Page 5 of When Storms Ruin

His absence was no surprise despite the skip my heart did each time the iron door to the Stormvault creaked open. Each time Donika brought us to the throne room to play with our minds or torture our bodies, his absence was a weight deep in my core.

How could he simply…disappear?

The fact that Puck had stopped his covert visits had me convincedsomethingwas coming. Donika must be tiring of her endless torture of us for the location of the Grimoire. Tess couldn’t give her anything, of course. I was the only one who knew its location.

A humorless laugh bubbled to my lips at the thought of it tucked away in my dresser drawer, not so expertly hidden beneath my underwear. How had she notsent her soldiers after it? It wouldn’t be that hard to find if they ransacked my family home. Was there a reason she hadn’t visited the human realm herself?

A bitter taste filled my mouth at the thought of Donika inside my home in the mortal realm. The unassuming stone house set at the base of the mountain where my practical, stubborn human mother raised me and my brother. I would never know my birth mother or father…Donika had seen to that.

The first few weeks locked in the Stormvault had my thoughts spinning about my Kotova lineage. I had always felt out of place in the human realm. I had always had a side of me that was drawn to the magic of this earth, and my mother had always dismissed it or downplayed it. Had she known who I truly was? That I was the heir to the throne of Istmere?

I was the daughter of Osiris, The Dark King who sat the throne of Istmere for decades. I was the daughter of Annelise, a brave and powerful Stormshade who would doanythingfor her children. I was the sister of Donika, the selfish and evil Black Heart.

I wasn’t Diana Barnes anymore.

I was Diana Kotova, lost heir to the throne, and I would stop atnothingto take down my sister. She had takeneverythingfrom me, and I would allow her to takenothingelse.

Including my throne.

The taste of vengeance kept me going. It kept me from breaking, deep, deep, down in the cells of the Stormvault.

The iron door at the end of the long corridor squeaked open and the sound of a single set of footsteps filled my ears as Tessstirred beside me. I gave her a gentle shake, and she opened her eyes slightly, enough to see a tall man holding a lantern come into view.

It wasn’t someone I recognized, and I was sure he had never been down to the Stormvault before. His black hair was shorn against his head, and his bronze skin shone beneath the glow of the lantern. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the brightness.

“Do you know who I am?” the stranger called out. His stance was wide, his expression skeptical as his eyes bounced back and forth between us.

“Should I?” I called back, my voice hoarse from disuse.

He took a step forwards and pressed his face against the bars to get a better look at us through the darkness. I wasn’t sure what he saw, but his eyes widened infinitesimally before he masked his expression once more.

“I am Zion. You have heard of me?” The question sounded rhetorical as he took a step back, his jaw set.

I had heard many of the Nightshade guards and soldiers mention a man named Zion. Fletcher had threatened to call a man named Zion as if he was in charge, back in the mortal realm. What was he doing here? Was this Donika’s last ditch effort to get us to turn over the grimoire?

“I have,” I replied curtly, setting my own jaw in return.

I would not be intimidated by one of Donika’s men. I had cried many tears in the privacy of darkness this cell offered, but I vowed I would be strong in the face of the adversaries I met here in Akra.

I would not flinch.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked, his voice insinuated he already knew the answer to this question.

“Should I?” I repeated, my chin held high.

“I am Donika’s father,” Zion breathed, lowering the lantern to the ground to better illuminate the cell.

That was…unexpected.

I met Zion’s gaze with renewed interest. This was the man that Annelise left to raise Donika on his own, or that was the story Donika told, at least. She had only returned to Zion when Osiris, The Dark King, had found out she was a Stormshade and banished her from The Stone City.

The man before me was distinctlynoton our side, I decided. I immediately raised my guard. Tess was silent beside me, but I could sense the same resolution in the set of her shoulders and the stern expression she faced Zion with.

“What do you want with us?” I asked, uncomfortable under his heavy gaze.

“As you’ve already guessed, Donika sent me. You are running out of time. I advise you to give her what she wants, and fast. She grows tired of your games.”

“Mygames?” I asked, incredulous. I moved to my feet and brushed the dirt off the back of my weathered pants as I moved towards the front of the cell. “We are nothing but Donika’s play-things. Her prisoners. She is the one playing games with us. If she sent you to torture us, I’m sorry to tell you the effort will be wasted.”

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