A Truth of Dark Umbras (The Chronicles of Imiryion #2)

RECAP

Blaise

Oh, hey there. Missed me, didn’t you?

I mean, it’s me we’re talking about after all, so of course you missed me.

It’s okay; don’t be shy now.

I get that a lot.

I’m a catch, after all, aren’t I?

Anywaaay, there’s a method to my madness (always), so I’m not actually here to brag about my good looks or devilish smile (but we know I possess both, girl).

I’ve been tasked with the critical mission of reminding you what happened in A Foretale of Silver Fables, so you can delve straight back into the action without wondering who is who (besides me, of course) or what happened last.

And who else but the stunning second-in-command to take on such a monumental task?

So, without further ado, let’s go down the rabbit hole.

Your boy here serves the Vampire King of Wrahta. Wrahta is one of the three kingdoms of Imiryion, together with Ryawarath—the kingdom of the Fae, and Reweroth; the human kingdom.

Fae and vampires have hated each other for centuries. Many wars have been fought, and many have died, including my human family. Not fun.

Humans ran away to their island kingdom, and a deceitful peace treaty ensued.

Now, remember the prophecy, right?

A chosen Fae called the Foretold One will be born under a bleeding sky, and she shall bear the burden of saving or dooming the realm. How? Well, by joining or defeating my boy Killian, the Vampire King, the Crimson One, the Lord of Darkness and Broodiness.

Okay, that last one might not be an official moniker, but it suits him, right?

So, once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away…no, wait, that’s another story…

A few months ago, in this very kingdom, Killian tasked me with finding the Foretold One—Aurora Vaureghain. He had some business to discuss with her, you know, enacting the prophecy and saving the world from doom.

Nothing major.

I, of course, went on my way, located the Vaureghain daughter, kidnapped her, and brought her to Sangeries Castle, Killian’s home.

Only well, there was a minor hitch. A teeny-tiny misunderstanding.

Nobody told me there were two Vaureghain daughters.

Twins at that.

So, I kind of, maybe, by mistake, abducted the wrong sister. Oopsie.

Aimee Vaureghain.

Now she’s a real smoke-show.

Beautiful.

Sassy.

Fierce.

Safe to say, she hated our guts.

The mix-up obviously displeased Killian, but he decided she might be of use to us anyway, to draw out her sister from hiding.

So, Aimee became his unwilling guest, and I took any chance I got to needle her.

It was so much fun to see her all worked up, fuming and throwing metaphorical daggers left and right.

Okay, okay. I might have flirted a lot with her at first, but only until it was abundantly clear that Killian was interested in her more than just as bait to get to her sister.

Others in the castle were not so thrilled about her presence. Mainly Leilah, our torturer extraordinaire, a vampiress that had a century-old obsession with Killian.

Gods, I really disliked that clingy bitch.

Anyway, after a while, Killian left to capture a former friend of ours who was under the mental manipulation of our enemy, Morweena. During that time, Aimee ambushed me one night, having the preposterous (yet extremely flattering) idea that we should sleep together.

I did something very uncharacteristic of me and refused her advances.

It was painful.

Did I mention she’s a smoke-show? Wowza!

But I would never betray my King, who’s like a brother to me. He’s also my maker, and I ended up telling her my sob life story of how I ended up being a vampire the same night the Fae army massacred my whole family.

Yep, you read that right. Vampires are painted as the big bad guys in this realm, but it’s the Fae that are the real motherfuckers.

When Killian returned to the castle with our newest prisoner, Vladymyr, I told him about my run-in with Aimee, and he confronted her. They were in the middle of a heated exchange when guards barged in to let Killian know the prisoner had escaped.

A wide manhunt ensued, and Aimee was supposed to stay put in the safety of her chamber.

Only she didn’t.

She went snooping through the castle, and of course she ended up face to face with the prisoner. That’s how she found out about onpyrs, brainwashed vampires that answered to a sinister creature called Morweena.

Killian swooped in, saved the day, slaughtered the onpyr and took a shaken Aimee to her room.

Now, I wasn’t there, so this is not a first-hand account, but I heard she kissed him first. Go, kitty cat!

That night, Killian finally confessed to Aimee the destruction we were facing at the hands of Morweena and why he was relentlessly searching for Aurora, hoping she would aid him in defeating the evil creature.

Aimee, bless her heart, decided she wanted to help us and started training with yours truly. It was fun to kick her ass, but she got better at it bit by bit.

While Killian was in Ryawarath, conducting another search for the savior-sister, Aimee got attacked by Leilah on her way to training. It was my time to shine and rescue our favorite kitty-cat from the clutches of the bat-shit crazy stalker ex of Killian.

Unfortunately, Killian didn’t have time to check on Aimee upon his return because we had to leave urgently for the North of the kingdom to protect a city called Dithrau from an onpyr attack.

After a gruesome battle, we returned victorious, and I decided to get shitfaced in celebration. Aimee wanted to join me, but a jealous Killian rejected the idea and took her out in Drovillan, our capital city.

