Chapter 84 The Wife Who Wouldn't Stay Dead
SERA
I hated her already.
Petty? Absolutely. She was supposedly dead. Supposedly, the great love of Kael's life was murdered and mourned for seventy years.
I still hated her.
"You're thinking very loud." Kael's voice pulled me from my spiral. We stood in Elena's old chambers. Preserved. Untouched. A shrine to a dead woman who apparently wasn't dead.
"I'm thinking appropriately loud." I moved through the room. Touching nothing. "Your dead wife has come back. Is trying to kill you. And these rooms look like you visit them daily."
"I don't."
"Weekly then? Monthly?" I turned to face him. "How many times do you come here and wish I was her?"
He crossed the room in three steps. Grabbed my arms. Made me look at him. "Never. Not once." His voice was steel. "Elena was my past. You're my present and future. The mother of my child. The other half of my soul. There's no competition."
"Then why keep these rooms?"
I can't let go because I'm a sentimental idiot. She was my only source of affection for seventy years.
He cupped my face. "But then you showed up. And everything changed. These rooms became just rooms. Dust and memories. Nothing more."
I wanted to believe him. Wanted to kill the jealousy eating me alive.
But I'd read the letter. Seen Elena's handwriting. Heard Kael's voice change when he said her name.
"What will you do if she's alive?" I had to ask. "If she tells you to choose?"
"I've already chosen. I chose you." He kissed me. Hard. Desperate. "Whoever came back wearing her face isn't the woman I loved. Death changes everything."
"Did it change you?"
"Yes. Like it changed me."
His gaze locked with mine. "I've changed after my death three days ago. Furthermore, Elena is not the same person who passed away seventy years ago if she did indeed return." I don't feel any better after that. I am aware. However, it's the reality. He drew me in. I'm not sure what Elena desires. I had no idea why she returned.
"Your Majesty." Lyra appeared in the doorway. "We found something. Hidden behind the fireplace. A passage."
We followed her. Guards pulled aside false brick, revealing a narrow stairway leading down.
"Where does it go?" Kael asked.
"Down. Deep. We followed it ten minutes before getting you." Lyra's face was grim. "But we heard something. Movement. Breathing. Someone's down there."
"Then we go down." Kael moved toward the stairs.
I grabbed his arm. "Wait. It could be a trap."
"Then come with me. We face her together." He looked at Lyra. "Get Theron. Get Arianna. If we're not back in an hour, send everyone."
"Your Majesty—"
"One hour, Lyra. Then burn this place down if necessary." He took my hand. "Ready?"
"No. But let's go anyway."
The stairs descended forever. Stone. Ancient. Older than the palace.
The temperature dropped with every stride. I muttered, "This passage is old."
"Pre-kingdom."
"Human construction. From before we took this land." Kael's voice was quiet. "I did not know it existed."
"She knew." I felt along the walls. "These are marked. Direction indicators. Someone used this regularly."
We reached the bottom. A circular chamber carved from living rock. Every surface covered in symbols. Runes. Blood magic circles pulsing with faint red light.
In the center, a table. On the table, a body.
Female. Vampire. Pale skin marked with ritual scars. Long dark hair spread like a shroud.
Breathing.
"Gods." Kael moved forward. Stopped three feet away. "Elena. It's really you."
Her eyes opened. Brown. Warm. Familiar.
"Hello, husband." Her voice was silk and poison. "Miss me?"
She sat up slow. Graceful. Her eyes moved from Kael to me. Assessed. Judged.
"And you must be the replacement. The half-blood who stole my husband. My throne. My life." She smiled.
"It's so nice to finally meet you, Sera." I didn't take anything.
Kael was free. You were dead."
"Was I? Or was I simply sleeping?" She stood. Tall. Beautiful. Everything I wasn't. "Seventy years in the dark. Seventy years planning. Coming back."
"How?" Kael's voice was hollow. "How are you alive?"
"The same way you are, darling. Someone brought me back. Someone who needed me." She moved closer. "Someone who wants you to suffer the way I suffered."
