Chapter Thirty-Six

We sat on a dais before a large ballroom. The lights in the room are still so bright. The only face I could see clearly was Morus's. Everyone else continued as nothing more than silhouetted blurs.

I watched them all glide across the dance floor, the string quartet playing an eerie waltz.

"They are so happy to have you finally with us," Morus said, my eyes drawn back to him.

"Are they?"

"Of course," he said. He brought my hand to his lips and pressed a chaste kiss along my fingers. I felt a shudder through my body, not tingles like I'd expected, but a feeling as if this wasn't right.

My head began to throb. I pulled my hand from his grasp to press it against my temple. I could feel Morus as he moved closer, his fingers pinching my chin to look up at him. The ache dulled as I looked up at him, his dark gaze soaking up all the light in the room.

"Let us join our people in a dance, Darling," he said. "It will help you feel better."

I wasn't sure how spinning around such a bright room would help my head, but I nodded anyway and took his hand. He led me through a sea of parted dancers, each bowing and curtsying as we passed by to the center of the ballroom.

The music switched to another eerie waltz, and Morus began to lead me around the room. I felt my gown sweeping across the floor as all the other dancers backed away as their king and his queen approached. All eyes were focused on us, even though I couldn't distinguish any faces. I could feel them watching us.

Screams and yells rose over the music. I looked around to find the source of the sound, only to see that everyone was fine.

Battle cries and a fierce howl echoed in the ballroom and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

"What?" I questioned, my head snapping in the direction of the east wall. A line of windows stood near the roof of the ballroom. The night air and the sounds of battle crept in through the cracked window.

"Don't worry, Sasha Darling," Morus said as he spun me away from the sounds. "My guards are just taking care of some intruders. People who wish to steal you away. But we will protect you."

I felt the voice in my head ram into the barrier between us. My headache returning even as Morus spun me around the ballroom. Even as everyone clapped and bowed or curtsied in my direction.

Something wasn't right.

"Just relax," Morus said, the word no longer holding the comforting tone it had before. "It will all be over soon."

‘Sasha!'the voice echoed in my mind. Was this really the voice that had haunted me for weeks?

Morus spun us in another direction. The motion sent my gown flowing through the air, each gem embedded into the fabric, catching the light like little stars from the sky.

My head continued to pound, the movement only making the ache worse as the sounds of those around us rose to drown out the chaos outside. The orchestra's instruments rose in volume, as if somehow amplifying their sound. Everything and everyone in the ballroom was doing their best to hide the sounds outside of this room.

"I'm getting dizzy," I said as I tried to pull away from Morus.

"Shh," he hushed. He tightened his hold on me as he continued to guide me around and around. "Just relax."

But I couldn't relax. Not like this. Not when my head kept pounding and my nerves prickled at every touch of his hand and movement in this never-ending dance.

I looked around us, the faces that had been blurred, flashing to images of creatures I'd only imagined in my nightmares. I flinched as they blurred back into the unidentifiable silhouettes right before my eyes. Again, my head pounded.

Had I really seen that? Or was it all in my head?

‘No! Sasha! Keep fighting it! Don't let him fool you!'the voice in my head yelled.

It was a female voice. A familiar voice. So familiar it may as well have been my own voice speaking to me. And she sounded scared. Terrified even. Worried about me.

"I need to sit down," I said, and again I tried to pull away from him.

"The song isn't over, Sasha Darling," he whispered into my ear. "And everyone is watching. Don't let them see how weak you are."

The hairs on the back of my neck bristled at the comment as my eyes narrowed up at him.

Who the hell was he calling weak? I wasn't weak. I had never been weak in my life. I was strong and fierce. I was a woman who no one dared to challenge. No one but one person, that is.

Flashes of moon lit eyes flickered in my mind then. The same eyes I had expected to see when I had first turned to look at Morus in the room. The eyes I associated with love.

Who was it? Who did those eyes belong to? Who was the only person who ever challenged me while never leading me to think less of myself?

The headache pounded harder. A fissure ripped through the veil that had separated me from the voice in my head. I could hear her more clearly now. Feel her as she pushed against that weakness in the shield around my mind.

‘That's it, Sasha! Keep fighting! Don't give in!'

Images of a beautiful brown wolf appeared in my mind. Her eyes were as blue as mine, sparkling with fire and power as she looked back at me with determination.

I pulled back, breaking the contact between Morus and me. I pressed my hand to my temples as the pain pounded and flashes of white-hot pain blinded me.

