31. Alandra

I looked for Sava everywhere but to my dismay saw nothing but Shadren glaring at me. Growing back into my original size and losing the wings, I readied myself for anything and apologized.

"Sorry for intruding into your woods." I stepped over a young Nocumat. "Have you seen Lord Sava?"

The creature grumbled a few unsavory remarks and trudged across the narrow trail. I ventured deeper into the woods, a feeling of doom growing. I finally stopped in a small, dark clearing, conscious of the surrounding silence.

"Sava?" Why I bothered calling for him, I didn't know.

Zartic, and it had been Zartic, obviously hadn't sent me to Sava. I took a few more steps forward and entered a round clearing encircled by trees.

I swallow around the lump in my throat.

Queen Lidra, in all her Dark glory, waited with a smile. She stood alone in this clearing. Splotchy black marks streaked her once pristine flesh. She looked withered, like a walking husk. Blood dripped from her fangs down her chin.

Sin Garu's words came back to me. "Don't believe me? Look at what's left of Lidra."

Well, shit.

"My little niece, come to her auntie at last." Lidra smiled, her pointed teeth offensive in a face once so very opposed to Dark pleasures.

"I guess it's pointless to expect you to renounce your throne." I sighed, trying to appear cool while wishing to be anywhere else.

Lidra's aura had no more Shadow, corrupted by tainted Dark and toxic energy. Blood drinkers were one step from pure evil. Sadly, my aunt seemed to share more in common with monsters than her own kind.

"You little slut." Lidra's eyes flashed, their blue color clouded with sickly yellow. "Our kingdom needs the magic Tanselm offers."

"But Aelle —"

"Aelle nothing! Tanselm is a power. I was born there, you ignorant bitch. I know very well what we've been living without for over a thousand years."

She sneered, cloaking her body in illusion. The queen's toxic coloring faded. She now wore an elegant red sheath that showed off her curves. Her pale skin glowed with the purity of Shadow, once again smooth and blemish-free. Blood disappeared from her ruby-red lips, while her hair lay in soft waves of white-gold over her back.

The perfect Aellei in pallor and elegance. The perfect charade.

"I am a queen, the highest of the Aellei. And I would have my people where they deserve to be, at the very top of the multiverse."

I couldn't help frowning at all the melodrama. "You think Tanselm is the best so many worlds have to offer? No offense, Aunt Lidra, but I've been there. And as beautiful and magical as it is, Tanselm surely pales to other places in existence."

And if I live long enough, I promise to travel to as many of them as I can with my Storm Lord.

"Heresy," Lidra hissed. Lifting her arms above her head, she linked her hands together and began to absorb the surrounding Darkness.

I wondered how to get help. Sava would know how to handle Lidra. But I wasn't so sure.

"Balen wants you. I know he does. But it's for no more than your power, you stupid slut. I'm the one he desires. I'm the one he drinks from when he hungers." Lidra licked her lips, and I felt an odd surge of pity for the selfish queen.

"What happened to you?" I asked, my tone gentle. "You were once Lidra the White, Queen of the Aellei. And now you're reduced to a Dark Lord's nymph?"

Lidra's eyes flashed as she directed a large stream of negative energy through me.

Stunned at the brute force of the attack, I froze, trying in vain to rethink my strategy. There was no time to wait for Sava. I had to rid Aelle of Lidra now.

Her raw hatred would endanger anyone she encountered. Unfortunately, I had a bad feeling my aunt was beyond saving.

I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to rid myself of the excess energy that tried to eat at my power.

Studying my aunt, I thought I knew what she really wanted. And what I needed to say. "Why have you always hated me? You've always teased me, hazed me, hurt me. Great queen, I love you. What have I done but be your niece above all else?"

Lies, but they sounded suitably pathetic uttered in a capitulating voice.

"Stupid as well," Lidra muttered, glaring. She blinked, as if confused, and her illusion wavered, showing flashes of her corruption in between the faultlessness of her illusion.

