CHAPTER 73

Fate was a cruel mistress. Rune leaned back in his chair, his mind wandering to useless ideation. What his life would have looked like if fate gifted him his night breeze during the first few centuries of his life. His path would have differed greatly.

Rune had respected his queen's wishes. He'd given her space, keeping his distance while monitoring her home and Alister's location.

He would protect her even if she no longer wanted him. He mourned his loss, feeling her absence more with each passing moment. He occupied his days with the few things he had left of her. He maintained her herb garden and searched for her altar.

The Ra'Voshnik had been inconsolable in the hours that followed Faye's departure from their lives. It sank silently into the recesses of his mind and had not stirred since.

Rune's fangs lengthened as a sharp pain lanced his mind. A trigger he wove into his realm, announcing anyone who phased in, including Shadowmen. His gaze lifted as his temper edged for violence.

His front door crashed open and angry footsteps stalked toward his study. Rune scented her and exhaled, returning his attention to Saith's journal.

"What did you do to her?"

Rune spared a momentary glance at his uninvited guest before returning to his research. "Lovely to see you, Morgan."

Lyssa's daughter took it the hardest when he relinquished his position as her mother's consort. Rune ignored her, and carefully turned the page. The tome was detailed, providing a wealth of knowledge on Saith's creations. Processes. But he was no closer to finding a line that tied to the Darkness.

Morgan's deep red hair swayed as she stalked to Rune's desk, resting her palms on it. She leaned forward sharply, snapping with her usual charm, "Mother won't drink. What did you do?"

Rune didn't react, didn't look up at her. Partially because the harpy was bothersome. But more so because she inherited features from Sadira. The queen was entombed in his father's crystalline palace.

"I have not seen Lyssa in some weeks now. Perhaps you should speak with your mother instead of insisting on interrogating me," he said, before carefully turning the page as he continued reading.

Morgan shrieked, her power scattering everything on his desk.

Rune's hard gaze lifted. "You are in my realm. My home, child. I grow tired of your tantrums. Leave or I will remove you." The only reason Morgan still walked among the living was because she was Lyssa's child.

Morgan shoved his desk, surging it toward him.

Rune caught the desk, stopping its momentum.

The Ra'Voshnik rose in a heated fury needing violence to ease its pained heart. Rune held the creature far beneath the surface.Calm yourself, maiming her will upset Faye, Rune grated.

The Ra'Voshnik didn't put up a fight, drifting back to the depths of his mind. Silent.

Morgan narrowed her eyes, holding Rune's gaze as she phased.

He propped his elbow on the desk and rested his forehead against his fingertips. Would Faye agree to a single death if he begged?

He stood, retrieving Saith's tome. He should be grateful Morgan didn't recognize her grandfather's journal. If Morgan collected it even Gabriel wouldn't be able to procure it for him a second time.

Ignoring the rest of the papers and books littering the ground, Rune sat at his desk opening the tome. The pages fell open to the creation of Shadowmen. The stone slabs remained outside his keep. Rune knew the story. Saith took nine Artithian women, the tenth was meant to be his general. His father Julian.

Rune read the entry. Saith went into great detail. How he used the Darkness to fashion full grown men who ripped out of the bodies of these women. None of them survived Saith's dark magic.

Rune found a small notation near his father's name. Saith's flourished, masculine script read like a Familiar riddle.

I will turn this thorn in my side into a weapon I can wield. I've captured the Elysian Queen.

Elysian Queen? The name of her court perhaps. Sadi's words circled him. Like calls to like. Was Faye her descendant?

Rune rose, gazing out at the ever twilight sky. Pages crinkled under his shoes as he strolled to the window. His gaze lowered to the stone slabs arranged in a circle just outside the walls of his keep.

Realization struck him.

Like calls to like.

He'd mistakenly thought Sadi meant for him to find a link between himself and Faye.

Rune phased to his altar. The stone slab his father was created on. The stone he was born on.

Rune opened his wrist letting his blood flow, collecting on the stone.

"Like calls to like," Rune whispered and began his work.

Rune spent the past few days perfecting a spell based on his blood's tie to his altar. He isolated the link between the two and created a spell which allowed him to scry for the location of an altar using blood as its beacon.

He would have immediately gone to Faye with the news, but it was a dreadful hour of the night. He thought of her often. His imaginings are bittersweet. He'd found the means to give her everything she wanted. She would have her share, and could have the family she wanted. His heart bled knowing it would not be with him.

Rune's hand settled over Saith's journal. He'd finished reading it, finding nothing of use. Only Saith's cruel use of magic. At a loss he'd reached for Morbid's mind, seeing if Morbid was awake. The Familiar King was ancient, there when Saith came to power.

Prince Morbid's voice purred through his mind.

You are awake.

I waited up for you.

Rune laughed, wondering if there was anything Morbid didn't see. He phased to the only location he knew in Chaos and stepped off the landing pad in front of Morbid's home. There were two constants in the Familiar's realm. The first being the thunder filled sky that never rained. The second, while the bones changed with each visit, they always made up the ground.

Today charred bones littered the ground, crumbling beneath his steps. Flashes of lightning illuminated the sky as lightning arced within the heavy dark clouds. Morbid's home took the shape of a multilevel mansion typically found in Necromia for this visit. Turrets and gables rose from the Familiar King's home.

