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I’ve imagined this very moment, playing it over and over in my head since she went on her little trip. I’ve known it was a possibility… yet nothing I imagined felt minutely close to how I do now. Like my world is crumbling around me. My lungs quiver in my chest as I deny them air, and it’s not until they threaten to break off inside my body that I finally give in.
Someone’s hand grips onto my shoulder. “You did it! We’re home!” I jerk to my right, bringing my dark eyes to land on his. One of the lords. “My prince, we’re–” He quickly removes it and steps backward, then runs for the door.
Something bubbles up inside me, boiling until I can’t contain it and it bursts out of me in a whirlwind of rage. “Get out!” I hardly recognize the anguish in my tone as people rush past me, barreling through the doors at my command. Having packed enough power behind it for the gargoyles to feel, they move from their resting place, the stone groaning from years of sitting still. They take flight off their pedestals and burst through the wide-open door.
My mind goes blank as my body moves on autopilot, smashing anything within reach. Even as things shatter into glass bits on the floor, as they tear and crumble to pieces, my heart doesn’t feel any lighter. It’s not until I hear my father’s voice that I stop, slowly turning and hearing the grinding of glass beneath my boots.
“Love what you’ve done to the place,” he says, his voice holding zero emotion. When our eyes meet, I find his skin’s turned bright red, crooked horns jutting into the air, and his pointed tail swishes. He’s not even bothering to hide himself any longer. That’s what I call rock bottom. But truth be told, neither am I. My hands have blackened as the wisps of smoke curl up my arms, claws have torn through my fingertips, and I can feel the veins around my eyes dance beneath the skin.
“This is your fault,” I seethe, spitting the words without moving a muscle.
“Mine? How? You and Alice were the ones who planned to overthrow me, who hijacked my castle, mythrone,and left me behind. Please, how is this my fault?”
“Youput the thought in her head,” I point my finger through the air, spearing it toward his chest, even though we’re on opposite sides of the vast room. It’s the thought that counts, thethreatsuch a motion holds. I take a couple of steps closer. “Yougave her the prison world.Youlikely told her to trap me with it, too. Am I wrong? She would’ve done you a favor, trapping me inside an artificial castle, and essentially removing your threat to the crown. You saw how well it worked out with Asmodeus, so why not do it again, right?”
“Asmodeus was an entirely different story. He, like Alice, couldn’t control himself.”
“Don’t you dare say her name.” I close the distance, straightening my shoulders. “She’s dead because you couldn’t live with your own guilt.”
He chuckles, as if I didn’t mention that fact Alice is gone at all. My hands shake at the adrenaline coursing through me, just waiting to be unleashed. “Alice is dead because she didn’t listen. I told her to lock you away, then she could go save Finn. Instead, she took the information I gave her and changed the timeline. If she’s gone, it’s her own doing.”
By the time he’s finished speaking, my body is trembling, trying to contain the anger as my fists clench. The knuckles turn a ghostly white, threatening to tear skin over the protruding bone. My teeth grit hard enough to send a tinge of pain radiating through my jaw. Something moves behind him, and I spot one of the lords who had been trapped in the castle with me. His eyes meet mine over my father’s shoulder, and his head nods once, telling me everything I need to know.
They’ll support my bid.
“I contest the crown, demanding the king vacate the seat immediately,” I say, feeling my power pulse in the air, kissing my skin.
“You? You can barely keep it together because the woman you care about died. I loved your mother, and not even I looked as emotional as you. I raised you better.” His lip snarls as he stares down at me. My wings spring backward as I slam into his chest, hurling his body through the air. It splinters through the cathedral-style windows of the foyer and he tumbles down the stretch of stairs in front of the castle.
I storm forward until I’m standing in front of him. My father struggles to get to his feet, using his magic to try to hold me back. His lethal blood-red eyes meet mine. That look would put most on their knees begging for forgiveness, but he doesn’t even register on the list of things, I fear. Not anymore. The only thing he is now is a glaring reminder of what I’ve lost. What I’ve given up.
Men swarm around me, armed. The royal guard. I flick my hands out, and tendrils of inky black power shoot from my form, wrapping around my adversaries and draining the life from them, before returning to my flesh. I can feel their lifeforce pooling within me, like a battery, only bigger and more explosive.
My father lunges forward, his sword materializes as he swings, only I’m smarter. Instead of summoning a weapon, I open a portal, and as the blade meets my magic, the blade spears into his middle. I reach forward, wrapping my hand around the blade and yanking it away from him, not caring about the blood that drips from where the sharp edges met my skin. He barely has time to recoil before I snatch his jaw, and lift him to his feet.
The darkness on my flesh spreads, running in jagged track marks across my father’s face as he pales. He won’t die this way, but it will subdue him enough to scatter his parts, making it impossible for him to regenerate and heal. Just as the light in his eyes fades, and the nails clawing at my flesh stops.
Someone yells, “The cat! The monster cat is here!”
I drop my father, glancing down the cobblestone road at the man running up, holding his hat on his head as he barrels toward us. Alice’s cat? Who else would he be referring to? I feel the veins around my eyes settle as I look at my father, bloody, bruised, and weak. He’s seemed to have lost his edge, or perhaps I’ve just surpassed him. His body slumps to the ground, lips parted as he gasps for air.
“What? You’re not going to finish this?” he mocks. Instead of answering, I fist my hand in his shirt and teleport us to the dungeon in the tunnels beneath the castle. The cells here are made to contain immortals and creatures alike. Enemies of the crown. I toss him inside an iron cage, shutting and locking the door. “You’re supposed to kill me. That’s the rules. Until you do so, you’re not a king.”
“Believe it or not, some things are more important than a crown,” I say, turning and heading toward the stairs that lead to the surface. I’ll move him to Purgatory later. For now, I need to figure out what happened to Alice, and the first step is seeing her cat. If Luri’s here, she’ll know.
7
Kai
Reaching the castle foyer, I stare out through the hole made by my father’s body, finding Luri laying on the drawbridge connecting the castle to the town. Her chest swells as she inhales, shaking as the air jolts in spurts through her flared nostrils. I’ve never seen her bright yellow eyes so wide–soin pain–and somehow it makes this worse for the wrong reasons.
I should be sympathetic to Luri’s predicament and empathize with the fact she’s hurting. It’s what Alice would’ve wanted, but I can’t. Seeing her only infuriates me more and confirms everything I don’t want to believe. Luri would never abandon Alice, and her being here alone sends the harsh reality crashing down at my feet.
My other half is gone…
Rubbing my palm against my sternum, I try to ease the tension pulling at my chest, growing tighter with every step I take toward the magnificent creature. I can feel my heart shriveling, the muscle not strong enough to withstand the wound it’s endured.
The crowd that’s formed, drawn by the fight with my father and Luri, ebbs backward, giving us space as I approach. It’s not until I crouch by her side that her gaze bores into me, glassy and vacant.
