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SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD

I had used every spell in my arsenal in those following years, but Alastir had completely vanished.

I wasn’t one to let go of a grudge, and I had made it my mission to find him and kill him.

He had seen right through me, and he was a threat to my rule.

He had likely known what I had planned, though it hadn’t saved Osiris’ life in the end.

If I could sway him to my side, he would be an invaluable weapon. He had the sight gifted from the mother. I could know the outcome of every battle. I could see the events of my reign before they happened.

But if I couldn’t sway him to my side…I would need to kill him.

There was no other way.

I sat atop the throne in the newly renovated throne room. I had picked out every furnishing down to the black-and-white checkered floor and the blood red drapes that hung from every window. The throne itself was plush, the color of blood once it had dried.

“My Queen, a visitor for you,” Corian said, entering the throne room. He bowed deep at the waist.

I raised a brow at him. “Let them in.”

Corian had climbed the ranks almost as quickly as I had when I had enlisted in Osiris’ service. He proved himself to be far more valuable than someone who could simply lead my army, though. He belonged at my side.

He had the dream walking sight, and a head for potions. He had ambitions almost as great as mine. And the best part? He didn’t thirst for the throne. He was ambitious for knowledge and for enough power to be important…but not rule. He was happy to be by my side, my little lapdog.

When the figure appeared at the entryway of the throne room, I had to stop myself from gasping. I hadn’t ever expected to see him again, let alone here, in the castle.

Zion strode forward exuding confidence, a smirk across his face, his hand on the button of his delicate coat jacket. He appeared…changed since I had last seen him. There was a confidence in his step that I didn’t remember from my childhood. He had always been tender with me.

But that wasn’t the man who stood before me now.

When I had left Siraleth, I had thought him broken.

Soft. Crippled by the guilt and sorrow that he bore in his heart.

But the man before me was one of power and elegance.

A smile played on his lips—his eyes narrowed in an assessing gaze. He had a lot of nerve to show up here.

He had helped Annelise to lead a resistance against me. He was brave to set foot in my throne room, knowing that it would be the last steps he would ever take. That the only outcome would be his death.

I sat on my throne, watching him stride toward me. He fell to his knee on the marbled floor before me, his hand placed over his heart as he bent his head in respect.

“My Queen, it is an honor.”

His greeting…surprised me. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting…but it wasn’t this.

“Zion.” At the sound of his name, he rose, facing me. He clasped his hands together behind his back in a sign of deference.

“What brings you here, father?” I hadn’t called him that in a long, long time. I dug my nails into the plush armrest, trying my hardest to keep my composure. I had to admit his sudden appearance had…rattled me.

“A father can’t simply visit his daughter?” he asked, raising a brow of his own.

I let a long moment of silence pass between us before I inclined my head. “ Not when she is queen.”

“Forgive me, My Queen. I only wanted to see how you fared. If you had requirement of my services.”

“Your services?” I asked, a humorless laugh escaping my lips and my tone rising an octave. “Why would I have need of your services? You betrayed me. Led an army against King Osiris. You sided with Annelise ,” I reminded him.

He shook his head, his expression betraying nothing of how he felt. “A simple misunderstanding. I did not side with Annelise, but rather chose to remain at her side to understand what she had planned. How I might…infiltrate the resistance. To bring back the information to you, of course.”

Did I believe him? Was he lying simply to earn favor with me? I hadn’t been hunting him. If he never came back here, he could safely hide in this realm until his dying days. But he had chosen to come here. Chosen to face me.

“And why should I believe you?” I asked, my eyes narrowing on him.

“Blood runs thicker than water.”

“Meaning?” I asked, examining my nails.

I feigned a cold affect, but what curdled deep in my core was the opposite. I was shaken. The truth was…I wanted him on my side. I wanted him to join me here in the castle, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust him.

He was the only true family I had left. The rest of them had tainted blood and needed to be purged from this realm. He was the only one who had never left me when I was younger.

“Meaning, I would never betray my own flesh and blood,” he replied.

I was his kin. His only daughter.

Did he mean it?

“Why come now? Why not when the war ended two years ago? Why wait?” I asked, curious.

“I have hunted her for you, My Queen. I believe I have found her.”

Right away, I knew who he meant, but I needed to hear him say it.

“Who?” I asked, innocence lacing my tone.

“The Stormshade child. Your sister .”

“And where is she?” I asked without preamble. “With mother dearest?” I inched forward on the throne.

Zion shook his head. “No. Annelise has fled, though I do have Shades searching for her.”

Interesting. He must have a contingent of his own, then. Loyal to him. Had he truly infiltrated the resistance? Did he wish to be my spy?

“All my life you chased her as if you were her lap dog. How can I believe that you would turn on her after everything? You always loved her.”

Zion’s gaze fell to the marble floor as he was lost deep in thought for a long moment.

“Perhaps there was a time when that was true, but I have had some time to reflect on my actions. On my past. Annelise may have cared for me once, but that was a long time ago. It wasn’t only you she left when she came to The Stone City that day. She left me, too.”

That was the truth. She had left us both.

Left us all alone and then went and fell in love with another. Had a child by him. She had the audacity to come crawling back, tail between her legs, seeking shelter.

“And you would bring her to me?” I asked.

Zion bowed his head. “It would be my honor, My Queen, to deliver them both to you.”

“And how does this benefit you? What do you stand to gain from this?”

Zion crossed has hand over his heart. “I hope for a place at your side. To advise you. I may not have as much battle skill as you, but I have years of wisdom to impart. I wish to see you succeed, and to do that, you will need a council. It would be my honor to lead them.”

