Chapter 8 Samkiel
SAMKIEL
I paced, rubbing at my eyes and the bridge of my nose. I’d never felt more defeated, and we hadn’t even truly begun.
“Roccurem.” My voice resonated through the castle, through the walls, through the world.
I hadn’t meant to yell like that. I stopped and looked up, listening.
My mate’s sleeping heartbeat remained steady.
I should have been resting beside Dianna, but no matter how exhausted or spent my body was, sleep eluded me.
A sphere of speckled darkness shimmered into existence. It formed smaller than usual, quivering and seeming to struggle to maintain its cohesity as it coalesced into the fate’s form. My concern for Roccurem’s health was yet another thing constantly weighing on my mind.
“You summoned me, my liege?”
My gaze raked over him, checking for any signs of distress.
Nothing was apparent, but then I wasn’t sure what illness would look like in a fate.
I didn’t comment on the flower bracelet wrapped around his wrist. I knew he had been in the city with Miska.
When I’d seen her earlier, she’d been wearing several of them on both arms. It seemed she had finally made friends her age, but she would never exclude Reggie.
A soft smile warmed my lips, and it was such a relief to feel something good after my encounter with Isaiah.
If she could be happy and unburdened by the world, I would keep fighting to make it better for her and all the Miskas in all the realms.
“Talks with your brother did not go well?”
Startled, I looked up at him. That word was still so foreign to me. Unir had hidden so much, had so many secrets, but even as I’d held that blade to Isaiah’s throat, I could feel the connection between us. Gods, I could even see it. He had our father’s eyes, Kaden’s eyes.
“Isaiah is arrogant.”
Reggie made a noise low in his throat. “Hmm, it is as they say. It’s almost as if you two are related.”
“Watch it,” I said, scowling at him.
A spark of humor flashed across Roccurem’s face, gone as quickly as it came.
He had changed after Dianna released him from the prison Unir created for him, and I wondered just how deep that change went.
They had grown close, that closeness making me a jealous fool at first, but then I was envious of anyone or anything that claimed her attention.
I sighed and ran a hand across my head before sitting behind the large desk, frowning at the accumulation of scrolls, worn books, and scattered pages littering the wooden surface.
I had spent so many hours researching houses and their descendants.
Now, it all mocked me and my failed attempts at order and peace.
“You gave my father counsel before. One of the many reasons he locked you away, yes?”
Reggie stared at me, blinking only once before answering. “Yes.”
“I need that now.”
He glanced at the ceiling before looking back at me. His face drew distant. “Your scent is so entwined with hers, yet here you pace while she sleeps. You’re upset.”
“To put it lightly,” I sighed, “specters haunt the love of my life, one of them my dead father. My family is lost, brainwashed, and being used as weapons. The ones I have managed to rescue are locked up in my dungeon, still suffering. Every attempt I have made to communicate with the seven remaining realms has failed. No matter that I speak of peace and a life free of her tyranny, the lords and ladies either deny my request to meet, threaten outright aggression, or are horrifically rude. In all cases, they have made it abundantly clear they have no intention of switching sides. Isaiah, while annoying, may be correct. My return means nothing. So, yes, I am upset.”
Reggie nodded and sat in one of the two chairs before the desk. He relaxed, placing his hands on his crossed legs.
“I’m supposed to be this beacon of hope, give people peace upon my arrival, yet … I’m an utter disappointment,” I said. “Maybe Isaiah is right. Maybe I am a failure.”
Reggie shook his head and cast his eyes upward again. “If the woman sleeping above heard how you’re speaking of yourself, she would grind the creature in the dungeon to ash or some other nefarious act I can’t fathom to prove her love and your worth.”
I smiled, tapping my knuckles on the armchair. He was right. Dianna’s protectiveness of me equaled what I felt for her.
“You see it differently than it should be,” Reggie said, drawing my attention back to him.
“How should I see it?”
“They follow your sister out of fear and respect, not love as they did your father.”
My knuckles tapped against my desk. “Yet I am treated with such hostility. It’s as if these realms aren’t coated in my family’s blood. In both their creation and protection, we bled for them.”
“Another reason they are sworn so faithfully to her, but it’s not the only one,” Reggie said, staring at me.
Resting my elbow on the arm of my chair, I sighed and rubbed my hand across my face. “I don’t know what I expected when the gates opened with my death, but it wasn’t this. I thought perhaps the realms would be in turmoil, or maybe that there would be nothing left at all.”
“A lot has passed between the stars while you were locked away.”
“Which was not my fault,” I said. “I didn’t leave on purpose, nor did I know where I would end up when I destroyed Rashearim.”
“I know.”
“Maybe I should have tried harder to come back. That is my fault.”
Reggie’s eyes softened. “You are a young king who has merely started.”
I huffed a laugh. “Young? You’re about a few hundred years too late to describe me as young, Roccurem.”
“Time is measured by mortals. Their lives are brief, and each day is precious. Time doesn’t have the same meaning for immortals.
You have barely begun, my liege. Everything is happening as it was meant to.
