My steps slowed slightly as I reached the end of the tunnel, seeing the orange glow of firelight flicker across the dirt floor, while a hammering sound echoed off the drop. And right where Edgar said he’d be, my husband was fastening the last nail into a coffin—the other prisoners nowhere to be seen.
“David.” I reached down and grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”
“What needs to be done.”
“No.” I placed my hand over a soldier’s as he and another lifted the coffin. “I made a ruling. I sentenced these men to twenty years in The First Order’s cells, away from their homes, friends, everything.”
“Take him away.” David waved a hand, standing up, and the soldiers shrugged me off, hooking chains under the casket.
“How could you go against me like this?” I stood back.
“Ara?” David drew a long breath, pinching his brow. “This is my ruling, and when you sit in that Court, day after day, and see no more cases like this, you’ll thank me.”
The men hitched the chained coffin to the hook hanging over the depths of the sixty-foot hole it was destined for. I watched on, holding my breath, until David walked toward the crank that lowers the chain. “David, stop.”
He paused, his shoulders high and stiff. “Ara, please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
“Hard? Hard for who?” I cried, listening to the man inside the box banging the lid, screaming for all the mercy of the gods. “Please, don’t do this. You talk about showing ourselves to be strong, a force to be reckoned with, yet you go against your own queen. How can my people respect me, if even you don’t?”
“They don’t need to respect the queen, Ara,” he said, then nodded to a soldier near the door. “They need to love her.”
“What are you doing?” I struggled against the man as he pulled me away from David. “Let go of me.”
“You are the heart of this nation, Ara.” David placed both hands on my arms. “I am the fear. They will not cross me again, nor will any other vampire, for that matter. And in my doing this, you’ve not had to sentence men to tortures you’ll lose sleep over.”
“But I’ll lose sleep anyway, David,” I cried. “Please?”
He wandered over and wound the crank, sending the last man slowly to the burrows of Hell.
“David, this is madness. Please stop, I’m begging you.”
“This is how things have always been done, Ara.” He turned to face me. “They tested our resolve, and this is their reward.”
The man’s screams hollowed out, his scratching and clawing becoming an echo as the box hit the earth and the darkness of the past—the darkness David had become accustomed to, grown up in, desensitised to—rounded out around me, drawing me into both his world and his past. And I didn’t want to be a part of that.
I watched him shovel a heap of dirt and toss it ceremoniously into the hole, and I loved him and respected him as much as I hated him right then. I knew he was right. I knew if those men were allowed to escape with easy punishment, they’d be back here in thirty years having done the same thing, as would many more over that time. David was the rightful king, the man who had the heart to get things done, even if those same things would break mine. But he wasn’t my David, right now. He wasn't the boy I fell in love with. This David was something else entirely.
I dropped to my knees as the last heap of dirt covered the vampire’s cries, and David came to squat before me. “My love?”
Tear streamed past my lips, making my nose run. I wiped them away with my sleeve, refusing to look at him.
“I’m sorry, Ara.” He stood up. “I hope one day you’ll come to understand why I had to do this.”
I nodded, pushing up off the ground to stand. “I understand. I really do.”
He stroked my cheek once. “But I’ve hurt you.”
My tears salted the air on my lips. I looked up into his loving eyes, and the hatred I had for him a moment ago trickled away, taking the anger with it. “Like I said, I understand why you did.”
He kissed my brow and stepped past me, nodding at the guard before leaving the crypt, his shadow flickering on the walls under firelight until it disappeared.
***
“Blade?” I met him on the stairwell toward the eastern quadrant.
“My Queen. How are you?” He touched his chest, bowing. “I heard what happened.”
I stopped on the stair below him, hearing the screams of that man echo throughout my soul. My tears had dried, but I knew my face was still red. “Look, I know we shouldn’t be talking alone, given the curse of Lilith and all, so I’ll get straight to the point.”
“Of course, My Queen. How can I help?”
“You’re the only one I can trust with this, Blade. You’ve always been on my side, and—”
“What is it, Ara?” He stepped down so he stood beside me. “You can ask anything of me.”
“You’re good with the law, right?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because, it has come to my attention that I am of little value in this system—that David and Walter and everyone else are calling the shots, while I'm left to wander around thinking I'm making a difference.”
“Aw, Ara, it’s not like that. You’re—”
“No. It’s true. They’re so used to me being this inept little human, they haven’t seen me become the vampire—the Lilithian.” I stood taller, rolling my shoulders back. “I want you to tutor me. I want you teach me the laws, the ways, the things I'm missing so that I can finally step up and play the role I was born to play.”
“I thought Morgaine was teaching you.”
I paused for a second, thinking about her lessons. “I get the feeling sometimes that she’s teaching me only what she wants me to know.”
His brows moved slowly to pinch over the bridge of his nose. “Serious?”
I hesitated only for a second. “I’m serious.”
“So you. . .” He leaned closer, his hot breath brushing my hair with the scent of mint. “You don’t trust her?”
I shook my head, half checking over my shoulder.
He nodded, his lips thin. “Neither do I.”
“What?” My eyes flicked onto his.
He started walking, motioning for me to follow. “I’ve had my suspicions from the beginning about her. I’m not sure what the deal is, but I . . . I dunno. Something tells me not to trust her.”