Chapter 10 Serena
SERENA
Sleeping beside a monster, a killer, a true psychopath is not ideal for getting a good eight hours in.
But sleeping with a monster? That shit will turn you fully nocturnal.
I don’t know how this happened. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just…cracked. It was like a thousand cuts all at once—I was drowning in fear, in anger, in sadness, and there he was and I just cracked.
I don’t have the words to describe it. Partly because the shame of what I did keeps hitting me over the head like a hammer, and partly because…it wasn’t awful.
And that realization makes my skin crawl.
But he’s promised that Kai’s beatings will stop. If this is the price, then so be it.
Cuffed and collared, I lie awake beside Kylian, staring up at the dark panels stretched from bedpost to bedpost. He’s traded my rags for a cool silk nightgown; the frozen, damp floor of my cell for this cloud of a mattress.
But despite the new luxuries, cold guilt nags at me, refusing to let my heavy lids close.
My stomach sinks when Kylian’s muscled arm tightens around my torso. He stirs, letting out a soft groan against the black pillowcase.
“Is my bed not to your liking?”
“Your bed is perfectly fine. Present company questionable.”
A slow, lazy smirk spreads over his face as he cracks an eye at me. He thinks I’m kidding, flirting. I allow him to read my words as he will.
“Questionable? Tell me, how can I remedy that?” He leans over, planting a lingering kiss over the fabric at my belly button. I fight the wild tingles that shoot through me.
It’s just a physical response, I remind myself, focusing on the ceiling.
“A personality transplant would be a promising start.”
He gives me a genuine laugh, his thumb smoothing over the dip of my waist. “You are the most maddening little thing, you know.”
This dick.
“Why is that.”
“Because.” His eyes gloss over me. “You’re far more dangerous than I gave you credit for.”
He runs a hand through his dark hair and flips onto his side.
“Why, Kylian?”
“Why, what?”
“Why do you want this so badly? And don’t tell me it’s because you’re madly in love with me. You want to take Aegar and the rest of the kingdoms? You have an army of undead marching under your banner. What do you need me for?”
He hesitates before answering. “I have my reasons. That’s all you need to know.”
“What do you plan to do with me?”
His gaze burns into me, an ocean-blue fire. “I plan to make you my wife. That has not changed.”
He slides out of bed, the taut muscles in his back flexing as he slips on a pair of low-slung sleep pants and turns to me, extending a hand.
“Come. There’s something I want to show you.”
We reach a long corridor in a wing that looks forgotten about—lost to time itself. I shiver at the draft in the air, staring up at the cobwebs stretched across the high ceilings.
A dark energy rolls through the closed door before us. Something powerful and ancient looms on the other side. I find myself involuntarily clutching Kylian’s hand tighter.
He seems to notice, too, glancing down at our joined hands and smiling. “No need to be frightened.”
“I’m not,” I snap, ripping free. His chuckle echoes down the hall as he pushes the door open for me.
The room is dark and musty, filled with a series of large objects hidden beneath dusty gray sheets.
One by one, Kylian undresses them, removing their covers to reveal an assortment of mirrors in various shapes and sizes.
They stir from an ancient sleep, each one vying for my attention.
In their faces, I can see a thousand of myself, and each time I move, the gaunt stranger in the mirrors moves with me.
The effect is slightly unnerving.
“What is this place?”
“My Hall of Mirrors.”
My shoulders leap as his voice brushes my ear. He starts to strut around the room, hands in his pockets, admiring the impressive collection.
“You think a couple dusty old mirrors are enough to make me change my mind and marry you?”
“It’s not the mirrors, love. It’s what they can do.”
My eyes meet his in the glass.
I don’t like this place. It feels like a demented funhouse. I turn to face Kylian, but he isn’t there. I whirl again, thinking I’ve caught him only to grasp the air.
“Stop that.”
“Oh, lighten up, darling, I’m just having a bit of fun.”
His cool breath hits my ear, and I turn, reaching out to make sure it’s not just another illusion. My hand lands on his tanned chest and I exhale.
He takes my shoulders and spins me around to face a long, narrow mirror with delicate silver leaves carved into the frame. The onyx glass is nearly opaque—so dark I can barely make out our forms as Kylian guides me closer.
Like the odd mirror in his room, the one before me begins to move, to melt. I stare, transfixed as it gels and swirls like fresh tar being stirred inside a bottomless vat.
It whispers to me.
“What is this?”
“Your future.” His fingers slide from my shoulders down the length of my arms. “Our future.”
My gaze snaps to him, but his profile is fixed ahead, watching the scene forming inside the changing glass. I follow his stare and gasp at what I see.
“This is what happens when you accept your fate.”
The dark glass clears to an image of me seated on a glittering throne made of cured starlight. On my head is a crown of the same make, some material not of this world—something celestial and magnificent.
My strange orchid eyes glow with delight as I glance over at Kylian, looking devastating and proud on a throne of his own, his fingers twined with mine.
The scene changes again to reveal a long stretch of pink-sanded beach.
My bare feet sink into the warm grains as a light, foamy tide brushes against my ankles.
I look up to see two little boys no taller than my hip teetering toward me, kicking up water as they go.
Their eyes are ocean-blue, lit with joy beneath tousled raven curls.
I gasp as Kylian enters the scene smiling, carrying another small boy on his shoulder. My hand slides over my belly, where a small bump stretches my fitted white dress.
