Page 78

“I’m happy that my brother is sleeping, so he does not have to witness the mess his only son has made.”

That had me lunging at him, but the Elder merely side-stepped. As the first-born vampire, I was stronger. Not even the older turned immortal could match me, but I was too infuriated and agonized to approach him with anything resembling skill.

“You think your father wouldn’t give anything to be with your mother right now? Do you think she wouldn’t give anything to be with him?”

I made another half-hearted lunge, but my interest in hearing the story of my parents made the effort less than satisfying. “There are worse things in this life than being told to leave by a mate. It is being kept from someone, someone you’d give anything to see again.” His voice was morose, heavy with regret. How much did my uncle miss my father? Ambrogio once mentioned they were thick as thieves. “If you think that just because she said she doesn’t want you means you have to listen to her, you are a fool.”

“What are you telling me to do, Uncle? Force her back here?” I couldn’t, not again.

My uncle rolled his eyes, exasperated. “A blind man could see how much you two love each other. She loves you, Lucien. Gods know why.” Hearing that the feelings tearing at my chest might not be as one-sided as I believed eased my agony a bit.

“Love like that doesn’t go away. I watched your mother destroyed when Zeus sentenced Endymion to sleep forever. For years she watched you grow, a shell of herself. You have the chance to be with your queen, the woman you love, and you’re going to let some little thing like her refusal to see you get in the way?”

My mouth dropped open, surprised at the impassioned speech. “My mother… she loved him?” She had never told me that, only that she’d picked a vampire to create a royal line.

“She did. You really think Selene would have a kid with just anyone?” He made a good point. My mother was fierce and a goddess. “She used to say that she felt no warmth until she met him. He was the sun when she’d only known the moon. She never told you this?” Ambrogio asked, astounded.

I shook my head in answer, trying to rationalize this new information. “How does this help me withher?”

Ambrogio slapped the back of my head. “Fool! If your parents could make their limited time together work, then there is nothing, short of death, that you and your queen cannot conquer.”

He was right.She never heard my side of the story. I could do so now. I could lay all my cards on the table and pray she took me back.

“Thank you, Uncle.”

I turned away from Elijah and my uncle, striding toward my room. I couldn’t call on the ability to rift with my mind so scattered, so I needed to arrange a flight. She would listen to me.

She had to.

XIL

The Realm of Mortals.

The Witch Cells,

Salem, Massachusetts.

I spin on my heel, yanking my hood up as my tears fall and I limp to the exit.

I have to run and never look back.

SINCE I’D CONQUERED THE COUNCIL,I often visited the prisoners, rooting out the remaining cancer. It was all too exhausting. So many witches feared my power, jumping to obey my every command. They were worried if they spoke against me, they would end up in the cells. The prisoners didn’t pretend. Their open animosity toward me had become an almost refreshing change of pace. Even now, as I descended the steps into the cells and heard the hisses, I felt less out of my element.

“If it isn’t the witch bitch come to admire her handy work,” Sebastian Ellis sneered, calling out from his cell. Finally, something familiar, give me insults and sneers over fawning masses any day.

“Yes, my handy work.” Then I tapped my chin as if in thought. “But wait, is this not your handy work? Was it not this group that plotted and schemed to kill my line? Were you not trying to extinguish all memory of the rightful queen?” I narrowed my eyes at the witches trapped in their cells and asked, “How many did you kill to erase all memory of us? It wasn’t enough to just killher. You had to kill allmemoryof her. How many witches burned in your pursuit of power?”

Silva Cren clutched the bars, madness glimmering in her eyes. “Hundreds! And we’d do it all again!”

I wanted to feel fury at the statement but couldn’t. I was past any glimmer of anger. I was so filled with pain. There was no room for more. I felt frozen and afraid to thaw. To do so meant understanding that every day was one more day without waking up in Lucien’s arms. I would truly have to face that he betrayed me. My heart begged me to forgive him with every beat, and I would have to endure the fresh stab of pain when I realized I couldn’t.

Curious as to what my prisoners would think of my next proposal, I studied each of their faces and said, “I offer you a choice. I can strip you of all power and allow you to live out your days with no magic, or you may remain my prisoners until I feel you have adequately atoned for your sins. However long that may be.”

No one jumped at my offer, and I wasn’t surprised. When a witch was cut from their magic, it felt like a missing limb, something precious lost and always out of reach. I should know. It was something I had recently endured. I turned on my heel to exit but paused when one of them called out to me.

Silas Koyle said, “When do you plan on releasing us?”

“When I feel you have atoned and will never strike against me or mine,” I responded, though I doubted I could tell when that would be. One year? Fifty? One hundred? I wondered if it would take me that long to get over Lucien.