Chapter 39 The Birth of a Queen #2
Taking advantage of the moment I hold the reigns, I slowly back away.
“If you are my father, then I want nothing to do with you,” I spit, venom leaking into the air, his shadows instantly swirling and pushing it away.
“You killed my mother. Murdered your own fated mate like she was nothing! You are dead to me!”
His dark hair falls into his eyes as he tilts his head to the side.
“Everything you have been told is a lie, my sweet daughter,” he says, circling me like a predator about to devour its prey.
“You see, I brought you here to help me in getting your mother back.” He stops in front of me, too close, too much vulnerability in his energy for his words to be anything but truth.
“My mother is dead,” I whisper, gazing up at him but no longer wanting to back away, because as much as I hate to admit it, I would do whatever it takes to meet her, especially after losing everyone else.
He gazes up at the moon, and as his shadows pour from him, the moon is swallowed whole for a moment. Then he reels his power in and allows the light to return.
“Your mother is not dead. Her soul is trapped in the pit of The Underworld, and we can bring her back.” Placing his hands on my shoulders, the hard lines of his face, the one shaped exactly like my own, soften.
“The realms need a villain, dear daughter, and that is where you come in.” The softness fades, the crimson glow of his eyes swirling and stealing my attention.
“Why is she trapped in the pit? There has to be another way. I will not be your villain.” I curl my hands into fists at my sides, planting my feet firmly in the dirt, refusing to let him make me the monster he wants me to be.
He clicks his tongue and shakes his head.
“I was afraid you might say that, so let us make a bargain, then. Accept it now if you care for your lover, because I will not offer it again.” Backing away, he clasps his hands behind his back.
“Be the villain, Nyx. Be the monster I need you to be while I pull the strings in the background. The ones who call themselves royalty, the ones lying to their realms about their true identities might I add, cannot know I am free. Erebus is dead to them and shall stay that way. Knowing I am alive means knowing I seek revenge for their heinous acts against myself and the one I love, and I would rather their downfall be a delightful surprise.” He swallows, eyes shifting above my head to the twinkling stars visible now that the storm clouds have faded away.
“What the hell did they do to you? What happens if I refuse?” The serpents hiss in my ear, unhinging their jaws and then snapping their mouths closed near my face, a threat or a warning, I am not sure. “If you want revenge so badly, why not go after them yourself? You do not need me.”
“I offer you the bargain out of the kindness of my heart because you are my flesh and blood, but if you refuse, then Hekate will die right along with everyone else who destroyed my life and my home.” Eyes pinned on me, his jawline clenches, his fingers flexing at his sides.
“I would love nothing more than to watch the witch who betrayed me burn with the others, but I will let her live for you. My daughter.”
Anger surges through me, flames igniting in my palms and crackling with fury.
They are no longer bright and beautiful, but fully black now and icy like the feel of my father’s power.
I stare down at them, considering his words.
No matter the cost to my soul, the stains left on my withered heart, I would do anything to keep Hekate safe.
If being the villain is the price I must pay, then I will pay it gladly for her.
“Who betrayed you so, father, that you feel the need to use your own daughter in your diabolical plan for revenge? Tell me everything.” My flames flicker out, and I swallow back the fear, the absolute terror of accepting my fate. “I accept your bargain. Just please, let her live.”
He nods once and then steps in closer. “My dear old mother and father destroyed my life, Nyx. And my brother,” he huffs a laugh, shaking his head.
“Well, it was him who destroyed my heart by siding with them over me, stealing away the last bit of hope I clung to. He is who must suffer worst of all. I will smile as I watch his world fall apart, helpless to do anything to stop it.” Shadows emerge, tendrils whispering in the air, searching for a target, his brother I assume, who is not here.
“What are your parents’ names?” I ask, and my muscles stiffen in fear, mind racing to put pieces together, clues or signs or anything to point to who it could possibly be.
“You know them well, or at least you believed you did.” His head tilts and he takes another step forward.
