Chapter 12

Adeep rumble cascaded through the room as I pulled my mother to her feet. Her eyes were blank, empty of any thought or emotion. The Scourge spoke through her mouth. "You come now, little prince? Amusing. We are the rulers of this land. We are the Scourge that the Elder Mare spoke of five hundred years ago—the last prophecy she gave to your mother, warning her of our arrival. She knew that you would fail your people, that we would take the throne."

The body of the beast uncoiled from the ceiling, bit by bit. Part dragon, part snake, the creature had three barbed tails, sixteen legs, and two sets of wings. A single head covered in smooth iridescent black and gray scales, but more eyes than I could count that blinked in long waves across its face.

"My mother is still alive. She is still queen." I gripped my mother's arm hard enough that she should have reacted. But there was nothing from her, not a single shiver.

"For all intents and purposes, your mother is dead and we are the rulers now. Her consciousness bent to ours. As will yours, young fool."

I dragged my mother backward, out to the courtyard, surprised that the beast just watched me take her away.

The two guards saw me. "Lorz! Get her out of here!"

The old guard startled and then ran toward me. "The beast, what of it?"

My jaw tightened. "I will deal with it."

Lorz touched a fist to his chest. "My king."

I let go of the queen's arm, and she slumped into Lorz's arms.

Then I turned and made my way back to the throne room.

"Careful," Nancy muttered. "The fact that the Scourge let you remove her is not good."

"Why?" I paused at the edge of the door, listening. The sound that whispered to me was one of a reptile slithering through loose leaves, coiling itself, preparing to launch an attack.

"It means she has no value to him. That or he wants you more than her." Nancy shivered. "I don't recommend getting eaten by this demon."

"Yeah, that's not the plan. I need to free my mother's mind from his. That is the goal."

I stepped back into the throne room, my eyes adjusting once more to the dim light. The demon was waiting, its body undulating, but not moving toward me. I could barely keep track of where all its parts were, tails, wings, head. Adjusting my stance, I readied myself as best I could. "You will find bending my will to yours more than difficult."

"You have nothing, little prince. Your family is dead. You have no friends here. You are nothing. Just as your mother always said. Her memories of you were not kind. You were not her favorite child—I saw you cower before her. And more than that…I think by the end of this, you will willingly take me on."

The fact that the beast could pull from my mother's memories was more than disturbing—it struck at the core of me.

But he spoke of the child of the past, not the man who now stood in that throne room. My time away from my homeland had allowed me to find myself, to find my strength. There had been mistakes along the way, errors that had cost me dearly, but they had all paved the way to Bree. I had found the one worth fighting for, worth dying for if necessary.

Her love was my strength in the face of what seemed an impossible task.

I reached my hand out, pulling on my connection to this realm, to my magic and the iron of the earth. All of it swirled around me, forming a sword made of darkness and fire. The hilt settled in the palm of my hand, cool and steady. "My mother was always a bit of a drama queen."

The Scourge paused. "You mock her? She seemed to think you feared her."

I steadied my stance as understanding hit me square between the eyes. The Scourge only knew what my mother knew, which was a warped perception of the world—and me—at best.

I rolled my wrist, spinning the sword, a smile sliding over my face. "I know her flaws. And she never saw me for who I am, or understood what I'm capable of."

The Scourge struck—using our banter as a distraction.

A barbed tail shot toward me, tips dripping with something thick and black, reminiscent of tar. I barely parried the blow, pushing back, stumbling to my knees.

The Scourge laughed. "Right where I want you. On your knees."

The other two tails swept toward me, and I rolled away from the one on my right, dipping under the one coming from my left. I went from my belly to my feet and swung back with my sword.

A clang rippled through the air as my sword intersected the club end of the left tail—like metal on metal.

The shock rippled up my arm and I steadied my legs as I stared up at the Scourge, trying to keep eyes on every part of it at once.

"What outcome did my mother see for this battle? Do you win?" I laughed. "She might hate me, but she will hate you more for taking her throne from her. She is a rather selfish creature."

