Chapter 40
Lux
Mara’s Keep
Thirteen days.
Thirteen days ago Drak was taken from me, again, and thirteen days later, a new leader would sit on his throne. Something told me this would probably be my last time sitting in the library my husband had built for me.
Tonight, Silver would make her ultimate and official claim to Vylheim’s crown. I would kneel before her as all of Mara witnessed her lift Drak’s crown onto her head.
After traveling through the wasteland with her, I began to understand how my sister’s mind functioned.
It was easy to identify, since she shared every bit of her excitement with me as if we were children in New Skaldir again, anticipating the autumnal twilight celebrations.
She didn’t care how much I knew, because she was fully aware of the power she held over me.
And I had to believe her, even if I didn’t trust her. I had to believe she knew the truth about Drak’s soul, or I too might fade.
A forceful sigh pulled me from my thoughts.
I blinked and turned toward the door. Silver floated into the library, her footsteps feather-light, always barefoot and walking on the pads of her feet like a tiptoeing child.
Why she moved this way, I could not say.
Silver had too many strange habits for me to ever understand, and I didn’t even try, because I couldn’t imagine what she endured growing up under this castle.
“Still don’t believe me about Drak’s soul?” she asked.
Her tongue flicked over the tiny holes scarring her upper lip as she peered down at me.
I craned my neck and granted her a grim smile.
“If I didn’t believe you, I would have found a way to stop you from taking Vylheim.
How can you choose the law of bloodshed again after seeing what it did to people like us? ”
She shrugged. “I saw nothing but the gray walls of the dungeon, sister. The bloodshed law is the only way to keep my army, and the only way to keep my throne is with an army.”
“Why do you want it? The throne?” I didn’t understand this greed.
Her unnerving joy wavered for a second, and something sinister dimmed her brown eyes.
“The only way to keep the vampires is with blood.” Her voice came out monotone, and she didn’t blink.
“The only way to take and keep the throne is with them. The only way to ensure that everyone who ever hurt me suffers is to sit on that throne. Of course.”
“Revenge,” I said. The same goal that Drak had.
In the end, it only killed him. Vylheim could only be so lucky if the same happened to Silver.
But the thought of her dying, after everything, pinched my heart.
My sister stood before me, broken and raw and desperate, and I couldn’t blame her for wanting revenge.
I locked eyes with her. “So even if I restore Drak, you’ll just make him suffer? ”
“I made Drakkar, sister.”
“He existed as a human before you.”
Leaning back slightly, her eyes glimmered with mischief. “He was nothing without me.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. If I bring him back, will you take him from me again?”
She clucked her tongue and shook her head as if she were a parent scolding a child.
“Oh, sister, don’t you see? Drak’s path taught me how to claim power and become the monster who controls everyone.
” Suddenly, she turned her attention to the books and drifted to the shelves.
She ran her fingers along the spine of a journal that looked ready to crumble under her touch.
“Without him, I’d know nothing.” Breath stilled in my throat as I absorbed her words.
Was this an answer? She drew a sharp breath and yanked the journal from the shelf.
Skipping to me, she dropped it in my lap, and all the air I held within me released.
“You’ll want to read this one. This is Brynhild’s vision from Freya. ”
“Brynhild was a witch?” My fingers traced the journal’s smooth leather.
“Of course Brynhild was a witch!” After a taunting laugh, she wiped her eyes with the heel of her palm. “What follows is an eyewitness account of restoring a vampire’s soul. All Freya’s idea, of course.”
“Of course,” I repeated what seemed to be my sister’s new favorite phrase, though I had no clue why Freya would restore a soul to someone who had already become a vampire. “But Freya and Odin just wanted vampires erased.”
Silver snapped her fingers and pointed at me.
“Now you’re getting it.” My brow furrowed.
She clearly caught on to my confusion because she sighed exaggeratedly, as if I was that stupid little child again and she was the adult who had to teach me something obvious.
“How much more erased can they become if you unmake the monster by restoring their soul? Then giving the gods access to humans again for the afterlife. It’s all about being erased.
Gone. Forgotten. Vampires are proof that gods are not all-powerful, but still, when you have a lot of power, you only want more of it.
People knowing they’re not all-powerful reduces them even more.
Vampires will always be a reminder that you gods are not as strong as you believe you are.
Another reason I keep them around. The gods want what they want. ”
“So you always knew they were selfish?” I said.
“Not always. Our mother ingrained a lot, but after years of reading these—” she waved toward the shelves, “my mind expanded.”
“Brynhild says they’re selfish?”
She snorted. “She doesn’t have to. The sagas speak for themselves. Brynhild was a skilled seer and recorded her visions precisely so she could aid the gods in eradicating vampires.”
“Does that mean she actually put a soul back together?”
Silver nodded, and pride beamed across her angular face. “Well, she tried to restore a soul, but she wasn’t a god, so the last step is all just conjecture based on how Odin gave us life.”
