IN THE WEE MORNING HOURS, I WALKED into my father’s royal bedchambers for the first time ever. The secret meeting with the Overlords was already underway, and Lord Belshazzar and I were close to a half an hour late. The room we stood in was Lord Cato’s parlor from all appearances, dark navy blue couches and chairs filling the space, the lighting pleasant—not too bright. But the lone portrait hanging on his wall above a small shelf held all of my attention, even with the four other lords who turned to glare at our late arrival.
It was my mother. Beautiful and stunning.
My lips pinched. Lord Pippin had been correct.
Lord Cato really did have it hanging in his room.
Along with a small hair clasp sitting on the tiny shelf under her painting, the hair clasp she wore in the portrait.
I cleared my throat and blinked a few times against the wetness that burned my eyes. I hadn’t seen a painting of her since I’d lived as a youth with my late grandfather. My throat constricted in pain, so I kept clearing my throat and jerked my gaze to the side, no longer staring at the love shining out through her eyes—the artist incredibly talented.
Lord Belshazzar placed his left palm against the small of my back and gently persuaded me further into the room toward an empty loveseat. He pulled me down next to him and wrapped a protective arm around my shoulders, tugging me closer to him, but his attention was on the other lords.
He stated, “Our apologies. We overslept.”
Lord Otto snorted, eyeing our apparel. “Cute pajamas. You know, to a meeting about the fate of our people.”
“Fuck off,” Lord Belshazzar grumbled. “We would have been even later if we’d gotten ready.”
Lord Pippin waggled a pointed finger at our heads. “Maybe brushing your hair would have sufficed?”
I quickly patted at my long black hair. It was, indeed, bed rumpled, sticking out everywhere. I looked up at Lord Belshazzar. He was swiftly running his fingers through his own long black hair, which was in the same state as mine—possibly worse since he’d had his up in a wet bun all night.
I didn’t bother with mine right now.
The damage was done.
I swung my attention back to the other lords, and apologized, “Sorry. We saw what time it was and just left his room as quickly as we could.”
Lord Cato’s chin was trembling with restrained humor at our horrible appearances—while they all wore tailored suits—but he stated evenly, “It’s perfectly fine, your majesty. Just…maybe…set more than one alarm clock in the morning from now on when we meet this early.”
“Understood, my lord.” I lifted my right hand at the portrait. “Whoever the artist, they captured her likeness extremely well.”
My father kept his gaze on mine, a gentle kindness entering his gaze. “Yes, he did. He was a friend of mine and extremely gifted at his art.”
“Deceased?”
“Yes, about four hundred years ago, he took his Eternal Slumber.”
“That is a shame,” I responded softly.
“It is. I miss him.”
Lord Pippin cleared his throat gently, unobtrusively, and then he caught Lord Belshazzar and me up on their conversation before we arrived. “We were talking about the prophesy the Three gave.”
I nodded, repeating their words, “The war will not be stopped. Travel to S’Kir to find the Breaker. Only then will true peace be attainable.”
“We know the war is coming. And soon.” Lord Pippin nodded and turned his attention on the Overlord holding me against him. “Lord Belshazzar, you are the oldest amongst us. Do you know the way to S’Kir so we might find the Breaker—whoever or whatever that is?”
The other four lords waited, hope filling their eyes.
Lord Belshazzar disappointed them all with his words. “I have tried countless times and ways to find the entrance to S’Kir. I believe the only way to uncover the entrance is if we use both the Original vampire amulet and the Original druid amulet.”
Lord Xenon cocked his head in contemplation. “Why do you think that?”
“That’s a long story,” Lord Belshazzar sighed and rubbed his chin with his palm. “The short version is that our asshole king and his vampire friend stole the amulets from S’Kir and escaped with them to earth. The gate to S’Kir closed and disappeared shortly after he and his friend left with the amulets—and quite a few of his then followers. The timing is not a coincidence. The amulets should have never left S’Kir by his hand. They need to be returned there. I think the way to S’Kir will be shown if they are.”
I raised my eyes to him, asking cautiously, “If the amulets are brought back there, will it harm the vampires and druids on earth?”
This was the oddest conversation ever.
I was talking about…a different realm…
What the fuck. This was just peculiar on a different weirdness level. My reality and perception of truths were warping faster than a virgin coming with his first prostitute.
Lord Belshazzar shook his head. “No. I’ve taken them back and forth between S’Kir and earth with no harm ever coming to anyone.”
Lord Cato raised a single eyebrow, running his brown eyes over my lover’s face. His tone was suspicious, not entirely trusting. “You have, my lord?”
“Indeed, I have.” Lord Belshazzar didn’t elaborate.
My own brows snapped together. “Wait. You can touch both amulets?”
