Chapter 29 #2
“Do you ever wonder why?” Her eyes are wide as nets cast into the sea, ready to catch me by surprise because, like most prey, I never suspect the predator will strike from above. We always think the chase is behind us.
It’s in front. Like Everett’s plans have been.
“I’ll tell you, so we don’t keep the mage waiting.” She glances down and smiles at her body. “It was because I was in Galen’s bed waiting for him.”
My eyes snap to Galen. He’s still talking to the mage, grinning and laughing, no doubt seducing.
He slept with my twin. Why am I not shocked?
I knew the beast he was when I first welcomed him into my bed.
We women always think we can change a man.
Men like Galen don’t change, and they’re too clever to try to change women like me, so they cage us instead.
It’s slow. They know if they do it in haste, we’ll fight back.
So they gradually strip us, then seduce us.
They wait until they have layers peeled back so they can steal our hearts.
Do I feel dirty? Yes. I chose to fuck him. I tried to make the marriage work. I was bored and had the audacity to think I could behave like a man—that I could sleep around for fun—without developing feelings.
I was wrong.
I do feel. Appalled, furious, vengeful, regretful. A little relieved I never fell in love with him now that I know he fucked Sable.
Galen doesn’t feel this way. Men move on; they don’t argue. They settle for higher ground while we women kick and scream and claw away at our mistakes.
Women think back; men think forward.
I force down a gulp and smack a smirk on my face. It doesn’t reach my eyes. Sable sees that.
“You say that with pride,” I respond. “If that is the truth, then you were scraps. Leftovers. People make the mistake of boasting about spoils of war, Sable. The true merit is in winning the trophy before it is passed around and soiled. I was the trophy, Sable. You were the spoils, passed around from Galen’s bed and to his men’s, no doubt. ”
My tongue tingles. I feel bad this is what has become of my twin, but I remember how dreadful and evil she is, and I’m not surprised. She is me in another reality if I had made all the wrong choices.
Sable closes the distance; her silken dress flows in the air like a wave of terror. The tip of her nose nudges mine. I don’t move. I can endure the dirty, evil version of myself.
She can’t.
“I fucked him,” she hisses. “He slept with me more often than he fucked you. Me. I warmed his bed.”
“Thank you,” I reply. Smile wider. There, she believes you.
My happiness is a trick, a rainbow. Just a reflection. Not real and concrete like the sun, like my inner feelings, which are the furthest from a smirking glow.
The angry vibrations in her chest cause mine to solidify. Did she think I’d snap and attack her? Give Galen a reason to lock me in my room and allow his court to gossip that I’ve gone feral?
Reaching up, I cup her cheek. “Did you think I would cry, Sable?” I playfully tap her nose, making her feel smaller.
She jerks back. Her hand reaches for her dagger.
I arch a brow. “Do it. Come on, you know you want to, and now you know how much I want it all to end. Grant me the mercy of not having to see your face again,” I snicker. I’ve trapped her. She knows it. If she kills me, I win. If she doesn’t, I still win.
She looks at all the people watching and tries to compose herself by pretending to adjust her belt.
“You have always wanted what I had. It’s not the first time you’ve had my scraps.
What was his name…” I pretend to forget for a moment.
“Oh yes, Claude. You slept with him after I did. He told you it was over; he wanted me back. You killed him, but his family was rather influential.” I raise my hand to rub my jaw.
She flinches, but I’m nowhere near finished.
“They tried to start an uprising. Father killed them all; well, he ordered you to. He wanted to train your death magic. Father had hoped you could kill them within minutes, but you failed. It took you five days because you were weak. Five days of rotting, decaying flesh. That dungeon smelled so dreadful that Father didn’t venture down there to see your final masterpiece.
How does it feel to know you were commissioned to make art, but then it was never gazed upon, never hung on the wall to be praised?
That’s got to be worse than never selling a piece of art at all.
” I let my attack sink in before I continue.
“You know what I learned from your failures? You think your magic is death. Death doesn’t slumber like your magic needs to. You’re just rot.”
She shakes her head, lost in a red-faced fury. “Death comes in many shapes and forms. I am death!”
“No,” I reply calmly. “You’re just rot, and that doesn’t sound so scary.” I continue, “Did Father tell you he forced me to try to bring them back, but it didn’t work?”
Suspicion marks her brow. She’s wondering why I’m admitting my failure.
I remember that night. I tried so hard to bring them back. I almost killed myself in the process. Everett stormed in and pulled me away. He and my father fought. Everett walked away with a physical scar and I with a mental one.
The truth is, my twin is stronger than I am. Death and rot are more powerful than life. Life is wind. It wrestles, roars, and tries to erode what stands in its way. Eventually, it must bow down to the other elements.
Death, oh that terrible, unstoppable beast, is water; it can rise up and rip through towns like a plague. It can seduce men, who are lost in the hot sands; it can also be calm and content as it waits to claim you—to rot you.
I’ve been as angry as a howling wind at times, knowing that Sable could kill another with her magic. She just needed to make contact with them long enough.
No matter how hard I try, I can’t bring someone back from death.
