Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Victoria held the Lunarimar between her slender fingers, studying it. Abruptly, she grasped the pink crystal in her palm, squeezing it and narrowing her eyes at me.
“The first time my men told me you found a magic book, I thought you were searching for The Book of Thoradis,” she said. “I was even afraid you had found it before me, and I sent my men to steal it from you before you gave it to your dad.”
She let out a small laugh.
Victoria, like Adrian, sought the same powerful book and chased me for it. Thoradis, God of both vampires and werewolves, supposedly wrote the tome, leaving the knowledge for turning a person into a deity with immortality among the pages.
Choosing my words carefully, I couldn’t disconnect my gaze from my crystal.
“You were wrong. I don’t have the book, and even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you,” I said. “My instincts tell me you’ll use it for selfish reasons.”
I only probed her to see if she would share her purpose for searching for the ancient book.
It promised immortality to whoever read the spell, but the vampire Queen was already immortal…
unless she desired more power. Did she want to dominate this realm with the extra power the book could bestow on her?
Victoria grinned, dropping her hand to her side. “So you know about The Book of Thoradis.”
Her gaze darted between my face and her hand.
“Since you already have immortality, you’ll need the book to give you more powers, but why?” I asked. “Are you so desperate to make sure you win against us that you had to search for the most powerful book? Are you insecure about your powers?”
She laughed, the curls of her red hair bouncing on her shoulders.
“It’s not the werewolves I fear, darling.” She sighed in annoyance. “It’s the fairies.”
My lips parted, and my body tensed. I gasped, but the noises of metal clanking, flesh hitting flesh, and guttural cries of exertion drowned out the sound.
Victoria eyed me for a moment. “I recently learned that the fairy King is after the same book. The immortality and the extra power he would gain from the book could make him the ultimate ruler of the mortal realm.” She scoffed. “Of my realm, and that’s unacceptable.”
Victoria had spies all over, gathering useful intel, while the werewolves lagged far behind in this aspect. I only recently learned of the existence of the fairy realm, but Dad had no idea about it.
My breaths turned raspy. “Didn’t you think this was important information to share with the rest of the supernaturals in our realm?” I said in a sharp tone. “Such a turn of events could affect all supernaturals and humans here, but you kept this information all to yourself.”
“You’re so naive, darling. I don’t make friends with my enemies.” She paused. “You’re even weaker than the vampires. The other supernaturals are inferior to the vampires since we possess compulsion power.”
I swallowed the knot forming in my throat. The vampire Queen lifted the Lunarimar and touched her chin with it, a devious smile plastered on her face. That served as a reminder of who had the upper hand in this war.
“Witches are not subject to your power. You can’t compel them,” I said, biding my time to figure out how to recover my crystal.
I wouldn’t volunteer my witch mother’s identity and our powers to Victoria, but I needed to know what this vicious woman knew about the fairy realm and its people. We needed to protect ourselves from the fairy King and find out where my mother was located.
Victoria nodded. “The good news is that not many witches are left,” she said. “The fairies have similar magic to the witches and can’t be compelled, but there’s a whole realm of fairies threatening our existence here.”
I wanted to ask her what kind of powers fairies possessed and how similar they were to the witches. And how did she know fairies couldn’t be compelled? I’d learned that after meeting Greyson.
The missing puzzle piece was The Book of Thoradis. Adrian wanted it, as he said, not to go into the wrong hands. The vampire Queen wanted the book to strengthen her power, feeling threatened by the fairy King, whoever he was.
And the fairy King wanted the tome to take over the human realm. But why? He had an entire realm only for his kind. Why would he want to rule over the humans, too, unless he was that power-greedy?
My mind filled with questions, but this was no time to get answers, as the war had turned in favor of the bloodthirsty Queen. I had to retrieve the crystal.
As Victoria moved nearer, my tense body froze.
“Since you have a knack for finding magic books, it’ll be wise if you assist me in finding the book, and I can keep you and some of your men alive,” she said in a low, calculating voice I didn’t like.
Scoffing, I dismissed her bluff and absurd offer and put my hands on my hips. “Have you met the fairy King?”
She shook her head and gestured to the side, where a vampire guard gave her a subtle nod.