I felt Morus's touch again on my shoulders as he tried to pull me back to my feet.

"Don't touch me!" I screamed, the pain erasing any concern for how I looked. I didn't care what those around us would think. I didn't even care if they would see me as weak as Morus had implied they would.

Let them think that. It would only make it that much sweeter when I showed them all what I truly was.

A god damned warrior queen.

I could feel a sudden tug pull at my heart with that thought. A pull that I had expected to feel for Morus. The pull of a mate bond, his strength and power pulsing along the fate line connecting us together.

The sounds outside grew louder still, and the pulsing magic drew me in the direction of the commotion as a powerful urge to run and find the end of the bond and protect what was mine.

Just as I was about to move, a woman burst through the doors with a blonde man at her side. The two smiled as they looked around the room before gliding over to where Morus and I were.

Slowly, I stood up, the pain in my head disappearing as I clung to the imaginary cord connecting me to whoever it was at the other end. I took strength from them just as I sent some of my own back to them. The entire time, I couldn't take my eyes off of the woman.

She was beautiful, despite the dark veins running along her arms and neck. They appeared like tattoos of dark vines growing along her pale skin, but nonetheless, marked her for what she was.

Her dark, veined eyes turned to me for a moment before she turned her full attention to Morus. I watched as she gave a deep curtsy, her companion bowing at the same moment. His movement swept the air around them both, and I could hardly contain the gag at the scent of death and decay mixed with the dark magic of the witch.

‘Why do they look so familiar?'

The voice in my head responded with a growl, but her voice was again blocked as the veil seemed to repair itself between us. Only not as strong.

I could still feel the wolf. My wolf. And she didn't like these two. She didn't trust them, and just like me, she recognized them. If only I could hear what she was saying, so she could tell me where it was that we knew them.

"What is happening out there?" Morus demanded. His voice was harsh and cold. Gone was the image of the calm and collective king he had been pretending to be with me.

"It's nothing to worry about, Your Majesty," the witch purred as she batted her lashes up at Morus. "We have it completely under control."

Morus growled as he looked over at the doors, then back at me. He reached over and pulled me tighter into his arms; the feeling sending prickles along my skin. I fought against the urge to fight against him, suddenly all too aware of the immense power coming off of all three beings before me.

The vampire tilted his head to me, as if he had noticed the subtle revulsion that ran through me. I stared back at him in challenge, playing my part as Morus's queen even as I felt the wrongness of that title, more so than ever before. He smiled back at me and tapped his nose before turning to the witch.

"Come now, Minerva," he said. "Let's let these love birds continue their celebration. I believe I hear the guards calling you to the front doors. We need to check with them and ensure the uninvited guests haven't arrived."

I jerked my head to the witch, her name sparking a muddled recognition inside of me. I knew that name. I had heard it before. Countless times.

"Yes," Morus said, his voice cold as he stared at her, though the way she looked at him, I wasn't sure she noticed. "Go and do that."

"Yes, Your Majesty," she said with another deep curtsy.

The vampire nodded his head at me with the same smile as before. He placed his hand on the witch's waist and then led her away. For a brief moment, I could see her body shift against his touch. She leaned into him and her eyes brightened, the darkness fading as she looked the vampire in the eyes.

However, the moment she looked back at Morus, the dark veins pulsed back into place and the look of complete adoration was his and his alone once more.

I watched them walk away; the memories nudging at the back of my mind and bouncing off the veil. I knew them both. I just didn't know how.

"Who are they?" I asked, my voice as even as I could make it as I watched the two disappear through the large doors of the ballroom.

Morus took my hand and twirled me back into a dance, my gaze with the door now broken.

"She is my most trusted advisor for the time being," he said matter-of-factly, not an ounce of emotion in his voice. "The vampire is her mate."

"Her mate?" I questioned. "It didn't seem that she only had eyes for him."

Morus chuckled as he spun me again. "Is My Love feeling jealous? Do not worry. I have no feelings for her. Though she has her mate, her loyalty to me is far more programmed into her than the bonds of her fate. A sort of requirement for the job she had to do. But her job is nearly over, and so will her devotion to me be."

I looked up at him, the darkness in his voice reflecting at me through the dark shadows swirling in his eyes.

"Now then," he said as he glided us into a fray of dancers, their forms now clearer than they had been before. Just shadows of monstrous creatures that had no place in the world anymore. "Our people await."