Chapter 54
Chapter
Fifty-Four
Wraith entered the Necros royal family quarters. Umbra bounded forth, circling him protectively. The Bone Door clicked shut behind them.
“I really don’t want to be here,” Wraith whispered as they walked along the empty corridor.
With Konrad, he’d hoped to find a family who loved and accepted him. But apparently, that didn’t exist for him anywhere. So he was back here with the family who’d always hated him.
“Where is everyone?” He couldn’t see any servants or guards.
He walked to his mother’s room. He’d prefer to explain things to her rather than the shadow king or his siblings. His siblings would probably find the idea of Wraith being a prisoner amusing.
The shadow king would be outraged when he heard how Wraith had been treated by Konrad and his family. Not because he cared for Wraith, but because Wraith was a shadow prince of Necros. So Shadow King Lament would have to defend Wraith. His pride would demand it.
The door to his mother’s room stood open. She shook her closed hand. Bones rattled inside. She flung the bones. They scattered onto the table. She leaned forward and gazed with unblinking grey eyes.
She straightened and turned. “Wraith.” She stood and approached him, gaze flicking over him. Her plain black gown swept along the floor. “Speak. You have something important to tell me.”
Wraith cleared his throat. “Konrad and all the Draconians believe I have betrayed them and I was part of some plot to kill Konrad. But it’s not true. I never—” His throat closed up.
“I would never do that.” His voice trembled. “I would never hurt him or do anything against them.” He dropped his gaze, not wanting his mother to see the tears brimming in his eyes.
“You care for him.”
Wraith blinked rapidly.
“I saw how you looked at him. I saw how enamoured you were,” his mother said. “Your feelings for him were so obvious to all.”
Wraith shut his eyes. Tears fell. Umbra rubbed against his legs.
“You have been so foolish.”
Wraith’s eyes snapped open.
His mother shook her head. “Of course the dragon king would betray you. He hates necromancers. Did you think he would make an exception for you? Did you think you were special? Or that you had something to offer him to make him forget what and who you are?”
Wraith shook his head. “I don’t—”
“Did you really think he could love you as you loved him?”
Wraith drew back. “I didn’t say I loved him.”
She raised her brows. “So you don’t?”
Wraith looked away. “I don’t know.” He cared for Konrad. He’d developed feelings for him. And he knew he had been falling. But he’d thought he could allow those feelings to develop. That he’d confess them for Konrad when he was ready and more certain of his own feelings. And Konrad’s.
They were married. They had time. Or so he had thought. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It does actually,” she said. “Love holds a great deal of power.”
Wraith frowned. “What do you mean b—”
“Come.” She strode away, leaving her room and walking down the corridor.
Wraith followed her, Umbra at his side.
Wraith frowned. “You don’t seem surprised that this has happened.”
“I am not,” she said. “The dragons have always hated our kind. But King Konrad’s hatred of us is extreme, even for them.” She looked at him. “We will not forgive how they have treated you. The shadow king will agree with me on this.”
They approached the door that led from their rooms. Eight living Necros guards stood at attention. They were the first people he’d seen, other than his mother, since he entered these quarters.
Wraith stopped as they drew closer to the door. “The Draconians will be looking for me. They will take me prisoner if they find me. We can’t leave these rooms.”
The shadow queen pulled her shoulders back. “I will not allow my son to be a Draconian prisoner.” She looked to the guards. “You will escort and protect us.”
The guards flanked them as they left. Wraith glanced around furtively. His mother might feel confident wandering around and potentially coming across Draconians. But Wraith did not.
Would they be the cause of fighting in the White Monastery? Would these hallowed halls that had been dedicated to achieving peace be stained by spilled blood today?
His mother led him down different halls, corridors, and passages, up and down stairs, turning and twisting and going through doors. Wraith was already lost and would have no chance of finding his way back to the Necros royal family’s quarters.
“Where are we going?” Wraith asked.
“We are joining the rest of the family.”
