Chapter 44
Aryana
Aryana scaled the walls of the castle. She’d had to get past four guards in order to reach this point, taking them down swiftly one at a time and knocking them out.
Her hands dug into the cracks between the bricks, moving upward until she came to the open window of her mother’s dressing room. Her mother habitually enjoyed a slight night breeze blowing into her chambers.
Xaphoron had dropped her off in the cabin near the castle like she’d instructed, though she’d been half-conscious.
Builders had constructed the cabins for any hapless vampires caught outside during daylight hours.
And since Aryana hadn’t known how long the effects of taking Zarathos’s potion would last, she had instructed Xaphoron deliver her there.
The seizure had been terrible and for half the time, she worried he would drop her and leave her where she fell.
But he’d delivered on the bargain, anyway.
She climbed through the window and landed on the floor of her mother’s chambers, lingering in the cover of the billowing curtains, as she waited to see who might be present.
The scent of her mother’s jasmine perfume filled the air and something else, the sharp tang of human blood.
Aryana’s incisors dropped. The sounds of her mother feeding reached her.
She peered through the window coverings and saw Enela kneeling before the queen, her face tilted away.
Her mother’s lips were locked around the woman’s throat.
Candles glowed along the edges, casting flickering shadows across the burgundy drapes framing the large bed. A vanity stood beside the fireplace, where the queen now sat.
Suddenly her mother jerked back, glancing round. “Who is there?”
Before she could summon the guards, Aryana stepped out from behind the curtain, her eyes scanning the room. Aryana exhaled in quiet relief—her mother was alone. “It’s me, Mother.”
The queen’s eyes widened. She faced Enela, who had blood dribbling from her bite marks into the collar of her dress. “Go. Do not tell anyone what you have seen.”
Enela rose unsteadily and bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty.” She cast a glance toward Aryana, who offered a little wave.
Aryana trusted her to keep quiet. Most humans went motionless the moment a vampire bit them, but Enela had been a giver for years now.
Over time, she’d grown accustomed to vampire venom to the point that she had almost no reaction to the bite. It was possible but rare.
A smile played on the old woman’s mouth, something odd sparking in her eyes, and she gave a brief nod before leaving.
Aryana’s mother rounded on her, wiping blood from her lips with a handkerchief. “No. You can’t be here. You have to leave.”
“Good to see you, too.”
Her mother rose, worry etched into every line of her face. “You know what happened last time. If your uncle finds you here, he will kill you.”
“I’m aware of the risks.”
“Then why are you here?”
Aryana reached into the pouch at her side and fingered the potion there.
The real Neutrolisis Potion. After Zarathos had fallen asleep holding her, she’d stayed awake, thinking and planning.
The only way to get Zarathos through the last trial was to deliver the scepter to him.
So she had gone to Xaphoron’s room and made a deal with him, and instead of showing him the Neutrolisis Potion, she’d taken the clear liquid potion Zarathos used to suppress his incubus scent.
Which led to that seizure. Her muscles still screamed in protest with every movement.
“I’m going to reunite the demon scepter.”
Her mother shook her head, panic flaring within her eyes. “You can’t. Your uncle has spells set to alert him if anyone so much as approaches that room. You won’t make it in and out of your father’s study in time. He’ll catch you.”
“Stop pretending I matter,” Aryana snapped. “Like you or Father ever cared what happened to me.”
Her mother flinched. “Your father—”
“He always had better things to do.” It was silly that this hurt still remained when his death had destroyed her so completely. And yet the words had come out of her mouth, the feelings having festered over years of shame and pain.
A look of realization softened her mother’s expression. She stepped closer, voice quiet but firm. “Your father cared about you and your future. It didn’t always show. But he did love you.”
The words hit harder than Aryana expected. She turned her head, swallowing against the tightness in her throat. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“You must leave,” her mother insisted, her hand landing on Aryana’s arm. “Your uncle is dangerous—unless…” Her voice faltered. “Unless that demon king is controlling you. Using the effigy to force you here?”
