Page 1 of Born into Darkness

Prologue

Evil Queen

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall,”I said, staring into the stormy clouds swirling in the ancient mirror of wisdom. “Tell me when my husband shall fall.”

The imagine in the looking glass blurred, and for a moment, I caught my reflection—a four-hundred-year-old, twisted, ugly witch. I hid my long, straggly hair and gnarled fingers beneath the guise of a beautiful, young woman with cold, dead brown eyes and burgundy hair the color of the red wines in the cellar.

Jewels along the dark mirror’s frame flickered. The glass rippled like water. Smoke and fire replaced the haze, twisting into a face with eyes as dark as the night sky, horns and ears like a goat’s, and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

“Welcome, my queen.” The creature greeted me in a raspy and dark, the sound reminding me of the the barren shadowland we called home.

In this land, I was no queen, having married, instead, Lucian, the ward of Tritonia. Neptune, the sea king, had enough to deal with in his watery realm and had granted my husband the role of overseeing all dealings on land. My husband met with the merking every month at Shell’s Cove to report on these activities.

Tritonia and the land to the west, now known as Wildfire, had once belonged to my family. I was here to take back what was ours, but to do so, I had to rid the land of its leaders. I’d been sent here by Camus, my brother—the selected but unofficial heir to our ancient bloodline—to perform this task. My younger brother, the vizier, had been sent to the desert kingdom Utaara, to steal control from the Sultan and expand our empire. While my younger sister’s mission was to deal with the sea king, and ensure his merarmy posed no threat to our plans in reclaiming Tritonia from him. Camus had held my daughter captive for the last eleven sun cycles, and if I didn’t do what the cruel and ruthless prick asked, he would kill her.

At the thought of my daughter, my chest stung with an unbearably painful longing, as if shards of glass were slicing through my heart. On her birthday, that bastard let me see her through my mirror for a fleeting moment before he ripped her away. Held prisoner by a sleeping curse—one so dark and powerful that not even I could break it—my precious child hadn’t aged a day.

I glared at the mirror, a gift from my brother and a treasure of great evil…one I hoped to defeat him with one day.

“Tell me you bear great tidings, mirror,” I snarled, my mood growing darker with each passing day away from my beloved daughter. “That damn fool, the ward, is resilient and hard to kill. Waiting for him to die makes my blood boil. The longer he lives, the longer I’m separated from my child!”

If I did not receive good news from my mirror, I might have to flog a shifter to soothe my wild temper.

“Of course, my queen.” Lava exploded from the eyes of the mirror’s face.

Beautiful, I thought. The image gave off an aura of destruction, of death and dark magic. It streamed through me, and I swelled with its power. I’d never known anything else in my life but the darkness.

The wicked face grinned at me with pointed teeth made of flames. “The ward has until the sun sets. His death is imminent, and the dark lord shall claim him and his power.”

What music to my ears! I twirled on the spot, imagining being reunited with my child soon. Holding her in my arms. Stroking her soft cheeks. Reveling in the sound of her voice. Nothing else mattered but saving her.

“My queen is pleased?” the mirror asked.

“Yes,” I shouted, not caring if anyone heard me beyond the depths of the catacombs where I’d hid the mirror.

The ruins of my family’s dynasty were buried beneath the ward’s dwelling. Once my family and I returned to power, the residents of Haven would pay for destroying our palace, stealing our lands from us, and sending us into exile.

I ceased my elated dance. “One more thing, mirror.”

Smoke curled off its face. “Yes, my queen.”

I delighted in the mirror’s aim to please me. As a ruling elite, I expected the same treatment from everyone, from the lowliest servants to all my many lovers.

Stroking my long locks, which I wore fashioned into curls as was the style in this disgusting land, I admired myself in a regular mirror hanging on the wall next to the magical one. These plumped lips, long lashes, and button nose had stolen the ward’s heart so many moon cycles ago.

“Remind me again,” I started. “Who is the fairest of them all?”

“This day,” replied the mirror, his face spitting embers, “it is you.”

I flexed and wriggled like a cat being stroked. Of course, I was, and things would always remain the same in this regard. Dark magic ensured I was the most alluring female in all of Tritonia. All the male servants lusted over me. I caught their longing stares. Felt their pulses rise in my presence. Sensed their cocks stirring. Their reactions fed me with an incredible energy. A few times, I’d been forced to allow a mersoldier to bed me. I shivered now, recalling the feel of their nasty cocks between my legs. I’d only allowed them to touch me because I’d needed their seed. My sister, the sea witch, had used it, adding it to several other ingredients and concocting a spell to destroy the sea king. She had raised Faraall from a merboy, programming him to destroy the merking and return the realm of Tritonia to my family.

Soon, I would fulfill my part in the plan. Then, once I had destroyed the dragons, too, I would claim Wildfire, the lands to our east. After we had total control, we would kill a great portion of those we’d enslaved, using them as sacrifices in a ritual to raise the dark lord, who would free Camus from his trappings…allowing me to finally kill him once and for all for what he’d done to me. Right now he was imprisoned in a powerful curse inflicted by seven of Haven’s sorcerers and he needed the darkest of magic to break it.

Then I would assume the crown, ultimate dominion, my birthright as the eldest, which my father had stolen from me years ago. When I was thirteen, my mother took on three lovers, and when my father discovered the betrayal, he’d declared all women filthy whores like our mother and had stripped me of my birthright. I curled my lip in disgust.Rot in hell, you cruel, evil bastard!

“But…”

The regretful voice in the mirror pulled me out of my thoughts, and I turned my full attention back to the blazing face.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com