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“The wordshouldis a strong indicator of how you really feel. You wish to have remained mortal?”
I slumped forward. “I don’t know. The gods were incredible to meet, and I’ve never felt so at peace. I spent my whole life praying to them, hoping they could somehow hear me, but now I know they could not.”
“You’re saying our prayers cannot reach them?”
I shook my head. “They’re in another realm cut off from ours.”
His eyes narrowed, and he peered to his right, pausing for a minute. I cast my eyes to the globe, then at the dusty liquor bottles on the shelf behind it. “You drink?” I asked.
He glanced back at me, curling his lips between his teeth. “Rarely, but I like to have them there. For special occasions,” he added. “How do you feel about the gods being unable to hear your prayers?”
“Lied to,” I admitted out loud for the first time. “They have no power over anything here, so I’m alone. They gave me all of this, and I am grateful, but I can’t fulfill the purpose they gave me.”
“His Majesty filled me in on your immediate plans when you returned,” he said after a moment. “You would like to rule Sanmorte.”
“It’s not about what I want.” I swallowed hard, an attempt to remove the lump forming in my throat. “The gods want me to be queen, which should mean something. When they annointed Sargon as king, he obeyed, but now their orders don’t suit him he won’t step aside.”
He arched a thin eyebrow, wrinkling his forehead. “What you want matters, too. You don’t need to obey anyone. Not even the gods.”
“That’s blasphemy.”
He shrugged. “Humor me, Olivia.”
“I go by Seraphina now.”
“Not to your friends.”
I dug my fingers further into the cushion, looking down at my feet. “You seem to know everything.”
“It pays to be observant when you’re a mortal surrounded by vampires.”
I dove into my heart, searching through my feelings. Did I want to become the queen? Distrust crept into me as I looked into his curious eyes. “You’re just going to go back and relay everything I said to Sargon.”
He shook his head. “Everything that is said in our lessons will remain between us.”
“If these are lessons,” I pried, “then why are you asking me everything except questions about my magic?”
His lips stretched into a kind smile. “Knowing who you are and what you want is a part of these lessons. Learning to master magic is different for everyone. It is a part of who we are, infused into our personalities—our souls—and it’s easier for me to teach when I know how each person will best learn.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, averting my gaze to the gold drapes covering the windows. “This feels more like therapy.”
He laughed softly and opened his arms. “We’re just talking, and I am no therapist. So, as I was saying before, do you want to become queen?”
My chest tightened. How could I trust this man when he was close to my father? I couldn’t take him at his word. I barely knew him. “Yes,” I said, although I was unsure if that was the truth or a lie. Perhaps it was somewhere in between.
He raised his eyebrows, suspicion crowning his broad features. “If that’s true, then you must have some desire to be a part of the people here. After all, that’s what being a leader is. Loving the people. I sense you dislike the sangaree and aniccipere.”
The muscles in my neck and shoulders tensed as the image of the demonic creatures swam into my mind. I remembered seeing the decaying corpse of a mortal on the streets in the City of Nightmares, at the hands of the soul sucking aniccipere.
“I want to help the vampiresI mean, I know they’re both vampires, but I only really refer to the sangaree as such,” I admitted. Mostly because they weren’t born from darkness.Just cursed by it.
“Not the aniccipere?”
“They are bred from demons.”
“They are your people,” he said slowly, evaluating me with his eyes. “Mortal blood runs in their veins, too. If you want to be the ruler of this kingdom, then you must accept that you will lead all of them. They all have souls, and I believe everyone can be redeemed.”
“Even the aniccipere?”
