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PROLOGUE
GUILTY
YEAR 2021
“Castian Napier, you’ve been accused of murdering innocent women to research into the unknown arts. How do you plead?”
“Guilty,” his lawyer answered solemnly.
Castian’s mouth was gagged. Even if he wanted to shout out his innocence, he couldn’t. He stared up at the high elders in horror. They appeared like vengeful angels to him, their expression showing their contempt.
He wanted to run away from this nightmare before him, but his hands and legs were tied together by the hard-spelled iron chains. From where he was kneeling, he searched the room for anyone or anything that could save him.
The loud bang of the gavel hitting the podium startled him. His gaze once more at the elders above. Their faces appeared like caricatures of evil politicians he’d seen in the newspaper. He squeezed his eyes shut, against the morbid sight. A cold sweat building on his back.
Surely, this was all a dream he thought to himself.
Surely, someone would wake him up and tell him that everything was just a cruel joke by the sandman.
He was aNapier.
A person whose very existence was a blessing to those who saw him. The heir to one of the strongest warlock families of thebeau monde.
He trembled as he looked away from the elders to the people who he’d once called family. His father peered down on him from the seats above. His blue eyes void of any emotion. His golden hair brushed back from a face all to like his own.
He raised his hands. The rattle of the chains stopped him short. The sound of them reasserting the reality of his situation.
This was happening.
The pressure on his chest increased. The palm of his hands grew sweaty as he glimpsed the rubbed raw flesh of his wrist. The ivory handcuffs bit into his flesh and with every move he made they stirred up a knifelike painful sensation.
Castian thought back to a time when he’d sat above with an expression of disdain for those who’d been dragged before the council. The men and women he’d mocked as they pleaded for their lives before they were dragged off by the blue jays. Feeling secure in his place above those lesser than him.
An untouchable from the warlock families, graced with handsome features, wealth and power. There was nothing that could ruin his path in life, but the wheel of fortune turned for everyone.
“This court finds you guilty. You will be banished to the darkest hole known to Veil City. Where not even light dares to intrude. You are sentenced to spend eternity in the bowels.” The heavy sentence sucked all the warmth out of the room.
Castian made a pathetic attempt to break his bonds. Despair flooding his mind and erasing his commonsense.
Legolas, an elder who’d shared a meal with him at one time, peered down at him with a sneer.
“Control the criminal,” he ordered.
Castian felt his entire body jolt as electricity shot through him. Curling forward he pressed his forehead into the ground, tears ran from his eyes and coated the floor beneath him.
“Kill them.”
A soft voice whispered, he stiffened as he felt long, curling black finger stroking his chin.“Take their heads and hearts. It would be so easy. Use me.”
Those long fingers grasped his chin and forced his head up, to meet empty eye sockets. The speaker remained unseen by the others. Unfortunately for Castian, he could see him all too clearly. The creature’s large horns pointed towards the ceiling and his large leather like wings that flapped slowly. Blocking out the light from the chandeliers overhead.
“Command me and I can make this all go away,”he crooned.
Castian knew better. This thing before him had a name, a name he didn’t even dare to say aloud. A demon whose greatest joy was the misery of others. The very crime he’d been accused of, was a crime he bore alone.
“May the gods have mercy on your soul,” Legolas said as he stood up, followed by the others who sat on either side of him. Their expressions similar in both pity and revulsion.
He no longer had a soul.
