Chapter 14
The sky was shades of violet and magenta, with shadows cast throughout the clouds by the tall mountain peaks surrounding the city.
Stella was known for nights like tonight—the chill in the air, the breathtaking sunset… but there was one big piece missing.
No one strolled down the streets, enjoying the gorgeous night. Laughter didn’t echo down alleyways or filter through the opening and closing doors of the businesses downtown in the main square.
Marlena stood close to the edge of the balcony overlooking the square, glancing down at the gathered crowd. She’d demanded the most influential people in Stella be present for a realm-wide broadcast.
A livestreamed video would start in…
“Three.” The woman behind the camera counted down with her fingers and mouthed the remaining numbers.
It was time Marlena made a statement. It was time she reminded the people of Tolevarre the power she had over them.
Their riots and disobedience would stop here.
“People of Tolevarre,” Marlena began, her attention fixed on the crowd, giving the camera her best side.
Her long, straight blonde hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, not a strand out of place. She’d kept the makeup light tonight, wearing a youthful look. Appearing as young as the last time she stood above these people in an emerald gown. She would never age again—forever twenty-two.
“As you know, the rebels have continued to attack, turning cities and towns upside down.” The narrative was easy. Make the rebels look like miscreants wanting to upset the balance of power Marlena had implemented.
The stronger you are, the more you have. It was simple.
The outlying territories without access to electronics of their own had been ordered into the viewing centers placed in their towns, built for when news needed to be delivered realm wide.
There wasn’t a soul in Tolevarre under Marlena’s control who wasn’t watching her right now.
A shiver of excitement calmed her, settling into the position she was born for.
“Commander Dimico placed a curfew on the bigger cities, but I believe it’s time we broaden their reach.” A few murmurs from below were washed out by the sound of Marlena’s voice echoing on the intercom throughout Stella. “Curfew, effective immediately, for all of Tolevarre is sundown.”
The voices from below grew louder, more agitated.
“Unfair.”
“Punished for their actions.”
Marlena kept her cool, reeling them in for the big reveal… The real reason she’d decided to make this a live broadcast.
A way to ensure I’m still ahead of her. Of them.
Marlena tapped her fingers across the balcony’s edge, her fingertips warm against the cool railing. “All businesses are to close before five, and restaurants are to cease operation indefinitely.” Marlena had wiped out most of Solum—the farmlands were part of the collateral damage.
Albeit not her most rational decision, Marlena would starve the outskirts without pause. Their food supplies would get cut off, and they’d be left to fend for themselves.
It would be of no loss to Marlena, because their lives didn’t matter—they were no one worth saving. Those people would be the ones flocking to Khort the second he swooped in to save the day anyway.
Good. Let them run.
The more the rebellion had to hide, house, and feed, the better chances of failure without much effort on Marlena’s end.
“Why are we being treated like the others?” someone yelled from below.
Marlena cocked her head, focusing in on the man she knew the voice had come from.
It was easy to find him when she met his eyes, and it looked like he might piss himself in front of everyone.
“I’m doing this to keep you all safe,” she lied through her pretty teeth.
Sweeping her hand over the exposed collarbone of her dress, Marlena posed for the camera, moving gracefully.
“Anyone outside after sundown will be sent directly to the mines.”
The mines. Tolevarre’s electric grid, fueled by the criminals too powerful to kill for their crimes.
Instead of death, they were sentenced to a fate much worse—the rest of their existence tied to the mines, becoming property of Tolevarre. Only kept alive to benefit the world Marlena had built on the ashes of their old ways.
“We shouldn’t be punished alongside those people. The rebels…”
“We have never had to follow the same rules as the territories. Why would we start now?”
Marlena’s nails dug into the railing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the worker behind the camera hesitate, unsure if he should keep the feed rolling or not.
“We’re better than them. We’re like you.” The words sounded like they’d been spoken in slow motion. “Just as important.”
Marlena’s vision blurred at how quickly she spun to face the idiot who’d said that.
A portly man without much hair left leaned against a pillar, looking entirely too comfortable after placing himself in the same category as Marlena Caelum.
