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With my glass in hand, I moved through the various throngs of vampires, the torches catching the light of the merrymakers who seemed to celebrate me…even when I hadn’t done enough to be celebrated, in my opinion.
“Your Highness.”
I turned at the name, a name that didn’t fit me at all.
It was Kingsnake’s father, a man I’d only known as King Serpentine. If he had a first name, he never shared it with me. I stilled as his features were exposed in the torchlight. A glass was in his hand, but instead of drinking wine like everyone else, he had something stronger. “I’m sorry I startled you.”
His unexpected presence didn’t catch me off guard. It was his mood. Infinite and depthless, a pain that stretched in every direction, as if he were mortally wounded underneath his clothing. “You didn’t.”
A glimmer of a smile came on to his face, similar to his son’s. “You aren’t the only one who can feel, Your Highness.”
“Larisa is fine.”
“That’s no way to address a queen.”
“I hope you don’t expect me to address you as such…now that you’re my father-in-law.”
He was tall like his sons, had the same dark hair and sharp jawline. He was decades older than me, but he was still youthful and strong. “Serpentine is fine.”
“You must have had different names…before.” They couldn’t have been obsessed with snakes when they were human. That must have come later, when they turned and adopted new identities.
“Whatever my name was before, I have no memory of it.” He brought his glass to his lips and took a drink. “Kingsnake tells me they’ve decided to grant a peaceful truce with the Ethereal. His brothers as well. I can only assume you feel the same.”
I’d expected him to be angry, but that sadness lingered, as if he felt betrayed. “I understand how hard this must be for you. It would be unrealistic to expect you to agree to this without reservation.”
“And yet, that’s exactly what my sons expected.”
“When Ellasara brought me face-to-face with death, Kingsnake turned me to keep me alive. I was upset with him at first, but once we traveled to Evanguard, I realized that not only my life would have been forfeited without his interference, but my soul as well. He saved me, and I’m so sorry that your wife wasn’t saved as well.”
His reaction was chiseled in stone, but the pain in his chest seemed to deepen. “My sons have been far less sympathetic.”
“I know that’s not true. They care. Deeply.”
He looked away for a moment. “But they’ll never care the way I do. The only one who could remotely understand is Kingsnake, now that he’s wed to a woman he so clearly loves. What if it had been different?” He looked at me again. “What if he hadn’t turned you—and your fate was the same?”
I held his gaze, knowing exactly what would have happened.
“We both know the answer.” He took a drink. “Kingsnake would burn every one of them alive. And yet, he denies what he would have done himself. This is his mother we’re talking about, but apparently, his memory is weak because he’s forgotten every worldly sacrifice she made for him and his brothers.”
My eyes dropped, feeling the sting of guilt.
“Larisa.”
I looked at him once again.
“I need you to change his mind.”
My new father-in-law had just asked me for a favor, a favor that would bring us closer together and gain his approval, but the knot in my stomach told me I couldn’t do it. As much as it pained me to know what had happened to his wife, we had to move on. “I lost my father when I was little. And then I lost my mother a few years ago when she got sick. Both of their souls…are gone. I’ll never see them again. Even if I still had my soul, they already lost theirs.”
“Then do it for them, Larisa.”
“But it won’t bring them back.” I watched the light leave his eyes as I said it. “It won’t change anything. We’ll massacre innocent people who despise the practice as much as we do. It would be an irrational genocide.”
He hadn’t blinked since I’d denied him, and the depth of his sadness suddenly reached new limits. A fire started to burn, the spark that was unleashed once the flames hit the wood. “I understand your reasoning.”
I’d expected a much different reaction, based on the fire that simmered beneath his skin. Perhaps he wasn’t as barbaric as Kingsnake claimed him to be. He had control over his emotions a lot more firmly than his own son most of the time.
“I admire your commitment to my son. Now that your soul is no longer at risk, you choose to stay with him in this eternal darkness. It’s a testament to your love, to forsake a life with children for one with a single man. Raising four sons was the most difficult endeavor of my life, but it was also the best endeavor.”
