Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Queen of the Dead
MAGNOLIA
Nollie. Nollie. Nollie. Nollie.
It took me too long to recognize the sound, to realize that Hael was screaming my name inches away from my face.
His arms wrapped around my waist, trying to pull me off something, to get me to stop—
Everything was a hazy blur from the moment Dahes’ eyes faded and his head lolled.
I blinked, looking down at my hand.
It was red.
“It’s okay, Nollie. You’re okay. You’re okay.” I dropped the knife and sagged into Hael’s arms, trying to let his soothing words process.
“Okay?” Someone huffed. I blinked up to see Jaxs staring wide-eyed at me. “She’s full-on psycho right now, bro.”
“I’ve got you, Nollie,” Hael said, pointedly ignoring Jaxs. “You’re okay. You did it. You killed him. He won’t come after you anymore. He’s dead.”
Dead.
The word clattered in my head. Dead like Masin.
Realization was slowly slipping back to me, wrapping around my throat until it was suffocating.
I sucked in a breath, my anger turning to tears as I sobbed into Hael’s chest, listening to him utter over and over again that I was going to be okay.
But I wasn’t. My heart was ripped out. Dahes managed to destroy what was left of my soul before I killed him…
I killed him…
I looked down, blinking, not fully believing what I was seeing.
Dahes was on his back. I wasn’t sure how long I had stabbed him over and over again before Hael stopped me.
I stole a glance at his face. His eyes were open, unmoving, staring blindly up at the sky.
I leaned forward and sucked in a breath. There were still two blue rings around his irises, which meant I still had them around mine.
I staggered backward, out of Hael’s grip.
No. No. No.
I needed them gone. I didn’t want the reminder, didn’t want to see a part of him still living in me every time I looked in the mirror.
“Nollie…” Hael was hesitant, cautious. His arms were out, almost reaching for me. “You’re close to the edge, be careful.”
I blinked at him. I didn’t care. Right now all I could think about was the fact that I was manipulated again. That I left my brother, that he never fell into the river and I so stupidly, foolishly was tricked into leaving him alone.
More sobs tore through me, but it was all anger. I wanted to pick up the dagger, only to kill Dahes over and over again.
“Hael, we don’t have time to coddle her right now. She needs to know.”
I wiped at my tears, trying to push all thoughts of my brother into the deepest part of my mind. I’d dig up that grave later. I’d deal with it all later…
“What do I need to know?” I asked, my voice still painfully ripped to shreds.
“Dammit, Jaxs. Give her a fucking minute,” Hael growled, not taking his eyes off me, and I realized he was still worried about the edge, about how close I was hovering over it.
I looked to Jaxs, hoping he’d answer.
“You’re kinda the Queen of Moriann now,” he said, leveling a straight face with me. “I don’t know whatever this is you’re dealing with,” he gestured toward Dahes, “but you need to do something with the monsters.”
I followed his gaze and stared at the hundreds of punctures I repeatedly stabbed into Dahes’ body. He was covered in red blood. I watched as it seeped down him and onto the stone of the landing pad.
I was covered in it too, completely drenched that it looked like I bathed in it.
It was the start of the Viridis moon when I first stepped out here, and now the Ignis was in the sky, which meant another hour had to have passed from when I came outside.
An hour of me stabbing him, an hour of me sobbing as I put all my anger into slicing as much of his flesh apart as I possibly could.
I realized it would never be enough. I wanted to bring him back to life just so I could do it all over again. I wanted to cut him again and again until there was nothing left…
But Jaxs’ words.
‘Queen of Moriann’ and ‘do something with the monsters’.
“What do you mean?” I stuttered, looking up at him.
“I don’t know if it’s because you were the one who killed him,” Hael said gently, and I whipped my gaze to him, “or if it’s because you have some of him living in you.”
He was staring right at me—at the rings around my eyes. I didn’t get the chance to tell Hael about it. Most people just assumed it was part of my coloring, the blue blended in seamlessly with my natural gray. But somehow Hael knew. He always seemed to know even without me speaking.
