Maia thought death was the end, until the alluring Nix brothers summon her back to life. Now, she must embrace her newfound existence as she is thrust into a dark prophecy that could unravel their cursed fate.
With each step, Maia is inexplicably dr...
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"So, tell me, son of Nix, why do you seek my audience?" asked Lucian, the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes deepening as he grinned.
"You knew I was coming all along."
"Perhaps that is the case..." he deflected, pausing for a second to throw me a glance.
As we walked through the main hall of the fortress, the tall walls, wide and grey with big blocks, intimidated you with their grandeur. They could make you feel as if you were the smallest being that ever stepped foot through those halls.
"I dare say that a danger we have not foreseen has come upon us," I confessed, following him close by.
"And is this danger that you speak of not a product of your peoples desires?" he asked me, with irony in his tone.
My head still stung from the blow it took earlier, but the fact that what he said was not far from the truth irked me more.
"You know how we have been living all this while-"
"You mean surviving?" he corrected me.
Towering iron doors open before us, as if on their own. I hadn't seen anyone else since entering the fortress, which game me the impression that the castle seemed to aid the Dark King as he wished to stroll through each passage of his residence, as if it had a life of its own.
It occured to me that this had to be some kind of sorcery for sure. But I knew little of Lucian and his being. He could have had me killed right then and there if I had made a wrong move.
"Or did your brother's attempts at the summoning a vessel failed you, again?" he inquired, interrupting my train of thought.
He placed his wrinkled, dry hand on my shoulder and I felt my body froze under his crimson stare.
"It is all more than we can handle..." I confessed as if involuntary. "So many lives have been lost. And she..." I bit the inside of my check at the thought of Maia, and how I was the reason for the situation she was in.
"Was that not a sacrifice you were willing to make?" he pressed the question, sarcasm filling his tone.
"I never wished to see my people die. Not even her."
Lucian took a seat on the grand armchair in the throne hall, and peeked outside the windows that raised to the ceiling. The wind blew the snow against the thick glass and the sound of the blizzard sent shivers down my spine.
"Especially her," he corrected me again, and I clenched my fists, digging my claws in the palms of my hands. "You never wished for her to die."
"All I wish for is to ask if there is any way to fix things. I can't bear the thought of losing her. Not now."
"There are few ways of controlling a vessel," he told me, running his fingers through his grey hair. "You essentially share a soul now," he added, and looked down at me from where he stood. "But you knew that already, did you not?"