They turned another corner. Wide stairs led downwards. Torches hung along the wall lining the staircase. Wraith’s skin tingled with awareness. “This leads to a place of death.”
“Yes.” Then she lifted her skirts and walked down the stairs.
For a second, Wraith hesitated. Why were they here? What was going on? He followed his mother. Umbra kept glancing around, clearly as uncertain as Wraith.
One of the guards ran forward and opened a door that stood at the bottom of the stairs. A long corridor lay beyond. More torches lit the way. But even with them, the corridor held so much darkness. And it seemed to just go on and on.
His mother paused. She looked at Umbra. “It’s probably best to send her away. She won’t be needed.”
Wraith hesitated. His mother raised a brow. Wraith didn’t want to send Umbra away. But he also did not wish to displease his mother. Not now when he needed her.
Wraith knelt beside Umbra and patted her head. “I’ll see you soon. Thank you for saving me back there. I love you.” Then he said, “Depart, Umbra.” He pushed his will into the words, making it an order.
Umbra barked and then disappeared.
For several moments, they walked in silence down the corridor.
“You have a choice now, Wraith, and an opportunity to fulfil your true potential and prove yourself loyal to Necros,” his mother said. “Your husband, the king of Draconia, has turned against you. He betrayed you. Now you must decide who you want to be and who you will stand with.”
Their footsteps echoed. The corridor turned. Wraith sucked in a breath. The room opened up into a large crypt. Row after row of limestone tombs filled the room. Furthermore, there were niches in the walls with plaques where more bodies had been laid to rest. This was the death he sensed.
But that wasn’t what had stolen Wraith’s breath. No. That was the undead army standing before him. Reanimated skeletons and corpses and dread knights filled the crypt.
“What? How are they here?” Wraith knew they weren’t meant to have any of their undead army at the White Monastery. And there had to be over three hundred reanimated skeletons and corpses and at least fifty dread knights.
Gerard had talked about the difficulties of getting the grand shield to allow more Draconian guards into the White Monastery. They’d had to sign contracts. There was no way the grand shield would have allowed this undead army.
At the back of the crypt, where Wraith and his mother had entered, the stone ceiling hung low.
Wraith could almost reach up and touch it.
But as the room stretched forwards, the ceiling opened up, going higher and higher until it reached the front, where a massive glass window took up two thirds of the brick wall.
Shadow King Lament, Vex, Harrow, along with other necromancers, stood towards the front of the crypt.
“Come.” His mother strode forward.
“What is this place?” Wraith asked.
“It’s a crypt for the monks,” she said as they passed through the undead army, who stood still and silent. The dread knights, however, watched them pass.
“Do the monks know we are down here?”
Necromancers tended to gravitate towards the dead, either where the remains were buried or where individuals died. It gave them additional strength. But he could not imagine the monks wanting them here.
His mother didn’t answer his question.
Wraith looked out the window as they approached it. Originally, when they’d gone down the stairs, he’d assumed they’d going underground. However, the window looked out over the monastery and its rooftops.
I really got turned around.
He recognised several features but could only name the East Tower in the distance. Then his attention refocused to what was occurring within the crypt.
The shadow king, Wraith’s siblings, and four necromancers all gathered around a large stone altar at the front of the crypt. Other necromancers stood in a line, keeping their gazes on the reanimated, who no doubt were under their control.
The four necromancers surrounding the altar stood one on each side. They all wore masks, created to look like human skulls. All wore gold amulets with large black sapphires. The black sapphires glowed, which meant they held death energy, harvested from human sacrifices.
A skeleton had been laid out and arranged neatly on the stone. Candles circled the bones.
“We call and bind you. We call and bind you. We call and bind you,” three necromancers chanted in unison.
Despite her wearing a mask, Wraith could tell that the fourth necromancer, the one not chanting, was his Aunt Shade, the high priestess. She stood by the head of the skeleton and dipped her fingers into a bowl of ash. She then leaned forward and drew something just above the skull.
“Who are they bringing back?” Wraith asked.
The shadow queen smiled. “Dragon King Alaric of Draconia.”