Chapter 159

Chapter 159
Isla
Castle Blackthorne is beautiful. Like Castle Stoneheart, it's a mix between the old and new worlds. They have electricity and indoor plumbing because it's convenient, but they also kept a movie theatre. Their familiars have a massive screen in their common room where their vampire lords show new movies every night.
They don't have a school in the village, instead the vampires teach the children themselves - at night, in the school rooms on the botton floor.
Aeron might have the biggest kingdom, but Richard had the biggest castle. It's the size of ours, which is already big, and bustling with creature - not just vampires and familiars, but wolves, nymphs, I think I even spot a sprite and a brownie. Although they should be dead. As far as I could remember they were a type of fae... but perhaps a different kind from a different realm.
Aeron walks like he belongs here, like this is his home, with his head high and his back straight. I don't have his confidence. I want to walk like he does, project the confidence he has - like the queen and goddess I supposedly am - but I retreat into myself, hating the many eyes following me, the curious glances from the children and the intitiates.
As if I asked, Aeron reaches out and takes my hand. He always knows when he I need him to hold me tightly, to keep me standing, and right away I start to feel better. His presence is usually enough, but his touch is usually enough to cure all my anxiety - or at least ease it for a little while.
We stroll into a throne room the size of a stadium. It's filled with lords and vampires dancing across the gleaming floor - none of them look happy. A full orchestra is playing, but they're not smiling. The music feels like a funeral song. A death march.
On the far side of the throne room, is Idun and Einar. Aeron's father is staring at his bride like he wants to kill her, or at the very least is hoping someone else will kill her.
Idun rises claps her hands. "Stop it, stop it," she sighs. "If you're not even going to pretend, what's the point."
A lord, an ancient one - I'm starting to know the signs now - steps forward, hsi head bows. "Forgive us, your majesty, but we just lost a devastating war. Our king died. You did not allow us a grievig period."
I blink and Idun is on her feet, I blink again and she's next to the lord, when I blink a third time, Aeron isn't next to me anymore and his has his long fingers wrapped around Idun's throat. "While you were sleeping," he says in a calm, dark voice, "we decided that it would be illegal to kill our own kind. Not enough of the old ones remained for us to keep slaughtering each other with abandon. If you kill Lord Fester, I will have to kill you... Mother."
Idun's face break open in a wide, fake smile. "Son. You came to wish me well as the new ruler of the North?"
"No," he says and gently pushes his mother away from Lord Fester.
What a name. The thought pops in my head before I can stop it, along with the overwhelming urge to laugh.
I see it for what it is now. I understand what is happening. It's Idun, mindfucking me again, so I can derail Aeron... or at least draw the attention that's currently focused on her to me.
"The lords outside already voted for a new king and queen," Aeron says and keeps walking his mother backwards out of the throne room.
Michael is next to me, his hand on the hilt of his sword, and Nicolette is creeping through the crowds to her father, eager to protect him. I don't blame her for it. She loves him, and she doesn't want him to be harmed.
"You took a throne that was not yours to take," my groom goes on. "My family won this war. My family took this territory. The lords voted, and chose Zael to be their king."
"We did?" Someone asks, then quickly recovers withs, "Of course we did. He won the war for us. He's our commander and king."
Aeron smirks, but he doesn't take his eyes off his mother. Not even once. "I have grown quite tired of you, Mother," my groom says. "You woke up and decided that things will be the way they were, that you can just take what is not yours to take, that you can claim victories that aren't yours to claim. You poison my castle and torment my bride."
I lift my chin and feel my chest expand with love. My God, he is magnificent. I wish he had shown this side of himself sooner. I love this more than the kind, sweet man who is always trying to keep the peace.
Sometimes, peace is meant to be broken.
"Since Father has lost all control of you, I will now take it upon myself to deal with you."
"And what will you do?" Idun asks, challenging him. "I am your mother, your maker, you will follow my command. Let. Me. Go."
I can feel it. The strength in that command. Her aura is so strong that even I want to follow her orders. Michael shudders, and curls his fingers around my wrists. I look up at him and he shakes his head. "Let Aeron deal with her," he says softly.
Idun turns to Michael. "Kill him. Kill Aeron. Kill him now."
Her aura slams into us like fucking tsunami. It batters against us, breaking our hearts, cracking our skulls, but Michael who must be getting the worst of it, remains remarkably steadfast. "No, Mother," my brother-in-law says. "Aeron has broken no laws. You have."
"Indeed," Aeron says, his voice lazy, almost bored. "It does warrant the death penalty, but you... have not had a chance to adjust to this new world. Ths new way of doing things." He looks around the hall. "How say you? A decade in a howling pits so she might learn her lesson?"
Not a single lord disagrees. The shuffle around and they look like they'd rather see her dead, but no one challenges Aeron.
It's only Einar who speaks. "She is your mother, Aeron," he says.
My groom looks at his father. "Yes, indeed she is," he agrees. "That's the only reason she gets to live."