The Scourge gave a low hiss. "You think you know everything, but you know nothing. She invited me here, little prince. To make her stronger once she heard the Elder Mare's prophecy. She wanted me to hunt for you. To finish you off. But you died…that was a pity, I was looking forward to hunting you down."

I wish I could say I didn't believe the Scourge. But the truth was, my mother had hated me for a long time. She hated all her children because she feared that one of them would take her throne. But she'd hated me the most, because I'd stood up to her. Because I'd defied her and left, when my siblings all stayed and died.

I shrugged. "Now you have your chance."

"But you need your mother, don't you?" The Scourge crawled across the ceiling. Bits of stone and mortar fell around me.

"Don't answer that," Nancy whispered. "That's the way toward making a deal with the devil."

The Scourge shot forward, using its tails as its main weapons. One club, one clawed, one spiked and dripping with that black…something.

There was no time to think. To prepare. I parried the club end, rolled, and the spiked end came straight for my head.

I ducked, the black gunk landing on my back as I spun underneath the tail tip, it sizzled, and I yanked my shirt off before it could go through. Then I stabbed upward, my blade sinking deep into the flesh of the spiked tail.

The Scourge snarled and yanked its tail from me, which drew my blade further down the length of its tail, flaying it open like a fish.

"Oh, you bitch!" the Scourge snarled, yanking all three tails back, clutching at them. "That hurt!"

I shook my head. "Did you think we were playing patty cake?"

I pulled more of my magic to me, creating a shield for my other hand, the metal the same as my sword—darkness and fire.

The Scourge screeched in pain, thrashing, sending blood and that black shit from its spiked tail all across the room. I held the shield up and the black tar sizzled as it hit the metal.

The building shook with the creature's rage, chunks of mortar and stone falling all around me, forcing me to dodge and duck out of the way.

"That's all you've got?" I yelled. "Pathetic. Like fighting an overgrown garden snake."

The Scourge spun, all those eyes locking on me, then narrowing at the same time. I thought about Bree, how she would deal with this creature. And I found myself truly smiling.

"Good idea. Close your eyes, maybe I'll go away. Like a bad dream, you overgrown ducker."

A chuckle at my side reminded me that I wasn't totally alone. I still had Nancy, for whatever the blade was worth.

"Cut its three tails off. That should help," Nancy whispered.

Those were my thoughts too.

The beast's eyes flew open. "You….dare insult me!"

I pointed the tip of my sword at it. "To be fair, you started it." I ran toward the Scourge and used the throne as a jumping off point so I could bring my sword down over the club tail. The beast rolled away from me, flinging itself out of range of my blade. Barely.

The edge of my sword skimmed the edge of the club and ripped a few scales free, creating a weakened area that would hopefully be easier to slice into.

Bellowing, the Scourge kicked out. One of its legs caught me in the gut and sent me tumbling backward, slamming me into the far wall.

I slid down the stone, seeing a few stars as I stood and shook the blow off.

The Scourge lunged, its mouth gaping wide. Instead of stepping away, I stepped toward its open mouth and jammed the shield up into the soft palate of its maw just as it bit down, causing it to pierce its own flesh.

"Braaaaaaaallll!" The beast roared and flailed its head side to side, bellowing, tongue flapping as it tried to get the shield out of its mouth.

"That's pretty good," Nancy rumbled, shivering against my hip. "You're kinda sexy all up in your warrior mode, bare chested and flashing your tat."

"Not now, Nancy," I said as I ran toward the tail that was closest to me—the spiked one with the black gunk on it.

The Scourge finally freed its mouth from the shield, grabbed the throne and threw it at me. I dove to the side, rolled, and came up to my feet as it tried to grab me with a front leg.

I slashed at the claws, taking two tips off, before spinning back to the tail. With everything I had, I swung downward as if I had an axe and was cutting wood.

My blade flared with magic as the weapon bit through the creature's flesh and the spiked end fell free, flopping onto the floor.

Blood sprayed and again I dodged, getting away from the liquid that hissed as it hit stone and metal.