“Zarathos destroyed the effigy.”
A flash of relief and something softer lit her mother’s face. “Are you sure?”
“He chose me,” Aryana said quietly. “He gave up everything to protect me. He didn’t have to, but he did.”
Her mother stared at her for a long moment. “Then all the more reason you should go. That kind of loyalty is rare. Don’t let Fallor’s wrath cost you your life.”
Aryana let out a bitter laugh. She wasn’t sure why so much was pouring out now. Maybe because, despite the horrors of the trials, she was finally free of her uncle’s grip, and this time, coming home, she wasn’t as broken. She was stronger. Zarathos had made her stronger.
“If Uncle is so ruthless,” she said, voice edged with steel, “how could you marry him so soon after Father’s death and give him the throne?”
Mother’s hand tightened on her arm, her expression earnest. “Your father was going to reunite with the demon kingdoms. He saw how the other demons from Kingdom Nocturne had been treated with no nation to back them, and he was in the middle of negotiations.”
Aryana stared at her. “Father was going to reunite with the demons?”
A fierce anger sparked in her mother’s crimson gaze. “But then your uncle happened.”
Aryana’s heart pounded in her ears. “What do you mean?
“It was your uncle who put Vallin in place to murder your father. After your father was killed, I suspected your uncle was behind it, and I was planning on acting against him, but then he came to me and demanded that I marry him and grant him access to the throne. Like hell I’d give it to him,” she snarled, her fingers curling inward as if she’d enjoy nothing better than to scratch out his eyes.
“But then he threatened that if I didn’t he’d kill you.
He’d taken you into his care after your father’s death, agreed to teach you how to fight.
Had even taken you away to some training camp and I…
I didn’t have a choice.” Her hands unfurled, and she looked at Aryana with despair.
“There were so many times I yearned to rebel, to tell you everything, but every time I thought about it, you were there, under his wing. Then he showed me that doll. That effigy of you and it didn’t matter how far away you were, he could…
could… I knew he hurt you and I wanted to kill him for that, but if I tried, he threatened to-to… I couldn’t let him take your life.”
“You married him to protect me?” All the years she had to put up with him knowing he’d killed her husband. Years Aryana had thought her mother was aloof and distant, that she didn’t care. She was really trying to shield Aryana from Uncle’s wrath.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” They had both suffered so much. Her mother’s love wasn’t perfect, but what love was?
“I know you, Aryana. If I told you, you’d come at him, and with the doll, with everything he held over you, I couldn’t risk that.” Her eyes pleaded with Aryana to understand. “It was silly and weak and—”
Aryana pulled her mother close. “Thank you.” The other woman had given up so much for her.
The queen stiffened in surprise, but then wrapped her arms around her daughter. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”
“You’ve done enough.” Aryana stepped back. “And you’re right, love isn’t always shown in ways we expect it to be. Perhaps Father loved me, in his own way.”
“He only ever wanted for you to be happy.” Mother wiped at her eyes. “You can’t face your uncle. His cruelty knows no bounds.”
“I must. I need to get the vampire piece of the scepter and return to the demon kingdoms.” She had to help Zarathos.
Fear and panic shone in her mother’s eyes, and she reached out, grasping Aryana’s arms. “You can’t. You can’t.”
She carefully pulled from her mother’s grasp. “I’m not leaving without the scepter piece. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it. Zarathos needs it, and I…” This had gone so far beyond bargains. Her voice softened when thoughts of her demon arch king came to her mind. “I need him.”
Her mother gazed at her in shock. “You’re in love with him.” Her jaw clenched and her shoulders squared and she nodded as if coming to a decision. “You’ve always been so damned determined. I was proud the day you recognized your uncle for the tyrant he was.”
“He never loved me or you.”
“I don’t think he did, but even if there is a part of him that does, that’s not what matters.
The way he’s treated you and me is unforgivable.
” Her gaze burned with fierceness. “Years I’ve spent in his shadow, and I suppose I’ve gotten used to hiding.
But tonight we break free, you and I. Tonight we will destroy him. ”