Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Stonemore
The once-thriving city was gone. After all her hard work to build the empire, it had been destroyed in a blink. Villette walked through the empty palace that had once hummed with activity. The servants and nobles were long gone. Even the fierce army she had gathered had fractured and scattered.
She stopped next to an overturned table that had once held a beautiful vase.
The table was broken, and the vase, like the rest of the wealth in the palace, had been stolen.
Villette stared down at the splintered wood lying across the red sandstone.
She had designed the palace and had it meticulously carved from the top of the mountain.
Every level of Stonemore, from the palace down to the bottom of the mountain, had been conceived and developed by her. She was the one who had created the city to be a beacon of wealth and power throughout the realm. Humans had flocked there, working and scheming their way up from the bottom level.
And throughout it all, no one had known that she was the one controlling everything. She had deceived everyone. Got them to believe that she was nothing more than a human carrying the word of the Divine. It had amused her that others could be so easily manipulated.
Yet for all her planning and playing, she’d had only one objective—to destroy the dragons.
Villette drew in a breath and continued walking.
The icy wind sweeping through the large windows at the front and back of the palace stole the sound of her footsteps.
When she reached the stairs, she gathered her long skirt in her hands and began to climb.
The palace had many levels and numerous hidden entrances that tunneled through the mountain, leading to secret chambers and hidden prisons.
She had thought of every detail. Except one.
Echoes of the past whispered through the corridors, reminding her of what she had accomplished—and all she had lost. She had lived for so long that she had stopped keeping time.
Besides, it was difficult to determine that when she moved through the universe, going from realm to realm.
Each place measured time differently, making it meaningless to those like her.
Still, it did make her wonder how much longer she could continue.
The years blurred together. It had become easier when she settled on Zora for her revenge, but now, even that was gone.
She could rebuild somewhere else. The need to reach the end of her vendetta had always kept her forging ahead without pause.
Why was she considering other options now?
She climbed three levels before stopping and facing east. Through the arched window, she stared toward the dragons’ land.
She had chosen this exact location so she could always have an eye on her enemies.
Close enough to be a bother, but far enough away that they hadn’t realized what she was doing until it was too late.
Zora was supposed to be home to only the dragons, but she hadn’t allowed them that reprieve.
She had brought humans to the realm to torment and annoy the ungrateful beasts.
It was supposed to have been her time to get everything she wanted.
No matter how she looked at things, she couldn’t figure out where it had all gone wrong.
Had it been keeping Merrill captive? Had it been trying to kill Lotti and Alasdair?
Had it been creating Derek? There were so many options that it was confusing.
She had sat with each one, mulling over every detail.
It had been simple to see when she’d made a bad choice, but there wasn’t any particular one that should’ve caused her to end up where she was.
Which meant it was a multitude of decisions.
She turned and walked toward her private chambers at the back of the southwestern part of the palace.
She pushed open the double doors and stepped into what had once been her sacred space, somewhere she could be herself.
But that area was no more. Even her rooms had been pillaged.
The pillows had been slashed, her clothes shredded, pottery smashed, and furniture upended.
Villette could wave her hand and put everything to rights again, but what was the point? There was no reason to remain. Not in the palace, and not in Stonemore.
She stepped over broken bits of ceramic and headed to the balcony. Her feet halted at the doorway as her thoughts took her to the night she’d stood with her two sisters, Lotti and Eurielle, against their other sister, Miena.
“I knew you would eventually return.”
Villette stiffened at the sound of Eurielle’s voice.
She slowly turned her head to the left to find her sister sitting on the edge of the balcony.
Eurielle’s long, straight dark hair hung down her back while her gray eyes never wavered.
She was clad in a black gown with red accents.
Eurielle had never sought her out. Not before Zora, and not after.
Villette was immediately on edge. Eurielle hadn’t been the same since the battle with Miena.
She was as frigid as a mountain lake in winter.
All the warmth and goodness that Villette had despised about her for all their lives was gone, as if it had never been.
The callous, aloof person staring back at her was a stranger.
But that wasn’t what unsettled Villette.
It was the murder in Eurielle’s eyes that disconcerted her.
“What?” Eurielle asked with feigned concern. “Where are your usual sarcastic remarks?”
Villette had always been stronger than Eurielle. But something told her to be cautious now. She walked onto the balcony and noted the threatening, dark gray sky. “What do you want?”
“Can’t I catch up with family?”
“Since when? You and I don’t interact unless we have to.”
Eurielle stood and tapped a finger on her chin.
“Hmm. Very true. You’re here because you want to be, but I was trapped here.
” She dropped her arm to her side, anger tightening her face.
“You and our other siblings thought it was right to sentence me to live on this realm. All because I interfered. But wait,” Eurielle added.
“You also interfered. In a much grander way, I might add. And what’s your punishment? None.”
Villette shifted to face her.
“What about deceiving Miena and keeping her locked away for thousands of years?” Eurielle asked. She shook her head. “Again, nothing. None of our siblings even bothered to show up.”
“What’s your point?” Villette asked.
