Page 43 of A Crown Without Mercy

“It was a compliment,” Kieran replied quickly.

Riordan stood and looked at Sylvana. “Come.”

Sylvana walked over and stood next to Riordan, along with Nicolai and Kieran.

“Did my brother mention them?”

“No,” she said as she looked up at Riordan.

“The male is our grandfather, Marius Riordan Acheron and the female is Lucinda Sabrione Ascelin—they are alive, Sylvana,” Riordan admitted. “It is said the blood of purebred Ascelin can unseal the curse and release them from these tombs.”

Holy shit! Ascelin? Is she my ancestor?Sylvana thought, very carefully.“You were named after your grandfather?”

“Yes, I am the eldest,” Riordan replied.

“Marius and Lucinda were cursed?”

“Yes, by the original Faye,” Nicolai answered.

“Where are your parents?” Sylvana asked.

“Our Father Viktor, and our Mother Lyllith, succumbed to wounds caused by the Faye,” Riordan replied before telling her the story. “Six hundred years after the war ended between Nosferatu and Lycans, the Faye rose in power beyond the veil in a Kingdom known as Estraxath. Their Lord, Obernzel, and their council, known as The Mercurial Guardian’s, sent demands to Marius and our council, The Guild of Entente, allowing them the right to keep any original Ascelin they located. Neither side could come to an agreement and after a long battle, many deaths, and the original treaty being cast into the fires, our ancestors drove them back into the veil, along with the severed head of Obernzel. Having suffered far too many losses to continue the fight, The Mercurial Guardians sealed the veil. Roughly one hundred years after Obernzel was beheaded, his offspring yearned to return to the world they once knew. However, the Guild dismissed their pleas and, in order to send a coherent message, they returned the beheaded bodies of those who dared to cross over. Marius took it upon himself to watch over Lucinda and Cathagne after his brother, Anton, met his demise during the war.”

“How did Marius and Lucinda end up like this?” Sylvana asked.

Nicolai stroked her hair and took a drink. “It had been five years since the last of the Faye crossed over and all had returned to normal. No one knows what happened for sure? Marius found a note on Lucinda’s desk with the royal seal. It read, ‘Mother, a Full Wolfbane Moon, the chalice is full. Meet me under the Laxon tree. Cathagne.’”

“Who is Cathagne?” Sylvana asked.

“Lucinda’s daughter,” Kieran replied.

Sylvana adjusted her stance and wrapped her arm around Nicolai. “I can already see where this is going.”

Nicolai smiled down at her. “When neither of them returned, Marius set out to find them. When his guards noticed he was missing, they went looking and found Marius and Lucinda entombed in stone, on the edge of the Black Moor, and they never found her daughter.”

“That’s awful. Do you think she may still be alive?”

“No one knows for sure, but they assumed they killed her in retaliation. They found nothing more than bloodied strands of her hair, tattered pieces of her clothing and her left hand, which still her mother’s royal, emerald ring on her finger laying at the base of the statue.”

Sylvana stood motionless as Riordan’s canines slid from his gums. He then struck his finger against one of them. She stood with bated breath as her eyes followed the small crimson droplets as they dripped onto the Lucinda’s lips, which disappeared as quickly as they fell. Her mind spun, and she felt she had no other choice but to cloak her thoughts permanently regardless if they felt the energy or not. She ran her hand down her face and took a breath before thinking. Her mother’s words echoing in her mind.‘You can never speak your sired name. We must remain diligent’. What the fuck have I gotten myself into?

Nicolai wrapped his arm around her waist. “We believe Lucinda’s descendants are alive and well.”

Sylvana stood frozen in place, knowing there were three sets of eyes pinned on her. The way the brothers stood around her felt ominous, and the howling of the winds, the streaks of lightning, and the cracks of thunder certainly weren’t helping. “I—wow—still alive, are they? And you know this for sure?”

“We know,” Kieran replied.

“Where do you think they are?”

“Close, Sylvana,” Riordan replied. “We suspect they have been living right under our noses for centuries.”

Riordan and Kieran took a seat, while Nicolai walked Sylvana back to the settee.

“Have her thoughts become vacant to the two of you?”Riordan asked telepathically.

“Yes,”Nicolai and Kieran answered.

Nicolai took a seat next to Sylvana and held onto her thigh while Kieran refilled everyone’s glasses before taking a seat.

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