I heard through the grapevine that Killian, the big softie, told her his life story and how he became the ruthless Vampire King. They were about to kiss again, but got rudely interrupted by a group of onpyrs that attacked them and hurt Aimee.

Fucking cockblocks.

Killian summoned his main male character energy and single-handedly defeated the perpetrators, although one escaped.

He rushed Aimee back to the castle, where our healers worked their magic on her, and she was as good as new.

Now, the next part, I will not reproduce because, hey, guess what, sometimes I can be a gentleman. Let’s just say they held hands very, very intensely, and that triggered one of Aimee’s traumatic memories from her past.

So she pushed Killian away once again, emotionally, but she wasn’t opposed to more hand-holding at night.

Gods, these kids, making everything so complicated!

They spent a few weeks like that, ignoring their growing feelings for each other. I minded my own business mostly, trying hard not to hit them behind their heads for acting like immature twats.

Aimee kept training, and she ended up being a decent opponent. She even got me on my back a few times.

No, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter, girl!

We continued searching for Aurora, dead end after dead end, while the onpyr threat was constantly breathing down our scrumptious necks.

Then one night, Killian finally manned up and confessed his feelings, and surprise, surprise, Aimee didn’t push him away anymore. About Godsdamn time, if you asked me!

The next morning, Aurora Vaureghain showed up at our doorstep, out of hiding.

I rushed to break the good news to Killian and almost caught them mid hand-holding, ahem. That was awkward. I should probably learn to knock first before entering a bedchamber. I will have to explore that further during my weekly mind treatments.

The turn of events thrilled Killian. Aimee, not so much.

Nevertheless, we greeted the Foretold One, who seemed more than relieved to find her sister in one piece. She agreed to discuss the prophecy with Killian over a lavish dinner and asked me rather non-courteously to take her to her rooms to rest.

I’m not some low-class errand boy, so, as much as I usually enjoy a bossy female, Aurora Vaureghain grated on my nerves.

Somehow she jumped to the conclusion that there was something going on between me and Aimee, and she kept prying, pushing for me to confess. I didn’t give her an answer either way. I don’t kiss and tell, and I wasn’t even the one doing the kissing in this instance.

Sorry, I’m getting off track here.

So the dinner. Yeah, that was a total shitshow.

While I was devising a plan of action with Marhus, one of Killian’s generals, to prepare for battle against Morweena, a reluctant Aimee and a hopeful Killian had dinner with Aurora.

From what I gather, Aurora was more interested in flirting and trying to touch Killian than discussing the prophecy or her role in helping defeat the onpyrs.

Things went south fast, and Aimee’s sister showed her true colors. Not a pretty sight.

She turned from a worried, doting sister to a deranged, jealous abuser in no time. She kept spewing nonsense about Killian choosing the wrong love interest yet again, which was such an odd thing to say, as they had never met before.

But the final straw was when she straight-up mentioned, without an ounce of remorse, that she had caused all of Aimee’s past trauma.

Killian reacted.

Tensions were high.

Insults were thrown like yesterday’s leftover meat, and something unforeseeably absurd happened.

The Foretold One transformed into Morweena.

Yep, read that again.

Nobody saw that coming, nor the onpyr attack that followed. The bitch had snuck around the castle and freed our onpyr prisoners, turning Leilah into one of them as well.

I arrived at the battle scene with Marhus and our guards just as Killian and Morweena were fighting for life and death. We delved into the fray, fighting our way towards our King and a frightened Aimee, but tragedy struck.

Marhus was the first to succumb to those monsters, thrown into Morweena’s clutches, and he lost himself before our eyes. There was nothing left in him but that bitch’s evil will, and I had to end him.

Kill or be killed.

That’s how it’s always been in Imiryion.

Still, it hurt to be the one to behead a creature that just minutes prior was someone I could call a friend.

A brother in arms.

Found family.

But during a battle, there’s no time to dwell on such emotional matters, not while the enemy comes at you unrelenting. Not as one onpyr had reached Aimee, and Killian lost his focus to save her. Especially not as Morweena took advantage of that second to throw herself at him and infect his mind.

Just as the tide of battle was turning against us, something terrifyingly amazing happened.

Aimee exploded into a darkness so pitch-black, you couldn’t even see your soul leaving your body. Agonized screams resounded all around, and when the darkness receded, it left charcoal piles of goo where the onpyr had been prior.

Aimee had powers.

She was the true Foretold One.

She saved our asses.

Yet Killian imprisoned her and tasked me with babysitting while she was in a comatose state for two days. And when she woke up, I had to be the bearer of bad news. Killian wanted to hear nothing from her. No explanations. No excuses.

He just wanted her gone.

Fate had other things in mind, however. News arrived from the Fae kingdom of a change in rulers and the marriage of the new King with none other than Aurora Vaureghain.

That cursed bitch is the new Fae Queen, and your favorite couple needs to sort their shit fast, or we’re utterly fucked.

And not in the way I enjoy!