Page 5

“Mizani?”the deep voice whispers in my head.

The racing of my heart increases. There is no way this could be real. My father set me up in the worse way possible. No matter how trifling and dishonest Khalif was, I would’ve never thought he could do this to me.

I turn my head at the sound of slow clapping. Walking down the stairs of the mansion, is none other than my mate.

“Markis,” I say his name and an icy shiver runs up my spine.

“Hello, my love.” He stops in the middle of the staircase.

It has been three hundred years since the last time I saw my mate. At that time, he was being chained and sealed inside of a concrete coffin that would be lowered ten feet into the ground to serve his life sentence. A sentence he wouldn’t have gotten if not for me betraying him.

But that’s what happens when you are a threat to all of mankind. Markis believed vampires were the superior race and should rule the world. He thought that all other beings shouldserve as our foot stools. He also believed that he should be the one true ruler over all.

Markis swaggers down the stairs. I follow his movements with my head. He walks around me and stands in front of me. His dark brown eyes search mine before he yanks the balaclava down, revealing my face.

A slow smile lifts his lips. “You look beautiful, Mizani.” He scans me from head to toe.

I don’t focus on the way my body responds to his gaze, or how his dark brown skin seems to glow. Nor do I linger on the way his unblemished, smooth skin stretches over six feet of pure muscle. I don’t care that his thick long locs have been freshly done and hang down his back. I disregard his perfectly trimmed beard and goatee that accentuate those full lips I used to kiss.

None of that holds my attention. No, my focus is on locking down my thoughts and memories.

The same way my father has the gift of compulsion; my mate has the gift of mind reading or sifting is what my people call it. It is one of those rare gifts. And not only does he have the gift, but he is also a master at it. Which means he is better than most with the talent.

I feel the slight nudge of his presence in my head. I make sure my brain is locked down. It doesn’t require much because my thoughts are always locked.

He chuckles. “Look at you. You’ve gotten much better at keeping me out.”

“How are you here?” I ask to keep his attention on me and out of my head.

He shrugs, glancing at the surrounding vampires. I try to move my hand, but the chain connected to the arrow embedded in my palm keeps it in place. They are holding me hostage. I need time to figure out a plan.

“I told you; I am invincible. No tomb can hold me. Even though you lost faith in me,” he smiles, showing off his perfect white teeth. “Your father and my loyal disciples did not.”

He looks at those familiar faces in the crowd. Faces I once considered friends.

“They heard my calls and came for me. The work must go on.”

“You’re insane,” I say.

“No,” he shouts, stepping closer to me. “I am a visionary.”

“You are a lunatic,” I snarl. “A psycho that wants to take away everyone’s free will.”

He grins. “Why not?”

“We are the stronger species,” Kozani, one of his loyal disciples’, shouts. “We are the only ones that should be on top of the food chain. Yet we sit in the shadows allowing the others to make rules for us.”

Murmurs of agreement go up. This was once the same way I thought. Until I realized it’s a sickness and my ex is the disease.

Markis starts to pace in front of me. “The humans prance around this realm as if they are the only ones here. Yet they are no more than insects in our world. The shifters hide behind their human forms, afraid to be seen. They cluster in their communities, keeping everyone else out. The witches are and have always been useless with their mediocre powers. I plan to make us rulers of this realm. And I shall be the true ruler of them all.”

The mindless sheep around me cheer as if he’s speaking some type of prolific sermon.

When I listen to him now speak of his desires, I can’t understand how I ever fell for his logic. I was once one of these sheep. I listened to his speeches and his theory of us being the dominate species and thought he was the most intelligent man ever. Now, all I see is his delusion.

“There are no keys left behind, Markis. The fey took them all with them when they left the realm. Your theory will never work.” The fey, or elves as some people call them, were once the most powerful beings in this realm. Their magic is endless. The only way for him to get what he wants is to find one of their fey keys. We spent nearly two decades looking for those keys.

He turns back to me and chuckles. “Now you know that’s not true.” Turning to his men, he says. “Now that I have my wife back, we can continue our search for the key.”