Victoria’s intense scowl aimed at me. “I haven’t, but I found a treasure that I’ve managed to keep alive for some time now.”
After the guard disappeared from view, he returned from behind the tall pillars, dragging a man bound in silver chains. Faint bruises blemished the prisoner’s thin face and bare shoulders.
A brown leather vest I’d never seen before, stained with dried blood, barely shielded his scarred chest. Delicate stitching held together pieces of rough leather, giving the man both a beautiful and fierce look.
Despite being shackled, the man's powerful build made it clear he was a warrior. His broad shoulders and muscular arms projected a fighter's strength. His powerful presence made my witch senses quiver.
But the most striking feature was the pointy ears sticking out to the sides—remarkably similar to Greyson’s. Unlike Greyson, this man had no tribal markings on his torso.
For a moment, I wondered if the man possessed the power of illusion, even though he showed no signs of using any magic now. Could all fairies cast illusions?
The vampire shoved the man toward the vampire Queen hard enough for him to trip on the silver metal around his ankles and fall on the slippery marble floor. Kneeling in front of her, he lifted his gaze, glaring at Victoria.
That was a good sign, right? Any enemy of my enemy was my ally.
Victoria gave the man a seductive smile. “It wasn’t easy to subdue him after I randomly ran into him,” she said, reluctantly lifting her gaze to me. “It seems he was spying or searching for something, but he doesn’t want to tell me what his mission was.”
She let out a small laugh, petting the man’s damp, dark hair. He shook his head, pulling away from her touch. His sculpted face was a mask of stoic resolve. The harsh lines etched on his skin didn’t take away from the beauty of his perfectly symmetrical facial features.
His eyes, though narrowed, burned with an otherworldly intensity that defied his captivity. It seemed the prisoner was a fairy warrior, spying on Victoria’s territory, but got caught. If his purpose here was a mystery to her, then what chance did I have of uncovering it?
My stomach knotted as I struggled to understand how and why a fairy warrior had entered the human realm.
“But I was able to torture out of him what the fairy King wanted with the book,” Victoria said, a satisfied grin stretching on her face.
The fairy man exuded a dangerous aura—more lethal even than Torin’s and vastly different from Greyson’s.
If he got captured by the vampires, he must have come here alone, without backup.
I guessed he must have entered our realm to search for the book, but Victoria thought there was more to his mission.
The fairy man finally disconnected his gaze from Victoria and stared at me with such concentration that he made me fidgety. A cold chill ran down my spine under his scrutinizing, dark, narrowed eyes.
He tilted his head left and right, his eyes meeting mine before they swept over my entire body.
But there wasn’t heat in his gaze or curiosity or amusement.
Something flashed behind his eyes, growing wider.
His thin, pale lips crooked up, causing goose bumps to rise on my forearms. For a moment, his lips parted slightly until he spoke.
“Is your mother the light witch, lady Willa?” he asked in a deep voice that caused something inside me to vibrate and tense.
It felt wrong to lie, but if I were to confirm his suspicion, I might be giving away valuable information to my enemies. My flight-or-fight instinct surfaced, adrenaline filling my veins. I planted my feet wide and firm on the ground.
“No,” was all I said.
“You’re just as bad a liar as your mother,” he said, a wide grin spreading across his wounded face. “You look too much like her not to be her daughter.”
Victoria’s lips curved into a knowing smile. She either knew or was suspicious about my heritage. A flicker of satisfaction crossed her flawless face.
Dad had also said I looked like Willa. Heart racing, I wanted to ask the fairy warrior how he knew my mother and what he wanted with her and me, but before I could talk, the prisoner twisted his head to the vampire Queen.
“Release me, and I’ll show you what my mission is,” he demanded in a voice like steel.
Victoria regarded him with crimson eyes radiating amusement. “I don’t have much use out of you anymore. No one is coming for you, it seems,” she said, reaching with her free hand inside her bodice. “Before I unlock your chains, tell me. What is your mission, fairy?”
Her long fingers disappeared between her breasts, and when she pulled them out, she materialized a small key.
The prisoner’s smile looked genuine yet twisted and unsettling like a beautiful mask hiding a monstrous face.
“My mission is to kill that woman over there,” the fairy said.
The chains around his wrists rattled as he lifted a hand, and his finger pointed at me.