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Chapter Twenty-Seven

VICTOR

After our meeting with the queen, we retired to one of the royal sitting rooms. Yaga sat in a chair near a crackling fireplace, pipe in hand, peering at me through the smoke. Runa sat at her feet as if she was loath to put an inch of distance between them.

While Runa had spoken with Yaga, she’d yet to say a word to me or meet my eyes. I found it unsettling. For some strange reason, I desired to know what she thought about my divine heritage.

Yaga stroked Runa’s dark head with gnarled fingers, the act motherly. From what I’d discerned, this was the woman who’d raised Runa and her brothers.

It explained much.

Watching the two of them stirred a distant memory. One of a woman with flowing silver curls. I sat on the floor at her knee, fire crackling at my back while she trailed gentle fingers through my short locks. It was a moment of contentment and safety. The last I could remember.

I’d waited patiently while Runa reconnected with her mother. That patience now neared an end. “Queen Elowen mentioned you knew the story of my past.”

“I do.”

After a stretch of silence where I suspected the woman had fallen asleep, I said, “Can you tell me this story?”

The hag grinned, revealing gaping teeth, and I stifled a shiver.

“Thought you’d never ask.”

Swallowing angry words, I curled my fingers into my clenched fists. Must not slaughter the hag.

She took a deep puff on her pipe and exhaled, beginning her tale.

“Long ago, there was a noble king,” she stated sagely.

“A divine king with the power of the gods. King Helix ruled over a prosperous land. And though the king loved the people as they loved him, he grew lonely and decided to take a queen. Soon after, she bore him a son named Idris.”

Runa snorted her distaste for this part of the narrative.

“For a time, the king was happy. Except, the queen, she was a frigid, calculating soul. Before long, it became clear she’d mated with the king, not out of love but greed.

“Again, the king grew lonely. Until a beautiful female vampire crossed his path. More and more, the king visited the woman, and soon, he became obsessed with her. That obsession produced a son.”

“I’m to assume I am that son?” I scoffed. If she wanted me to gasp and wail in surprise, she was to be disappointed. After all I’d been through, there was little that could shock me.

Yaga’s cloudy eyes locked on me, tracking my reaction. At my continued silence, she huffed a sigh.

“The vampiress was an intelligent woman. She knew if anyone were to discover the affair, she and her child would become targets of the king’s enemies.

So, she met with a powerful hag from a neighboring village and begged for a spell.

One fashioned to hide her child’s identity.

Sensing this child had an important future, the hag did as the vampiress asked. ”

Runa leaned back from her adopted mother, frowning. “It was you who put the shield on his powers.”

Yaga grimaced. “For all the good that it did. Not long after that, the queen learned of the king’s infatuation, and she flew into a rage. Fearful the king’s bastard would jeopardize her own son’s claim to the throne, she sent assassins to kill the vampiress and her child.

“Fearing for her son, the king’s mistress fled in the middle of the night.

She sought the aid of a young sorceress rumored to have a unique gift and begged the woman to help.

The sorceress offered to open a portal to another land.

However, she warned the price of such a spell would cost the young mother everything. ”

At this, Runa stiffened. “One of my ancestors did this?”

“Yes, child.” Yaga stroked her hair. “Your great-grandmother.”

Meaning, between Yaga and Runa’s grandmother, our lives had been intertwined since the beginning. A connection that wasn’t lost on me.

“So it was, with a heavy heart, the king’s mistress sent her child into a foreign land.”

An image of my mother flooded my brain. One of her crying, kissing my cheeks, and then thrusting a blade into her chest.

Portal magic required a blood sacrifice. My mother sacrificed herself to protect me.

I wasn’t abandoned. Rejected. This news should have offered me some comfort. It didn’t, as I was no longer a child who cared about such things. The story Yaga told felt long separated from me. As if it had happened to someone else.

“The king mourned the loss of his lover and son. When he discovered what his queen had done, he cursed his remaining child, ensuring the realm would reject Idris when it came his time to rule.

“Furious, the queen plotted, and when her son was old enough to claim the throne, murdered the divine king. When the kingdom’s sacred arbor rejected the cursed son, his mother urged him to capture a sorceress who could force a bond.

Problem was, a sacrifice was needed. Knowing her actions were the cause of his curse, the queen surrendered her life so that her son could access Carcerem’s power. ”

Shadows from the flickering flames haunted Runa’s expression. “So, not only did my sister open a connection between the two, she was ultimately responsible for the queen’s death.”

