Prisoner of Chaos (Redemption Book #4)

Chapter 46

The Dark Lord

Alvar is flying directly to me and it's my turn to play. Already the anguish caused by Alvar's departure is strengthening my powers.

Rift is sure to sense it. I know how much he loves a good game. He could have won with me, but he choose the path of the Light. I raised him through his mother to believe that he has nothing to fear, that there isn't any pain he can't bear, now I will show him that the only power is in being the One everyone fears.

"King Lionel's army is on it's way," the Blood Queen says, she's putting on my armor for me. The metal is burned black, and it's molded to fit my immense frame. In my bipedal form, I'm larger than any of the races in Axus. My head is crowned with four horns shooting out of my skull and over my black hair. My irises are red, my teeth pointed like knives, my shoulders broad and well muscled, and my hands are tipped with the sharpest claws, capable of slashing the throats of my enemies. "Prince Wes still believes I'm in love with him." She chuckles. "Bjorn also is obsessed. What they don't know is I've persuaded half the male population of Erlund to war."

"And your child?" I ask her. "What became of the one you and 'Wes' had together?"

"As if it was Wes' child," The Blood Queen snorts. "The child is no concern of yours," the Blood Queen says. "You don't need to bother with it."

"Oh, but I do," I say, a grin splitting across my face. "You have a child and all your love needs to go to me."

The Blood Queen gazes up at me, her eyes shadowed black, and mouth rouged crimson, a striking woman, a mortal man's fantasy. Yet how she looks is an illusion. She is covered in scars. Maybe she knows I can see what she looks like under her magical illusion. There was a man who did great harm to her long ago. He maimed her with a knife and burned her with acid.

But to this woman, I'm her god now. She sold herself to me in all ways so she could look beautiful again and get her revenge against the one she believes is the root cause of her misery. Little does she know her misery will continue to the end of her life, just as I will it too.

"All my love does go to you," the Blood Queen purrs. "That's why I want a blessing from you."

"What blessing do you want, witch?" I sneer, putting an arm around her. "I've already given you dark powers of persuasion and illusions through your worship of me, but I'm not one who gives my blessings lightly."

"Make me as Alvar, make me a Cursed," the Blood Queen says with a grin. "I will be an asset to you."

"You do not know what you ask!" I growl at her, smacking a gauntleted hand across her face and sending her flailing with a scream to the ground with a bleeding gash in her cheekbone.

The Blood Queen's hand presses to her injured face. Crimson trickles through her fingers. "Careful, milord, or I may decide you're not worthy of my worship," she hisses at me, spitting out a mouthful of blood from biting her tongue.

"You've already sold your soul to me. Do not make idle threats to me. I will not grant your request for my blessing of blood. I made that mistake with a mortal long ago and it will not happen again. You will do best accomplishing the task I've given you already, darling, before asking anything else from me," I say, wiping her blood from my gauntlet. "I own you. There is no going back. Don't forget that."

"Why do you care about my killing Queen Lucy?" she asks me, her eyes narrowed. "What will it get you anyway?"

"Chaos," I answer, baring my sharp teeth at her. "Before you go though, I'm going to need you to do something else for me."

Lucy

My Alvar is truly gone and I'm lost without him here.

After everything we've been through why would fate lead us to this?

What kind of cruel trick has my life turne into?

My son is weak minded and carless, my daughter is tangled in a horrible web of our world's making and with just one look I know she's been through things no mother wishes their daughter had to go through. Now my husband's mind has broken completely and he's under the control once more of an evil being.

"God of Light, if you do indeed exist, if you do hear our pleas, I ask you to restore us to your light. I ask that you let Light shine through the darkness here in Underland and throughout all of Axus," I whisper through my tears, clutching my hands together tightly and kneeling at one of the altars in the Sylphvr sanctuary.

"Mother, we're going," Kyla says to me. "I--I love you so much, Mom."

"And I love you," I turn to her, her figure is blurry through my tears, but I caress the outline of her face. "Kyla, I am so sorry you had to grow up in a world that couldn't see how beautiful you are. You are a precious gift, my child. Your father told me he wished he could have built a world where you weren't treated like a--a Cursed."

"It made me stronger, Mother," Kyla murmurs, taking my hand and kissing the back of it.

"Come, Kyla," Rift says, the young man my daughter is with. I can sense it. "We will give him an honorable death. We cannot allow the Dark Lord to control him much longer. Come with me into the mirror."

"Yes," I say, choking back a sob. I didn't even get to say goodbye. How could I know the time we kissed this morning would be our last? "Let him die honorably. Don't let the Dark Lord do anything to him that he'd--he'd despise himself for."

Rift takes Kyla's hand and helps her to her feet. "We'll take this mirror to your bedroom where the dagger is. We'll make the blood right and your father will find his peace."