I heal. Those seeds weren’t dead; they were sleeping, so it was easy to shake them awake again.
My magic has limits.
Sable’s does not.
Sable slinks back, a snake ready to strike. The ground under her feet turns shades of sickly green as she pours her savage rot into the soil. “I’m going to take everything from you.”
“You said I had nothing,” I rebuttal. “Looks like you need to make new goals.” Chills run up my spine. Wind dances over the sweat on my brow, trying to cool me.
“You have no idea what goals I have. Everett was always a step ahead, halting me.” Sable brushes invisible dirt off her shoulder.
“Now I’m free, and there is nothing you can do to stop me.
” She aims her nose, like the tip of an arrow at my heart.
“I will watch you take your last breath with a smile on my lips, Selene. The world you love, the people you adore, our home, these stupid kingdoms—those are what I will take from you. From everyone who doubted me.”
“You’d need an army to take so much,” I reply.
“And I shall have one.”
“Your loins will be very chafed with the amount of fucking you’re going to have to do, Sable. Even then, you will fail because there is no army big enough to take every kingdom.”
“You’re right.” She turns her back to me, then she looks over her shoulder and whispers, “That’s why I will make one.”
I watch as she strolls over to my husband. Erik and Victor follow her like hounds, chomping at the bit to please their master.
Make an army?
That’s impossible… unless you had a rune that could force control over people.
Snap! Swoosh! Bang!
The mage opens the portal; Galen glances my way. Sable slips on a matching pair of silk gloves. A vampire soldier hands Erik a large crate made of old wood crudely nailed together.
“What’s that?” I shouldn’t show interest, but what does it matter now?
“King Galen told you!” Sable shouts. “Father wants the bodies of his nobles back.” She taps the crate.
Horror has me staggering back.
Sable wins this round.
Galen actually looks remorseful as he lowers his eyes to me and takes three steps forward.
“You…” I know what’s in the box. “You burned them!” Sable is bringing back their ashes.
Fae bury their dead. It’s an atrocious crime to desecrate a dead body. To burn the skin from the bones, to watch the vessel of the person become absolutely nothing. Ash that will soon be watered down and mixed with the dirt. Dirt!
Galen steps closer. “It was Sable’s suggestion,” he acknowledges.
“Sable…” A cold laugh escapes my lips. “Does Sable have a dick she wields as her scepter? Does she wear Blackthorn’s crown on her wicked head?
You are the king!” I roar as I belittle him in front of his guards.
I glare at him through hooded, spiteful eyes.
“Or did you forget that when you fucked her? Was she the one bending you over because it sure looks like it!”
His face pales, then reddens as he glares at her. Whispers start to spread among his men.
“Yes.” I nod. “She told me,” I state. “You’re not the first king she fucked, Galen, but you are the first one foolish enough to hand her an army.”
He flashes his fangs. “I gave her nothing but my cock, Selene, enough of the dramatics.” He bats his lashes. “Things could have been different had you just bent a knee.”
“Oh yes, it’s always the woman’s fault. That case might be true when I am the one hovering over your dead body, my dear, sweet husband.”
“Good,” he runs his tongue over his fangs. “We are back to our typical banter.”
You stupid fool! “I did bend a knee to you. I was foolish enough to suck your cock, too.” I step closer and allow my lips to glide over his earlobe.
“Do you know what I noticed when I looked up at you?
Weak men only feel strong when others bow down.
An intelligent man knows his true strength comes from those he allows to stand by his side.
A crown does not make a king. Remember that when someone knocks the precious metal from your head!
“Mark my words, Sable does not need to steal your crown; you're handing it to her by allowing her to leave.”
For a moment, he glances at Sable as she approaches the portal. Galen can stop this. Order Sable to remain here. Instead, he shouts, “Leave, Sable.” He waves her off.
She hesitates, then smirks at me again before she disappears with the ashes of our nobles.
I close my eyes and rest my head in my hands. Father won’t forgive this.
That’s why Galen agreed.
He’s so fucking thirsty for another war. A war to end all wars, because it won’t stop with my people. It will spread over these lands like a disease. As Galen and my father fight, Sable will be hunting down the runes; it all makes sense.
Sable coaxed this, planted the seeds as she fucked Galen.
She needed them distracted so she could figure out how to bring the runes back into the world and make her army!
That’s not all. Sable knows I’ll hunt her down and try to stop her. So she needs protection, distance, but also an army! She’d never find one here, so she had to return home so she could… take my father’s.
She’s going to kill him!
I rush forward and grab Galen’s collar. “What have you done?” I scream as I shake him.
He grabs my hands with an iron grip. “They’re just dead bodies.”
“Think beyond the bodies, you fool! There is a reason my father sent Sable here, away from him! He knew how deadly she was, how conniving and evil! If he killed her, his people would think he’s mad.
And no man of merit would wed her! He knew it was a matter of time before she tried to grab his crown, so he sent her away so he could look for a new heir.
But you just sent her back! You just handed her an empire that will tear yours down. ”
His smile is deliberately slow, like the sails of a massive fleet encroaching upon a land—a kingdom about to be thrown into the passions of death and war.
“I know,” he answers.