Chapter 34
C assia
Elijah let us stay in the castle for a few more days so Lukas could fully recover.
Allowing him to return to full strength was probably more accurate.
He would never fully recover—he was leaving two thousand years of dwelling in the First Realm, and everything he’d ever known, behind. Same as I had with the Third.
The wound on his side didn’t disappear like most injuries would, for a vampire. The blade was spelled and left a three-inch long scar on his torso. It didn’t matter what he tried; the mark just wouldn’t go away. It annoyed him enough that the sword he flung into the wall split the rock.
We left the new renovation in the guest room alone.
Before we went to leave, I gave Selena a big hug that she enthusiastically returned. “Don’t worry, we’ll make them play nice so we can hang out,” she whispered in my ear before we let go of each other.
My lips pressed together as I nodded, my heart in my throat over the thought of never seeing her again. Swallowing, I turned to Lukas, placing my hands in his.
He gave Elijah a stiff nod, his eyes softening slightly. My pulse raced, thinking about how we were going to an entirely new Realm, and one neither of us was familiar with. Lukas pressed his lips to my forehead and then we were gone.
When I opened my eyes, we were in the courtyard of a massively tall castle. It was easily two or three times the size of the First Realm’s palace, and definitely bigger than Elijah and Selena’s place.
The building was a modern, black, Gothic, marvel with sharp sleek points that seemed like they could cut the sky open. The castle looked like something from a beautiful nightmare.
Behind us laid a village, the architecture similar in many ways to the castle, but with a more cozy feel. From our elevation, I could see a tall, reinforced wall circling the establishment. In the distance, fires burned, and I saw the red haze my friend had told me about.
Near the horizon, there was a green landscape, forest, and even farther away was a range of mountains. Between a short patch of trees beyond the wall and before the green landscape, there were patches of orange-red desert.
Lukas twisted in a circle, raising a single hand with his palm upward. “There’s a problem I need to address.”
He glanced at me and then waved his hand my way. “You’re always dressing me in black,” I mused. It was a lovely gown with a cinched waist and flowing layers. “I was dressing for comfort, not style.”
“Black suits you,” he said, touching my cheek, “it brings out your eyes. But that’s not the issue.”
Lifting the hem of my dress, I turned my ankle back and forth, admiring the heeled boots that had appeared. “What’s the issue?”
He stroked his chin as he scanned the horizon. “Demon hordes. They’re out there conspiring. It seems we have unwanted visitors in our home, as well.” He flicked a hand at the entry doors, and they flew open.
“And there’s a state house, not too far away. Full of men—abominations. Thieves. They are going to die.” His gaze turned dark. “I have work to do.”
Lukas looked terrifying. The energy that swirled around him was menacing and insidious, and the whites of his eyes turned black.
“Where do we go?”
I wasn’t sure what to do. Not that I was scared, but I was eager to get settled.
Laying down and trying to acclimate the new surroundings was also appealing.
Lukas had sent my art supplies ahead of us, and they were somewhere inside the building.
I wanted to make sure they were all there and in good condition.
God help whoever messed up my portrait. I’d send my man after them.
Nobody wanted that.
“Stand right here,” Lukas instructed me. “Do not move.”
He walked up to the open doors and curled his fingers. A wave of what looked like heat rippled the atmosphere and soon, a group of men appeared in the opening.
“Leave. Now,” Lukas snarled at them, baring his teeth.
One of the men opened his mouth and began to protest, raising and pumping a fist in the air. Then he fell to the ground. The others saw reason and ran away. I turned and watched while at least forty men ran past me. I lost count after twenty-one.
“You moved,” Lukas rightly accused me. He was directly in front of me when I faced the castle again.
My eyes shuttered. “I did.”
His shoulders lowered a fraction. “You won’t stay in place if I leave you here, will you.”
It wasn’t a true question, so I didn’t answer. He grabbed me and transitioned us a second time, and I found myself in a building that reminded me of a train station, or maybe an airport.
An electronic buzzing permeated the air along with other electronic beeping sounds. Throngs of people wandered around and a man with a device similar to an iPad walked up to us.
“Identification,” he stated, his tone bored.
Lukas pulled me past the man and strode across the floor. I heard a commotion behind us but didn’t look back. I didn’t need to see what was going on.
My heart hammered in my chest. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t look at me. “We won’t have peace as long as they are still alive. No one will. I can’t run this Realm with them. They are disordered and messy. A blight.”
“Who?” I asked.
Massive doors swung open in front of us, reminiscent of the ones I’d seen in the First Realm’s palace.
The room was covered in black marble, and long, glimmering tables dotted the space.
A throne with smaller chairs alongside it sat on a raised platform on the far end, and an elegant bar at the other.
The most interesting thing was the water feature behind the throne.
Or, rather, blood feature. Red liquid poured from the edge of the ceiling in a sheet, pooling somewhere beyond what I could see.
The red haze lingered above our heads, wafting around rafters and bowers.
It was concentrated above the waterfall.
