Again, the memory moves, and I'm walking down the stone streets, a black hood covering my head, my cape dragging the ground behind me. I look ahead and see a man, he stands in the shadows for a moment and then returns. I pause and glance around before hurrying after him. He stays in the shadows and I cannot see his face, but he reaches across, handing me the dagger. "You know what to do with it. And when you're finished, that dagger will kill anyone, even a God."
I put my hand to my chest feeling a pain of sadness take me over. Everything goes dark and when the light comes back, I'm standing in the tomb, Drogaem beside me, a few feet back. My hand is gripping the dagger, my heart throbbing, tears streaming down my face.
"You did all of this for me," Drogaem says.
Lux turns toward him, and I can feel the familiar handle of the dagger gripped tightly in my hands. "I can't let you kill all of these people. I can't let you hurt the Mortal Realm. It is not who you are. It is not who I am."
"My beloved, you always had too much of a conscience," he says laughing loudly. "These people mean nothing to you. And you mean nothing to them. They pray to you, but they'll stab you in the back just as easily. Do not be fooled. You are my Queen, you are my love, and we will do this together, we will go down together."
Everything flickers, and I'm back on the ground, looking up at Drogaem once again. He is whispering, singing as he was when he was resurrecting his body. My hands begin to burn brightly, and I place them to the ground. I watch as light floods across the floor and over the ceilings, blanketing everything. I'm putting protections, making it so no one can resurrect him, no one can get his crown. I am weak though, and I fear my magic will not hold up.
I release the light before he can look back down. When he does, he reaches down and grabs me by the face, squeezing my cheeks together, anger written all over his face. "By the gods, by the powers that rest within my crown, I curse you. By the ancestors, and the gods to be, I curse you. Your body shall be no more but your soul will live on, little pieces moving from generation to generation, captured in the capsule of the mortal bodies. You will wish for greatness, while you feel every pain of a mortal, every thought of deceit, and all without your powers. You will live within the mortal flesh, dying over and over again, but your soul will never return to the Underworld. When I come back, I will show you the type of mercy that I give those who betray me."
I watch as he grips the dagger, and lifts it up, my body begins to radiate light, filling the room. As the dagger comes down toward me, I burst, changing into a million glimmering lights soaring through the tomb, across the Underworld lands, and toward the portal to the Mortal Realm. I am pulled there, not by will but by force. As the remnants reach the Mortal Realm they shower down over a castle.
I watch through Lux's eyes as those glimmering pieces flutter down, landing on a beautiful woman sitting in her garden. She's a Queen, her hair dark like mine, her complexion pale and smooth. As the light which the mortal cannot see sinks into her skin, I realize that I know that woman. I have looked at pictures of her hanging in my father's castle since I was a little girl. That woman is my great-great grandmother.
Everything goes black and I shudder, floating in the dark void of my dreams. But my consciousness is awake and I realize I haven't been watching someone else's memories, or someone else's life. I have been watching my own past, as I am Lux, my soul trapped in a mortal body.
Chapter 25
Kane
I lay on the ground, the cold stone scraping against my cheek. There's a warm liquid beneath my hands, and I can smell the blood pooling around me. My lip twitches, my fangs attempting to protrude. My body is weak, my muscles straining and convulsing. While my body had been used, it's returning to my soul and the connection that it needs to fully function. Being lost in that void has taken everything from me, but I cannot give up. I open my eyes and blink deeply, trying to focus in on whatever is in front of me. I put my hands down, feeling the warm pool of blood that surrounds me. I don't feel any cuts, nothing that would cause me to bleed. I take a whiff, realizing that it's not mine.
I move in silence, just in case Drogaem is waiting for me. Struggling, I pull myself up to my knees, and grip on to the ledge above me, using everything I have to pull myself to my feet. As I stand, I see Briar lying next to Drogaem who is holding the crown in his hand, his finger against her chest. Black mist twists around, going from him to her and seeping through into her soul. I can feel the burning inside of me, the fear and rage.
Just as her eyes lower to mine, she connects with me and then collapses. My body isn't moving as fast as I want it to, and my feet slip on the blood beneath me. I climb over the mortal bodies lying on the ground, trying to get to Briar. "No!"
Drogaem's arms thrust out, and I feel an invisible force wrap around my neck. My feet come up off the ground,
