, and I sensed a familiar magical signature wash down the corridor.
‘Aren’t family reunions so much fun?’ Rowena asked as she opened my cell. The sigil she’d drawn on my chest flared to life, and I felt as weak as a kitten.
‘Why, Ro? I know I took far too long to get here, but why betray me? We had a chance to escape.’ I needed an explanation that would disprove my father’s words.
I was clutching at straws. After seeing Rowena’s indifferent expression as I fought to escape, I knew the girl I remembered was gone, but I hoped there was a reason, an excuse, for her betrayal.
‘You still want to believe I’m some poor defenceless victim?’ she asked. ‘Don’t you remember me begging you not to fight our father’s decision to come here? Did you not wonder why mother escaped alone? Why she left me here ... or why was she captured?’
Rowena’s laughter reverberated in the cell, and it finally sunk in that under her divine looks was a spirit so rotten it was worse than even the Lich King’s or my monster of a father’s.
‘You had no ambition except becoming a scholar. I wanted power, and you and your conduit mage will give me more than I dreamed possible,’ she said, brushing a strand of silver hair off my forehead. ‘I’m so happy you found your domina, Alaric. I promise to take good care of her for the rest of her brief existence.’
‘You’re a monster,’ I said as I pulled away from her touch, feeling the last ties binding me to my family snap, leaving me untethered and cut off from my roots.
‘A monster? No, of course not. I’m the perfect, sweet, golden-haired, soon-to-be empress of the continent. I wish you’d consider serving me, brother. We could rule this world if we worked together. We still can. I came here to offer a trade—’
‘No,’ I sneered. ‘You may be able to steal my magic, but you cannot force me to use it. You might as well let me die.’
She sighed, standing up as she gestured to someone in the shadows. ‘Take my father. We have preparations to make.’
For the first time in my life, I heard the cruel, sadistic parent who’d abused me for years howl in fear.
‘You can’t do this, Rowena. Take Alaric. He’s younger and more powerful. Take that fucking bastard! Rowena, I can give you power. We can work together!’ he kept screaming even as a corrupted Moroi dragged him from his cell.
‘What is my role in this?’ I asked calmly, even if everything inside me raged in silent fury. ‘You can’t be so delusional to think I’ll help you channel Cahyon’s spirit into our father’s flesh.’
Rowena licked her lips, smiling as she listened to the fading screams before her gaze shifted towards me.
‘You’re a conduit to my conduit, the key to unlocking Annika’s abilities,’ she answered before tapping her finger to my chest. ‘The spell I used to help you communicate with her will allow me to siphon her power. I only needed your cooperation to establish the link, hence our little play ... Oh brother, I’m so scared, ’ she exclaimed with a suddenly fearful expression before bursting into laughter. ‘We knew you were on our lands the moment you used the portal. Didn’t you notice that your journey here was a little too easy?’
I’m sorry, my love. I shouldn’t have left, I thought, half listening to my sister’s bragging until she fell silent, realising she had lost my interest.
‘Never mind,’ she said. ‘I will get what I want, even if your domina has to suffer a little discomfort.’ With a snap of Rowena’s finger, another two Moroi stepped forward. ‘Take him to the Chamber of Rituals and chain him to the wall. Ensure he cannot hurt himself,’ she instructed.
The evening fae approached me, and I saw the corruption only the blood hunger could cause up close. Elongated fangs distorted their mouths, their eyes permanently filled with crimson, and their bulging muscles had made their bodies monstrous and twisted.
My sister’s spell had drained me so much that I could do nothing when they unchained me. I was dragged through winding stairs and corridors until we reached a candlelit grotto. There, they strung me from metal hoops bolted into the rock directly above a large, flat stone that appeared to be a sacrificial altar.
This must have been Ozar’s Chamber of Rituals. The pathos and splendour were still there, visible in the thousands of half-melted candles decorating every nook and cranny. Deeper in the cave was an underground lake with a small island accessible by two bridges. And while the sound of splashing water was soothing, the view of the dark stone altar was decidedly not.
The hours passed as I hung there, trying to ignore the discomfort. I slowed my breathing, letting my body mend the cuts and bruises I’d received fighting Cahyon’s monsters.
As soon as I felt able, I tested my restraints. I suspected the collar around my neck was made using augurec, 1 a metal known for its ability to disturb the aether. The chains, however, were pure iron. If my sister wanted to use me, she would have to remove the collar, and as soon as I had access to my magic again, I could try to escape.
So I waited. My limbs grew numb, extended above my head, and I had to squeeze my fists several times to restore circulation. Finally, the Moroi that had tied me to the wall returned.
