Queen of Vengeance (Queen of Vengeance Trilogy #1)

Prologue Jax

PROLOGUE: JAX

Jaricn Ransom made his way through the perfectly placed cobblestone streets of Theskin, keeping his head down and his hood up to avoid attracting attention. His tall stature and sharp drawing line would have been enough to attract favorable attention from women, but combined with his chosen occupation? No, if anyone got a good glimpse of him, he’d never accomplish what he set out to do today. If they knew who he was, he would be lucky to return home without an entourage of groupies—not to mention the frivolous news reports would be released the following morning. While he loved nothing more than constant press and hot ladies, wolves who dressed as if the stores ran out of fabric throwing themselves at him, now was not the time for it. Everyone wanted a piece of Jax, the Potion King. However, he was a very busy man.

He chuckled to himself, fixing his coat proudly.

The streets of Theskin bustled with merchants and coins, unlike in other parts of Carvel. Theskin was different. It was the city capital and could afford more privileges than the rest of this third-world country.

The pure white stone used to construct the towering buildings still amazed Jax.

The material was called Vermil, an expensive and hard-to-come-by commodity. Its greatest attribute was how strong the stone was. It allowed the buildings to stand so tall that they almost touched the sky.

Jax’s attention fell to the gold and silver laced accents throughout the white stone.

The rising Solare, their precious star, hit the city just right, causing an angelic glow throughout its buildings.

“Nothing beats the beauty of Theskin.” Jax gleefully thought.

“Did you hear that? The Potion King came himself and will appear today in our fair capital!”

Jax overheard one woman talking to one of the merchants.

“Oh, I hope I run into him. His looks are supposed to be the stuff of legends.” The merchant giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.

“Handsome and a genius? No wonder he’s called the Potion King. His wife is a very lucky woman.” The other woman responded, slumping her head into her hands in defeat.

Jax smirked. “Genius, huh? They speak; therefore, I am.”

Jax basked in the recognition that he had fought so hard for.

I spent my whole life climbing out of the dirty hole I was born into. A pathetic village called Dask, where only the poorest live. From being nothing better than a rat crawling on the ground to being Potionist Royalty… Nothing beats that feeling.

Years of being noticed hadn’t gotten old, and the ring of the Potion King was still as sweet to hear as the first time.

He only had about a mile left to go down the street before he reached his destination. Despite the fine black velvet of his clock and the gold trim peeking out from underneath, he did not draw much attention. He even thought he might get away with it. He was wrong. Despite his discretion, his emerald eyes flickered to the left, meeting the eyes of a woman much younger than him.

Her eyes widened as an owl, and he realized he’d made a horrible mistake.

She opened her mouth and screamed his name, “Oh, my Solara! It’s Jax Ransom!”

He scarcely had time to look around before hoards of people accosted him.

They were grabbing his hand and shaking it while speaking to him all at once.

“I—” He tried to speak, but he was sure no one could hear him like this. “You want a show?” He chuckled as he reached for a thin glass vial filled with a swirling pink and silver liquid.

His favorite trick for dazzling the masses. Years ago, he concocted a simple potion that was just as effective today.

He smashed the vial on the ground, and the hoards of people jumped back when fireworks shot up into the air.

Splashes of pink and silver exploded in the sky as the people stood in awe.

As Jax unleashed a werewolf roar, deep and primal, the sound vibrated through the air, stirring the crowd into a frenzy of cheers. His fans, a sea of faces illuminated by Lunairlight, seemed to draw even closer, their adulation feeding the beast within. His petty self-worth swelled, a tidal wave crashing through his veins, each roar and cheer binding them tighter to his will. Every day, the adoration of his fans surged like the wild, untamed forces of nature, echoing the power he felt coursing through him under the full Lunair’s gaze. It was an intoxicating brew, far headier than the muted accolades of his school days. Now, with the wealth of the lands at his feet and his name whispered in awe from the darkened alleys of Dask to the glittering spires of far-off cities, Jax basked in a glory that was not just human but legendary. The duality of his existence, man intertwined with a beast, only magnified his allure, each facet of his being drawing the crowd ever closer into the orbit of his charismatic gravity.

Jax commended himself for distracting them so quickly, then grabbed a handful of premixed Port Powder tucked away in a special purple pouch. He took a fistful and threw it at his feet.

With a disorienting boom, the crowd backed even further away with a collective gasp. When the smoke cleared, no trace of Jax remained.

Gotta love the perks of Port Powder.

He addressed the stunned mob from his new form and position in the air… as a cloud of smoke. “Ladies and Gentlemen, it is wonderful to make your acquaintance.”

Jax couldn’t help but laugh to himself, a rich, silent chuckle that bubbled up from deep within. All of his fans hung onto every word he uttered. He felt like a god in werewolf skin. “I’m humbled by this excitement.”

