Darkness and snow. Darkness and Winter. Darkness and love. Darkness and life. Which one saves the queen? Which life will end for the queen?

The child-like voice sings through my mind, the sentence keeps repeating and getting louder and louder. I want to scream for it to stop, to stop the song but everything feels cold, and words don’t seem to leave my lips when I think them. I blink my eyes open, and there’s nothing but blackness. An endless, black smoke that fills an empty place. Emptiness and darkness, and I don’t know why I’m trying to escape. What is out there in the darkness?

“Wake up, Winter. Winter, you must wake up and wear the crown.”

“What crown?” I whisper to the female voice I barely recognise. It’s Elissa, my grandmother.

“Your inheritance. The crown is yours, and you are stronger than him,” Elissa says, her voice urgent.

“Who?” I ask.

“You’re only a quarter demon, Winter. Your humanity is what will save you,” the voice says. Demon?

* * *

“Time to wake up, little princess, I want to talk,” a voice says, waking me up from a strange dream that I struggle to remember. Something about humanity and demons. I open my eyes to see a pair of dark-red ones watching me; they almost glow in the dimly lit room. Demon. The demon king. Everything comes rushing back to me as I lean back in the seat I’m in and try to swallow the fear that climbs up my throat. I glance around the dining room we are sitting in and see the faces of three other people with us. The dining room is a room I’ve never seen, but the massive windows overlook the vampire gardens, and the library can be seen on the other side through the windows. At least, I know where I am. I look back at the betraying idiots that are sitting at the table. Damn, I’m in trouble. One is an older witch with long, black hair and a grin that is creepy as she watches me too closely. The other two are angels with white wings and look familiar. They both have light-purple eyes and cruel expressions. The older one of the two, has short hair, whereas the other one has longer hair. I glance down at my hands, one is holding a wine glass, and I don’t remember picking it up. I quickly pull my hand away as I look at the table which is set with food and a half-eaten plate in front of me. I rest my hand over one of the knives on the table and the other on my lap. I nearly jump when I see the long dress I’m wearing. It’s a corset at the top and has an old-fashioned, lacy skirt. Damn, the dress is a nightmare on its own.

“Don’t think about it, my princess. I will put you back in your mental cage before you even get a chance to touch me with that knife,” the demon king warns. I refuse to even think of him as a relative of mine. We may share blood, but he means nothing to me after what he has done. I turn and look at him, sitting at the top of the table and looking every bit the king he is pretending to be.

“My name is Winter, not Princess,” I spit out.

“But, you are my princess,” he tells me.

“I’m not your anything. I am the queen of three races and soon to be four. When my kings come for me, and they will, you will regret this,” I warn him, and his dark laugh fills the room.

“Silly words from a murderer,” the witch opposite me says, spitting out the words as I stare into the dark-red eyes of the demon king. Other than the slight, grey shade to his gold skin, he still reminds me of Wyatt, as he wears the old vampire king’s body. I look up at the crown, the crown which belongs to Wyatt and not him.

“Everyone I have killed, has deserved their fate,” I turn my gaze away and meet the angry face of the witch.

“My daughter did not deserve you to kill her! She was the queen, you stupid little–” the witch stops shouting as a dagger lands in her neck and blood sprays all over the table. I look away in disgust as her head slams onto the table, and the demon king simply smiles at me.

“No one will insult my princess,” he tells me, suggesting he just killed the witch for me. I look back at the witch, her dead eyes facing the windows, and I gather that Taliana must have been her daughter. I understand her anger, her pain, and she died because of it.

“She didn’t deserve this,” I mutter, and the angel with no hair replies.

“Yes, she did, beautiful one,” he says, and I glare at him.

“Does your king know you’re here?” I ask, and he slams his hand on the table, making me jump.

“I will be king,” he says, and I just laugh.

“You will regret this, being here,” I say to the angel who looks seconds away from trying to kill me before looking at the dead witch’s body out of the corner of his eye.

“Do you know your father said those words as one of my demons killed him?” The demon king tells me.

“What?” I ask quietly, shock shaking me to my core. My father died in a car accident or that’s what I was told happened. I doubt my mum would have lied to me about that.

“Your father said those last words as my demons tortured him to death. It was a shame he wouldn’t speak a word about where you were. He died protecting you from me and yet, here you are,” he says, leaning toward me and resting his head on his joined hands.

“It was a car accident,” I spit out, not believing a word that comes from him. He only chuckles and leans back in his seat, linking his hands together.

“No, it wasn’t, but he was only a silly human that my daughter thought would be safe to love,” he says.

“He was not a silly human. He was my father and a brave man,” I say, standing up and calling my power. The second it leaves me and releases a blue wave, the angels in the room go flying with the table and everything else on it. Including the dead witch body, which I almost regret doing. The demon king just watches me as I look at him, the blue wave not bothering him one bit as he lifts a hand and makes his own ward.

“They say you were once human and innocent. I see that is no longer true of you,” the angel with shaved hair says after he flies over, landing next to me. I lift the knife off the table and hold it in front of me as I push the chair out of the way, walking backwards.

“So, beautiful, I know why my brother liked you now. I know why he is going to die for you,” the angel comments as he reaches a hand out to me, I whack it away with the knife, cutting him and turn, running for the door. Dabriel’s brother is here, and it makes sense why the angel looks familiar. My mind runs over the fact it means the angels must be working with the demon king. I need to escape. Just as I open the massive, hall doors, a haunting, dark laugh fills my ears. Blackness fills my eyes as everything disappears, and I feel myself drop the knife.

“And, I only wanted a nice family dinner, what a shame,” I hear the demon king taunt as blackness takes over my eyes.