The Scourge wailed and leapt up to the ceiling, backing away, clinging to the far wall, hissing and moaning intermittently. Not attacking but not fully retreating either.

"You are not what your mother said," the Scourge growled and shook its big head, eyes no longer blinking in unison.

"As I said, she doesn't know me. She never did." I rolled my wrist, the blade flicking off the gore. The magic down here…it sung to me. And I knew that there was no way that the beast would beat me in this place.

I was, whether or not I liked it, home.

Very slowly I set myself into a battle stance. "You will die, demon. Before this day is done."

It laughed at me then. "Your mother will die with me then. I know you have no love for her, but you need her, don't you? I see it in you."

I didn't let its words stir me.

Because I realized now that the Elder Mare hadn't only been preparing me to face my mother and my former home, but to accept what I'd walked away from all those years ago. To accept my position as the leader of the dark fae. Of being a king in a place that I'd walked away from. Perhaps…the fae here needed me too.

Power rippled under my feet, the land beneath me reacting to…what? My thoughts?

Trust in who you are. To find the Sentinel, you must.

An image of the Elder Mare shimmered in the air for a split second but was gone before I could be sure I'd seen her. Her words remained with me.

Trust. In the magic of the past. Of my rightful inheritance.

"For Bree." I held out my hand and the magic of the dark fae sung for me, coursing through my veins. As if the sun had finally risen, beams of sunlight shot through the broken parts of the castle. The Scourge shrank from the light, curling tighter into the corners.

"What…what are you doing?"

My breath came in a ragged gasp as the power spiked in me, driving into and through my bones.

I flexed my hand and the magic wrapped around the Scourge.

It howled and thrashed against the bonds. But it had no choice. I had it under my power.

Dragging the beast closer, I wrapped it in weaves of flames, until it was caged completely. Curled on the floor, smaller than it had been before. Shrinking to keep from touching the flaming bars of its cage.

"Satan's tits…how did you do that?" Nancy asked.

"I am the king." I held my hand out, palm up. More of the magic that was tied to me, and my home spooled around me. A magic I'd turned away from so many years ago.

The Scourge glared up at me.

"Nancy," I said. "Any ideas on how to end this?"

"It's a demon," Nancy said. "You can't really kill it. You can capture it, which you've done. Send it back to hell. If you could open a portal to hell that is."

The Scourge growled. "Who is that speaking? Do I know that voice?"

I kept my hand out, the magic of the dark fae funneling through me. With my free hand I pulled the demon blade free. "I brought backup. Nancy, meet Squinty."

Nancy laughed. "Oh, you've been taking lessons in insults from that Sentinel. I like it."

The Scourge's wings rattled, like a snake warning me off. "Be warned! I will take your mind like I took your mother's!"

"Bullshit." I laughed at it. "You need to be a weak-minded fool to be taken by a demon. A demon currently caged within flames."

Nancy sighed. "Or willingly give yourself over. She might have done that."

The Scourge kept pulling back, as far from me as it could get, darkness rolling around it inside the cage until I could only see two of its eyes.

Glowering. Fury and no small amount of intelligence radiating from them.

"If you harm me deeply, or send me back to hell, your mother dies," the Scourge said, then laughed.

I stared down at the Scourge. "The queen has never been my mother. There is no love between us."

"Didn't breastfeed you long enough, eh?" said Nancy. "Sad."

I ignored Nancy and stepped closer to the cage of flames. "I do need to separate their minds, though, Nancy. How do I do that?"

"You don't." Nancy shivered in my hand. "He's had her too long. Maybe if you'd caught the infestation sooner, there would have been hope. But not now."

The Scourge cowered.

I made a fist and the flames tightened, strengthening.

I needed my mother's sight. I needed her to find Bree for me, and this thing had my mother's mind all wrapped up in its power. How did I separate them? There had to be a way. The Elder Mare had suggested as much.

A scuffle behind me turned me around, my reflexes slow from the fight, from the power that it had taken to cage the demon.

The blade that my mother held to my throat was unexpected.

"Let my friend go."