Page 75 of Of Shadows and Blood

That answer no will further gain

Gerard’s voice rattles me and I slam the hymnal book closed, drawing the attention of more curious eyes. “My dark brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of Erees, do not forget your place in his divine creation. Never has a society been more blessed by the fruits of darkness.” He opens his arms, elation growing across his face. “Rejoice in your existence. Rejoice. Under His name, Erees.” Gerard walks over to Cedric slowly, raises the crown from his head and plants a kiss onto the metal base of it before setting it back down.

The crowd repeats back in unison, “Under His name.”

“Under His name,” I murmur, standing with everyone as Cedric begins his walk back down the aisle. Subjects bow their heads to him in reverence and he tries to give them some attention.

“Thank you for attending.”

“You look well.”

“I pray for your family.”

Slowly, he approaches my pew as the doors click open. He pauses, caught in his movements, and notices me finally. The heads of the crowd all turn abruptly to us and I wring my gloves between my hands.

I make a decision in that moment. One that might cost me.

With all of the grace and confidence I can muster, I rise to my full height before dipping into the most humbling curtsy. My short lessons this week with Isadora have surely paid off because when I rise, pure happiness alights his shifting eyes. As if he cannot believe it, his eyes roam down my body to the dress I specifically picked this evening.

Black diamonds line the top half of the dress, fading out towards the middle of the skirts where they begin to mix with red gems. Upon my head rests a diadem. The blackened metal has loops with delicate pearls dangling, and resting in the center is a red ruby, shaped like a blood drop. In this light, I know the diadem twinkles. We pulled the red pieces of my hair on either side, tucked under the black gems placed strategically in the curls, like a reversed night.

He extends his free hand and lets me see the genuine smile bloom across his face. A gift, it feels like a gift to see him like this. Gently, I rest my hand upon his and let him guide me from behind the pew. The door opens wider and he whispers, “Do as I do.”

Together, hand in hand, we bow deeply to our court. My knees nearly give out from shock as we bend in respect to those who uphold our rule. His rule.

A brief pause, as if no one knows how to take in the image before them.

Their king and their beloved Elivienne, the next queen of Lux, united once again.

A deafening cheer fills the silence as applause rolls through. Some of the older women dab tears and hug each other. Their welcoming – and the noise along with it – is surely enough to vibrate the entire continent. Arch Gerard, at the top of the dais, drags his hand across his own throat and raises it to the skylight in blessing.

As the doors shut behind us and the cheering filters out, my mind can only focus on this moment. What it means, what it could mean. A leap of faith, literally.

“I thought you would not attend,” he says, setting the sceptre down. The blood orb was left for Arch Gerard on a red pillow. I walk to the window that overlooks the grove beyond the temple as the fading daylight darkens the sky.

“But I did,” I reply.

“Why?” I move to the window adjacent. Outside the temple, children run around the grove, chasing one another with the occasional failed sprint into an oak tree. “How no one noticed your presence before, I do not know. It would be impossible to miss the beauty and force of –” his eyes flick over to mine – “you.”

The blue light upon the trees is serene and I have to quell any and all of my anxieties. “It was different, special, seeing you in there.”

Cedric leans onto the sill and turns to face me. “By definition, by whatever we believe, I am darkness incarnate. My strength knows no end, my power knows no weakness, my will knows no distraction. I am the blessed son, something that Gerard never lets me forget – that I am responsible for carrying out the sire line with an heir.”

My nose scrunches. “You believe that?”

He snorts. “Some of it but don’t tell my ego that. My power is significant and growing, but I am one of many vampyr rulers. We can’t all be the chosen ones.”

“And are there two chosen ones at a time in each kingdom?”

“What do you mean?”

“The marks near your throne.”

He turns around fully and crosses his ankles, the cape bunched against the window. “I had the second throne to mine removed last month, when it seemed that you wouldn’t make a recovery anytime soon.” He taps his hand on his leg before pushing away. “It was too hard to sit next to it each month, knowing you should be here. Now, I suppose, it is unclear if I should have it reinstalled.”

A response fails to form and I avert my attention back to the young vampyr tossing rocks at a well.

“I thought children were rare?”