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Chapter 1
Nyx
It was the worst week in my recent memory, surprisingly outdoing so many bad weeks before.
Commencing with the Mystara ambassadors meeting, the four kingdoms had chosen Steelshire as the middle ground for this year’s conference. The capital city of South Havenmire was overrun with residents from all over the continent. Hosting at my palace was always a chore, as I’m sure it was for all the other Alpha Kings, but at least they had queens at their sides to help them with the preparations. All I had was my surly enchantress, Odette, to advise me on domestic matters and correct my every decision, as if I still needed my hand held after all these years on my own. She had been in Steelshire Castle less time than me and yet somehow believed she knew more.
Echoes of King Cade, King Jace, and King Zen’s complaints about their various problems within their respective kingdoms still reverberated through my mind. If you asked me, most could be attributed to their lack of proper vetting of their own staff, but I kept my opinions to myself for the most part. I’d come to learn that these conferences were more about venting than they were about constructive criticism.
Fools,I thought as I headed out of my private office on the main floor of Steelshire Castle, lighting pulsating through my fingertips to open the doors in my path.
If they had better security, they wouldn’t have half the problems they did.
But I had my own kingdom to run, and that was enough for me. Being abandoned, or whatever my father had done, left me in a position scrambling to take care of Steelshire on my own. I couldn’t worry about everyone else, too.
I was relieved that part of my week was completed, at least, and I wouldn’t have to worry about that for another year.
The Royal Guards fell into place behind me the second I was on the move, military style in rows of two, following behind me silently to watch for any threats that might befall me as we made our way through the marble halls of my ancestral home.
Servants worked tirelessly despite the evening hour, all pausing to bow respectfully as I passed, and I nodded pleasantly, addressing some of them by name, but I didn’t stop for conversation. I was worried that Odette might corner me again, as she had after the kings had finally left to remind me I was the only unmarried ruler in the continent of Mystara.
As if I needed reminding.
“Is the car out front?” I asked the guard at the door, and he nodded once.
“Yes, Alpha.”
The title always irked me for some reason, despite the intention of respect it was meant to depict. Technically, my father was still officially the Alpha King of Steelshire, regardless of the fact that he had been missing for over seven years. Having been declared officially dead now, I held the claim to the throne.
But I wouldn’t have complete control for one more year, when I turned thirty, or until I married. It was some weirdloophole because my father was missing, and his body was never found.
Perhaps there was still a small part of me that thought my father would return one day, with my mother and lost brother, too, the thoughts making me feel like a foolish, stupid child again.
But it didn’t sit right with me all the same, all of it. I’d long since accepted that my father wasn’t returning, nor would my mother and brother return from the dead, but I really hadn’t wrapped my head around the title of Alpha King, even after seven years, and now that most of the kingdom addressed me as such, the reality was daunting. Not that I hadn’t worked my ass off to get where I was. There was a reason that we didn’t see the same issues in Steelshire that the other three kingdoms constantly entertained. I was that reason.
Not waiting for the guard at the door to open it, I extended my palms once more. A flash of energy extended forward to part the entry at the front hall, which allowed me to exit the premises. I’d barely taken a step when I heard the sound that never ceased to make my blood curdle.
“Nyx!”
Oh, for fuck’s sake…
I hadn’t managed to escape Odette after all.
She hadn’t used her typical teleportation to creep up on me, giving me the usual nose tickle of magic to reconsider my escape. Her high heels clicked unnecessarily loudly behind me on the freshly polished marble, and I had half a mind to ignore her and continue outside into the fresh air, even if I had to resort to stealth mode to make it happen.
As if she had detected my thoughts, she spoke.
“Nyx, I know you can hear me,” the enchantress sang sweetly, her voice too close for comfort now.
“Half the kingdom can hear your shrill voice, Odie,” I replied with just as much faux cordiality as she maintained. “I’m right here. No need to shout.”
I barely slowed down to allow her to catch up with me, but I caught sight of her fiery crimson mane in my peripheral vision, her pace quickening as she caught my stride. I often wondered if I wouldn’t have found Odette beautiful if she just didn’t annoy me so much. It was difficult to envision such a world.
“Where are you off to tonight?” she purred, finally making it to my side.
Into the cool autumn evening I stepped, my magic-armored SUV waiting with the driver at the back door, guards still in perfect lockstep at my back. A half-moon rose through a thick of fall clouds, casting an eerie glow over the cityscape beyond the palace gates.
“Out,” I answered simply.