She sneered. "I'm your aunt in that your great-grandmother Nara was my sister. She made the mistake of lying with a Storm Lord. A Light Bringer," she spat in distaste. "Knowing Father would kill her for such perfidy, she tricked your Aellein great-grandfather into marriage. He cared little for his other progeny, siring a multitude of Aellei with dozens of females more worthy than my sister," she said as insultingly as possible.

A sudden flash of insight grabbed me. "You were in love with him, weren't you?"

Lidra shrugged. "Rovu was the most handsome of our kind. Unlike Sava, he knew my worth, and sadly, my wrath. The minute he set eyes on your mother, some odd sense of paternal fondness hit him. It made no sense whatsoever, yet he refused to let her go. He even began doting on you."

I recalled Pare Rovu, remembered his kind eyes and the sticky taffy he brought whenever he visited between his jaunts abroad.

Lidra's hatred blazed in her eyes, clear of any illusion of affection. "Because of you and your mother, I had to kill him. Such weakness in a male is not worthy of a queen."

I froze. My parents and grandfather had been killed together, supposedly caught in the crossfire between warring Djinn and Aellein outcasts.

"Yes, you stupid girl." Lidra rolled her eyes and sent another blast of Darkness through me, one that did substantial damage this time. "I killed your father, your mother. Hell, I killed my own sister as well. How could I let her live, hanging onto my lover as she did? And Rovu." Her lip quivered. "Rovu never really loved me. He just wanted Nara because he thought she was prettier than me. Than me!"

Her brilliance flared then faded along with her illusion, showing her twisted desires clearly. "You are the spitting image of my sister. Every day you've taken breath, I've been waiting for the opportunity to rid myself of your presence." My aunt's features twisted with hate, and I wondered how much of it was the Dark and how much was Lidra's unruly jealousy.

"How fortunate, then, when I openly accused you of allying with the Dark Lords," I said stiffly, still trying to sort Lidra's awful truth. Had she really killed my family? Her lover and sister as well?

"Oh, yes." Lidra shot at me again, but this time I managed to avoid the blast by darting to the side. Pain from my other wounds throbbed until a numbing Darkness gathered.

My aunt continued, "Your accusations did more than open the door to my vengeance. You see…"

As she blathered on about one corruption after another, I continued to dodge her strikes. Shoring the Light within me and borrowing from Shadow as much as I dared, I knew I'd never have a better chance.

"You poor, sad cow of a woman," I said with false compassion and stepped forward.

She stopped mid-sentence and stared, open-mouthed.

"How terrible to live in my great-grandmother's shadow all these years. That even after killing her, my mother and my father, and Rovu, you're still not the prettiest Aellei in the land." With a blinding brilliance, I released the Light within me. "Rovu could never want a thing as ugly as you."

Lidra shrieked and returned fire with everything she had.

The pain erased a part of me. Akin to the agony I had suffered under Arim, but worse, the rot inside my aunt latched onto me and started to devour what magic I couldn't protect.

Not willing to go the way my unfortunate parents had and unwilling to allow Aelle to suffer the fate of the many dead worlds the Dark Lords destroyed, I let my love for Aerolus fuel a righteous anger.

Shadow and Light merged once more, blotting out the decay eating at my energy.

I let my inner Light shine and braced it with Shadow. Showers of fire lit the gray sky.

Lidra's rage and fear feathered into my consciousness, but as our energies met and clashed, something had to give.

A loud boom rent the air, and we were thrown back. The sick crack of broken bones had me turning to Lidra, only to see her twisted body curdled with age, lying lifeless under a large tree now scarred by magic.

A constant buzzing filled my ears. The taste of blood soured my stomach, as did the smell of burned hair. A glance at the blurred image of the Aellei's dead queen showed her once-bright hair curling with flame.

Before I could blink, the stinging of a million needles pierced my brain, my magic, and invaded the places of Light within me.

My sight left me, and I hoped Aerolus would find me before I lost my vision completely.

He'd brought me back from the Next once before. But I feared if he didn't find me soon, I wouldn't wake to see his face for a very long time, if ever again.