Page 42

My mother was alive.

My mother.

Alive.

Nearly twenty years had passed since the harvest that took her from me. I had been so sure she’d died ages ago. Patriarch Meallán always said it was better to imagine our loved ones dead than the damnation they actually resided in.

I straightened in the saddle, my back brushing Luc’s wall of a chest. We followed a path down the eastern side of the mountain, beneath towering trees crowned with pale green leaves. Titus padded silently beside us like we were going for a leisurely ride.

One that would end with seeing my mother .

What would I say to her?

What would she say to me?

Would she say she missed me?

Would she judge me for not even trying to meet the birth quota, as she had tried and tried and tried?

Would she hate me for falling willingly into the bed of the Imperium?

I clenched my fists in my lap. There was no point ruminating over what would happen. I didn’t even really remember her as a person. I had only been nine when she left. When I closed my eyes and pictured her, all I remembered was her widened brown eyes before she turned from her silent husband and sobbing child, toward city hall and the waiting magistrates.

The rest of her face? A blur.

Her voice? Long since faded from memory.

But even if I did remember her, she wouldn’t be the same person she was when she left. I had only spent a little over a week in the Impire proper, and already I was a stranger to the Nessa of a month ago.

The trees thinned, giving way to sunlit rolling hills dappled with wildflowers. Titus dashed ahead into the open field, his huge paws crushing the scattered violet blooms. Jules’s hellsteed, Cala, released a jealous huff that sounded almost like a growl. I shied back instinctively from the sound—and into Luc’s chest. I shuddered at the touch of satin over solid muscle, the brush of his chin against my head. I forced my spine to go stiff. It wasn’t wise to get too comfortable in these arms, no matter the bond’s urging.

The King of Dawn patted his hellsteed’s neck. “You can run once we get to Tenebra de Mar, Wrath.”

I cleared my throat. Don’t think about Luc’s body, don’t think about Luc’s body. “You still haven’t explained how we’re getting to Tenebra de Mar in a day.”

When Luc had told me Sabas had found my mother but that she wasn’t in Montaurère, my heart had sunk. Her masters had left her behind as part of the staff maintaining their Tenebra de Mar home while they spent the spring and summer in Montaurère. Apparently, most of the Azarasians moved between their two cities, depending on the season.

It had taken six days to get from Mabon to Montaurère. Tenebra de Mar was in the south of the Impire, easily twice that distance, but the kings had assured me we’d arrive within the hour.

Jules glanced over his shoulder. “You’ll see in a minute.”

I frowned at him, then at Luc, but only enough to catch the quirk of his lips. He wasn’t going to spoil the surprise, either.

I whipped back around before I gave into temptation and met those silver eyes. “What if my mother doesn’t have any answers? Will you return to Mabon to speak with my father?”

“Sabas had the magistrates of your city speak with him yesterday,” Luc said. I went still. “Your father doesn’t know anything about glamours or soulbonds.”

“Oh.” My father must have been cursing my name, my stepmother adding another item to the mental sin list she had started for me at age ten.

Assuming they were alive.

How many bodies had I seen ravaged by the magistrates? They didn’t attack indiscriminately, but if the Imperium had sent them to gather answers, there weren’t any lines they wouldn’t cross.

I didn’t want to know.

I had to know.

“Did the magistrates… hurt them?”

Luc’s heavy gaze settled on the back of my head. “Your family remained unharmed.”

The tension fled from me. Thank the stars. I didn’t care about my father or stepmother, but I didn’t want them hurt. Aislin loved her parents and had already suffered enough loss.

My heart panged. Stars, I missed my sister. Did she blame herself for me leaving? Did she pray for my soul every morning and night? Or had she already forgotten me, thinking me better off dead like the Church preached?

It didn’t matter. I’d never know.

Luc tensed his legs, urging his hellsteed into a trot. My pulse dropped into my lower belly at the feel of those strong thighs. I had ridden with both kings multiple times on the trip to Montaurère, my nerves and desire at war then. Now, after the soulbond, only lust remained.

How had Jules put it? The soulbond was insistent . It was content enough to be a few feet away from the King of Dawn after sating its craving in the garden, but its need for Luc had only grown wilder. I kept my breathing even as panic spiked in me. The emotion quickly faded away, suppressed by the bond and replaced with anticipation.