There was no hiding the look of disgust the cameras caught and broadcasted for all the realm to see. She’d expected to get pushback, expected the spoiled and powerful people of Stella wouldn’t like being controlled the same way the rest of Tolevarre was.
She hadn’t expected such confidence from a man of his status.
The crowd below her hushed, catching the shift in Marlena’s mood. The air grew colder, but it stood still, not a breeze or a whistle in the distance.
Marlena hadn’t realized she’d stopped the wind from moving, creating an eerie silence the longer she said nothing.
At least he had the decency to look scared. Terrified, even, when Marlena leaned against the railing and glared down at the dumbest man in all of Tolevarre.
Collectively, the crowd seemed to take a deep breath, and no one let it out.
No one breathed.
No one moved.
They all waited.
She felt her lips pull into a smile, and it must have looked genuine, because soft sighs of relief could be heard traveling through the crowd.
Their relief was short-lived.
“Someone’s cocky.” Marlena sneered, her temporary sweet-girl facade fading fast. “To think you”—she motioned at him lazily—“have ever been anything close to me is laughable.” She let herself chuckle, holding her heated annoyance at bay. “But more important?”
Marlena disappeared, stepping through the balcony, into the in-between, and back out the other side. She emerged directly in front of the man, standing nearly half a foot taller than him in her heels.
Sweat dripped down his brow, his head cocked back to look up at Marlena.
“Believing that isn’t confidence. It’s stupidity.” She loved watching this grown man quiver under her stare. It filled Marlena with joy, knowing no one could or would ever hurt her again.
They can’t hurt you.
With a shaky jaw, the man went to say something but gaped at Marlena instead.
“I’m feeling generous,” Marlena purred. “I won’t kill you for insulting me the way you did. I’ll let you live and walk out of here with the reminder of your status below me.” Where he’d stay forever.
He finally found his voice, but it was much meeker than it was the first time. “Oh, Marlena, thank you. You’re—”
“I wasn’t done speaking.” The air tightened inside the square, stealing the good oxygen.
His mouth snapped shut, and Marlena could hear him attempting to swallow his fear. He didn’t dare speak again.
She looked down her nose at him, chin tilted upward.
The camera was still on her. Tolevarre was still watching.
“I’ll let you walk out of here alive on one condition.” An actual smile pulled at the corner of her lip. “You get on your hands and knees and beg for forgiveness.”
The man’s eyebrows creased together in the middle, but it didn’t take long for them to smooth over and for him to drop to his knees.
He pitched his head back and stared up at Marlena, intertwining his fingers together. “P-pl-ease, Marlena, forgive me. I am unworthy. I-I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Glancing around to the other stark white faces of Stella’s elite, Marlena fed off their fear, letting it propel her into the actual reason she’d called this gathering.
“I don’t think you’re down low enough. Bow.” The gods hummed inside Marlena’s head, stirring when she didn’t want them to.
The man did as he was told, folding down on the ground. “I have children. Please, let me get home to them.”
Marlena didn’t care about his children. She still hadn’t decided whether she was actually going to let him live or not.
“No one…” Her eyes scanned every person she could see from where she was standing, and then they stared directly into the lens of the camera. “Not a single person here will ever be as important as me.” Her attention darted back down to the sobbing swine below.
His cheeks were puffy and red, eyes bulging out of their sockets as his fear found a new height. He fit the part of an animal off to slaughter almost too well.
“Because I’m not like you.” She nodded towards the front row of the motionless crowd.
“Or you. Or you.” She fixed her stare back on the cameras, back on Tolevarre.
“Or you.” Her eye caught the reflection of her face in the lens.
“Fifty-five years ago, I summoned the twelve original gods.” It was the first time she’d spoken those words out loud to her realm.
Most knew, but there had never been a confirmation from Marlena’s own mouth. “The gods are gone.”
They didn’t like her lie, trying to claw their way out of the cage Marlena kept them trapped in. They had their own corner inside her mind, and on Marlena’s best days, she could keep them locked away.
It’d been a while since Marlena had what could be considered a best day…
The gods were louder now.
“And they left me in their place.”
The faces around her were a mixture of shock and disbelief. Jaws hung low, and one woman swayed on her feet.
The sky darkened, casting a deep-violet glow across Stella.