‘Are you ready, boy? The fun’s about to begin,’ one said, licking his lips, and I was sure he wanted to sink his fangs into my neck. The Moroi liked to taste blood—it prolonged their lives as well as gave them a boost of aether. Those corrupted by the Lich King, though, needed to drain their victims dry, and they liked them conscious, the kicking and screaming driving their bloodlust.
Moments later, they reappeared with my father, his naked body covered in runes. He cursed, thrashing in their grip, but he wore a collar similar to mine, blocking his use of magic. I was so entranced by the sight of the Moroi tying him to the altar that I missed Cahyon’s entrance.
‘Ah, Alaric!’ he said, approaching me. ‘Once this is done, we will renew our bond. Something disturbed it, but no worries, there is nothing our skilful Ro can’t fix.’ The illusion he usually wore to hide his hideous body was absent, and I shuddered as he trailed his finger over the marks on my chest.
The Moroi came back to me and opened my collar. I couldn’t move or fight, pinned by the immense power of the immortal lich, though his touch had revealed the source of his immortality. I could feel the magic of the land flowing into his body, fuelling his existence.
Unable to eat and drink, unable to store aether, he sustained his body by stealing the land’s vitality, and Katrass was at the crossroads of three ley lines, the gateway to his power. It was why he was tied here, unable to leave it for long enough to control his monstrous army.
‘The moon is in position. We need to start the ritual, my lord,’ Rowena said, and the hand that touched my cheek slid to my neck, squeezing it like a vice. My world darkened, the air entering and leaving my lungs in short pants, as strands of aether encircled my arms and legs, replacing the iron chains.
My father’s eyes filled with fear and fury, but he was as helpless as I was. Cahyon dragged me over to him, inspecting him with a knowing smirk.
‘I have to thank you, Roan, for keeping yourself in such good shape. I’m sure your body will serve me as well as you did,’ he said, laughing when my father tried to spit in his face.
‘When you’re ready, my lord, lay next to him,’ Rowena instructed. ‘You need to be touching him to allow your spirit to pass over.’
My father screamed in a mix of rage and despair, his eyes locking onto mine as though I could save him. For a fleeting moment, pity gnawed at me. Tal maladie wasn’t his fault, but even madness of the heart could not excuse the way he had treated his children.
As the Lich King reclined his body, Rowena approached, standing at the head of the altar. Her hand pressed against the sigil carved into my chest, the other on my father’s brow, and she began her incantation. I hoped her plan to siphon aether through my bond with Annika wouldn’t work, but as it flowed through me, I was stripped of that illusion.
Fire erupted in my chest, tearing through me like molten blades. I screamed, writhing as raw, unrelenting aether coursed through me. Annika’s shock rippled through our bond, swiftly replaced by her own pain, which fused with mine in an unbearable cacophony of torment. The spell worked.
The symbols etched into my father’s body flared to life, their glow almost blinding. His hoarse, agonised screams echoed through the grotto, each cry reverberating with the excruciating process of having his soul flayed from his living flesh.
Rowena was meticulous, almost reverent, her lips curling into a serene smile as she wielded the aether with surgical precision, stripping away every fragment of his spirit.
A translucent form began to emerge above his prone body, its spectral fists pounding uselessly against Rowena as it wailed in silent fury. My father’s body ceased thrashing, but I could barely register it through my own haze of pain.
Blood trickled from my nose, mouth, and eyes, falling onto his pallid face. The aether ripped through me mercilessly, tearing me apart from within. Yet Rowena didn’t stop until she had turned him into an empty shell, ready for a new host.
Bit by bit, my father was unmade. His soul’s final tether snapped, and the essence of the man who had sired me faded into nothingness.
Rowena continued, a malicious presence rising from the Lich King’s corpse, and his spirit at last emerged, grotesque and serpentine, bloated with corrupted power. Roan’s body jerked, spasming when Cahyon’s soul forced its way inside—a parasite nestling inside its new, more comfortable disguise.
I hung limp in my dark bonds, knowing the powerful onslaught had caused a magical burnout, a most severe and likely irreparable damage.
‘Lara, keep him alive.’ My sister’s commanding voice broke through my suffering, and a cold female hand landed on my forehead. I tried to pull away, but I was weak. Healing magic coursed through my veins, and my vision cleared enough to see Rowena reaching up to cut the ties that held my father’s body in place.
The creature that rose from the altar looked straight into my eyes, and I gasped, sensing its power.
‘You’ve done well, my necromancer. I even think I’ll let you rest before we bond again,’ Cahyon said, stretching his stolen limbs. ‘Rowena, darling, bring me food and some unspoiled fae women.’
My sister nodded, and even if I knew it was a different person, it was still my father’s body. At seeing the glee on my sister’s face and her eagerness to please him, I drifted into the refuge of black oblivion.
1. Augurec —An alloy of silver, iron, and copper produced by artificer mages with the ability to disrupt the natural patterns of aether; magical shackles.