It was only a matter of time before Luc reclaimed his lead. And we both knew it. His attention on me had grown heavier on my shoulders. A shiver tracing my spine —

“If you had someone else question my father, why are we going to Tenebra de Mar ourselves?” I blurted out.

The kings glanced at each other, a quick flicker of their eyes that I sensed instead of saw. Both of them were… amused. Heat rushed to my cheeks. I wasn’t being very subtle in my attempts to ignore the rising lust.

“Do you not wish to see your mother?” Luc asked.

“Well, yes, but I—”

Wait.

Wait .

Were they doing this for me? Why the fuck would they do that? They didn’t know me. I didn’t know them. I was only meant to be their Mortal Bride and thrall until a soulbond tied us together. We didn’t have a real connection.

Not today .

I exhaled slowly as we edged around the mountain, a rough face of rock to my right—

I choked on my breath.

Behind Montaurère, expanding northwest for miles into the hills, was a starcrater. Dark shadows steamed from the unrefined daemium, twisting up into the sky. I gaped at the expanse of darkness. It was nearly the size of a city, putting the one we had seen on the road to shame.

I didn’t even have to ask.

“This is Toreth’s starcrater,” Luc said. “He was part of the First Godsfall almost ten thousand years ago.”

Toreth. I didn’t know that name. The Divine Host had only banished a hundred godstars during the First Godsfall, but I had never stumbled across a list. “It’s… huge.”

I couldn’t come up with any better descriptor, but the wonder in my voice was clear.

Luc chuckled softly. “It’s one of the largest starcraters on the planet. Toreth was a general of the rebellious godstars and incredibly powerful, even after he fell.”

“Then why was Azaras the ruler of this region and not him?” Azaras was part of the Second Godsfall, when thousands of godstars streaked across the skies and littered the earth with starcraters. That didn’t necessarily make him weaker than Toreth, but many of the First had held onto their domains during the centuries-long territory battles that followed.

“Toreth disappeared right after the First Godsfall,” Luc said. “We don’t have many records from then, so no one knows exactly what happened. He’s alive, though. The shadows from his crater would stop if he were dead.”

“That’s… slightly terrifying.”

Jules snorted from his place a few strides ahead of us, turning slightly in his saddle. “Wherever he is, he isn’t bothering anyone. He’s the least terrifying demon, in my opinion.”

“Maybe he kills everyone he bothers, so they’re never heard from again and no one knows he’s running around committing unspeakable horrors.”

There was a slight pause before Luc said, a smile evident in his voice, “You have quite the imagination, little curiosity.”

I shuddered. No matter how far I ran from my desire, I always ended back in the thick of it. I straightened, clearing my throat. “How is Toreth’s starcrater related to Tenebra de Mar?”

“We’re going to use it as a runegate,” Luc said.

“You can do that?” If a small hunk of daemium could transport us to the top of the mountain, how far could a runegate carved into a starcrater go?

Apparently, all the way to Tenebra de Mar at least.

“Once the runes are carved, it’s not that difficult,” Jules said before twisting around toward the green fields to our left. “You coming, Titus?”

The hellwolf stopped and glanced back. His shadow eyes flickered from us to the crater like he was weighing his options. After a second, he huffed and dashed for the treeline in the opposite direction.

I couldn’t help but smile after the wolf. “I take that as a no?”

“Probably for the best,” Luc said. “He and the hellcat who lives in Duskfell were at each other’s throats all winter. I had to pry them apart too many times to count.”

“That’s what you get for being the responsible sibling.” Jules smiled over at us. “I’ve nominated Cédric for that role. He’s lucky Perry’s off in Kotara, otherwise he’d have to spend half his time as our referee.”

I stared for a long second. He couldn’t possibly mean… “Wait.” I spun toward Luc. “Are you saying that Titus is a child of Azaras? You have a wolf for a brother?”

Luc’s lips twitched. “That is what he said.”

“I have a whale for an uncle,” Jules added.

“You what ?”

“Thaddeus fucked a whale once.”

I blinked at him. “Excuse me?”

“In his defense, he was also a whale at the time.” Jules’s brows furrowed in thought. “Or perhaps a kraken. Whatever he was, he was whale-sized, too.”