Yet, within the quiet corners of his mind, he knew the truth of his nature: he didn’t possess a single humbled bone in his body. The words felt almost foreign on his tongue, a necessary masquerade. To Jax, their admiration was no more than his due, a natural response to his undeniable brilliance. In that moment, as he soaked in their unwavering gaze, he saw not a group of individuals but a mirror reflecting his own greatness, an affirmation of what he had always known to be true about himself.

He watched the crowds of wealthy men and women still searching for him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw an abandoned temple and transported himself there.

The Port Powder was his closest ally when his adoring fans got too crazy.

Jax checked through a broken slit in the stone wall as his fervent fan club dispersed. He breathed a laugh as he turned around.

His eyes darted around the quiet room, and his face fell.

It was so peaceful here.

The expensive, colorful tiles on the ground were once used to form the crest for Theskin, but this place has long since been forgotten.

The building had fallen into disrepair, and the roof was all but gone, allowing the setting Solare to send beams of light through.

The warmth of the room felt like his mother’s embrace.

Jax cracked a smile, which was not something he usually did genuinely.

He walked up to a bowl sitting in the middle of an altar to the sun goddess, Solara.

Overgrown vines and flowers decorated the rim, and water filled the base, the water still enough that Jax could see his reflection in it.

I know someone who would love a place like this.

His smile faded, and his green eyes flickered away from the scene as if he no longer was worthy of looking at it.

“Why am I still thinking about her?” he mumbled to himself, for no one around could understand—no one who knew.

Amber eyes flickered into his mind—pink blushing cheeks against alabaster skin. Honey-colored curls dripping around a heart-shaped face.

Jax thought that her image would disappear with time after all these years. He was wrong.

The image of her only burned further into his mind.

She tortured him somehow. Even the distance wasn’t enough to keep her out of his mind.

“I don’t deserve to be tortured! I only did what I had to do!”

He clutched his shoulder tightly as it began to burn. It was a discomfort he had become accustomed to. He wasn’t sure if it was she who was torturing him or his actions that haunted him. All he knew was that he thought about her more often now than he ever did before.

He pulled his shirt down to look at the sigil on his shoulder.

It burned bright red but was usually black. The outside rim of the sigil was a loop of thorns, and the middle was the symbol of his goddess, Lunaira.

Jax couldn’t help but wonder if her sigil burned at her as well.

“Lea…”

LEA

The sharp, earthy scent of Dragon’s tongue and Crystellias filled my nose. These pungent herbs were unmistakable, their fragrance a constant presence in my parents’ shop.

As I inhaled deeply, memories flooded back—I was home. The familiar sights of the village of Dask unfolded around me, a place that lived in my dreams every time I closed my eyes. The village itself was modest, with nothing particularly striking to boast, yet it exuded a warmth that defied explanation.

Perhaps it was my bias, but there was something uniquely comforting about Dask. Our home was tiny, so cramped that my parents, Mema, and I often felt like we were climbing the walls, but it was ours.

What I wouldn’t give to be home again…

I breathed in again, smelling the fresh herbs my parents would dry on the window sill.

There was also the faint scent of stew bubbling away on the stovetop. My grandma often made supper while I sat at the kitchen table and wrote new potion recipes.

If I concentrated hard enough, I could feel the gentle breeze.

The promise of freedom lingered on my skin—so close but always out of my reach.

A loud metallic bang ripped me from my wonderful dream.

My eyes shot open, and the smell of flowers brought on by that gentle breeze became a distant memory once again.

Instead, the horrible scent of mold and gangrene filled my nostrils.

My claws protruded from my fingers, and my teeth sharpened as they sprouted from my gums.

My shift kicked in instinctually, and I had to restrain it. It wouldn’t do me any good here… Probably get me beaten, if anything.

The guard trudged down the hall, banging his baton against the cell bars. His shout echoed down the otherwise empty hallway. “Get up! Get up!”

That meant it was close to eating time, but first, we had to wait for the guards to check all the cells before releasing us.

The only other sounds that stretched for miles and miles of cells were the moans and crying of those losing their mind and the dripping of water onto the stone floor.

My cell was one of the quieter ones.

All the prisoners in this cell had gotten close during our time, and they trusted me a great deal. That was important in a place like this.

My body ached from the cold, hard floor as I sat up slowly. It was the only thing I wasn’t used to after all these years.

I moved my hand around the floor until I found the far wall of my cell while my other cellmates were getting up.

My fingers ran along the bottom until I found the small divet in the otherwise perfect slab of rock. My fingers ran up along the crack until I felt the brush of soft leaves and stems.

I leaned close to it, inhaling the strong scent of mint.

This was my only point of sanity: a single stem of mint that grew up from the ground and broke through the rock to reach me.

Mint, after all, was a resilient weed that could grow through anything. Out of all the cells here, it came to me. It was a small, seemingly insignificant thing that acted as my only glimmer of hope in this place.

It was the reality of being imprisoned in the Federation of Setas’ most inhumane prison, Ryklira.

We only had the light from the barred windows.

During the night, we were in total darkness.

If we saw any kind of light during the night, it was because they were coming to take one of us somewhere else.

