40. Danai

Chapter 40

Danai

D anym kneeled before me.

I forced the idiot to remain cowed for over an hour, only allowing him to look up when answering a question.

I couldn’t recall the last time anger boiled within me so fiercely.

“Do you honestly believe you had any other use to me? Or had you deluded yourself into thinking your brilliant wit could serve some purpose in my cause?” My words dripped with contempt as I stared down from my ivory throne.

“Master—”

“Shut up! That was not a question. Even you should understand sarcasm when you hear it.” I stood. “You had only one mission, and you failed. What more might be said?”

“Excellency, forgive me. Jess—I mean, the Queen—she would not be moved. I managed to get a private audience with her, to get her thinking about our time together before—”

“Do you think I care?” I shouted, punctuating each word. “You failed me, and now you—and any other representative I might wish to install—are banished from the capital. I cannot begin to calculate the harm you have caused. I should get my staff and Turn you here and now. At least then you might be of some use.”

“Master, no—”

“Stop it, Danym. Just stop groveling. You have destroyed months of work. I cannot allow your incompetence to threaten our mission any longer.”

“But, Excellency—”

Danym’s words cut off as I waved a hand and bright flame enveloped him. He writhed and screamed until the fire’s hunger stilled his voice, leaving little more than the charred ruins of a Priest and his robe.

I stared at the smoldering mess as I sat and sorted through what the reckless child’s folly had cost.

Moments later, a lanky Priest entered. His loose-fitting robes flowed behind him as he strode the length of the chamber, only slowing as he passed Danym’s remains. The man wriggled his nose and covered it with a sleeve, then kneeled and remained cowed until I bade him rise.

“Efrem, our plans for the Queen have failed. Danym failed. If I cannot have her join us willingly, I need her out of the way. Unless I miss my mark, that brother of hers should be much easier to handle. He is simple and gullible and has no ill memories of the man I was at court, unlike our current monarch.”

Efrem’s expression never wavered. His eyes never blinked. He stared and listened.

The perfect Priest , I thought.

“Do you have a preference as to method, Excellency?”

I steepled my fingers and thought a moment. “No, do what you must—but whatever you do must not be traced back to the Order. Understood?”

“Yes, Excellency. Your will be done.”

As Efrem vanished through the golden doors, I removed the crown and cradled it in my hands. I traced a finger along its interwoven gold and silver, landing on one of the diamonds inlaid in its base. The bloodred pulse echoed through every facet of the stone, drawing me into its fearsome beauty. I wondered what the imprisoned spirit must think. Could it see or hear what went on before it? Could it even still think? Its power pulsed through the relic and into me whenever I called, yet I knew nothing of the individuals trapped within.

And I really didn’t care to.

It was more curiosity than anything.

Like my Priests, those trapped souls were merely tools, weapons to be wielded for my greater cause. And like Danym, when they failed or served no further purpose, they were dead to me.

I sat staring into the stone for long moments, lost in thoughts and plans for a world beneath my banner. For the briefest moment, as Jess’s face passed through my mind, a twinge of regret pricked my soul. We were never close. Still, she had been a child, and there were times . . .

I shrugged those thoughts off as quickly as they had arisen and chuckled at my own foolish sentimentality.