“It’s still messed up.”

“It’s not the oddest pairing,” Luc said. “Do you know why the Tyrhari have never brought an army to our northern border?”

I frowned. “I don’t know anything about your northern border. Books on geography aren’t allowed in Mabon.”

There was a beat of silence, just enough to notice, before Luc murmured, “We’ll have to rectify that.”

“A hellbeast is terrifying enough,” Jules said. “Let’s not give her nightmares by starting off her lessons with the Salathien Hellwood.”

Hellwood? Nope. No thank you. Jules was right. I did not want to know what monster resulted from a demon and a starsdamned tree. A hellwolf and hellwhale were terrifying enough.

“Do you both have other hellbeast… relatives?”

Luc nodded. “You might meet Saffira, the hellcat, but she and Titus are the only two I know.”

“He has more,” Jules said casually. “Azaras’s Beast infamously fucked anything that moved.”

Luc stiffened slightly behind me, almost imperceptible if not for the soulbond. Jules didn’t even pause.

“But all demonblood have hellbeast relatives,” he continued. “So sharing a demon for a sire or grandsire doesn’t mean much in our world.”

Luc remained silent for a fraction too long. I felt it in the shift of his breathing, the brief tension locking his muscles. Why had that comment rattled him? Nothing rattled the Conqueror.

Then, just as quickly, he forced himself to relax.

“Titus and Saffira have the intelligence to choose to live in harmony with us,” Luc said, his voice smooth and measured. “Our other hellbeast relatives are far more likely to attempt to eat us.”

“Just like Azaras’s hellbat children in The Soulborne Queen .” I had read that scene more times than I cared to admit. Karra’s first introduction to Azaras’s hell realm almost ended with her being devoured by a bat the size of a dog.

“Ugh, hellbats.” Jules visibly shuddered. “Fuckers will try to eat anything, demons included.”

“Good to—” My voice trailed off as we crested the last hill between us and the expanse of shadow.

Were there… people kneeling at the starcrater’s edge?

A cold, crawling dread spread through my limbs. I had wondered where Estrella and Tristan went. When we had returned to the apartment from the garden, they were nowhere to be found. Luc dismissing them wasn’t too surprising, but they hadn’t returned as we made our way through Dawnspear to the stables.

Instead, they had gone off to collect sacrifices.

There was no other reason for nearly twenty thralls to kneel around a starcrater.

The fluttering in my stomach twisted into nausea. If Jules hadn’t reapplied the soothing rune before we left, I’d be doubled over at the sight. I wanted to be wrong, but I wasn’t. Blood had activated all the runegates I’d witnessed. Those smaller gates hadn’t even taken us far. If this one would bring us all the way to Tenebra de Mar, it would need far more power than a few drops could provide.

No wonder we hadn’t used a starcrater to travel from Mabon. The kings would’ve had to kill half the harvest, maybe more.

“No.” I nearly grabbed the reins from Luc’s hands. I didn’t know how to steer a horse—and Wrath was a hellsteed, likely to ignore my commands—but I would’ve tried if I thought it had a chance of stopping this.

“Relax, lovely,” Jules said. “They’re all prisoners, slated for death either way.”

“And what crimes did they commit? Were they as guilty as éamon?”

Jules cocked his head, frowning.

“The human who removed her from our apartment,” Luc reminded him.

“It only happened two days ago,” I nearly hissed.

Jules shrugged. “If I had to remember all the humans who died in front of me, I wouldn’t have room in my mind for anything else.”

“Maybe that’s a problem.”

Jules directed a grimace at Luc. “Darling, this was supposed to make our wife happy and now she’s yelling at me.”

“She is right here,” I snapped. At the Butcher. Fuck him. “And she will continue yelling at you—”

Luc gripped the bar at the back of my collar and tugged lightly, just enough to make me stutter and stop. My clit throbbed, a sudden, short burst. If I could yell at my poorly timed desire, I would do that, too.

“Their crimes are irrelevant, bride,” Luc said firmly. “They will die either way and if we can use their deaths to fulfill a greater purpose, we will always take that path.”

I shuddered at the ruthless practicality of it. “Well, I don’t even want to go to Tenebra de Mar anymore, so it’s a wasted purpose.”

