Chapter 37
“Willa?”
This cannot be happening.
“What the fuck did you do, Marik?” Asmo growls, now standing. His mother clings tightly to him, trying to hold him back.
“I won,” Marik says with a shrug.
“We don’t have time for this, Marik,” Willa says beside him. She’s a stranger to me. “Kill the girl and be done.”
“Oh, I think we can make a little time,” he says, a grin spreading across his face. “She needs to know the truth.” He takes a step toward me.
Asmo shoves his mother off him and jumps onto the stage. He comes to a stop when Marik holds a hand out, black flames dancing on his palm.
“Now, now, brother. I think you should listen to dear old mom and stay with the family,” Marik says chidingly.
“What did you do?” Asmo demands, his voice louder this time.
“I did what you were never willing to do. I secured the future that our family deserves, the future we never would have gotten with this joke of a court ruling. We can finally have the power and respect we deserve.”
Vasuki and Minerva make their way to Marik. He doesn’t hold a hand out to stop them. Willa nods at them as they stand beside her.
The Serpent House was involved in this.
“Come, Asmo,” Minerva says, her voice equally as commanding as his is. “It’s time to take what we deserve.”
He doesn’t move, still standing in between me and his family.
“You really want to stay with this spineless queen? She’s going to run this kingdom into the ground. The Deer Court has been ruining this kingdom for centuries. It’s time we take it and make it ours,” Marik growls.
“Your plan is just to kill her, and then what? Kill everyone else who tries to stop you?” Asmo asks.
Marik shrugs, a calm expression on his face. “I won’t have to. Once she’s dead, the kingdom is mine. I’m High King now.”
Stall, stall, stall, is all I can think. I need to buy time for Luca to get more guards, get everyone out, and get as much backup here as he can.
I turn to Willa, my rage flaring brighter at the sight of her. “Why didn’t you just kill me years ago?” I ask, my voice strained from my checked fury.
“These things take time, dear,” she drawls.
“What things? How long have you been planning this?”
“This was destiny, Mae,” she says, sounding exasperated. “It wasn’t personal. The prophecy states that you had to become High Queen to bring change to the kingdom.”
“What change? Why me? Why not someone else?”
She scoffs. “Haven’t you put it together yet? You’re Wrena’s true daughter.”
One day, Wrena’s true daughter will take the throne, seated beside a great stag. This will signify the beginning of a new era: one of great change.
“But how?” I ask, my mind spinning. If I’m the true daughter, that means my grandmother was the First Deer Queen. But that was a thousand years ago…
“Your mother was the First Deer Queen’s daughter, which makes you Wrena’s true daughter.”
“How, though?” I ask, now exasperated. “There are plenty of other deer hybrids. There’s no way I was the first one. It’s not possible.”
“Your grandmother took the power I gave her and turned her friends and her entire court into hybrids. No, you’re not the first hybrid. But you are the first hybrid of Wrena’s line.”
“The power you gave her? How?” I ask. Her eyes, white as bone, stare back at me. “Who are you?”
A grin spreads across her face, cold and full of malice. A black aura begins to form around her. Dread pools in my stomach, low and rotten.
“I’m the First Witch. You can call me Cora.”
I blink, too stunned to speak for a moment. The black aura, eyes white as bone… “You’re the one who cursed my grandfather,” I say, mind reeling. If what she’s saying is true, I was raised by the most powerful witch in history. “You created the hybrids.”
She nods slowly, a faux, mocking smile on her face. She brings her hands together in a slow clap at my realization, then drops them to her side. “Imagine my surprise when the half-breeds that I created banished me and my people from society,” she sneers.
“But how? Why did you curse him?” I ask, my voice only coming out as a whisper.
“Your real Aunt Willa stumbled upon me one day in the woods. Such a bored, privileged child. We made a deal. Your mother was always the favorite, and Willa wanted your parents to pay. So, I made them,” she says with a shrug.
“By turning him into…a deer?” My laugh is genuine.
She glares at me. “I stole your grandfather from his family and hid him in plain sight, forcing him to watch them suffer while he could do nothing.”
“But Wrena reversed the curse,” I counter, raising an eyebrow at her.
Her face contorts in annoyance. “She didn’t reverse it. She split it between her and the king.”
Realization dawns on me. “You didn’t expect the curse to give her elemental magic, did you?”
“There’s always a counterbalance to the magic,” she says dismissively.
“What happened then?” I ask, holding my hands out.
“I stole their daughters,” she says coldly.
“I should have ended the line as soon as I stole them away. Your mother fought the prophecy. That’s why it took so long for Wrena’s line to continue.
Your mother refused to even look at a male for centuries, too scared to risk a pregnancy and make the prophecy come true.
But when she met your father, too long had passed since the prophecy.
She grew complacent. She couldn’t help herself when he got his hands on her. ”
I still at the mention of my mother, of the little girl in the story bounding through the forest, calling to her father—my grandfather—to come find her. “What happened to my mother?” I ask, steeling myself for her response.
“She died trying to stop me from taking you. But it had to be done. The prophecy had to come true.”
My magic revolts at her words, reacting in a way I’ve never felt before. My veins feel like they’re on fire, my magic fighting at being held inside.
“And my father?” I steel my voice, trying so hard to sound strong. Not to sound weak, like the little girl whose parents were ripped from her by this evil creature, all in the name of some prophecy she has no interest in playing a part in.
“He had to die. I had some help disposing of him and his family,” she says, tossing a glance at Marik.
His answering beam confirms it.
Two dark hairs were found at the scene of their deaths. Marik and Cora.
My husband and the female who raised me. Responsible for the deaths of my mother, my father, and my half-sister. My entire family was obliterated by two people who were supposed to love and protect me.
Cora continues, “I was so lucky that Marik here was dying for a chance to be the High King. You made it so easy for him to manipulate you into choosing him.” She takes a deep breath, the black aura around growing thicker. “Oh, Mae, I’ve waited so long for this moment.”
Marik stares at her with desire. He’s never looked at me like that. It disgusts me.
“You call me a fool, Marik? Look at you. She’s ancient. You’re just a pawn to her to get what she wants. She’ll discard you the moment she gets what she wants.”
“I’m tired of this,” Marik says. “Az, get out of the way. You can die with her, or you can reign with us.”
Asmo glances at me once more before turning away. My heart cracks as he walks toward Marik, stepping in line beside him.
He faces me, his eyes black as night.
“Good choice,” Marik mutters, smiling as he steps forward.
Black fire erupts from his palms. Willa—no, Cora—steps forward, her veins blackening as she calls her magic to the surface.
Two Princes of Darkness face me while the Queen of Darkness prepares to slaughter me.