He waited, waited for realization to dawn, for Jaxs’ words to fully sink in.
“Queen?” I breathed, falling backwards on my heels. Hael jumped, a shimmer erecting behind my back the second I moved.
“You have your magic now?” I asked. Maybe I should have been more concerned that if it wasn’t for his shield, I would have fallen to my death.
Hael nodded, but didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. His deal with Dahes ended the second I killed him.
And so did mine.
He slowly walked toward me like he was scared I would really jump. He didn’t drop his shield, and I realized, I must be even worse off than I felt.
“Look,” he said softly, pointing down past the edge of the pad.
I turned on my heel, taking a tiny step back so my feet were actually planted on the stone instead of his shield.
“I don’t know when the shift happened, but they all just stopped fighting a few minutes ago.”
I stared down at the cresting mountains, the stairwell was built high into the start of the swells of the Drakin Cascades, and my jaw was nearly on the ground.
Every single monster had slithered, crawled, walked, or flown to the start of the range.
They were surrounding the stairs, all looking up and waiting. Expecting…
“They’re waiting for orders,” Hael said, as he came to stand next to me.
“Yeah,” Jaxs added, “so if you can send them all back to Hell, like right now, that would be nice. I’m fucking tapped out today.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want it,” I said. “I don’t want any of it.”
I wanted to get as far away from Dahes as I could. I didn’t want his title, his castle, his kingdom, and I certainly didn’t want his monsters.
“I know,” Hael said softly. “I’ll help you figure it all out. We’ll do it together.”
“Queen of the Dead and King of the Living,” Jaxs uttered, “and they can’t even get rid of the monsters.”
I looked up at Hael, my gaze snapping to his. “Elion was my father,” he said, then added more softly, “I made the mistake of telling Jaxs already.”
He held out his hand, waiting for me. “I’ll help you,” he said, “with everything. We’ll do it together.”
I took his hand, wrapping my fingers between his, as I realized yet again we were going through the same thing.
All the monsters and beasts now answered to me. I could control them, I could get them to do anything I wanted, which for now was sending them all back to the lower belly of Dahes’—my—castle.
I assumed the magic binding them to me worked the same as the Vinculum bond because the moment I thought the command, they obeyed.
I didn’t know what to do with them. I knew leaving them locked up wasn’t the answer, but I couldn’t just let them roam freely.
Except, they were different. At least the little glimpses I had noticed. They weren’t so bloodthirsty. They were still monsters that needed to eat, but they didn’t seem nearly as ruthless as I once had believed.
The sentries were the only ones I knew what to do with. Standing on the ledge, I gave my order immediately, setting them all free.
I knew every single one of them hated what happened to them, that what Dahes did was a curse and not a saving act of grace. I watched the metal melt as some became ghosts and drifted toward Moriann, toward the river, while others got their bodies back.
However they came into the armor was how they came out of it. Some alive, some already dead.
I nearly sagged when I watched their mouths and eyes reform, their skin regrowing as every ounce of armor peeled off.
But as for everything else, I had no idea what to do.
We knew we wanted the two kingdoms to be combined.
Hael suggested that we leave Moriann for the monsters and dead and bring everyone up to Viven, but some part of me couldn’t do it.
There were too many memories there, too much hurt, that it felt wrong to leave it abandoned.
It was the resting place for the dead, and Masin was…
I sucked in a breath, not letting myself go there, not yet.
I was going to make Moriann thrive. I was going to rebuild everything from the ground up. I’d destroy the Dark Market caves, eliminate crime, work to eradicate poverty, and build more homes.
I wanted there to be a choice. That anyone could easily decide if they wanted to live in Moriann or Viven, or at the very least, I wanted Moriann to be a peaceful place someone could visit if they needed to connect to the dead.
It would take time, but we had time.
We had all the time in the world.