Now I understood why my father was suspicious. No vampire or druid could touch the opposite faction’s amulet. That was why our asshole king had stolen the “Original” vampire’s power—so that he could have both. But our “Original” vampire had added the caveat about being an Overlord to the laws…smart man, even if a thief. But he was killed, so I guess he wasn’t that smart. Nevertheless, Lord Belshazzar shouldn’t be able to hold both—no druid power ran in his veins.
“I can.” Lord Belshazzar simply stated.
All six of us stared at him silently.
Abruptly, Lord Otto laughed, loud and shocking—and started talking about the Secret given to me during my Challenges. “No wonder you weren’t worried about getting a druid once we stole the amulet and then killed the king. We won’t need one to hold the Original druid amulet.” He waved a hand up and down Lord Belshazzar’s frame. “Our solution to that problem…is you.”
My lover dipped his head in a slight bow. “Correct.”
Lord Cato was still staring hard. “What else don’t we know about you, my lord?”
“More than I care to explain right now.” Lord Belshazzar shrugged a shoulder. “Don’t worry. I won’t harm your precious daughter. But…I think you already know that, don’t you, Lord Cato?”
My father’s eyes narrowed even further.
I glanced back and forth between them. “What’s going on?”
Lord Cato swiped his hand through the air. “Just a pissing contest, sweetling.” His gaze calmed, and he looked to the other Overlords. “Back on point, we need to find that damn Original druid amulet. Are we any closer to it?”
Lord Xenon snorted. “He didn’t even show it while he worked on the shield. How the hell did he use it without holding it?”
“The same way we do ours?” Lord Pippin’s brows furrowed, thinking aloud. “Maybe he used it before we saw, and bound himself to it by blood and spell?”
Lord Belshazzar nodded slowly, staring at his own lap, deep in thought. “That would make sense.” He tapped his fingers on my shoulder, still thinking. “Or perhaps it goes even deeper than that. I can always feel it on him. I’ve pondered this often, and the only answer I’ve ever come up with that makes any sense is that he’s literally bound the amulet to himself—always. But…it’s never on him. Not even hidden. I would have felt that. I’m missing something, like how the magic flows to him when he never holds the damned thing.”
I opened my mouth ever so carefully. “I… actually… saw him use it. Like, he showed it to me.”
All eyes snapped on me faster than a rattlesnake.
“What?” Lord Belshazzar bellowed, dropping his arm from around my shoulder and turning on the loveseat to stare directly at me. “When the fuck did this happen?”
I quickly held my hands up into the air. “Calm down. I had no idea no one had ever seen him with it before. I didn’t think it was a new occurrence.”
His nostrils flared as he exhaled heavily. “Explain. Now.”
I nodded. “It was when we were in Cape Argent and went to visit the Three. He said he had to use it for us to travel there within the timeframe you allowed. But I think it was more because of where the Three live. It wasn’t normal there. It was…removed? Maybe hidden? Either way, he used the Original druid amulet to open a portal to get us there.”
The muscles in Lord Belshazzar’s jaw ticked in his attempt to hold back his aggravation. His voice was rougher than usual as he explained, “The Three are hidden, by their own choice. You are correct there.” He rolled his right hand in a circle between us, a gesture to keep me talking. “I want to know more. How did he obtain the amulet to use it? Where was it?”
My nose scrunched. “It was in the ground. We walked out to the tree edge of a forest, he stared down at the ground and used his power to bring it up. And when we returned from the Three’s home, he just tossed the damn thing up into the air, and it disappeared.” I shook my head. “Like, poof, the sky ate it.”
Lord Belshazzar’s frosty eyes began to shine with malicious glee. His lips curled up at the corners so damn slowly until he was grinning full on. His head tipped back, and he shouted in his deep baritone at the ceiling, “Finally got you, you motherfucker!”
I stared wide-eyed.
Lord Xenon sat forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “I take what the queen said is a good thing, my lord?”
Lord Belshazzar’s eyes were blood red he was so pleased—and more than a little bloodthirsty with that look in his eyes. “Yes, it is. The brat is hiding it in the sublunary sphere, an old druid trick. The water. The air. The earth. The fire. It’s all around us, so that’s how he’s able to pull the magic to himself. Wherever he is, the amulet is too. Very close to him.”
Lord Xenon expounded, “Can you get it, though, if it’s hidden and bound by his power?”
Lord Belshazzar teetered his head back and forth. “I can, but I’ll need to drug him first so he doesn’t fight. I’ll need to use the Original vampire amulet to syphon his power out of him and redirect it with a spell to make the Original druid amulet show itself. Once it does, I can kill the king. It shouldn’t take too long once he’s drugged.”
Lord Pippin muttered in confusion, “What the hell kind of drug will knock out that fucker? He’s near indestructible.”