To dwell on the what ifs or what could have been will not affect what is now and what is to come. ”
My finger slid across my chin as I studied him.
My father had locked him away because not only did his visions predict what was to come, but he used them to help those he was not supposed to.
He was meant to watch and relay, not shape or change.
Yet, here I was, asking him for help. It was impossible to force a fate to do anything.
Reggie risked everything because he believed in something better.
Or, perhaps, it is the dark-haired vixen who owns my very soul he breaks the rules for.
“Have your visions gotten better?”
Reggie blinked. “Still the same as before, my liege. Scattered words and images that are far too blurry to perceive.”
“Perhaps in time they will get better, return fully even,” I said, dropping my hands in my lap.
“Perhaps,” Reggie agreed.
I fidgeted with my wedding band as another thought crossed my mind.
“Isaiah also believes that bringing Dianna with me was a mistake.”
Reggie nodded. “It is an uncomfortable truth but one she knows as well.”
“You think Dianna being there shaped their minds against me?” My jaw set. “She is my wife and queen. She is more than that, even. Dianna is my mate, and I am not complete without her. The thought of not including her is a ridiculous notion.”
“I understand, but they do not.”
Anger swelled and churned in my gut. “Yet Nismera’s legion has members of the Otherworld scattered about? That is okay?”
“They see it as unification,” Reggie said, waving a hand at me. “Even if it is not truly.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “They will treat Dianna with as much respect as they give to any born or crowned ruler. If they do not, I will no longer seek allies or peace.”
Reggie nodded. “That, I am very much aware of as well, my liege. All I am saying is while they may have deemed you the World Ender, you have never used your powers with evil intent. Nismera has no care if she causes harm. She collected hard, cruel generals and commanders who only feared her. The people of the realms have learned that to rise against her is to face annihilation.”
I rubbed at my face. “They rationalize it all. They don’t even seem to see what is happening.
She forced them to her will with fear, then used their basic needs to keep them loyal.
They are like starved hounds, blindly loyal for mere scraps.
I saw Ivers’s estate. He has accumulated wealth beyond reason.
When Lord Orble ruled, he barely accepted a few silver pieces from my father.
He loved the sea and helping others, while his son has grown rude, crass, and spoiled. ”
“With all due respect, my liege, it is more than that,” Reggie started, the look in his eyes warm even if the words that followed were not.
“In the eyes of the realms and beyond, you have failed. You have lost The Hand, some think permanently. Your crown sits atop Nismera’s head.
And worst of all, you’ve aligned yourself through blood and marriage to one of the realms’ greatest enemies. ”
The air in the room stilled and became charged. The violence I felt was not directed at Reggie but at the truth of his words. “Dianna is not these realms’ enemy, but if their mistreatment of her continues, I shall be.”
“You asked for my counsel, and I shall give it. She is but one reason,” Reggie said.
“If any of them were to oppose Nismera, it would mean certain death, and not just for them, but their entire lineage. Nismera is cruel and foul. She’d hang women, men, and children if it meant keeping her subjects in line, and then she’d sleep as though it never happened.
Nismera is formidable, with vast armies that cover land and air.
She intends to rule it all, and she has no intention of allowing anything to stop her. ”
“You’re not helping,” I grumbled, rubbing at my tired eyes.
“I am telling you all this so you understand that you are going to have to show them they have a chance against her. You are going to have to best her or, at the very least, land a strike against her. None have ever done so, and they have witnessed the rise and fall of rebels before. Their hope is as void as the rock-strewn space of the Eastern realms.”
He didn’t say the words exactly, but I understood his meaning. They didn’t think I had a chance against her. The last time she and I fought, not only had she nearly taken my head, but Rashearim died with it, my father died with it.
“I need allies. Powerful ones.”
Reggie nodded, his hands clasped on his lap. “Yes.”
“If the houses won’t bend, that sets us back tenfold.”
Reggie nodded solemnly. “Perhaps you should look to the ones you have helped so far?”
My brow rose. “You mean the prisoners I released? They are now spread far and wide, probably hiding as they should.”
Reggie smiled. “My point exactly. Even the desperate speak of saviors. That may garner you more favor than showing up and demanding it. Start with the ones forgotten, just as you were. Help those she abandoned. Show them that the rightful, honorable king has returned and work from there.”
I released a shuddering breath. “I’ll try.”
Reggie clicked his tongue. “And try to curb the arrogance as well.”
A short laugh burst from me. “You’re not allowed to hang out with Dianna any longer.
You’re picking up on her attitude.” Reggie smiled as I stood up and stretched.
“Speaking of which, her birthday is coming up, and I need to finish a few things. If she wakes before I return, tell her I am in the city.”
Reggie nodded as I headed to the door. “I do believe you’ll win this war. I only fear it may take what’s left of your good heart.”
I stopped in the doorway and turned back. Fate stared at me, his expression not one of earnest pride as I had come to expect but with something that resembled sadness. “Is that a premonition?”
“Merely an observation.”