Oh my god.
I clutch my mouth in horror, but it doesn’t stop the choked cry from slipping out.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The life we could have. You’re so happy.”
The boys throw their arms around my legs, looking up at me with adoration. Time slows as I tentatively reach down to pet their heads and—
I can feel them. I tilt my lips up to Kylian’s face in the mirror, and he gives me a sweet, gentle kiss.
No, this can’t be right. It can’t.
“This is what happens when you try to run from your fate.”
The mirage of the foreign family shifts as the mirror melts, reconfiguring into something dark and horrific.
A battlefield.
The ground beneath me begins to quake. The roar of battle cries turns deafening as waves of soldiers appear from either side of the empty expanse, charging at each other with mad conviction. There are thousands—endless rows that swallow up the entirety of the green hills.
Spears and swords in hand, the soldiers meet. Death greets them one by one in the ugliest of ways.
That’s when I see Jace.
His face is contorted into a feral mask of death—his harsh, beautiful mouth snarling with razored fangs. Like an animal.
He is destruction. He is chaos—soaked in blood, massacring as easily as he draws breath. Each move is smooth and beautiful, like a lethal dance. I’m so mesmerized by him that I barely notice the soldier at his back. Not until his sword appears through Jace’s chest.
I wail, lurching forward as he falls to the ground, teetering on his knees, golden eyes rolling back in his head.
“Jace? No, no, no!” I struggle against Kylian, but his grip has me locked in place.
Blood bubbles from Jace’s lips, his chest pumping with ragged, labored breaths. Hot tears spill over my cheeks as the vision pans to the rest of the field. I stare and stare, trying to make sense of the scene.
All around are the bodies of my friends. Kai, Mar, Dover, Igrid, Sorscha…then an animal lying still on the blood-soaked battlefield. An OrCat—its brilliant white coat stained a deep red, rusted chains strung around its neck. My pulse starts to thunder.
“It isn’t real,” I breathe, gripping the roots of my hair. “This isn’t real!”
“See for yourself.” Kylian releases me with a gentle nudge forward. My fingers brush past the glass, reaching right through it as if it were air. The outside world dissolves behind me as I enter the scene and crawl toward the limp creature.
No. Please, no.
My fingers close on his soft fur as I turn him over and take in his familiar features. Those beautiful brown eyes staring out from a lifeless corpse, unblinking.
I let out an anguished cry.
It’s Zadyn.
Spots dance in my vision as I literally start to see red.
I cradle the lifeless OrCat in my arms, my tears soaking his soft fur and dripping onto his matted blood.
“It hurts, doesn’t it? Knowing that your choice dooms your friends, your loved ones. That it sets in motion a war where thousands will die in your name.”
Zadyn’s body disappears from my grasp. I whirl around, staring out into a red-skyed wasteland.
This is your fate if you continue to resist, something whispers inside my mind.
The earth is scorched and angry, the vegetation turned to ash, with only a few stubborn tree trunks remaining. I smell decay. The scent of death that accompanies true discord.
It will be a war to end all worlds.
A war over me…
I can feel the emptiness in the air. There is no sign of life for miles. I wander aimlessly through the illusion of the abandoned desert. I wander until I am lost.
And in my heart, I know what I am seeing. I see a future that cannot be avoided.
I see the end of the world.
I never believed in fate.
In predestination. In a map woven from the fabric of life that could not be veered from or altered.
I never believed until I fell into this world. Until I bonded a dragon. Until I looked into the face of a king and saw my father. Until I fell in love and got my heart ripped open.
And now, to see my future played out before me like a movie on a big screen…it changes everything.
Everything.
Refusing Kylian means that I spark a war. One that destroys this world. One that kills my friends.
But if I say yes…if I agree to marry him, to be his queen…then I would be standing against Aegar. Against the people I love. Which means that they’ll die anyway.
Kylian was right about one thing—I did look happy with him in the vision. With our…family.
How is that possible?
How on earth can I be happy with him? How can I find a way to love him knowing what he is—a ruthless monster. A beast waiting to destroy the people I love.
Doubt wedges itself between my racing thoughts. It could easily be a trick. Just another bargaining chip to get me to agree.
But, no. It was so real. I could feel Zadyn’s lifeless form. I could feel the tether linking me to the cherubic faces of those little boys. Their ethereal, hauntingly beautiful faces. Everything I hoped my children would look like one day.
I may not be able to make sense of it, and though every fiber of my being revolts, I refuse to take the risk and damn my friends.
“You’ll kill them all anyway,” I whisper. “No matter what I choose. They die.”
“Aren’t we all just players in the Fates’ design?” He cups my arms, staring at me through the mirror. “Who are we to resist our roles?”
A wave of chills echoes through my body.
“Promise me you won’t hurt them.”
“I won’t go out of my way to. But if they stand in my way or it comes down to the choice between my life and theirs, I will choose mine without a second thought.”
Our eyes lock in the mirror. The shadows swirling around his wrist recede as he holds up a small velvet box. Flipping it open, my eyes land on a ring with a massive ruby rock set in a halo of diamonds. It gleams like a droplet of blood from its satin bed.
“So,” Kylian murmurs against my hair, a glint in his sensuous eyes. “Do we have a deal?”
I force a swallow, wondering if I’m about to make the biggest mistake of my life.
“We have a deal.”