“My own son was in on this! My only Heir!” I bellowed, my rage somehow growing as the beast in me begged for freedom once more and I tried to piece all of this together. How had he done this? How had they thwarted me in this??
I saw red as I strode away from her, my hunger for vengeance rearing up inside me like a tornado and threatening to consume every part of me.
“Get her out of my fucking sight!” I shouted, needing her gone before I did something foolish like killing one of the only pure-blooded female Dragons of her generation, and Jenkins caught hold of her bound ankles and began to drag her from the room on her stomach while she continued to sob.
I swear my vision actually clouded over as the depths of this fucking attack hit me and I realised I was left without the one thing I needed to secure my reign.
“What am I supposed to do without an Heir!?” I hollered at everyone and no one, the crystal chandelier above the throne rattling as my rage almost consumed me.
Darkness rose up all around me and in my fury it took me a moment to recognise the power of the shadows before the Shadow Princess stepped into my path and the might of her dark magic collided with me.
She hurled me back into the throne, pain splintering up my spine as curses poured from my lips and the entire room was shrouded in darkness.
Stella and Vard screamed as her power dug its way into their flesh, and she banished them from the room as they fled, slamming the doors behind them and striding up the steps to my throne as she closed in on me, her eyes flickering with darkness.
“Stop snivelling like some day old brat and raise your chin like a true king,” she snarled, crooking one finger at me and using her control over the shadows which resided beneath my flesh to raise my right arm in her direction.
I cried out as pain burrowed through the ruined stump at the end of my arm, unable to fight back in any way as she wielded her magic against me and something grew from the stump with agonising slowness.
I gasped as I recognised fingers sprouting from within my own skin, their form fully built out of shadows which grew and grew until finally an entire hand sat there, formed from her dark power in place of the one I’d lost.
“There we go, much better,” she said in delight, releasing her hold on me and I shoved to my feet instantly, towering over her and snatching her throat in my grasp, using my new hand and marvelling at the strength of it as I bared my teeth at her.
“What are you?” I demanded, my gaze roaming over her face as I drank her in, noting the strangeness, the power, the beauty.
“I am your queen,” she replied, her voice hoarse from the strength of my grip on her. “A long, long time ago your ancestor promised to marry me and place me upon the throne of flames. Octavius Acrux promised me his hand in marriage. I am Lavinia Umbra and we made a deal which I expect his descendent to stick to. You owe me that, Daddy.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I snarled, my mind scanning over my knowledge of my ancestors as I tried to place the man she spoke of, wondering how long she had been waiting for this so-called promise to be fulfilled and why it hadn’t been originally upheld.
“I am the queen of my people. The leader of the shadow-born. Ruler of the power which has gifted me this eternal life. I am the woman who had her empire stolen and her fate sealed within the Shadow Realm for all too long. I am owed an Acrux King. You are mine.” Her eyes blazed with the darkness of her power as I tightened my grip on her throat and she smiled manically as she looked up into my eyes without a trace of fear. “And you need a new Heir.”
“What kind of Heir could a creature such as you birth me?” I scoffed, unable to believe that this thing could produce life in a womb filled with nothing but shadows.
“I will give you an Heir born of true power, with loyalty running in his veins as thickly as the shadows of his mother and the Dragon fire of his father.”
“You can guarantee me a Dragon born child?” I demanded, my gaze falling over her body from her pale skin to her near black lips, watching the way the shadows moved around her like I was keeping my eye on a pit of vipers. But maybe this was it. The solution I needed. A way to bind her to me and bring her to heel. All good whores just needed a strong man to force them into submission after all and I couldn’t say I had many objections to fucking her. She was beautiful even if she was filled with darkness.
“I can guarantee you a child more powerful than any born before him. He will be a Dragon with Elemental and shadow magic and he will rule in your stead the way you always dreamed your true Heir would. But only once you make me your queen.”