"I never wanted to lose you. Your family killed you—"
"You had everything to do with it!" Her voice cracked. "You chose politics over protection! Chose the throne over my safety! And when I died, you mourned for a decade then moved on!"
"It was seventy years!"
"It was seventy years for you! For me it was yesterday!" She pressed her hands to her head. "Death has no time. One moment I was dying. The next I was waking here. Being told you'd replaced me. Forgotten me. Chosen another."
"I never forgot you."
"But you did replace me." Her eyes burned into mine. "With her. With this creature who has no right to exist let alone sit on my throne."
"That throne was never yours. You were consort. Not queen." Kael's voice was ice. "And Sera earned her place. Through blood. Through prophecy. Through strength you never had."
Elena laughed. Sharp. Broken. "Still so cruel, Kael. Death didn't change that about you. Good. I'd hate to destroy someone soft."
"Why?" I stepped forward. "Why come back? Why do this? If you loved him, why hurt him?"
"Because he needs to be saved. From the void. From you. From himself." She looked at Kael. "I'm going to destroy you, husband. Piece by piece. Until nothing's left but void and hunger. And then I'm going to free you the only way possible. By killing you permanently."
"You think that's mercy?"
"I think that's love. Real love. Not whatever bond you have with her. Not fate forcing connection." Elena's face softened. "I still love you, Kael. After everything. After death. After betrayal. I love you enough to end your suffering."
"I'm not suffering."
"You're becoming void. Turning into a monster. I felt what you fought upstairs. Felt the Shade. Felt how close you came to losing yourself." She moved closer. "Three days. The next one arrives in three days. Stronger. Faster. Harder to beat. And three days after that, another. And another. Until you can't fight anymore. Until you become what you fear most."
"Then we stop them. Stop you."
"You can't stop what's already in motion." She smiled. "The void wants you, Kael. Has wanted you since you walked its halls. I'm simply helping it collect what's owed."
"Why the Shades? Why not just kill him directly?" I demanded.
"Because direct death is too kind. Too quick." She looked at me. "I want him to suffer. Want him to fight. Want him to feel himself slipping away moment by moment.
The same way I felt like I was going to die in that jail seventy years ago, while he talked about politics instead of saving me." That didn't happen! That's what really happened!
I begged him to run! To leave the kingdom! To choose me!" Her voice broke. "But he chose duty. Choose the throne. Choose everything except me. So now I choose revenge."
Kael's face was devastated. "Elena, please. I'm sorry. I failed you. I know that.
For seventy years, I've lived with that. But this won't help anything.
Won't change what happened."
"No. But it'll make me feel better." She raised her hand. Power gathered. Dark. Wrong. "Goodbye, husband. See you in three days. Try not to lose yourself before then. I want you aware when the end comes."
She vanished. Simply gone. Transported or dissolved or walked through void.
We stood in the empty chamber. Staring at where she'd been.
"Well." My voice was steady despite everything. "That went great. Really productive conversation. Lots of closure."
Kael didn't laugh. Didn't smile. Just stood there looking broken.
"She's right." His voice was hollow. "I did choose wrong. Did let her die. Did move on too fast.
"Everything she said was true." It's possible. But that doesn't mean she can kill you today. She's in pain. Getting angry. But we're not going to let her win.
Not letting her turn you into void. Not letting her take you from me."
"What if she's doing me a favor? What if becoming void is worse than dying?"
"Then we find a third option. We always do." I pulled him toward the stairs. "Now come on. We have three days. Three days to learn how to beat the next Shade. Three days to save you from both Elena and yourself."
We climbed. Left the chamber. Left the shrine to dead love.
But I felt it. The weight settling on us. The impossible choice approaching.
Save Kael and damn him to void. Or kill him and free him from darkness.
Elena wanted us to choose death. Wanted us to see it as mercy.
But I wasn't merciful. And I wasn't giving up.
Three days.
We'd find a way. We always did.
We had to.
Because the alternative was losing everything.