Where the Court of Light was about purity, the Dark Court was about completeness.
Stairs. So many stairs. Sebastian seemed to almost run up them, and I could feel the excitement in him. I tried to match his pace, but he quickly outpaced me with those damned long legs of his.
“To Hell with this,” I muttered. Leaping upward, my wings appeared, and I floated next to him as he began to take the stairs two at a time.
“Wondered how long it would take for you to think of that,” he said.
“You told me to hide my wings. I was trying to be good.”
“Well, you don’t have to hide anything anymore.” He stopped at a door. Two floors below the pinnacle of the tower. He smiled at me and pulled the door open. A four-poster bed stood against the wall. Wings were carved into the poles. Sheets of black and silver.
It was the dreamscape. The place that Sebastian had taken me over and over again.
“We’re home.” He pulled me to him and began to kiss me as he shut the door behind us.
I pulled away from him. His eyes were already turning misty. “Sebastian, don’t we have to do things? Don’t I have to claim the throne or something?”
“Yes, you have to do that, but you have to claim it in front of Seraphina and a group of seers.”
I pushed off him, still floating above the floor. “Then what was the rush?”
He grinned. “I’ve never wanted to share my bed with anyone before. Now I want to.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re telling me that you just tried to make me run up a zillion stairs so that we could have sex in your bed?”
He shrugged. “When you say it like that, it does sound a little silly.”
“Not at all,” I said with a smile. “The only thing silly is that you didn’t tell me ahead of time so that I would be just as excited.”
He pulled me to him, pressing those beautiful lips against mine. I’d thought that the village had been home, but now I realized that home was where my love was.
* * *
I stared at the Dark Throne. Obsidian, smooth as glass and black as night. It stood at the end of the Dark Hall. The ceiling was made of glass, exposing the entire night sky. The pinnacle of the Dark Tower.
This was my throne. As soon as Seraphina arrived, I would claim the throne. Sebastian would guide me in becoming a good Queen. I would protect the people. I would rule with strength and compassion.
At least that was the plan. Now that I saw the throne, now that the plan was drawing to an end, I wasn’t so sure I could do this.
“You’ll stay with me?” I asked Sebastian.
“I’m never going to leave your side, Rose. Whether you want me or not, you’re stuck with me.”
“At least you’re pretty. I mean, you’re an ass most of the time, but you sure look good.”
“I could say the same about you, Lady,” he said with a grin.
“You promise that you won’t leave me?” I needed this reassurance. “Even if I’m not as good of a Queen as your mother?”
“I swear on my powers that I’ll never leave you.” His hand ran across my back and pulled me to him.
“But, you don’t have to worry about being a better Queen. You just need to worry about being you. I’ve seen who you are. I’ve seen the woman who will stand up against insurmountable odds and fight, and I’ve seen the woman who will cry at the death of someone they’d only known for a month. You’re everything we need.”
He leaned down and kissed the top of my head. “I hope you’re right, Sebastian. I can’t do this without you.”
“I love you, Rose. Not because you’re Queen. I love you. You woke something up inside me, and for the first time in a very long time, I want to be alive.”
“I love you too, Sebastian. I just want to love you for eternity, and I can’t do that if you leave me like everyone else has.”
“For eternity. I like the sound of that.”
Epilogue
Seraphina
The mirror shimmered as I touched it. There was no silver mirror in the Dark Court. No one was that stupid. That didn’t mean that I couldn’t use mine to look in on things that happened there now that the barrier dividing the two kingdoms was cracking.
The city was slowly becoming lighter. “Prince Sebastian,” I whispered.
The mirror fogged for a moment, and then a room came into view. The throne room. Prince Sebastian stood beside Rose and stared at the Dark Throne. The throne that had been empty since I’d had his mother killed.
How had they managed to survive the assassins? No one could have survived that. Not even me. Not without guards at least. They’d had no guards. It had been Rose and Sebastian and a bunch of incompetent villagers against sixty assassins.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I was not some human, powerless and helpless in the face of my enemies. Not anymore at least.
Sebastian was going to die. Soon. Rose would too. She was the reason everything had fallen apart. If she’d never been born, everything could have continued on forever in perfection.
Light began to radiate from my skin, white hot. I took another deep breath and let it out, my anger flowing. A Queen must be in control of herself and her surroundings. A lesson I’d learned in childhood.
Well, it was time to take control of the situation. I’d given everyone else a chance to end these two problems, and they’d all failed. Now it was time for me to get my hands dirty.
At least this time, I’d enjoy it. They wouldn’t die quickly. There would be no damned obsidian blade to drain the life from them. They would scream. They would beg for mercy. They would beg
