Epilogue
You will get me that kingdom, one way or another. Even if it costs you your life in order to do it.
My mother’s words haunt me, her dark gaze reflected in my own as I stare at myself in the standing mirror. Well, Mother, you were right in one regard. Life was lost. It just wasn’t mine. Neither of us could have predicted just what would transpire to bring sirens back into the Mortal Kingdom.
I run my hands down the teal fabric of the dress the servants helped me into, the clothing restrictive in a way that makes my talons threaten to show.
The urge to shred the dress is only beaten into submission by the promise that this small inconvenience is the price in order to receive something grander.
Still, the idea that wearing a dress makes me more palatable to the mortals, as their foolish king suggested, draws a deep scowl.
It is as if they believe clothing will cloak their true nature.
As if it will somehow disguise my own. But let them hide behind their chaste ideas of modesty and order.
Let them look upon me and fool themselves into seeing a being more female than monster.
After all, the trick isn’t to disappear. It’s to hide in plain sight.
I turn before the knocks on the door arrive, startling the woman who stands on the other side when I abruptly pull it open. “Lady—”
“Ah, ah,” I tut, grabbing her delicate, pale chin in my fingers, letting just enough of my talons out that they indent her skin. “I am not a lady. I am not one of you. I am a queen.”
“Y-yes, Your Majesty. My apologies.” Her light brown eyes gleam with fear, the air practically tainted with it. I breathe in deeply as I release her face, my tongue running over the tips of my canines. “King Dolian says he is ready for you. The guards here will escort you to him.”
“And my daughters?”
The servant swallows, running nervous hands over the white apron of her uniform. “Being given a tour of the castle. Shall I fetch them for you?”
Stepping past her and into the hall, I make note of the two men in golden armor.
Both smart enough to keep their hands away from their weapons.
The trick with training pets is making sure the rules are established ahead of time.
They saw what my power looked like on that beach.
How easy it was for me to get their comrades to bend to a will not their own.
I do not need them to willingly fear me, but it certainly makes things easier if they do.
“No,” I answer the servant as we begin our walk to where the mortal king waits for me. “Leave them to explore their new home.”
The sun is shining down on the king when I join him on a shiny white stone balcony.
He draws his shoulders back at the sound of my footsteps, as if pretending he can handle the weight of the gold crown upon his head might make me respect him more.
Might make him seem valuable in our little endeavor together.
But I see the way his knuckles turn white as they grip the banister, the gold coral ring on his finger glinting.
I think of the other who wears a matching ring, and a smile nudges the corners of my mouth.
“Are your accommodations to your liking, Queen Amari?”
“Don’t bore me with pleasantries. It is beneath us both.”
He huffs out a breath but nods. “Have you figured out which of your sirens released Rhea from the ring?”
“I have my suspicions, but as I told you earlier, our charge’s absence will be short. The attack on the Mage Kingdom is well under way.”
“And if they are able to fight your sirens off?” he asks, finally turning his gaze to meet mine.
Annoyance filters through my veins, my eyes narrowing as my magic pools at the base of my throat.
“Worried the mage prince—I’m sorry, king—will touch what you think is yours? Again?” I taunt, grinning when his lip lifts in a snarl. “How long until he’s fucking her? Tasting her in all the ways you wanted to.”
Heat flares at his cheeks. “How dare y—”
“No,” I interrupt, taking a step towards him as I let my magic flow off my tongue.
“You will not argue with me, Mortal King.” I watch as the magic of the ring makes him stiffen, the defiance in his hazel eyes slowly fizzling out.
I hum low, dragging my claws down his arm.
“You share the same eyes as your brother.”
His jaw clenches, making a muscle that runs down his neck flutter. “Does it ever bother you? Looking at your daughter and knowing that her birth was the result of his death?”
“I do not mourn those whose purpose is greater in death than it was in life,” I answer. Aria flashes in my mind, unease creeping over me before I remember that she’s dead. I turn my attention back to the field ahead of us and the army that trains on it. My army.
“What is the plan now?” he asks.
I breathe in deeply as a bitterly cold wind stirs my hair, sending the curls off to one side. “We await word from the sirens in the Mage Kingdom.”
The king remains silent for a long while until he finally scrapes up enough bravery to ask the question that I know lingers on his tongue. “And if they fail? If Rhea isn’t returned to me?”
I lift my chin, looking out over the innumerable rows of mortal men now able to pass through the Spell. “Then we go to war.”
In a space between worlds…
Millennia have passed, and what was once a place I held deep fondness for has now become a prison. I had saved a dying planet, only to become tethered to its people for eternity. How ironic, to have once been the god of Time and Void only to be held frozen in both.
I had warned my daughter that, eventually, immortal beings would grow bored. She had assured me that her love for this new world we created would be everlasting. And for thousands of years, it was. But even the best of us grow weary.
She left for Eternity, and in her absence, something bitter in me grew.
Time became a punishment instead of a reprieve, and the Void Magic I had so lovingly blessed upon those Solana cared for was now a curse without her here.
Thousands of years have passed, and the magic continues to morph and shift, forming something more sentient than it had ever been.
And I have been left to rot, alone save for one being who tests my will at every opportunity.
I thought I might use her to end this madness, that the deal she made would set in motion the events needed to finally free me.
But it seems fate is more fickle a mistress than I anticipated.
So now it is time to take things into my own hands.
Now it is time to remind those who have forgotten just how powerful I can be.
Now it is time I usher in the beginning of the end.