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How would I have ended up if I had remained in a tribe?
Ian continued, “After we fought, I didn’t sleep with Phinova and Nai that day. I moved my things into another room.”
“Did Phinova come to you?” Xander asked. “She was your queen. It seems she would have checked to make sure you were okay.”
“She did come, bearing chocolates and whining at me to eat one. I complied. She was my queen, after all. I fell asleep immediately and when I woke up I no longer was sad over my parents or mad at my brother. In fact, a kind of cheerful mood washed over me.”
Xander quirked his brows. “How did that happen?”
I frowned. “She drugged you?”
“Definitely. I returned back to them with a foggy head and a glassy view. Phinova led me around and anything she demanded, I obeyed. We snuck off many times to be alone and make love. And in those sessions. . .” Ian paused as though he didn’t want to confess anything else.
Xander tensed under me. “Tell us.”
“She whispered about killing Nai while I moved inside her.”
“She was always evil,” Xander concluded.
I elbowed him in his gut. “Don’t say that.”
“Xander’s correct.” Ian waved my comment away. “Evil moved within Phinova, but I chose to ignore it and every dusk when I woke up I ate those drugged chocolates and kept my mouth closed.”
“If you chose to ignore how evil she was. . .” Xander eyed him. “Then, what stopped everything?”
“Nai discovered us having sex one day. He tried to kill me right there. Phinova stopped Nai and begged him to just let her spell me to the sewers. Of course he agreed. She was his queen. However. . .Nai didn’t know that Phinova added an immortality spell to it.”
“So can you ever die?” I asked.
“I believe the spell only held for the sewer. Once Xander broke the spell by proclaiming to be my king, the immortality spell left too.”
“Nights ago, my mother said that the land believed you, Phinova, and Ian were abominations,” Xander said. “That the Greedy King traveled from the east, seized the castle, and killed Phinova in front of Nai.”
Queen Regina had even said that the Greedy King had tied Nai up in rope with wooden spikes all over it. None of the castle guards or servants helped.
Now I knew why.
I considered all the information.
The castle staff had probably figured out that Phinova and Nai killed so many people.
They must have been terrified of them.
But, then the Greedy King didn’t count on Nai maturing from his queen’s death or how the building fury would heighten his powers.
“Phinova would have never died if Nai had not ordered me to be spelled to the sewers. Two kings—no matter how young—could still take one king,” Ian admitted. “But I wonder how bad the land would’ve been if I’d remained above ground with them, ignoring the evil rising within them.”
“You might’ve made Phinova and Nai better,” Xander said to my shock. “You’ve done that for us. When I took Camille’s blood. . .she may have never come back to me if not for your words. And eventually I might have hurt her again, if you didn’t tell me to not stay in my battle form for too long.”
“I like to think that I would’ve stopped Nai from becoming what he is now.”
I swallowed.
“The blasted Quiet King, the killer of baby princes and enslaver of human women with traces of blood mage in their system.” Horror covered Ian’s face.
To my shock, tears left his eyes.
“Or. . .was it all inevitable.” Ian twisted his face in rage. “We were abominations. Our love killed our families and ruined the land, triggering more families to be harmed and thousands of vampire prince babies to never live.”
“Stop that.” I climbed off Xander and hurried to Ian. “There was no way for you to foresee all of that just from acting on your love with Phinova.”
“The signs of evil were there, but I chose to ignore them.”
“She was your queen,” Xander added. “It’s hard to think clearly when it comes to your queen.”
“But you will have to think through this now.” I frowned and wiped the tears that spilled out of Ian’s eyes. “Her corpse is speaking to you as it must’ve spoken to your brother. It will make you insane.”
“And I need your mind clear,” Xander said. “I can’t kill the Quiet King by myself.”
Ian stared at us.
I wiped the last tear. “You cannot talk to her.”
Xander spoke, “And she should not be with you.”
“Since getting Phinova’s corpse, my mind has fogged at times.” Ian put his gaze on my hands.
I leaned in closer. “What does she say?”
“She begs me to fill her with blood. Your blood at times.”
I ran my fingers through my hair. “This is bad, Ian.”
“I knew it was, but. . . I still didn’t destroy her. I had hope. . .”