There it was. A thirst for power. Like father, like daughter, I supposed.

He didn’t want to merely come back into my life to spend time with me; he wanted a prominent and powerful position at my side.

But I approved of the idea of a council.

There would be times where I couldn’t make every decision myself.

I would need a council of similar-minded Shades to guide me.

If he betrayed me, I would slit his throat myself. He could prove to be of use to me, being an incredibly powerful Nightshade in his own right. He would get one chance, and after that…all bets were off. Blood or not. That never mattered to me, anyway.

“In that case…welcome back, father.” A smile lifted the corner of my mouth as I stood, descending the steps of the dais.

When I reached the bottom, I placed a hand atop his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

He pulled me to him, surprising me once more.

He pressed me against him, caressing a hand down my hair in a soothing motion.

I was instantly transported back to when he had put me to sleep every night when Annelise had been gone.

He had held me close. Tucked me into bed each and every night, stroking my hair in a gentle manner, telling me fairytale stories to put me to sleep. For only a moment, I felt small again.

But I didn’t forget myself.

I was the queen of Istmere now, a powerful ruler in my own right. The most powerful Shade in the entire realm. I stepped back, out of his embrace, nodding in his direction.

“Where should we get started?” I asked, curious how he might have found the little Stormshade witch. She had to be what…five years old now? Six?

“The mortal realm,” Zion replied.

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth, biting it. “That might be a problem.”

“Why is that?” he asked, his brows drawn together in confusion.

“You see, I can’t exactly use the portal to the mortal realm,” I answered.

He shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“I tried. When I was searching for Alastir. I have scoured this entire realm, but there is no sign of him. No trace. When I tried to breach the portal to the mortal realm, I was…pushed back. I’m not sure why.

I have to assume it is the darkness that lives within me.

” I motioned toward my eyes. “I have been…consumed by the magic in a way. My current state is”—I paused, searching for the words—“currently incompatible with the mortal realm.”

“I see,” he replied quietly.

“It brings me hope that it means I am, indeed, no longer a mortal.”

“No longer a mortal?” he asked, his voice strained. “How is that possible?”

“Well.” I smirked. “Easier if I show you.”

One moment I was standing before him, a delicately beaded chiffon dress adorning my body, and in the next I was in my wolf form. I was large, even for a Nightshade, and my height rivaled his despite my animal stature.

When his gaze took in my wolf form, I knew what he would see.

That a bright red sigil graced my forehead. It appeared to be dripping blood, despite it having dried years ago. When the witch in the wood with whom I had visited every week during training had shown me this spell, I knew it was the one I would use for immortality.

The price of such a spell? A piece of my soul.

When I had decided to let Annelise live, to spare her on the battlefield that day, I had marked her. I had driven the sword into the ground with such force it had distracted her and those around us from my true intention.

I had placed a piece of myself in Annelise.

If I was killed in this form, I would still live on in her .

I could easily be resurrected, even without the necromancy spell from the Grishina grimoire.

I wanted Annelise dead in the end, of course, but I thought it quite poetic that she would be the one to hold the first piece of my soul.

When she died, I would transfer it to another.

The witch in the wood had warned me that I could only give one piece at a time, lest I die in the process. Once I took the piece from Annelise back in order to kill her, I could simply place it in another. The same held true if the one I had entrusted with the piece of my soul was slain.

Zion was shocked, whether it was because of the sigil itself or because he recognized the spell, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t think he would be privy to such a spell. It was dark, dark, blood magic after all. He had never dabbled in such things.

“What does it mean?” he asked, cocking his head to the side as he examined it.

In the blink of an eye I switched back into my human form, a little breathless from the quick transformation. My hand rest against my stomach, steadying myself.

“It means…I’m immortal,” I replied simply. He didn’t need to know the details of the spell. That it was his beloved Annelise that now held a piece of me.

He took a step back, his face a mask of shock. “Immortal?”

I nodded, a smile turning up the corner of my mouth. “I will not age, as those before me did. My skin will not wrinkle, my hair will not grey. But because of my incompatibility with the mortal realm, I can’t go there. My sister will have to be brought to me.”

A slow smile spread across Zion’s face. “We can arrange that.”

I had gotten everything I had ever gone after, and I wouldn’t fail at this either. I picked up the skirts of my dress and ascended the dais steps once more, sitting on the throne I had worked so hard to claim and crossing my legs.

Annikin, Annelise, Malec, Zion, Corian, Osiris, Alastir…they were all pawns in this game. That’s all anyone was, truly. People were simply tools I needed to manipulate and persuade to do the things I needed them to. Wanted them to.

I wasn’t born a villain…I was made into one.

I had been twisted into something dark and evil by the spells in the Grishina grimoire, and once dark magic had grasped a foothold, it did not let go.

After that first spell to resurrect Emil, there had been no hope for me.

The humanity slowly bled out of my soul as the years passed.

The only thing that drove me now was my thirst for power… and revenge.

My attention turned back to the single most important thing. The thing that would consume my every thought over the next decade.

Alastir, the seer, had prophesized that a certain little Stormshade would bring an end to the war and strife that plagued Istmere.

I could only assume this meant my continued battle to hunt and eliminate every last Stormshade that existed in this realm.

Zion may have located her, but my rule had not yet endured for a decade.

That meant, despite Zion thinking he had located her, it was going to take me years to truly find her and have her within my grasp.

Years to bring her to justice.

For if she was already dead, she couldn’t fulfill the prophecy. A dead Stormshade couldn’t put a stop to anything .

It was time to hunt my sister.