Page 41 of Queen of the Wicked
“Why do you always cry at night?” Habiba asks, in the inquisitive tone that all young children possess. “Is it because you don’t like our house?”
I give her a weak smile. “Not at all,” I say, before holding out my hand and leading her to a flat patch of sandy cobblestone road. The courtyard is still warm from the day, radiating heat into our soles. I slowly spin Habiba in circles, and show her how to properly point her toes the way my own teachers did long before Eternity’s rot crawled beneath my skin.
My head covering falls from my hair and hangs off my shoulders as we dance together, and Habiba seems to have forgotten her earlier question when I lift her into the air before shushing her loud laughter.
When the dance ends and I gently push Habiba back toward the house to go back to bed, I catch Saddiq standing in the doorway.
There’s grief in his gaze. Notforme, butwithme.
“Forgive her,” he says quietly. “Sadness is not an emotion she is familiar with.”
I place a gentle hand on the shoulder where raised scars meet the rest of his body. “I’m glad for it.”
We enter the house again together, and I use the basin near the door to rinse my feet of sand. Inside, Anya sleeps curled against Habiba, whose small fists curl into a ball around her mother’s dress. Saddiq bids me goodnight, and I lay down on my mat on the floor to close my eyes.
Sleep comes quickly, but like most nights, it’s not kind to me.
I’m back at the well, watching myself from the sky as I face Eternity. Her gaze on my body is sharp as a blade, but the longer I watch, the more I realize her face has morphed into mine, and surrounding her are the bones of Kaius and Rowan. Their bones still glimmered with a faint hint of gold where our bonds carved their way deep into our bodies–but they’re old and collecting dust.
My hands are stained black, dripping rot, and holding a knife.
I gasp awake.
I’m drenched in sweat and my arms are tightly holding myself in a soul-crushing embrace. Saddiq and his family are still sound asleep, free from this never-ending nightmare I live in every day and every night.
The silence feels unbearable, and I feel trapped beneath it.
But somewhere, deep beneath my rips, I feel the tiniest flicker of love.
Thirty-Seven
Adelasia
Saddiq has noticed that I’m getting too thin. The longer I’m alive, the less desire I have to seek sustenance, and my early thefts from the marketplace have eroded what little supply of demon blood was there. The thought of going back into the Blackwood for food makes me shiver. I do not want to return to the place that took everything from me.
Habiba sneaks me food sometimes, and I simply bury it in the sand or feed it to the goats when she’s not looking. It’s a waste, I know, but this is the only home I have now. If anyone suspected I was anything less than human, I’d have nothing left–not even a friend.
The hunger is getting to me though. It gnaws deeper than it did when I first changed, and chews on my insides so much it makes me sick.
I’m sitting outside, drawing shapes in the sand when I hear shouting from the distance. The cool night-time breeze dances through the loose clothing of the town as the people gather. From the other side of the square, two of Saddiq’s men come running, one injured, the other holding him with an arm under his upper body.
Saddiq meets them in the center, and another citizen brings them both a skin of water. They drink it, gasping, as Saddiq asks what they saw.
“Vampires,” one gargles through the water. “We saw them just as we entered the Blackwood. They were fighting something we could not see, and we spooked them. I’ve never run so fast.”
His words seemed to fade into nothingness after I heard the word ‘vampire’. Surely I misunderstood. Surely he’s mistaken. There are no vampires. They would have all died with Kaius.
Unless…
No. That can’t be. Our bond, it’s faded. They’re dead. I killed them.
I feel faint and lean against the wall. Anya notices and places a gentle, comforting hand to my cheek. Something deep within me, something I’ve hidden for too long, begins to awaken.
I subtly look down at my arm and notice the rot has begun to climb again. I have to get out of here, before I’m exposed. Without thinking, I run forward towards the same direction the men ran away from. Saddiq calls for me, but I don’t listen.
He catches me at the edge of the town, just out of earshot of the people.
“Adelasia, where are you going!?”