The large windows unnerved Rune. The home's interior was pitch black. Not darkened rooms, but voids containing nothing.

A bone popped beneath Rune's shoe, and he grimaced, glancing down before phasing to the front door that lay open in invitation. Once inside Rune found himself in a small room without doors or windows. Only a staircase that led up.

He climbed the steps given no other choice. They led into a wall with a door flush to the steps. Rune eased the door open, and it led into a large room that could be used as a study. Empty bookshelves sporadically lined the walls. Rugs overlapped haphazardly on the floor. A large fireplace took up the far wall with two chairs angled in front of it.

"Shadow Prince, how may I be of service?" Morbid sat in one of the chairs near the fire. He slouched in the corner of the chair with one leg bent over the armrest at the knee. He wore his customary leather pants, not bothering to wear a shirt. The Familiar King probably thought the two brightly colored scarves, looped around his neck to rest against his chest, made up for it.

Rune took a seat in the chair opposite Morbid and glanced at the fireplace. Hellfire burned blue. The flames burning were pink. Rune pulled his gaze away, already feeling his head beginning to ache. Nothing made sense in Chaos.

Rune turned to Morbid and said, "I am finding it difficult to locate documents that predate Saith."

The Familiar King nodded. "New rulers often eradicate evidence of the old."

"You were there. Do you remember that time?"

Morbid's lips parted in a wide smile, displaying his less substantial fangs. "I have a long and accurate memory. What are you searching for, Prince?"

Rune took a shallow breath. Each time Faye filled his thoughts, the pain of her absence stripped another piece of him. Hollowing him out further.

He had nothing left to give, but his regret always found more to take.

"I am looking for a race who existed before Saith came to power. Able to resurrect like a Pure Blood, but their life thread is anchored in the Darkness."

Morbid shrugged. "Can't say. We do have a library with the history of the realms before Saith. You're welcome to it."

Not the answer he'd hoped for but Morbid never answered anything outright. Rune inclined his head and said, "That would be most helpful."

"I'll take you to its landing pad." Morbid stood, smoothing his scarves before phasing them deeper into the Familiar's realm.

A decaying version of the Artithian library rose before Rune. Instead of the gleaming whites and golds, this structure was awash in gray. Deeper blacks ran down the corners, staining the walls.

Morbid started for the building, crushing the charred bones beneath his boots as he walked. Rune chose to phase to the doorway, avoiding them.

He followed Morbid into the building. The interior followed the Artithian library, colored in darker tones of gray and maroon. Familiar strolled through the space in various stages of undress. Sounds of coupling came from various locations on different floors.

The musk of bodies joining permeated the air. Rune parted his lips, taking a slow breath. The taste of want should have been thick in the air. No tastes of emotions coated his tongue. Rune originally believed he was unable to taste the emotions of Morbid and Sadi. Perhaps all Familiar were immune— or at least those who served Chaos.

Morbid past a brazen couple on a table, knocking books to the ground in their endeavors. Rune raised a brow at Morbid. They behaved a little better than vampires during the Hunter's Moon. "Is this a normal occurrence?"

Morbid paused at a narrow stairway. "My people are hedonistic by nature."

"Will this building change like your home does?"

"No, this library is a temple of sorts. It doesn't change." Morbid stepped into the lower level and outstretched an arm. "The realms before Saith."

Rune glanced over the space. It was as expansive as the upper level, rows of bookshelves filled the space. It would take time for Rune to navigate this, if Familiar organized the books in any meaningful way.

"Will your people allow me entry when I return?"

Morbid smiled, slapping Rune's back. "If you are here, you were invited."

Rune nodded. "Have you heard of an Elysian Queen?"

Morbid scratched the back of his neck and crossed the room before crouching down scanning the books. He selected a leather-bound book and returned to Rune. "She was a goddess worshiped long ago."

Rune took the offered book. It had no title on the cover. He turned it to see its spine was just as blank. He glanced at the books to find all the spines blank. Darkness, his head hurt just looking at it.

"She is the goddess of wheat and harvest," Morbid said.

Rune thinned his lips. Hardly something Saith would view as a thorn in his side. "May I remove books from this library?"

"Of course." Morbid laughed. "I will take my leave. Angelique needs tending."

Rune inclined his head at Morbid and he disappeared. Rune took a seat at the closest table, opening the book

.

It contained information on farming. Rune flipped through pages as it described plants and how to best care for them. Illustrations depicted different stages of growth. Just when Rune was going to close the book deeming it useless, he thumbed over a portrait of a woman.

She stood in a wheat field with her face upturned to the sky. Her hair and eyes were both golden, the color of wheat. Her fingers ended in dainty claws and fine boned wings were folded against her back.

Beneath the painting read: THE ELYSIAN QUEEN, GODDESS OF WHEAT AND GOOD HARVEST

Rune flipped the pages finding no other information on the goddess. He glanced at the dozens of bookshelves filled with books of the exact same size and color. Each of them blank. He returned his book and went to the north-facing corner. He walked to the end of the shelf and took the first five books off the top.

He would read through the night here and visit his night breeze at a decent hour of the morning.