Yaga nodded. “Sadly, the eldest son was more like his mother than his father. He abused the power granted to him, using the tree to drain Carcerem until the kingdom was a withered shell of its former glory. For a while, it seemed all was lost until a prophecy came to light. One that claimed Carcerem’s one true king lived and would someday return.

Which brings us to now.” Her discerning gaze took me in.

In her eyes, I felt…

Judged .

Lacking .

My defenses rose in response. “It’s a lovely story.”

The hag narrowed her cloudy eyes. “You don’t believe me.”

Runa’s glare now matched the hag’s. That I’d dared to question Yaga.

“I’ve learned to put little faith in prophecies over the centuries. Most never come true. Others were invented by drunken soothsayers, selling snake oil and fortunes trying to make a buck.”

“Careful, vampire,” Runa growled.

“It’s okay, dear,” Yaga stated in a way that made it clear it was anything but okay. “Those without faith often have trouble believing things they haven’t seen with their own eyes. ”

“You forget,” I snapped, “I have experienced the effects of this so-called prophecy firsthand, along with everything it might have set into motion. First, upon having all I’ve worked for stolen from me before I was banished to a barbaric land.

Next, by falling off a cliff into the jaws of a gallspawn.

Then, by being sold to a gangster who promptly shipped me off to Idris, who treated me like a game piece. ”

Yaga opened her mouth as if to speak, and I cut her off. “Did I mention I was recently burned alive by a dragon?”

“And you are better for it,” Yaga declared with a thrust of her bony chin. “All of it.”

“Better?” I snapped my fingers, emitting sparks that fizzled and died. “Behold my god-like power. One look, and I’m certain Idris will quake in his royal boots. Tell me again how I am the lost king sent to save a decrepit kingdom filled with criminals and commoners.”

Runa scoffed. “Don’t waste your breath, Yaga. The vampire believes in nothing of real value. He puts his faith in the almighty coin. That which cannot be bought has little value to him.”

“I have faith,” I spat. “Faith in myself.”

Runa snapped to her feet, standing before me. “And that is why you ended up on that ledge, exiled and alone.”

I rose from my seat as well, not one to be looked down upon. “I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe my mother was right to send me into the mortal world, saving me from a miserable life in this rabid, uncivilized land.”

“Perhaps it is you who doesn’t deserve the kingdom.” Runa took an aggressive step forward. “By your own words, all you care about is yourself.”

“Because I am the only one who’s never let me down. I owe this realm nothing. And now we are free of the pit, I owe you nothing as well.” I stabbed a finger into Runa’s chest. “I held up my end of our deal. It’s past time you held up yours. You promised me a portal.”

Instead of shrinking in the face of my anger, Runa thrust her nose an inch before mine. “Still, you hound me about your flarking portal. Even though you’ve just found out you are the only one who can save Carcerem’s people, your only concern is returning to the mortal world.”

“Finally, you understand.”

“Is that the reason you ‘fell’ saving my life? Because you’d prefer to die than be stranded here?”

“Exactly,” I snarled.

Runa’s palm exploded against my cheek. Though I could have stopped her, I welcomed her fury. It fueled my own. Fury felt better than the pain and confusion I experienced during Yaga’s story.

“You disgust me,” Runa snarled, then bolted from the room.

Silence reigned, my fury-driven breaths the only sound.

At length, Yaga heaved a heavy sigh. “Well, that was disappointing.”

“Yes,” I growled. “I’m getting that a lot lately.”

Again, silence fell between us while Yaga tapped her whiskered chin, glaring into the crackling fire.

“Perhaps I was wrong then. Both when you were a youngling, and again, when I sent my greatest treasure to you.” She shifted her bony frame, squaring her slumped shoulders as if she’d come to some difficult decision.

“Very well. Victor Custodis, if power is all you want, then power is all you shall have. If you still insist on returning to the mortal world, then you should not go back empty-handed.”

“What do you mean?” I cast her a leery glance.

“I mean, you’ve made your point. For all you’ve suffered, I believe you are overdue a reward. The choice is yours. You can return to your realm broken and exiled or return as a god.”

“I’m listening. ”

She narrowed gleaming eyes that seemed to see nothing and yet everything at the same time. “I must warn you. The journey will be difficult. And to start, you must do something you’ve never done before.”

“That is?”

“Apologize.”