Eurielle laughed, the sound harsh and ominous. “My punishment didn’t fit my so-called crime. But if I’m forced to remain here, then I’m going to make Zora mine.”
“Is that so? How are you planning to do that?” The more she listened to Eurielle, the more she realized that the sister she knew was no more. Or maybe she hadn’t known Eurielle to begin with.
“You attempted it and failed. I don’t intend to fail.”
Villette crossed her arms over her chest. “I built my empire before the Dragon Kings arrived. Look what their meddling cost me.”
Eurielle threw her head back and laughed. The sound bounced around the palace before finally dying away. “How many times did you tell me that we’d once ruled the dragons? They were our slaves. We can kill even the Dragon Kings. Tell me, sister, why didn’t you kill Merrill when you had him?”
“I was dividing the Kings.”
“How did that work out for you?” Eurielle sneered as she walked along the edge of the balcony. “You even dared to create dragons yourself. Derek was yours to control. You were so sure he would never leave you for the Kings, but where is he now?”
Villette didn’t need to be reminded of all the ways she had messed up. “I suppose you won’t make mistakes.”
“Mistakes are when you misspell a word or add numbers wrong. You did much worse than that. You were overconfident and had several lapses in judgment that caused you to misstep time and again.” She stopped and cut her eyes to Villette. “Putting you in your current position.”
Villette noticed that Eurielle had stopped beside the very spot where she had fallen with Miena during the battle.
They had found Miena’s body, but there had been no trace of Eurielle anywhere.
It had been odd that Eurielle had vanished instead of returning to celebrate the end of Miena.
Villette hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but now, she wondered if she shouldn’t have put more effort into figuring out what had happened to her sister.
“No pithy retort?” Eurielle asked as she turned her back to her.
Villette knew everything her sister was doing was by design, from her clothes to her words and even where she stood. Eurielle wanted something, though just what that might be remained to be seen.
Eurielle sighed. “You’ve gone quiet. So often in the past, I wished I could’ve shut you up. Who knew I only had to tell you how awful you screwed things up?”
“You think that’s why I’ve not said anything? Obviously, you don’t know me at all.”
“Oh, I know you, sister. I know you better than you know yourself.”
Villette narrowed her eyes on the back of Eurielle’s head. “I’ll ask you again. What do you want?”
“I’ve already told you.” Eurielle spun around, a smile on her lips. “I’m catching up with family.”
“Then you can take your leave. I’m not in the mood.”
Eurielle chuckled. “You’ve always had to be the one in control. The one giving orders.”
“You make it sound as if this isn’t something all our siblings do and fight for.”
“How many of us are left, do you think? Lotti is the youngest, and I kept her identity a secret for a long time. Miena is now gone. How many of our siblings have fought and killed each other?”
Villette wanted this conversation to be over. “I don’t know, nor do I care.”
“You probably should.”
“Meaning?” she demanded threateningly.
Eurielle grinned. “It gives me great delight to know I can get under your skin.”
“You’ve always annoyed me. Today is no different.”
“Many things are different than before. If you look hard enough, you might even see them. Of course, some I won’t let you see until it’s too late.”
The power and supremacy that came with being a Star Person were tremendous.
Still, amid the numerous siblings, there was constant infighting and a struggle for dominance over the others, despite the vast size of the universe.
There were those like Villette who enjoyed both the verbal sparring and the physical battles.
But that had never been Eurielle. She could hold her own in a fight, but she’d never gone looking for one. In fact, had she ever had the initiative to achieve more, she could have. Easily. Instead, she had preferred to take another path.
Whereas Villette had outright laid claim to Stonemore and the surrounding villages, Eurielle had quietly worked behind the scenes to aid those affected by the battles.
Eurielle had thought she didn’t know, but Villette had always been aware of it.
As long as her sister didn’t interfere with her plans, she hadn’t worried about it.
“Our siblings will come,” Villette said. “They’ll want an accounting of what happened to Miena.”
“I gave it to them already.”
Villette’s heart skipped a beat. She turned her face away when the wind lifted the hair she had strategically placed to cover the burn scars on the right side of her face and neck. “They would’ve contacted me when they were here.”
“I called for them.” Eurielle lifted her face to the gray sky and smiled, the action both cold and frightening.
“At first, they ignored me, but I was persistent. My punishment has been lifted.” She lowered her gaze to Villette.
“But I’ve already made my plans. You, however… well, you’ll find out soon enough.”
“What did you do?”
“I merely told the truth. Isn’t that what you did when you went to them before?
It was your testimony, after all, that got me confined to this place.
” Eurielle leaned over the side of the balcony and looked down the mountain.
Then she straightened and shot Villette a malicious smile.
“Everything you’ve done is about to come back to you tenfold, sister. Don’t expect to survive.”
In the next moment, Eurielle was gone. Villette didn’t move as she fought the rising panic within her. When she tried to leave the realm, she was slammed back onto the balcony with such force that her knees buckled. She caught herself with her hands, but her head still bashed into the stones.
A moment later, a loud crack of lightning split the sky, and rain drenched her.