“Vampire’s Draught.” Lord Belshazzar’s lips twitched at whatever he was remembering. He even chuckled a little. “Well, in all honesty, it’s a little different than the Vampire’s Draught I manufactured ages ago since the earth doesn’t have winter slumber blossoms. I’ve had to substitute that ingredient with angel’s trumpet. I call the new version Vampire’s Draught 2.0. I believe it to be even more potent.”
Lord Pippin blinked and repeated his question for clarification’s sake, “It’ll knock him out?”
“If the original draught can knock my brother on his ass, then yes, this draught will knock our asshole king out.” Like a mad scientist, he grinned with all his teeth—and fangs—showing. “I’ve even managed to make it tasteless thanks to technological advances over the years. He won’t even know he’s drinking it.”
I patted his knee, and teased, “You’re very proud of yourself, aren’t you?”
My lover shot a playful squint at me. “Well, I was proud when I first tested it on my brother. The results were funnier than hell.”
I patted his knee again and snorted. Jesus.
Lord Xenon’s sigh was long-suffering. “Do you have this draught on hand?”
Lord Belshazzar raised a black eyebrow at the question—or the stupidity of it. “No, I’d never keep a supply here. It’s too dangerous. But I can make it within a week’s time easily enough.”
“So…” Excitement built up inside my chest. My foot tapped on the ground, and my fingers drummed on my legs. “We’ll have the Original druid amulet in a week. And the king will be dead.”
Lord Belshazzar nodded once. And grinned.
My father tipped his head to me. “And you’ll be the queen of the vampires until you die, our sole ruler, per the new laws Lord Belshazzar will place on the amulets. Are you ready for that commitment, darling?”
Air rushed out of my lungs in a shaky rush. “I won’t lie—it frightens me having that responsibility, especially since there won’t be a partner by my side.”
Lord Cato’s tone was tender. “You will have us to help guide you.”
I nodded, still overwhelmed. “I know. That’s the only reason I didn’t faint when my lord informed me of the Secret.”
Lord Otto chuckled quietly. “You handled it well enough from what he told us. He only had to repeat it twice.”
“And Lord Belshazzar will be the king of the druids, their sole ruler,” Lord Pippin added. “I’m still unsure how the hell that’s going to work out, how the druids will take the news, but you will have him by your side too. Druids and vampires will finally come together as we should be.”
I peeked up at my lover. “How do you plan to handle the druids following you?”
Lord Belshazzar tugged me back against his side and placed his arm over my shoulder, kissing the top of my head with a caring brush of his lips. “If we weren’t about to go to war, I would have handled it much differently, but since we are, I take action with an iron fist. It’s the only way it can be.”
I pushed. “Are you sure you can handle them? They’re already going to be frantic with the war.”
“I can manage them easily.”
I blinked. “Don’t get overconfident.”
Lord Belshazzar snorted, full of that confidence. “I could wipe out the entire druid faction if I wished. But I don’t. I want our peoples together. They never should have been fractured in the beginning by the fucknut and his backhanded actions when he killed his friend. He’s only hurt us by his selfish actions. Druids and vampires are meant to be side-by-side.”
I rubbed my lips together and eyed him carefully. “You could end them all? You can’t be that powerful.”
His grin was lopsided and cocky as hell. “Trust me, your majesty, you don’t know everything about me.” His wink was adorable—not even sure how that was possible. “Even if you think you’ve seen everything.”
That…was frightening.
And more in line with what I thought of the man.
Lord Cato’s question was quiet and serious. “What if you’re wrong, Lord Belshazzar? What if you can’t control them?”
My lover’s sigh was heavy. “If they truly will not accept a vampire’s rule, then I’ll bring out the big guns…as much as it pains me to do so.”
“And that would be?”
“Someone I know. He will make them bow, and they won’t dare defy him. He’ll make them see reason.”
Lord Pippin’s head snapped back in surprise and complete bafflement. “You know someone more frightening than you?”
Lord Belshazzar’s lips twitched. “Not more frightening than me, just a little different. Enough so that they’ll listen to him without question.”
Lord Otto lifted a finger into the air. “Perhaps you should contact whoever this individual is to have them on standby. I’m worried as well that the druids will rebel when we need them the most. We can’t win this war without them, and vice versa.”
My lover tipped his head and placed his cheek on top of my head, resting there. “I plan to bring him back from S’Kir—along with whatever or whomever this Breaker is.”
“Wait. You’re planning to go?” I asked, unable to move my head and look up with the weight of his thick skull on top of mine. “When did you decide this?”
“Yes, I’d like to know that too,” Lord Xenon drawled. “We never discussed who would be going.”
With finality in his deep baritone, Lord Belshazzar stated, “As soon as we have both amulets, the queen and I will be going to S’Kir together to retrieve what’s needed. It is happening. All of you should prepare for it.”
Ah…shit.