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(CHAPTER ONE. ) ROYAL PAIN ❛ bow down to the queen. ❜
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CALLIOPE DREAMT OF BURNING, AT FIRST. Then came the sharp ringing of screams. It started out small but gradually got louder, the sounds of ripping flesh and the smell fuel lighting the flames came next as the tearing of skin became noticeable in her own body.
It was all real, in her mind. The feel of the stone table underneath her. The clanging of the chains that bind her down.
So she couldn't stop the scream that bubbled up in her throat and ripped through the thick air of blood, the metallic smell of the red substance oozing out of her cut wrists, the sight of glinting red eyes turning gold and blood-soaked fangs burning into her mind as she screamed herself awake, back to the real world.
There, she was back in reality. Body caressed by silk white sheets and head resting on softly ruffled pillows as her nightgown clung to her sweat covered body, her vision still tinted over red as she blinked multiple times to be rid of the haze.
"Faex... what in Satan's name did that mean..?" Cursed the distressed girl as she sat up, her Jouvennian accent thick and voice raspy from sleep. The sun's rays poured through the windows, bird songs waking the city of glass as the royal heiress came to.
The vivid images of slaughter and death were still fresh in Calliope's mind as she moved from her bed to the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror as the sounds of the water coming down the drain filled the large space.
The cold water felt nice against her flushed skin, cooling down the emotions buzzing within her. Still, the memories and images of that dream nagged at her at the back of her head whilst she pushed it deeper away.
Turning off the tap, she stared at herself in the mirror. Her usually perfect hair was dishevelled from the horrors of the dream, skin dripping with liquid and eyes, dark and dilated. The bags under her eyes were eyesores that looked like they would be there for a long time.
The dreams began since the day of her Ascension. They were getting clearer too. And worse. Calliope wasn't stupidly insisting to herself that they were just harmless dreams. She knew they were visions. Visions that she keeps to herself seeing as sharing them wouldn't do her any good at all.
The visions were more so a burden than a gift, as her mother would call it. She couldn't get a decent amount of sleep without her waking up with bloodshot eyes or a bleeding nose from her the brain activity during her period of unconsciousness.
Complaining about it wouldn't do much, either. It was in her blood, after all. The Delafontaine's blood.
Its no secret to the supernatural society that the House of Delafontaine is the reigning 'monarch' in their hidden world. The protectors and the keepers of all secrets and intelligence regarding the different kinds of creatures that go bump in the night that roam the earth.
However, once the rule of Dominic the Fifth ended in the thirteenth century, surfaced a new commanding force in the vampire species.
The Volturi.
The Palace of Jouvenne was shaken to the core at the arrival of the coven, her great-great-grandparents, Queen Delia and King Ezos, were ruling at the time were the ones that first made contact with the unknown group.
It wasn't long before a contract between the two groups were formed, thus freeing the vampire colony from the watch of the Delafontaines. The fate of the cold ones was placed out of their hands, for they were all in the Volturi's.
King Ezos, at the time, realised how weak and frail the bloodline was against the supernatural. His mind began to wander to possibilities of when the supernaturals would go against them and the family would be left defenceless against such powerful creatures.
And so, he made it his mission to search for a way to make the bloodline invincible. The methods ranged from witchcraft to alchemy until he found the prize of his search.
Imperium Transference.
The books had no record whatsoever in how it had been done. Just that it came with a horrid price that the King paid at the end of his reign which lasted for five thousand years. The powers which he and the queen gained passed to their children, and to the children of their children.
From then on, the bloodline of the Delafontaines became unassailable. It was fated for the generations to come to go through the Ascension. In which the powers were to come alive in the body of the person at his or her ripe age of sixteen.
The Ascension usually meant the gaining of abilities. From speed to telekinesis. To controlling others and their emotions. To speaking with animals to teleportation. The possibilities were endless.
But nature was meant to keep its balance. And it was widely known that the House of Delafontaine was completely throwing that balance off.
They were abominations. Freaks of nature that held power in their hands. Flowed through their veins. Mortals who play as Gods and tamper with the course of fate.
Calliope knows all about it. She feels it every day in her blood. The power pulsing within her. Sometimes a little too strongly which makes her struggle with breathing. But she was a Delafontaine.
The name wasn't exactly associated with being weak. Weakness had no room in her heart, despite her mother's chastising. Embracing your weakness means knowing your strengths.
It was complete and utter bull. Embracing your weakness made you weak, and if you were weak, then you're vulnerable to attack. She couldn't have that.
She didn't have such a long record of viciousness for nothing, after all. It was something her brother was particularly sick of, not finding any of her acts amusing at the slightest.
Calliope Delafontaine is a royal. And she doesn't bow down to anyone. When there's a threat to the family, she gets out there to deal with them. She and her entourage were a force to be reckoned with.
Her ancestor made sure of that, tampering with forces he had no control over. Changing the course of nature and making their bloodline something of an atrocity.
But a person can only fight for so long until they finally drown with all the blood in their hands.
a/n:this is bad but it could be worse. This whole chapter is basically an opening to who Calliope is and how her family basically fits into the story. Beginnings are always a bit boring for me to write so i hope some stick around. ❤️