Lukas took my shoulders in his hands and stared me in the eye as he smoothed his palms downward. His emerald eyes sparkled at me, and the edge of his mouth curved into the barest of smiles.
Then he strolled away, glancing at me over his shoulder, leaving me unable to move. I was furious until he crouched one leg, placing both palms on the floor in a single, smooth motion.
A bright white spread across the floor, starting from where he laid his palms. The color was vivid against the ebony, spearing in huge arcs that almost looked like snowflakes.
I froze him . That was what he said he did to Wyvon.
The wintery infection climbed the legs of everybody it came across, and cries of horror and pain filled the air. People turned into anatomically correct snowmen before they crumbled into piles of sleet and ice.
My eyes watered and I couldn’t breathe, the scene being too much for me to take. I hadn’t seen this level of destruction since Bryan and his girlfriends. This was an entirely new level of terrifying.
Silence filled the room as I hiccupped and the man I loved was back in front of me. “Cassia,” he stroked my cheek.
I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Remind me not to get on your bad side,” I said, attempting and failing to give him a smile.
He pulled my chin up, leaving me with no choice. “Every last soul in this room, in this building, would have hurt us given the chance. It was the right thing to do.” He sighed. “If it makes you feel any better, the pain was minimal.”
A laugh escaped me and I didn’t know if I should have been ashamed of myself or not. The man did have a point. Friends were hard to find, and foes made up most of the populations I’d come across.
My fingers gripped his arm. “I think I’d like to stay home, next time.”
He took my hands in his own, preparing to send us to the castle. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
I closed my eyes at the winter wonderland.
* * *
Finally, we made it to our new home. Lukas had brought us right back to the same spot, and I insisted he carried me inside. While his reserves may have been replenished, my own were lacking.
All I wanted to do was flop on the bed and sleep for a hundred years, but I had priorities.
Lukas’s were finding men he felt he could trust and he took off to do just that.
My art supplies were neatly bundled. Not a brush out of place, not a single broken pencil, and not one leaking tube of paint. My canvases and frames were pristine, and my finished pieces, whole.
I set his portrait up on a wooden easel and set about finishing the painting with candlelight.
There were modern conveniences here, including LED lighting, but I needed softer illumination for the likeness I was portraying.
He was a vicious man, but underneath all the gore and blood, he was surprisingly soft and witty.
It was important that I got the playful sparkle of his eyes just right.
“You need to put a little red smear right in the corner,” Lukas said, dropping his palms on my shoulders.
Startled, I dropped my paintbrush. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
The brush appeared in his hand and I took it. “I have something to show you,” he said.
I set my utensil in the cleaning fluid and removed my apron, draping it neatly over the stool. “Okay? Where are we going?”
“Two things,” he said, as I followed him down the hallway.
The living room was a study in black. All carved wood and crown moldings, a glittering chandelier with candle-shaped bulbs. It was both dark and bright, thanks to the unique qualities of the lighting.
I wasn’t certain how it worked, and I wasn’t going to complain. Not when I was all cozy, curling up on his lap in the evenings, reading stories written here in the Second Realm.
I assumed that was why he brought me downstairs, but I saw him staring at the wall, and I followed his gaze.
My paintings were framed in gilded wood and metal, their dressings matching the rest of the decor perfectly. Precisely placed, they were further framed by the trim on the wooden panels and discreet lighting illuminated my brushstrokes.
“What do you think?” He asked.
Speechless, all I could do was alternate between staring at what had turned into a gallery of my own art, and him.
“The portrait of me, I’ll put that in my office when you’re finished working on it,” he said, tucking his hands in his pants pockets.
He wandered over to one of my depictions of the First Realm’s landscapes and eyed it, a wistful look in his gaze. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my head against his back.
“Wouldn’t you want an established artist’s work in your home and office? You’re supposed to be super important now, right?”
He swiveled his head and his hair brushed my face. “An emperor should have the best and that’s what I’ve got.”
“Emperor? Can you really assign yourself a title like that? Seems a little extreme.”
He shrugged and took hold of my shoulders before he pressed a kiss on my forehead. “The title fits.”
He adjusted the artwork slightly, fixing a balance I couldn’t see. “Speaking of self-proclaimed royalty, I’ve invited Elijah and Selena to visit.” He waited for me to glance at him. “Elijah accepted the invitation.”
“Oh my God! That’s great!” I nearly squealed. “When? When are they coming?”
“Whenever they get here. Soon?”
Excitement filled me. I was going to see my friend again. Lukas and Elijah had plenty of reasons to dislike each other, but somehow Lukas had overcome his reticence for me. He was anything but forgiving, by nature. Elijah appeared the same. It was truly a miracle.
I had new friends, a new home, a wide assortment of landscapes and curiosities to paint, and most of all, I had the man I loved for eternity. Happiness overwhelmed me. I was so grateful, I could have cried.
And then, a tiny black kitten hobbled into the room and dashed up Lukas’s leg before glancing at me with two big, shining eyes, and meowing at me.
My life was complete.
The end.
Read on for the first chapter of Kiam and Brittney’s book, Dusk Macabre.