AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t worry, it’s very much dead,” Rychel said soothingly. “Though I suppose telling you that won’t be much comfort. Hmm.” She tapped a finger to her lips. “It’s really dead this time. It won’t be moving again. I swear.” Then she shrugged. “Or if it does, not like before.”
I stared at her. “What the hell do you mean...not like before?”
“Well, that’s part of my work, you see,” she said, in a voice far too chipper to possibly be coming from one of Draven’s relatives. “I’m trying to undo what our father did.”
My eyes widened still more. “You’re trying to undo the plague? You must be mad.”
“Not mad,” she assured me. “Just really stubborn. It’s a family trait.” She grinned, showing dimples that I wasn’t sure Draven possessed.
Damn. I was already starting to like her. Draven’s little sister.
“I didn’t even know he had a sister. Why wouldn’t he tell me?” I could guess. To protect me? To protect her? “More lies and deceptions.”
“I know he was going to tell you. He just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. I think there’s been a lot going on.” She tilted her head. “But he’s told me all about you and I wanted to meet you. I’m impatient and decided I couldn’t wait. I guess I was especially excited after what Beks brought me tonight.”
“Wait... Beks brought you that... thing?” I glared at Beks. Then I wondered how he’d carried it. Ugh. Did I even want to know? I imagined him dragging the child’s carcass through the tunnels. Even Beks couldn’t be that inured to the macabre, could he?
“Crescent helped me,” Beks offered. “He opened a portal.”
“Of course, he did.” I threw up my hands. “And your brother tossed it in, right?”
“No, he thinks I’m mad–just like you said–for even trying to undo the plague,” Rychel said cheerfully. “But he can’t stop me from trying. He knows me too well for that.”
“Those children died one hundred and fifty years ago,” I said slowly. “Yet you really think you can somehow reverse this?”
“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?” Rychel said perkily. “It’s been more than a century and yet these things look surprisingly fresh, don’t they?”
“Fresh?”
“Surprisingly undecayed,” she clarified. “I mean, they’ve decayed to a certain extent. But there’s still flesh on their bones. Some have eyeballs still in their sockets.”
I gave an involuntary shudder.
“Sorry,” she said apologetically. “I’m used to all of this so it doesn’t bother me anymore. Comes from being down here too much.”
“I’m not the easily disgusted type, but I guess I’ve just had enough of...” I gestured to the corpse on the table. “Blood and death. At least, for one night. It’s been a rough night overall,” I finished lamely.
She nodded. “I get it. And this probably isn’t what you wanted to end your night talking about. But the short answer is–my father didn’t just use a plague to do this. He used magic. And anything that uses magic can be changed. Or undone. Even the past. I refuse to believe otherwise.” She smiled calmly at me.
“I see,” I said. “Well, I suppose it’s admirable that you even want to try. Most of your people don’t seem to give a shit about those children unless they’re being eaten by one.”
“Oh, they’re not my people,” Rychel said. “I don’t consider myself Siabra. I’m like you. Except my mother was human. I guess my brother hasn’t told you much.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “I know the Queen Regent is actually his aunt.”
She grimaced. “Right. My father needed another empress. A human woman wouldn’t cut it. But a human woman to breed his extra spawn? He had no qualms about that.”
“I thought most human women died in childbirth if...”
“They did. Do. He went through a lot. He was nothing if not persistent and prolific, our father. Fidelity might be Draven’s hallmark but it certainly wasn’t his.” Fidelity? Draven’s hallmark? No, I definitely wasn’t going to ask.
“Brutal. Callous. Perverted. Fiendish. Those words apply, too.” She smiled cheerily.
“I’m sorry?” I offered.
Rychel shrugged. “Well, at least he was clever. My mother must have been, too. I credit her with all my best traits. Though my brother has a few acceptable ones. I would have liked to have met his mother. A pity all the good mothers are gone.” She stopped and grinned. “I’m babbling aren’t I? I have a tendency to do that. I’m not a people person. I like people. I just don’t see them very often, but when I do and when I like them... well, I talk. A lot.”
She glanced at me. “You’re bleeding. Weren’t you just at a party?”
