Every single monster had slithered, crawled, walked, or flown to the start of the range.
They were surrounding the stairs, all looking up and waiting. Expecting…
“They’re waiting for orders,” Hael said, as he came to stand next to me.
“Yeah,” Jaxs added, “so if you can send them all back to Hell, like right now, that would be nice. I’m fucking tapped out today.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want it,” I said. “I don’t want any of it.”
I wanted to get as far away from Dahes as I could. I didn’t want his title, his castle, his kingdom, and I certainly didn’t want his monsters.
“I know,” Hael said softly. “I’ll help you figure it all out. We’ll do it together.”
“Queen of the Dead and King of the Living,” Jaxs uttered, “and they can’t even get rid of the monsters.”
I looked up at Hael, my gaze snapping to his. “Elion was my father,” he said, then added more softly, “I made the mistake of telling Jaxs already.”
He held out his hand, waiting for me. “I’ll help you,” he said, “with everything. We’ll do it together.”
I took his hand, wrapping my fingers between his, as I realized yet again we were going through the same thing.
All the monstersand beasts now answered to me. I could control them, I could get them to do anything I wanted, which for now was sending them all back to the lower belly of Dahes’—my—castle.
I assumed the magic binding them to me worked the same as the Vinculum bond because the moment I thought the command, they obeyed.
I didn’t know what to do with them. I knew leaving them locked up wasn’t the answer, but I couldn’t just let them roam freely.
Except, they were different. At least the little glimpses I had noticed. They weren’t so bloodthirsty. They were still monsters that needed to eat, but they didn’t seem nearly as ruthless as I once had believed.
The sentries were the only ones I knew what to do with. Standing on the ledge, I gave my order immediately, setting them all free.
I knew every single one of them hated what happened to them, that what Dahes did was a curse and not a saving act of grace. I watched the metal melt as some became ghosts and drifted toward Moriann, toward the river, while others got their bodies back.
However they came into the armor was how they came out of it. Some alive, some already dead.
I nearly sagged when I watched their mouths and eyes reform, their skin regrowing as every ounce of armor peeled off.
But as for everything else, I had no idea what to do.
We knew we wanted the two kingdoms to be combined.
Hael suggested that we leave Moriann for the monsters and dead and bring everyone up to Viven, but some part of me couldn’t do it.
There were too many memories there, too much hurt, that it felt wrong to leave it abandoned.
It was the resting place for the dead, and Masin was…
I sucked in a breath, not letting myself go there, not yet.
I was going to make Moriann thrive. I was going to rebuild everything from the ground up. I’d destroy the Dark Market caves, eliminate crime, work to eradicate poverty, and build more homes.
I wanted there to be a choice. That anyone could easily decide if they wanted to live in Moriann or Viven, or at the very least, I wanted Moriann to be a peaceful place someone could visit if they needed to connect to the dead.
It would take time, but we had time.
We had all the time in the world.
Chapter Fifty-Five