“My mother is queen Gaia and my father is king Ourahnus. The betraying fools who have now also betrayed their own granddaughter. I should not be surprised.” His fingers twitch and then clamp into tight fists at his sides near the hilts of curved three-pointed weapons strapped there.
“That is impossible,” I breathe, more to myself than to him. “We would know of another son.”
“You know of the only son they accept as their own. The one who they believe is the perfect example of what a celestial should be. The one they chose to rule one day when it was always meant to be me.” Shadows skate across the grass, reaching the tree line and smashing into the large trunks of them, snaking around them until they splinter and creak and come tumbling to the ground.
“No. I do not believe it. It cannot be true. It has always only been...”
“Kairos,” he spits through clenched teeth, his dark power searching my mind and pulling the word out the moment I think it.
“My brother and my betrayer. The saint. The son of gods who will one day be crowned king. The forgotten god of fate and time who fucked me over eternally.” His power surges, the twinkle of the stars dimming as small clusters of them are ripped from the sky by his shadows.
Kairos abandoned me in the cave, bleeding and scared after his parents commanded him to do so, and though I hate him for it, I do not wish for him to die.
He was kind to me even when others were not.
He trained me to fight when others were too fearful to come anywhere near me.
Oh gods, I cannot let him do this. I fear his wrath, his vengeance, will not only destroy the three of them, but will likely destroy them all.
“Your thoughts are not wrong. I wish to slowly, and painfully, destroy them all.” His shadows retreat, the darkness wrapping around me, numbness again replacing anything I might feel or think.
“I see you are having second thoughts. Your heart is too gentle, dear daughter, and unfortunately, mine has no room for gentleness or compassion for any of them any longer.” Warm eyes darken to crimson, his lips curving up into a smile that one should not wear while breaking their own daughter.
But that is what he has done. What he will do. He will break me.
“Please,” I beg, fighting against the power that is much too strong, too foreign to know how to begin to fight it.
I cannot move now unless he allows me to. Cannot breathe without his power within letting me. I am a weapon to him, and he will use me as he pleases. I never had a fucking choice.
“I am not just your father, Nyx. I am the beginning and the end.” Golden eyes meet mine and his charming, deceitful smile flashes briefly.
“I am not only king of The Underworld, but the God of Shadows and Darkness. The devourer of light. And you, Nyx, will do as I say and say as I do until I release you. Fight it if you wish, but it will only hurt more to hold onto the past. I can help you forget.”
Images flash in my mind, ones of Hekate and I together and happy, her face slowly fading from each memory and ceasing to exist in them as if she were never there at all.
No! Please, do not take her from me. I need her to exist! I cannot exist in a world where she does not!
Screaming does not work. The words do not leave my lips like I intended them to, instead they echo back to me, crashing against a thick wall of darkness where I am trapped within my own mind.
I am nothing. Non-existent unless I play by his rules, and dead like the others, if I disobey or betray him.
The memories of her return and I thank the gods above for not letting her fade away, the same gods who do not care about what happens to me now and the ones who will one day be victims of my fathers’ wrath.
I do not dare to speak in my mind or fight against his power, too afraid to lose her for any amount of time ever again.
I stay silent as he offers me his hand, dark magic releasing its tight grip on my mind, a test to see if I will play by his rules or risk it all to fight or flee.
He waves a hand and opens a portal, the inky black swirl of it hypnotizing in a way.
What lies within it seems to call me home.
He raises a hand, gesturing toward it with a graceful elegance that looks strange on a man like him.
He is the most beautiful yet powerful and terrifying creature I have ever encountered, and I know even if I wanted to, I could not escape him.
Nothing could compete or banish or extinguish an immortal who possesses the kind of dark, cruel power that radiates off him, let alone one who is a god.
“To your new realm, daughter, where you will now be queen in the eyes of every realm. They will all fear you and I will be proud. Your mother will be even prouder.”