“I tried to help you. Please remember that,” she said.
“Help me? What are you talking about? Where am I?”
Celeste opened her mouth to answer, but before she could speak, her face screwed up in pain. She gasped as if she were being choked, but nothing touched her. Whatever held Celeste released her.
“Yes, mistress,” Celeste whispered, touching her neck gingerly.
“Mistress? What are you talking about?”
The smile returned. “I’m taking you to meet the one who brought you here.” She smiled. “Don’t worry about covering up. I’m sure she’ll want to see you and all of your…glory.”
“I’m not going anywhere unless you start talking,” Keller snarled.
He lunged for Celeste, but she was too quick for him. She shoved out a hand, hitting him square in the chest. It felt like running into a marble statue. With the wind knocked out of his lungs, Keller fell backward, landing hard on the ice.
“Do as I say, or things will be much worse for both of us.” Fear glimmered in her eyes. Her words weren’t a threat. They were a warning.
Keller nodded and followed Celeste out of the cavern into an ice hallway. They passed several archways leading to caverns and more hallways.
“Where are we?” Keller asked.
“Don’t ask questions.”
Celeste stopped at a set of double doors made entirely of intricately carved ice. They had to have been made with magic. The door opened into a massive ice throne room. Despite the high ceiling and wide space, it was empty except for an elaborate ice throne.
On that throne sat a woman. Her black skirts pooled at the base of the dais. Long black nails scraped across her armrest. A crown of black metal sat on her head.
“It’s about time,” she snarled. It might have been the reflection off the ice, but her skin looked to be a shade of pale blue.
Keller glanced at Celeste, who looked white as bone, despite the ice reflections.
The woman on the throne obviously considered herself to be some kind of queen, but of what? Keller looked around again for some kind of clue. When he looked at the ceiling for a second time, he realized it looked like an inverted mountain peak.
“Are we inside a mountain?” he asked.
“You were instructed to be silent,” Celeste snapped.
“He’s allowed to ask questions, Celeste,” the woman purred. “He’s a young man. Of course, he’s going to be curious about his surroundings. Any warrior worth a cent would do the same.”
“Yes, mistress.” Celeste nodded.
“To answer your question, we are inside a mountain. Several, actually.” The woman smiled.
Something about her smile wasn’t right. Her teeth were straight and white. Full lips, painted deep red, held a lovely shape. Her cheeks were round, and her eyes were bright. Yet, she gave the impression of a painted doll or a hyper-realistic drawing rather than a flesh and blood person. Every shape and curve of her was so perfect it looked wrong. The perfect symmetry of her face looked wrong.
“I like it.” Keller nodded. He didn’t know who this woman was, but he knew enough to try to get on her good side.
“Oh, I’m glad.” She smiled again.
Keller couldn’t hold eye contact.
“Feel free to consider this your home,” she said. “There are limits to that freedom, naturally, but we don’t have to cover that right now. You must be starving.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Keller nodded.
“Celeste, did you apologize for pushing him so hard?”
“I did, mistress.”
“Good. We don’t want to kill our guest before he has a chance to complete his duties.” The woman smiled.
“What duties?” Keller asked, brow furrowed.
“Why you’re a firstborn shifter son, aren’t you?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” he replied slowly.
“Then you should know your duties by now. Kneel before the throne of the true Maiden, firstborn.”
Knowing an order when he heard one, Keller approached the dais and dropped to one knee.
“Good boy,” she preened.
Keller began to rise.
“I didn’t tell you to move!” the woman shrieked loudly enough to make a crack in the ice wall behind her.
Keller quickly lowered himself back down into a kneeling position. The hard ice hurt his knees, and the cold seeped straight into his bones.
“Do you know my name, firstborn?” she demanded.
“If it was told to me, I might not remember. Hunger and exhaustion aren’t good for the memory.”
“Your charm will not get you far here,” the woman warned. “And you do know my name. You just don’t realize I belong to it. Celeste?”
“May I present to you, firstborn, Phaedra Glint.”
Keller couldn’t hide his shock.
“Phaedra Glint?” he repeated. “I thought you lived centuries ago.”
“I did.” Phaedra smiled. “And now I’m back. Go ahead and ask your questions. I haven’t gotten to tell anyone the story except for Celeste. Reincarnation stories don’t dazzle vampires, you understand.”
“I only have one question,” Keller said. “How?”
Phaedra gave him a blank stare. “How boring.” She sighed. “Then again, I asked for a solider, not a poet. I expect your speech to be limited.”
Keller furrowed his brow. Did she just call him stupid?
“The how is rather complicated,” Phaedra went on. “When I was young, I worked in the house of a great lord. His name has been forgotten to history, and I’d prefer it to stay that way. The miserable old lout doesn’t deserve to be remembered.
“I worked for next to nothing to feed my seven sisters. Yes, seven,” she continued. “My life was wretched. One dress. One meal a day. Not even a bed. I slept on straw on the ground. My only hope of escape was to marry someone with money. Riches were never in my future. My best prospect was a sheepherder who lived off
