AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not afraid of you,” I said with a scowl. “The gods chose me to make a true immortal. You are cursed with vampirism, although it suits someone like you well. I, however, am no slave to blood lust or losing control. I even got to keep my magic.” A shock wave went through him as I touched his arm. A small, but important reminder of my power over him, and how the last time I sent my power through him, he was on his knees, clawing at his skin.
Centuries of experience with pain meant he didn’t even wince. “I am terribly sad you think so little of me,” he said hollowly, acutely aware of the small crowd we’d amassed. “Let’s hope Azia can manage these delusions of yours. It would be impossible to have such an unstable princess on the throne.” He pressed his hand against Azia’s arm, barely repressing his snide smile. “I truly hope you can help my niece.”
He smoothed the top of his robes with his palms, then turned to the vampire’s side-eyeing us from the tables. With a tight-lipped look of sadness, he made his way out of the room, toward the staircase. I was confident he had a mortal or two stashed away in rooms somewhere for his personal feeding and wouldn’t dream of joining the non-royals in the dungeons.
Rage seethed through me, and I let it out in a tense breath. Everyone was watching.
“Ignore him,” Azia whispered so gently. “Good things come to those who wait. Now, shall we go to our lesson and get you out of here for a couple of hours?”
“Yes,” I answered, desperate for a reprieve from the people’s accusing stares.
TWENTY-THREE
Olivia
Azia led me out onto the grounds. The cold sank into my bones, chilling me to the core. Fortunately, the cold didn’t bother me as much as before, but it still wasn’t pleasant. I followed him around the weathered fountain and glanced inside at the icy prison of dead bugs.
Dead leaves crunched under my shoes as we made our way through rotting flower beds. Withered bluebells were captured by frost, covering the plants like tiny white body bags. A powerful, musky scent hit the back of my throat on my next inhale. Having heightened senses was proving to be both a blessing and a curse.
Gliding over the snow-carpeted ground had never been so easy. Clumsiness was left behind with my mortality. Branches hung over us like contorted bones as we strode over the path between two tree lines. A pond emerged from tall grass, and I noticed glimpses of orange and gray as fish swam under a thin layer of ice covering the water’s surface. Climbing my gaze up, I saw the small cottage strangled with ivy, slipping through the cracks like a python choking the life from the red-bricked building. We reached the ethereal blue door, and I breathed in the wood burning as it poured from the chimney.
The inside was much nicer, with floor to ceiling bookshelves, and sage green walls. The chamomile and frankincense notes from the candle flickering on the windowsill calmed me. Knitted, brown throws covered the sofas, inviting a feeling of home.
Azia threw his jacket over the back of an armchair and rolled his shoulders back. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”
“Thank you.” I walked over to a large, brown globe, appearing as if it were parchment under the layer of gloss.
Twirling it on its axis with my index finger, I took in the details of the nineteen kingdoms. Dotted between them were small islands, not ruled by monarchs. I recalled the folklore of some of the forgotten islands. One in particular stuck out—Polgoria. Whispers of creatures that dragged ships into the depths and ate men’s souls traveled between kingdoms. Most fleets avoided the cruel seas between Polgoria, and those who braved them often never made it home.
I paused my nail over the largest kingdom—Asland. If we were going to war with them, we were royally screwed. Their population far outnumbered outs. Then there was its neighboring land, Kabet. Like Asland, it was a hot country, sharing their same religion. Most worshipped gods far older than ours, from a realm beyond anything we could comprehend. They preached of reincarnation, intertwining the beliefs that the stars from the time a person was born predicted their future.
Aslandians and Kibetans were known for their hallucinogenic teas, ones my mom had enjoyed occasionally with protectors from the guild in our garden. She thought I was asleep, but I never could rest while watching them sitting in a circle on our lawn, laughing and talking until the early hours. It was a hard pill to swallow, knowing most of them were dead now.
I spun to the other side of the globe, stopping on the only home I ever knew—Baldoria. My heart skipped a beat as I dragged my finger around the edges of the kingdom. I may have been born in Sanmorte, but it wasn’t where my heart was.
“I’m sure you miss Baldoria.” Azia’s voice startled me. I’d almost forgotten he was sitting there, or even where I was. “There’s nothing quite like home.”
“Where are you from?” I asked, presuming he wasn’t born here. Most sorcerers were kidnapped from their homelands, just like I had been.
“Istinia. I was known as a warlock there. I left when I was a teenager, like yourself. Sargon recruited me to work at the castle, and I got my freedom from being trapped in a coven, working the rest of my life in a job I didn’t want.”
I found it difficult to comprehend anyone coming here of their own free will. “Sanmorte is hardly a kingdom of liberation.”
“I have rank here and can do what I please.” He gestured around his home, and I glanced over the relics he’d collected on his travels around the kingdom. My eyes landed on a skull, painted with swirls of black. It reminded me of the decorations for Vitarem—the holiday for the dead—when I’d been in the City of Nightmares.
I looked back at the globe, finding Istinia, which bordered another kingdom, Salvius. Between them were mountains and what appeared to be a magical archway. There was a strange power in holding the details of a place under one’s thumb. “Do you ever miss it?”
“I used to, but the feeling faded with time. I’m happy here.”
“Surrounded by vampires.”
He nodded, but didn’t elaborate. “While I’m happy to discuss my roots with you, I would rather talk about you. You are immortal now, gifted with the golden elixir from the gods. Many would do anything for such an honor.”
I sat on the sofa across from him and tucked one leg behind the other. A spiral of dust danced in the light from the lamp on the side table, and I watched it, dissociating for a moment. “I’m very lucky,” I said, feeling nothing behind the statement.
He leaned in, propping his elbows on his knees, and clasped his hands together in the middle. “I’m sensing you’re not happy about it.”
I grasped the cushion next to me, pulling it onto my lap. “I should be pleased.”
