Kingdom's Vice Series: A Voyage of Vengeance ( #2 2015)

Chapter Thirty-Eight: An Account From The Wind

"You found her?" the King exclaims, a mask of mightly happiness upon his face, as bright as his crown of silver. "Light be praised! You found them. How?"

Alec smiles, "A little enchantment goes a long way,"

The king smirks proudly, but suppresses his smile in Heida's presence. "What news of Faeore? Has the child arrived yet?"

He shakes his head, "The midwives have yet to say, my king. Her condition is stable, you should not worry yourself. She would not want you to worry."

"And worry he shan't," Heida chirps in a little too happily. "He has a wedding to plan."

Alec stares her down, "Amidst all of this," he gestures to the hall, swallowed in the cries of Faeore's pain in labour, "you still insist on a wedding? Have you no thought for others around you?"

She smiles and picks up her skirt, floating over to him. "Master Alec," she strokes his cheek, "such an honourable man you are. Your wife is gone, your kin deserted or dead. Your words are weak," she digs a nail into the flesh of his arm, "and so are you."

He draws his sword without hesitation and lays the edge of the blade against her collarbone. "Down, wretch!" he yells, "I know what you are! Conjurer and sorceress! Messenger of the Darkness, aren't you?"

Her grin is wide, "Smart, but stupid, it seems." She moves.

"I said down!" he roars, striking her with the hilt of the blade, forcing her down to her knees. "Do not think I will not kill you, here and now before the King."

She looks up at him with unbeaten, undaunted eyes. "And do not think that your king will not kill you." She stands. "I command him now. And once we wed," she swirls about him in a dizzying blur, "and once we bear a child, it will be permanent."

He shakes his head, "You will not take him," he growls, "I will not let you."

She touches his cheek with her clawed hand, "You can try, Son of the Master, but you will die. Again." She adds, with a screeching tease.

"She is coming back," he says in a single breath, determined, calm, "And if I do not kill you, I know she will."

Heida scoffs and slaps his blade to the ground where it lands with a clank! "And when she does, he will come looking for her, and he will take her one and all."

"Who is coming?" he dares to ask, his eyes locked on her grim face.

She laughs an evil, cunning laugh. "The Darkness," she hisses in his ear, sending chills through him and sending his face pale. "He comes for those the Light does not hold in favour."

His thoughts flicker to Skaya and her unadorned throat. No pearls. No Light.

The Darkness will take her one and all.

The lady vanishes.