Page 128 of Hell Fae King

There’d been a lot of turmoil here.

Turmoil founded on the lack of available mates.

Strigoi needed Sigils to thrive. And my Source—my gates—had made that rather difficult since females weren’t typically granted entry into this realm.

Sighing, I took in the courtyard around me.

The disturbing scent of wilting flowers assaulted my senses.Roses dripping with blood,I noted, eyeing the towering fountain situated in the middle of the violent red scene. A blood-red moon hung behind it, framing the picture in a gruesome display suitable for a vampiric playground.

I frowned at it. The Strigoi were like vampires in that they fed on blood, but they weren’t normally so…dark.

The land around me felt melancholy.

Sickly.

My heart squeezed in my chest. Because this was only going to get worse once Nos died. He was the Strigoi King, one of my prized lieutenants.

Though, he hasn’t been all that reliable lately.

When was the last time he even attended one of my lieutenant calls? Toward the beginning of the trials, perhaps?

I wasn’t sure.

Which… which said a lot about how I’d performed as this kingdom’s Hell Fae King.

Another sigh escaped me as I followed the petal-laden path around the palace toward the front entrance. The flowers actually seemed to crunch beneath my shoes, a grinding that echoed eerily in my ears.

Since when do roses even make that sound?I wondered, glancing over my shoulder. A trail of bloody footprints littered the ground, causing my lips to curl downward.

Surely that’s a bad omen…

Fuck.This was going to be a long and exhausting visit.

“Your Majesty,” a Strigoi guard greeted when I reached the cathedral-like doors of the Strigoi Palace. His dark eyes didn’t hold any of the characteristic red they should have had, suggesting he was hungry. “King Nos has been asking for you. He’s in the throne room.” The door creaked open without him having touched it. “If you’ll follow me.”

The throne room?I wondered.If he’s expected to pass today, then why isn’t he on a deathbed?

I pondered that as the guard took me through the uncharacteristically empty halls of the dark palace.

I remembered it being more… vibrant… the last time I was here.

“Where is everyone?” I asked the guard after he had taken me through a series of staircases. The throne room was near the top of the palace, if memory served.

The guard paused at an ornate door, his hand resting on the handle.

“The Strigoi have been dying, Your Majesty. The blood fields have been withering from Rot, so many of us are being forced to hunt in other realms. And, well, most Strigoi have not been successful in alternative methods of survival.” His fingers tightened on the handle, making his dull veins bulge. “Now that you’re here, hopefully that will change.”

My chest constricted at his words. Strigoi operated like a hive mind with their royal bloodline being their primary source of power. And the blood fields were what empowered that bloodline.

If they were rotting, like this guard claimed them to be, then all of Strigoi kind was at risk of death. Because if the royal bloodline perished, they would die, too.

Why hasn’t Nos reported any of this to me?I wondered.

I’d disciplined the Morpheus Kingdom and the Netherworld Kingdom after the whole Monsters Night incident by disqualifying them all from the Hell Fae Bride Trials. My thought had been that since they’d run off to another realm to find their own mates, they no longer needed what I had to offer.

Cruel, perhaps. But it’d been a logical punishment, too.

A few of my lieutenants had complained.