I racked my brain, recalling one of the first sagas our mother had ever shared with us. Silver and I sat at her side, curled into her arms as she told us about the creation of humans. About how Odin blew the breath of life into the two tree trunks that he’d formed into the first man and woman.
“The final step,” I repeated as I clutched the journal’s spine. “It’s all in here?”
“Sort of,” she said, and then she tapped her temple. “And the rest is in here.” Reaching out a hand, she offered to help me up. “You’ll have to read later. It’s time to come with me.” I stared at her long, pointed fingernails. “Time for you to declare me the new queen.”
I didn’t take her hand, but I followed her into the throne room, moving silently behind her. Once inside, she insisted I stay at the back of the room as she stepped up to the throne.
Hundreds of courtiers and commoners alike stared on, eyes afraid, anticipatory, maybe even a little curious for the fresh change.
News of their king’s death and Silver’s arrival left Vylheim on edge after they heard what she’d done to Skaldir, but the people of Vylheim were nearly numb to change now, each new development became a fragile hope that light was at the end of these long winters.
Winters that at least would no longer suffer from the gods’ wrath.
Until Silver planted that seed.
Still, most of the men and women did not stare at their new queen in terror. They instead fixed their eyes on the vampires surrounding her.
Once she took her seat on the throne, I was to offer Drak’s crown.
The cold bronze felt like dead weight in my hands.
Drak rarely wore it, and I had never looked at it closely until now.
The crown gleamed in the candlelight. A serpent coiled among the spiky roses that decorated it, sharp and taunting.
The vampires prodded me forward, and time slowed as I moved through the thick air of the throne room.
Whispers fell to the background, and I only heard my breath and the tense thump of my pulse.
Echoes of my footfall mingled with my erratic heartbeat until I stopped before the throne.
It felt another lifetime ago that I’d bowed here before Drak, the first time he presented me with the idea of marriage.
And then another lifetime when we finally spoke our marriage vows, however fake, here. He’d wanted them to be real. If only I’d known then…
I shook it off, my muscles compressing under the weight of a marriage we had never experienced. Forcing myself to Silver, I held out the crown, and then my body moved on its own. I followed the instructions she had given me earlier, the same ones her vampires repeated as we entered the throne room.
Sinking to my knees and tucking my chin to my chest, I bowed in front of Silver with Ylva and Darius as her right and left-hand advisors, declaring her the one and true queen of Vylheim in front of hundreds of frightened witnesses.
My chest constricted as if the serpent on the crown encircled it, closing its muscular body tighter around my heart and lungs.
Just as our mother had predicted, Silver sat on the throne.
Her vision had come true because, like Brynhild, Mother’s powers as a seer were strong.
Silver’s success wasn’t solely because of fate; my decisions played a role too.
I let this happen because I couldn’t bear the thought of giving up on Drak that easily.
Not after the gift he’d given me, freeing me from the gods.
Perhaps this was what it meant to truly become a god, stepping into my pure selfish will, unburdened by the woes of others, and willing to let the entire world crumble just to get back to the man I loved. This should sicken me, but a smile curved onto my face instead.
I fixed my eyes on Silver as I rose to my feet. Having fulfilled my obligation, the next step was hers.
“Where is the first fragment?” I asked.
Rather than respond, Silver raised her chin and scanned the crowd behind me.
She clutched the throne’s arms so tightly her knuckles turned white.
“Subjects of Vylheim, now that you have a true queen, and the council is restored…” She glanced at Ylva, who patted the queen’s shoulder as if she were a child.
Drak was right about their influence over my sister.
The need swimming in Silver’s gaze was that of a daughter beaming at her protective mother, and her chest swelled with pride as she continued.
“I am pleased to announce the return of a hope that will bring us new lands, new foods, and new life.”
My stomach lurched. What the fuck was she talking about? Why wouldn’t she look at me?
“Silver,” I growled.
She acted as if she hadn’t heard me and pitched her voice higher. “We will enact the Age of Exploration immediately.”
“No,” I breathed.
Ylva took over to finish Silver’s announcement. “All surviving witches will accompany executioners across Drukna to expand our home and our communities with a larger population.”
The vampires’ food source. This was the purpose of the exploration. The Blood Council had created it for that reason alone, and yet a hum of excitement suddenly rippled through the throne room. People whispered in low tones, eager at the thought of new land to till, and more food for us too.
Finally, Silver looked at me, and her eyes sparkled with the same menace as when she first declared that she was going to kill me and take the throne. “All surviving witches…”
A bitter taste stained the back of my tongue, and my heart dropped to my gut. “Silver, the fragment—”
“Queen Silver,” she said. Next to her, Ylva’s angular face cut into a predatory grin. “And you should know that I always mean what I say. All surviving witches will be on those boats at first light, including you.”
There it was: Silver’s next betrayal, made possible by the restored Blood Council. I suspected as much.
Once again, Drak was taken from me because my own desperation drove me straight into foolishness. Fresh grief rose in my chest, clawing at me not just with the pain of loss but with a feral anger that felt like a god’s wrath.
Because even though I expected Silver’s betrayal, I could not contain the wrath it stirred.