Heir of Darkness

Chapter Eight

The last of the guests slinked into the rising sun of the day, calling out their praises and farewells to their Queen sat upon the tall, black throne.

He red hair sprawled around her head as she lounged on the red velvet, basking in its softness. A servant, half naked and hunched, hurried up the steps to her after the large doors closed, silencing the shrill laughter and drunken songs of the departing Lords and Ladies.

The servant carried a pure silver tray with a single crystal glass mounted on it.

The Queen picked up the glass, bringing the red liquor to her lips before allowing a sliver to pass. She shrieked in anger and threw the glass on the servant, the glass cutting his forehead as it smashed. He cried out in pain but the Queen took no notice and snarled at him, "I asked for something sweet! How dare you bring me something as dry as this! This is an insult to me! Get out of my sight before I punish you!" The Queen kicked the servant and sent him flying down the steps of the dais, his bones crunching audibly as he fell. She turned her nose up at him as he whimpered, hobbling to the servant's door at the far end of the ballroom.

"You really are cruel."

"What can I say," the Queen's heels clicked as she pushed herself from the throne seductively and sauntered down the steps, "It's what I love most about myself. Though it does seem to be the worst of all my qualities. I like to think that I make up for it in other virtues."

"Redeeming qualities? I'm not sure you have any." the boy spoke freely, a smirk rising from his lips, his eyebrow raised.

The Queen dragged a polished red nail around the boy's throat, stopping at the base and letting her nail bite into his skin, "I object. I think my desire to see others in pain and begging me on their knees to stop is redeeming. My longing to see all light in the world put out for good. And the craving I'm getting now to make you submit to me so I can punish you painfully for not addressing me properly."

"But doesn't that all boil down to cruelty?"

"No, all of that is pleasure, my pleasure. Cruelty would be making a man watch as I peeled the skin off his wife and fed it to beasts before eating her heart as my main course. Or maybe making a child stab his family through the heart before I slit his throat, not deep enough for him to die straight away so he can feel the blood drain from his body and watch it pool with his parents. And a cruel sin I have committed? Tricking seven brothers and forcing them to be my eternal slaves forever. That, my child, is cruelty."

"Your Majesty." The boy bowed lowly, his six brothers mirroring his actions, their hands sweeping in front of them in matching gestures.

The Queen smiled, her pearl white teeth gleaming under the silver chandeliers, as she took a step back from the boy, her eyes racking over them all before her.

"Now, why are you here? Not that I'm not enjoying your company but you do have a job to do." The Queen turned and fled back to her throne, seeking comfort in it, knowing it was hers, the Kingdom was hers. The darkness was under her rule.

"That's why we are here." Another brother spoke up, stepping beside his eldest brother, the outspoken one. Blayze. The Queen had long ago forgotten their true names. Nearly twenty years ago she stripped them of their identities after tricking them into serving her. Now they were her servants of darkness, with new names to her liking.

The Queen ran her gaze over the brothers, her mouth watering as she remembered how devastatingly handsome they all were. Beauty was her downfall, her weakness when she was younger. But now she was able to overlook the superficial and focus on what was inside. What was buried deep inside a person was what she wanted.