CHAPTER ONE
My fingernails were caked with dried blood and mud. With the sword in my trembling hands, I tilted my head upward to watch as life left his pale-gray eyes. He was older today, fragile without the gold crown on top of his head. His conker-brown waves turned silver, then white. My lips curled up when he took his final breath. He was the last one I needed to kill, and now I had to die.
One Week Earlier
The west wing of the palace was too quiet for most, but I relished the absence of people. I ran my fingers over a well-creased spine, turning the pages of an ancient, leather-bound book until I found the spell. Pausing over the directions for my sacrifice, I smiled. It was simple enough. A small rodent would do.
Speckled crimson coated the round, frayed blue rug beneath my feet. I’d done my best to remove the stains, but there had been too many spillages of blood for soap and water to hide. They were a reminder of the monster I had become, with each passing day, every sacrifice, but they were justified; I’d been wronged too many times.
I caught my reflection in one of the two tall blue vases that stood on either side of the fireplace. I looked beastly, inside and out. Touching my cheek, I averted my gaze from my cracked exterior.
“It is time.” I whispered to my master, who spoke to me through the magic that resided in my soul. His voice resonated inside my head.
“Make your sacrifice,” he demanded, tugging at the ghastlier parts of my mind. Sunlight sprayed through a crack in the red drapes, illuminating the dust particles floating over the bookshelf. Lines of neatly packed books, filled with information on both kingdoms—Berovia, my home, and Magaelor, our rival—sat fading from the direct sunlight.
Breathing in a deep, anxious breath, I crossed my legs as I sat in front of the unlit fire. My gaze trickled up to the mantlepiece and the large mirror hanging above it. I inhaled sharply, then looked back at the text. After placing the grimoire on the floor, lying it open at the page of the ritual, I began preparations for the spell. My family would despise me more than they already did if they knew what I’d done. Their misfortunes were my doing, but it served them right for turning the other way while I had suffered. No one but my sister Zalia even acknowledged my existence, and she only did out of spite—a grudge long held against me for crimes that were not my own.
It didn’t matter. I was working toward something much bigger. Until then, smaller spells would be enough to satisfy the revenge in my heart, causing them inconvenience and slight suffering that I took pleasure in watching. I had never been above bitterness. it’s hard to be when I’d been forced to live in the shadows like a creature of the night, only allowed out to stroll the gardens when it suited my father. Oh, how he looked over us all, the immortal king who wore the three out of five objects of kai with pride, believing himself invincible. He did not age like the rest of us. In his seventies, he appeared thirty. The Ring of Immortalem gave him eternal life. He promised, to appease my siblings, that when he was ready to pass the crown to my sister—a throne that should have gone to me—he would live out the rest of his days on one of the islands off the coast of Berovian shores. I saw him for the liar he was, but my sister would not be as easily convinced.
The other two objects, the Sword of Impervius, which could kill any immortal, and the Amulet of Viribus, gave my father strength, agility, and speed that could outmatch any other. With them, he was feared, even by the fae who occupied the east of Berovia. Now that sorcerers finally had power over them, the king would do anything to keep it that way. Like most sorcerers, he hated them.
The bells from the tower rang loudly in the distance. I whipped my head around to look at the open window, in time to watch a flock of crows take off in flight like ink blots against the rising sun. Stone walls emerged from the shadows. I smiled as the orange kissed night into day.
The king would have left by now, as he always traveled at dawn. He would ride east to visit the light fae court under pretenses of peace. Sorcerers had never been kind to the fae, and my father was trying to change that, if only to meet his own wants of ruling the entirety of Berovia under false notions of equality. Even with the power to kill them, he wouldn’t be granted their crown. He would have had to use his diplomacy to get his hands on their reign.
The fae were kind creatures. They looked like us, except for the wings that could fold against their backs, and ears pointing through their silky hair. I wondered how easily the fae king would enter the treaty if he knew what my father did with faeries who strayed into our half of the kingdom. My father locked them in the dungeons and strained them of their magic until they desiccated, becoming husks of what they once were, then they were hidden behind walls. I’d heard enough gossip to know. Tunnels behind the tapestries in my room led to different parts of the castle, rooms where words were spoken in secret. They were places I could go to and listen without being seen. They trapped the fae’s powers inside the same relics and jewelry our people used to channel their powers—elemental magic, a practice I had long relinquished.
My strength came from the energy I harnessed from a strong, governing force. I had never met him, my master, but I spoke to him, and he looked after me as he did all who served in his magic. I remembered the day like it was yesterday. I was just a child, lost in tears and fear when he had come to me. He was but a voice in my head, one that talked me out of a depression threatening to take me. I’d lost everything, but he was there for me, whispering promises of justice and vengeance, of beauty and power, and when I turned seventeen four days ago, he vowed more. I was no longer a child but a woman, one who had the strength to do what was needed.
“I will help you take it all.” He was good at that, assuring me of the desires of my heart.
“Master. Please accept this sacrifice. As always, I am in your debt.” I exhaled slowly, looking at the ground. “With this spell, my sister’s vanity will become their undoing as it has been mine.” Father was gone, and I was only brave enough to do my spells in his absence. I couldn’t risk getting caught, not when I was so close.
My master’s sadistic laugh tinkled in my head.
Leaning forward, I grabbed an iron poker and shuffled the logs until I found him, the rat I’d spelled to sleep, then stored in the fireplace. It was never lit. It was far too hot in Berovia for an indoor fire, making it the perfect holding place. I shuffled back and placed his furry body onto my ritual plate, a large clay circle with symbols engraved into it. I closed my eyes. The blackness allowed me to focus, pinpointing the magic inside my soul. I repeated the spell over and over, flexing my fingers as I did. Cold crept through my veins and stopped at the tip of my toes. A tightness pulled at my chest, and my heart pounded. I opened my eyes, then ran my dagger through the creature. As I did, I pulled its pain into myself so it would not suffer. Blood splattered on my arms and over the ritual plate and moved like veins toward each symbol, creating a star.
My lips parted as his soul departed. A swirling ball of white, encompassing light that moved in on itself rose from the rat’s body, then fizzled out.
“Do you feel the power in your veins, the strength I have bestowed upon you?”
I inhaled deeply. “I do.”
“You can have more. You know what you must do.”