Page 21 of Curse of Darkness
“Agreed.” Lucere’s eyes narrow. “Though I have to concede you look half rabid yourself.”
“It’s been a bad week.”
Lucere looks away. “A queen cannot allow herself to love. My grandmother told me that, but I never believed it until this moment.” Her lips twist ruefully. “Love is a thorn, festering in the heart. To lose it is to rip that thorn right out until one bleeds pale.”
Maybe that’s exactly how I feel.
Like something has been torn from me.
But even so…
“I don’t regret it,” I whisper. “I don’t regret it one bit. Even if I live a thousand long, empty years, I will remember him and what we had.”
I swear there’s sympathy in her expression.
She turns away with a swish, but this time, it’s as if she’s pacing.
My eyes narrow. “You didn’t just come all this way to warn me that my mother is planning something or to mock me for loving him.”
“No. I came to strike a deal.”
“Correction. You came to test me. You came to see if I could handle this little problem you have set for yourself. If I kill my mother, then Imerys will be returned to you. Ravenal will be freed of her influence, and you will be queen. But if I don’t succeed and Adaia wins, then you have managed to keep Ravenal’s hands clean. She will not suspect you. So what does Evernight get out of this exchange? We face all the threat, and you will not grant me even a single warrior?”
“You’re right,” she points out, crossing to the table. “But I can give you something far more valuable than my entire army.”
My gaze drops to a package I hadn’t even realized was sitting there.
“Ravenal has never been a military strength, but we have our own means of protection. Information is a greater currency than gold itself, and when my grandmother first broached the subject of my potential betrothal to Thiago, she put a half-burned book into my hands and told me I needed to know everything I could about him.”
Lucere slides the package across the table toward me. “I know what Thiago’s tattoos meant. I know who his father is. I know what his powers were. I know how he came about them. And I know that your daughter will bear them too.”
“She’s too young. Her magic hasn’t come in yet. We don’t know—”
“She will bear his power,” Lucere tells me. And then she tears the simple paper wrap from the package, revealing a book. The way she strokes it before pushing it toward me… like she’s finally conceding a long-lost battle. “I was honest when I said I envied you, but there’s a little part of me that feels it may have been a blessing. Did you know your husband was bred from the Darkyn?”
Only what Thiago told me. “I… am aware of certain facts, yes.”
“But not all of them?” she pushes.
“He didn’t like to talk about it, but he said he could control it.”
“He may not have known the entire truth himself.” She sighs. “Thousands of years ago, Queen Maia fought Queen Sylvian at Charun and ascended to godhood. Maia was the first of the fae on this new world to be prayed to. But she was not the last. Selena followed suit not long after her, ascending to godhood and lifting the veil of night that lingered over the northern half of the continent. But there is one other god we do not speak of very often. Kato. God of Death. God of Mercy and Justice. He who rules the Underworld and guards those gates against the monstrous creatures that seek to break forth from the Darkness.”
“The Darkness?” It’s what Thiago called his darker half.
“The primordial Darkness,” Lucere explains, flipping the book open. “Kato was a fae prince who was challenged with the role of containing it. And the creatures it spawned.”
The image on the page is of a warrior prince lifting his shining sword against an all-consuming cloud of shadow.
“This is Darkness. This is Death,” she whispers, tracing her finger over the shadow. “A creature who stalked the night and sucked the life from the lungs of all who passed it by. Nobody saw its face or form, though there is rumor it could walk as both shadow and fae. And when it did, Death was beautiful. Smoldering. Entrancing. Vicious and violent and as savage as the merciless chill that lingers in the north of Unseelie. It yearned for blood and drank it directly from the vein. And they say it plucked the hearts from fae chests, for its own did not beat.”
Lucere takes a deep breath. “And as its heart did not beat, Death could not be killed. It could not be hunted, for it turned into a swarm of shadow when confronted. One glimpse of its eyes struck a fae frozen. Mortal steel passed right through it. The only thing that could strike it a blow was a shaft cut from the mighty ash tree, and the only thing it feared was sunlight, for even Death is no match for the might of day.
“Kato and his warriors were tasked with slaying it, but they found it impossible. They set out with a hundred warriors to bring it down—the best of the best. And one by one, Death slew them until only thirteen remained.
“Knowing it hunted them, they lured it into a trap and tore it into thirteen pieces of shadow. His warriors used its blood to tattoo a ward into their forearms in order to contain its power within them. They swallowed a piece of the Darkness they’d cut from it. And then they made a pact that they could never be together again. They each took a horse and rode to different ends of the world so the creature could not bind itself together again. Kato alone remained behind to shield the gates, and he alone is remembered and prayed to. Thus he ascended to godhood.”
Her voice lowers. “They called themselves the Dark Kin, and over the centuries that became Darkyn. If one fell, that wisp of Death’s soul would return to the primordial Darkness where it would be trapped, but to bring all thirteen together again? Impossible. Or so they thought. But they found Death had its own methods of striking back. Within them was a piece of its soul. A piece that hungered to be reunited with its other selves. Centuries passed. One by one they were driven mad, overwhelmed by the creature within them. The first to fall to Death’s will set about hunting the others. His name was Malakhai, and he consumed the Darkness within his fellow, until the first two pieces of Death’s soul were reunited within him. He became stronger. More powerful. Dangerous. And he yearned for more.