“Liar,” he murmured against my ear.

I flinched, pulling forward. Luc released his hold on my collar. “I don’t want to go if it means someone will die .”

Stars, please don’t let that be a lie. Please, please, please.

Luc didn’t contradict me.

I went slack in his arms. I wasn’t completely lost.

“If your father didn’t know about the runespells, your mother must. She’d have noticed her child missing otherwise.” Luc blanked his expression, the Conqueror returning to his bright eyes. “I don’t trust this conversation to anyone but us, and we can’t waste a week traveling there on hellsteed.”

Estrella and Tristan glanced at their King of Dusk, who nodded in reply. They moved in opposite directions, each unsheathing a steel blade.

The thralls trembled, their cries muffled by runed iron mouthpieces. None of them tried to run, but I knew they all wanted to. More than one thrall runespell flared as we approached from behind. Their faces would surely show their fear. But did I want to see their faces? Did I want to remember their terror as they died?

As one, in perfect sync as only soulbound could be, Estrella and Tristan slashed their blades across the bare throats of their first victims.

Blood sprayed in a crimson arc, splattering across the blackened earth. In a heartbeat, the guards twisted their blades downward, cutting from throat to navel. The bodies barely had time to crumple before their organs slipped free, swallowed whole by the shifting shadows.

The runespell carved deep into the soil flared with a surge of power as the pooling blood filled the grooves. I slammed a hand over my mouth. Luc drew a rune against my shoulder, stopping my nausea, but it did nothing for my horror.

Slash. Eviscerate. Repeat.

Again and again. The rhythm of butchery.

By the time the last body hit the ground, the runes were slick with blood, the soil greedily soaking in the sacrifice. The air grew thick with iron.

Gate. Distance. Path. Arrival. Cross.

The shadows over the crater writhed and stretched, thickening as they absorbed the strength of twenty stolen lives. A rancid smell reached my nose as the kings’ hellsteeds stepped over the nearest corpse. Something crunched beneath their hooves. Not even a rune could stop me from gagging.

I swallowed the bile in my throat. Jules had said they were criminals… by Azarasian standards. Whatever their crime, they would have died anyway. But that didn’t change the tremor in my breath, the way it shuddered past my lips as I fought to suppress it. Luc made no move to comfort me. His grip around my waist remained steady. Unyielding. Unrelenting.

Like I’d need to get used to death.

Luc clicked his tongue, and Wrath surged forward, running straight into the shadows. Heat washed over my skin—

And stayed, the sun suddenly burning in the sky. It crashed down on my shoulders, like we were in the thick of a Maboni summer. Stars, how hot would it get here if this was the temperature in spring?

We’d gone through a runegate on one edge of a starcrater and emerged from another. This one stretched just as far as Toreth’s, but the landscape was harsher—a flat, grassy savanna sprawling beyond the steep cliff to my left. The stench of blood and rot was gone, replaced by the sharp tang of salt, a scent I had only encountered once before on the Thaddeian Ocean’s breeze.

I turned, following my nose.

Turquoise blue water crashed against a shore of black, wafting sand. A shorter cliff of dark rocks rose on the other side of the beach, a city perched on its back. The Capital of Dusk was built on top of Azaras’s starcrater, the twisting roads threaded between sandstone buildings like veins of shadow. Further inland, at the city’s edge, the silver dome of a palace shimmered under the sun. Duskfell’s famed tiered gardens cascaded down in a defiant burst of green, a stark contrast against the sand and smoke.

It was all beautiful. But my gaze was drawn past all of it, to the impossibly tall tower of daemium looming over the city center.

The Beast’s Roost.

My imagination had paled in comparison to the real thing. From its peak, Azaras would have had all of his starcrater in his sight. I suddenly understood the terror that had gripped people every night for centuries, knowing their demon king’s curse had turned him into a winged monster.

No one could forget the Beast hunted from the starlit skies, not with one look up. I judged Karra a little less for nearly wetting herself when she first looked over the edge.

A breath rushed out of me, long and slow.

I had stepped from brutal reality directly into the pages of The Soulborne Queen .

Karra’s former home.

Azaras’s former capital.

Tenebra de Mar, in the flesh.