Where they were taking them, I didn’t want to know.

I didn’t know how this little stem of mint survived. I liked to think it was someone outside sending me a message.

Fifteen years ago, when they first placed me here, I thought I would lose my mind.

That was what they wanted me to do anyway, but I found that if I kept my mind focused on something, I could surpass the torturing done to me.

And there was one thing that occupied my mind like nothing else. It was more scarring than the sanitation showers and more diabolical than their interrogations… My insatiable need for vengeance and the monster put me here.

My whole body burned with the rage that had been my closest companion these fifteen years in prison.

I turned away from the mint, not wanting to sully the scent with my anger.

Every day, it grew stronger.

If I ever escaped these damn walls, I would stop at nothing to make him pay.

That bastard, Jax Ransom…

My shoulder burned.

It was the sigil of the pact we made as kids, and it always burned me whenever I thought of him.

With any luck, it burned him, too. I hoped it kept him up at night.

The anger blazed through me until I couldn’t sit anymore.

I jumped to my feet and climbed onto the bars across my ceiling, where the stone stopped.

It was only a few feet of bars, but it was enough to train my body and keep me occupied. If not, I would have wasted away here.

I laced my legs through and hung there for a moment, leveling my breathing and focusing my energy on my core.

I always write potions better under pressure… That meant this place made me one of the best potion writers in the world. Unfortunately, I had limited resources, and it was against the rules to practice potion mixing within the prison walls. I could only write down recipes. Luckily, I had practiced so much in school that I could predict the effectiveness of a potion just based on its ingredients.

“Lea.” A familiar voice called out to me from the corner of the cell. She sounded frightened.

“Dineta, what is it?” I answered while unthreading my legs and lowering myself from the cell bars.

Dineta was my closest friend in this place.

My feet hit the stone and caused a shock of pain to spike up my calves.

“You know, without proper nutrition, you burn up more energy than you consume. You might end up doing serious damage to your body.” Dineta’s wisdom was well placed, but it was too early in the morning to be reprimanded. “Why don’t you wait until you eat, at least?”

“My other option is to go crazy and kill a cellmate.” I shot my gaze in her direction and winked.

“In that case, don’t let me stand in your way.” She flashed a smile and threw her hands up in defeat.

I managed to crack a smile, but it felt like a betrayal to my entire being.

It’s strange. I used to smile all the time, but I was a foolish child back then.

My chest ached, but I couldn’t let the weakness come through.

I had to be strong like these stone walls… No, strong like mint stems.

A guard called out my name, “Aleandra Nadir.”

Oh, my Lunaira! I don’t have the strength to deal with this today!

My feet shifted toward the guard’s voice at the opening cell door.

The stout guard’s torch flickered against the glistening black walls as he struggled to open the heavy door. His chubby fingers were no match for the rusted hinges.

It took everything in me not to laugh at him.

I was sure I could take him on in a fight, but I would have been foolish to do that with the legion of guards that also manned this prison. As much as I wanted to, I would be no freer than I was right now.

He finally managed to get the door open and stepped inside the cell, grabbing my arm tightly. So much so that I could feel my fingers going numb.

“It’s time for your shower.” He huffed into my face with his putrid breath.

I began to push away from him.

My spine tingled with anxiety, and my palms became sweaty.

My heart was pounding so loudly against my eardrums that I couldn’t hear anything else.

I screamed at the top of my lungs, but that didn’t faze him.

He dragged me out of the cell, and I knew that I couldn’t stop it.

Dineta clutched her chest in horror at the sight.

A few times, I had made such a fuss that they left me in the cell for another few weeks, but I couldn’t avoid it forever.

He led me to a brightly lit sanitation area in the prison.

After endless days in the darkness, one gets used to it, and the light becomes unbearable.

A group of guards grabbed hold of me and stripped the clothes off of my back. Then they held me under their boots as they sprayed me with scalding hot water through a powerful hose.

The water felt like it was ripping through my skin just from the sheer force.

I squirmed under their boots as if it would spare me.

“Stay still, worm!” One of them shouted before stomping down on my hand.

I bit my tongue, refusing to cry out. I wouldn’t give them that satisfaction. I chuckled weakly at them. “Is that all you got?”

Someone removed two boots from my back, allowing me to breathe fully.

A hand wove its way into my hair, yanking my head from the cold tile floor and forcing me to look at the person who knelt before me. It was Warden Achlys clutching a wire brush in her hand. Her piercing purple eyes always disarmed me. “Look who’s a tough one. I’ll wipe that smug grin off of your face.”

She dropped my head, and the wire brush started passing over my skin. “Maybe I’ll scrub this sigil off your back this time.”

I trembled, trying to contain myself.

“Come on. Scream. I want to hear it.” She goaded me, but I wouldn’t give in to her. “Scream!”

She scrubbed harder.

“Look who’s screaming.” I looked up weakly with a smirk on my face before I passed out from the pain. The last I heard was Warden Achlys ordering them to take me back to my cell.