The Sun's Shadow

Chapter Twenty-Eight

He grimaced when he tried to shift his arm over the sheets that tucked him in. When he managed to pull it out, he soothed back her tangled, rich locks that proved just how far she'd fallen to not even care about how she presented herself.

The once proud Queen of Sepulchre now unfurled at his bedside and he craved to bring her peace with his words.

"Jyosith confided in me frequently when it came to your hardships to produce another heir after..." He need not say it. "So I urged him to turn to black magic one more time. It wasn't until after that I found out you had too. Since my vows of secrecy to both you and Jyosith remained, I figured the damage already done and irreparable."

Dual-bound by prophecies... Doubly cursed. Wylda realized she had failed her beloved child.

"Tell me everything you know about the prophecy. There must be a way out of this."

All that he went on to divulge about the curse conflicted each part of the one she bound to him. This was all her fault. That in combination with the lack of trust between her and Jyosith.

After her miscarriage, she had cried woefully for months without reprieve. She longed to feel the growth of a child in her once more to replace the one taken from her. The gods she turned away from for so long became her confidants as she begged them each night to bless her womb.

A collection of wise sages were sent to her room by order of the King. He expected them to ease her mind, but they worsened things when they revealed her inability to carry another child and deemed her unworthy. When they left the castle, unable to help her, she took things into her own hands.

Desperate women did desperate things.

She sought out a mage who dealt in dark magic. One that could be paid to be quiet.

"The same night you confided in your acts was the very night Jyosith pursued his own solution. I'm sorry, my sweet sister. I didn't know until it was too late."

That night she made a blood offering to any sinister creatures willing to help her and one came forth to provide. Except the child who would grow in her body and be born as her first son came at a steep price... Since the child placed in her would be manifested from the seed of demons.

Kaanan held no blood relation to her at all. She only raised him as they demanded. They told her that once she raised him to be strong, she'd be granted the ability to have children of her own. Once Kaanan came of age, a healthy and vivacious boy, the demons endowed her with the twins.

Now it came time for them to unleash their prodigy upon the realms.

"Oh gods Angelo, what have I done?" She fell back and enclosed herself in her arms, seeking shelter from the world and terrors she now faced. All her years of planning, waiting to be free of the burden she called a son.

Did she love him? More than air. But he was never hers and she accepted that. It made her cradle the twins a little tighter every night.

"Now tell me what Jyosith sacrificed. I need to know how widespread the damage is."

Angelo knew nothing could be done and told her, anyway. Sorrow laced his tone, "The mage that Jyosith met with said he could bless you with a child and provide an heir to the throne if..."

When he trailed off, Wylda knew it would be bad and needed to hear it nonetheless.

"Tell me."

"If that child succumbed to their obscure ways the day they summoned it."

"So my son has to answer to two demons?" Something felt off still. "The mage he employed, did you ever see him?"

"Yes, of course. I introduced them."

What had Angelo been involved with that made him know mages? She shook that thought away and pressed further, "Did he have his nose and left ear pierced? With a scar across his throat?"

"Y-yes." He stammered out.

Wylda's frustrated groan turned into a rage-filled outcry. They had been tricked.

"I need to see my son." The creature hadn't been entwined with two curses after all. Things were far worse than that. "The curse upon him was fortified by two blood sacrifices, he's more powerful than I thought."

Or imagined in her wildest nightmares.

"Sister."

Angelo begged her in that one word to remember her promise. Sleep felt imminent, and he needed to see that she followed through on her vow to ease him into the deepest sleep of all.

Wylda rose to her feet, feeling weightless. Now that the act remained, she felt tremendous shame. She battled with the need to ask him if he truly craved this release. The look in his eyes told her all she needed- It was time.

Careful not to hit any IVs sticking into his veins, she leaned over and upped the dose of the sedative that would lull him into a forever sleep. Nothing in her life would change much... She hardly saw the man since his maiming.

All the doctors in the land couldn't theorize why his body never naturally healed. Charles threw out the guess that the faenix's light cut through the darkness in Angelo's soul and untethered him to his vampiric abilities. If a faenix could do that...

"Thank you for serving and protecting the royal family." With each unexpected tear that fell from her eyes, she shed the exterior of a Queen and soon revealed her purest form as his sister. "And more than that, thank you for always keeping me safe and happy. You were... The best brother."

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.

.

Awaiting in the drawing room he knew she had to pass on her way to her chambers, Charles sat with a glass of whiskey and a half-devoured bottle of the devil's liquid. He'd wait right here until she appeared. His Queen.

Things just weren't adding up and he craved to know her secrets.

When she traveled back to her room, she stepped into the parlor, unaware of the person already helping himself to her collection of liquor. She looked daze and disheveled.

This wasn't the Queen he knew.

"Wylda?" He asked, voice soft and just above a whisper. It still made her jump.

"Charles. I didn't see you," She mumbled while pouring herself a rather generous glass of straight vodka. The bar at her disposal might as well have a sign that stated, 'Pick Your Poison'. She joined him on the loveseat and sunk into its soft cushions.

No sense in confronting Kaanan tonight... She'd wait until after his wedding.

Despite not receiving an invite to her self-inflicted punishment, Charles remained on the loveseat and wasted no time as he jumped into questioning.

"So tell me Wylda, if my brother sacrificed the life of your first born who paid the price in full already... Why did Kaanan turn out the way he did? That's not ancient power within him, it's a curse. And you know how he came to be cursed, don't you?"

She managed a curt nod.

He pinched his nose as resolve settled over him. "Tell me everything so I may better protect my family."

The man held a place in her heart that paralleled her own brother. Just like Angelo, Charles knew how to keep a secret if it meant keeping trust. Unsure of everything she knew, the Queen unveiled how deep-seated their plot went, all the way back to before Kaanan came into the world.

The woman who had plans for her plans could not account for what transpired just a few doors down. Powerless to stop it even if she knew what dark path Kaanan carved for himself.