Mated (The Queen's War #1)

Prologue

Through the haziness of what he knew was reality cloaked in a dream, a newborn cry punctured the air and an exhausted woman slumped back into the bed with a heavy exhale, her adoring husband wiping the sweat from her brow. He spared the faceless couple an uninterested glance, his shrouded, vapour-like body instead floating towards where the nurses were busy wiping the baby down and making sure the airways were clear.

His eyes drank in the sight of the impossible. There, swaddled up in a delicate fluffy blanket was a tiny baby girl with a face scrunched with the most displeased expression. The almost ear-piercing screech that erupted from her mouth a moment later made him chuckle, but his amusement soon died as a nurse pulled down the blanket enough for him to see the large discolouration upon her chest.

If his body were awake, he knew it would have hardened with anger and as if the thought of his body buried deep within the rocky confines of the prison he built for himself, his little miracle faded from sight as the dream faded.

Deep within the mountain that the colossal Citadel of Gehenna sat upon, a lone soldier of the legion, a legionnaire, looked around himself with narrowed eyes as he sensed a strange disturbance in the air. Hidden, miles beneath the surface, he and a handful of trusted others were in charge of making sure no demons ventured this close to their sleeping King. And if his senses were correct, something was happening.

A rumble and a following cracking sound pierced the still, humid air of the tunnel. Wide-eyed, the legionnaire rushed into the chamber he stood guard outside of and stared in wonderment at the fractures that were forming in the orange glass-like cocoon. Inside he saw his King's extremities twitching and felt the power unfurling at an alarming rate.

For a decade the legionnaire had been assigned to stand outside the King's stasis chamber and for a decade he had done exactly that and never before had anything like this happened. Even the guards assigned before him, and those before them had never reported anything like this occurring. For centuries this chamber had remained silent and for centuries the King had slept, growing in power to perhaps finally defeat the enemy.

Now, there was only one answer to the question on his mind. The Archdemon Lucan was awakening.

When another large crack zagged up into the surrounding rock, the legionnaire made the decision to abandon his post for the first time. Not even the harsh reprimand from his lieutenant was worth the punishment he'd get if he didn't get word to the Commanders.

The legionnaire surged through the cavernous tunnels of the Bowels, the official name for the labyrinth laying beneath the Citadel. Having spent so much of his life learning and memorising the complicated paths, it was childsplay to navigate them until finally he burst through the large double doors that separated the Bowels from the Citadel Keep. A few other legionnaires rushed towards him as he paused to catch his breath.

"Where are the Commanders?" He demanded, quite abruptly and leaving no room for questions about his state.

"In the east wing office, I believe."

Thanking him, the legionnaire surged through several corridors, up the main foyer's grand staircase, across more, slightly smaller corridors and through the stone archway that depicted he was entering a restricted part of the Keep. In ordinary circumstances he would be severely punished for stepping foot in the wing inhabited by only the Commanders, the Second and the King, but since none of the guards on duty moved to apprehend him, they could probably sense his urgency.

Slowing down to a jog to calm his racing heart, the legionnaire finally stopped before a thick wooden door. He took a deep breath for courage and knocked once before opening the doors without waiting for a reply. The intimidating sound of the Second's voice was a whip in the tense room and he immediately bowed his head.