1. Danai

Chapter 1

Danai

I stared at the gilded crown in my hand.

My heart grieved for the one who’d worn it mere hours before.

I had spent a lifetime—no, ten lifetimes—searching for clues that might lead to Irina’s return. The obsidian monolith left by her spell had offered more conjecture than instruction, but a thousand years after her death, I’d succeeded in restoring my beautiful queen to the world of the living.

And now she was gone.

Again.

Magical power tickled my fingers as it thrummed within the cold metal. The seven diamonds across the crown’s base pulsed with an eerie crimson light. I shuddered, thinking of how each orb was filled with the captured soul of a Gifted who had been sacrificed for the greater cause of Irina’s return, the crimson hue of each diamond mirroring the lifeblood spilled to acquire its power.

My breath frosted before me.

It was cold, but not that cold.

I swiveled, scanning the peaks and the nearby forest, but found nothing amiss. I rubbed warmth into my chilled arms.

“Danai . . .”

I stumbled down the mountainside as a silky voice whispered in my mind.

“Danai, my dear, you found my crown.”

I shuddered.

My dear?

Irina had never called me anything other than my name.

“My Queen?”

“I am here. My Vessel was weak and died when the tower fell, but my spirit is now free.”

My eyes darted around, desperately seeking any evidence of Irina’s presence. The only thing I found was the deepening chill in the air—and deep within my bones.

“I don’t understand. The circle that contained—”

“—was destroyed when the tower fell. Nothing binds me now, but my power is limited without a Vessel. I can only influence, but never rule . . . until I find a mortal form.”

A mortal form? Her spirit needs to inhabit another? Of course, like she did Isabel.

I blinked moisture into my frozen eyes as realization drained the last color from my face. “You want to consume me ? Take my body for your own?”

“No, my love, I want to share power as we always have.”

I swallowed hard.

My love?

I leaned against a tree, struggling to focus. I had loved her. From the day we first met a thousand years ago, my heart was hers. Then her parents died. No, they were slain. Killed by our brother and sister Mages. She’d been so broken by grief. I wrapped her in my embrace, supported her vision for a stronger, more prosperous Kingdom, and helped her gain her footing as she ascended to the throne. Even when her heart had turned to vengeance, I remained by her side, steadfast and loyal.

And yet, despite all our time together, I never had the chance—or bravery—to tell her how I felt.

What if I had? Would she have loved me in return? Would she have fallen into my arms and returned my embrace?

I regretted never trying, never learning what could be.

Yet I also feared she might have laughed and discarded my emotions as weakness. She mocked others for their frail minds and weak hearts. While I knew my love was a power in itself, I also understood that her heart had darkened by the time I might have opened up to her.

There was no space left for passion or kindness. No room for love.

And yet . . . she now called me my love ?

After all that had happened.

After I betrayed her and helped free the people of Saltstone even as her troops battered down their gates.

The woman I knew . . . the woman I loved . . . she no longer lived.

Her eyes bore none of the compassion of her youth. They bore nothing but hatred and pain.

They bore rage as she turned against Melucia.

They held merciless wrath as she felled civilians as the Mages had once felled her family.

My eyes brimmed with tears. Yet I hesitated.

I loved her still. My heart longed for her touch. To have her live within me, to be part of me . . . we could forever be together.

And still.

Her presence was overwhelming in life. In death, it compelled allegiance.

Unquestioning loyalty.

“Isabel was a weak, feckless fool. You are more worthy than any alive. We would wield power this world hasn’t seen since the Sundering. Think of it, Danai!”

I felt a pressure against my chest, as though someone pushed against me, trying to burrow within. I called my Light and pushed back.

“What are you—”

“Why do you resist me, my love?” Her voice found a sharpened edge. “I long to be one. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

The pressure intensified, and sweat beaded my brow despite the frigid mountain air.

“Irina, stop, please,” I pleaded. “We can find another way, another Vessel.”

I held my breath as Irina’s voice stilled.

The tension against my chest eased as moments passed in silence. Without her voice, a void of nothingness enveloped my world, and my heart, long ago given to her keeping, shattered at the gulf I knew now spanned between us.

“Irina?” I whispered. “Are you still there?”

What was a palm pressed against my chest before became an angry fist pounding against me. Before I could react or defend, Irina’s spirit found purchase within. Her presence knifed through my mental shield, seeking any weakness.

“Never use my name again, Betrayer. Call me Vengeance, for that is all you will ever know from me. Your life is mine, your soul is mine, now your mind and body will be mine. Yield, and I may yet allow some sliver of Danai to survive.”

Tendrils of power wormed their way inside the crevices of my mind, seeking a path to seize control. White-hot bolts raced from my head down my spine and throughout my body.

I dropped the crown.

My hands flew to my temples.

I staggered but shook off the shock and thrust the might of my magical reserves at her invading essence.

Fear’s tentacles recoiled as Irina’s angry screech echoed in my head.

“Resist me all you like. Your pitiful power is no match for my will. I will consume your mind and force you to watch as the world burns.”

A shaft of the rising sun glinted off the crown now pillowed in the snow. I snatched it up and slipped it onto my head. A wave of power swelled within my chest and drove me to my knees, but it bolstered my Light with immeasurable strength. I never knew the crown gave more than the seven Gifts, but now I understood it also magnified the innate power of the one who bore its weight.

My lips curled as I called out to my former pupil.

“No! You shall not have me like you did Isabel. I have not survived a thousand years only to lose myself to a failed sorceress. I loved you, Irina, but you will not have me now!” I clenched my eyes shut and began muttering a spell, each word stabbing into her invading tendrils. They writhed before me, flailing and thrashing.

When I completed my incantation, the spirit of Irina flinched as though burned, then fled my body and materialized as a spiritual vapor before me.

Hatred burned within her eyes.

“This is not over, Betrayer. The circle was broken, and I am free. When you are weakest, you will become my Vessel, and this world will burn. I will see to that!”

“Irina!” I cried out, but her spirit turned and dissolved into the wind.

I tore the crown from my brow and hurled it to the frozen ground, its malicious intent and unyielding strength ebbing the moment it was cast aside. Tears formed as I watched the apparition of my lost love fade, leaving me truly alone on the mountain peak, staring blankly at the wintery sky.