Seeds of Sorrow (Immortal Realms Book 1)

There were no words to explain the pain that had blossomed within Draven as Naya’s spell had unleashed sunlight inside him. He had felt parts of himself beginning to disintegrate, harden, and turn to dust. While he no longer required his organs as other creatures did, the pain had been unnatural, and even Eden’s offering of blood—while it had stemmed the most severe edge of pain—had only been enough to get him back up.

However, with Travion’s blood still coating his hands, and Eden’s slumped figure pressing into his side, Draven knew there was no time to dwell on the pain lancing through him. There was still a devil of a woman to deal with, three kingdoms to settle, and peace to restore to Lucem.

“Zryan, call the servants. We need to get Travion to his chambers.” Draven pulled back from Eden a little, his hand cupping her cheek. “And you into bed.”

“I’m fine—”

“No,” he interrupted. “You need rest.”

“So do you.” She gave him a firm look.

“Kings rest when the battle is over,” was all that he said.

Rising to his feet, Draven grit his teeth at the internal protest of his body. He needed a great deal more blood to heal the injuries Naya had inflicted on him, but that would have to come later.

Zryan, who was still standing naked in the chamber, had shouted for servants as well as guards. Soon enough, men arrived to carefully collect Travion. Not even a grunt escaped his lips as he was moved.

“See to it that the palace healer is called in for him,” Zryan instructed as they began to carry him out.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

Eden was still at Draven’s side, and he could tell that she didn’t wish to leave him. “Go,” he stated softly. “Zryan and I will handle the rest.”

“Very well, but please . . . don’t overtax yourself.”

Draven merely cupped her cheek in response. He could promise her nothing. “Please take Lady Eden to a guest chamber to rest, and fetch her clean clothes,” he said to a servant nearby. “I’m sure Lady Sereia has left clothing somewhere amongst Travion’s things.”

The servant bowed slightly and led the reluctant Eden from the room. With her gone, Draven stepped up to Zryan, who was watching a couple of soldiers gather the still mostly incoherent Naya and lead her from the room.

Draven watched her go, wanting very much to slowly peel the flesh from her body, then heal her with his blood just so that he could begin the process over again. If given the chance, he’d do that until he’d taken every piece of flesh from her to make up for all the lives lost in this fiasco.

“We can’t kill her yet,” he muttered, having to remind himself. Draven placed a hand to his stomach, pressing against the fresh wave of pain radiating through him.

“Once we’ve dealt with all of this nonsense, we can.” Zryan glanced around. “Where did The Creaturae go?”

Draven turned his head to look about the room, a deeper frown forming. Slowly walking the perimeter of the room, he found nothing. Looking over at his brother, Draven found Zryan’s face pinched with a similar frown.

“She had it when I knocked her down . . . t should be right where you’re standing.”

Turning on the spot, Draven hurried to the edge of the room, stepping into one of the arched alcoves that led to the servant’s passageway, which ran along the outside of the room. There was no one in the wings, just a lingering scent that was both familiar and unrecognizable all at once.

From inside the room, he heard Zryan calling for the palace guards, giving them orders to seal up the castle and search everyone for a leather-bound book.

Draven stepped back into the main throne room, his eyes meeting Zryan’s. “It’s gone. How?”

“If Naya had a partner, the guards will hunt them down. This is not over.”

Draven cursed. The book had just been here. They had it back. But with Naya . . . healing Travion . . . who would have noticed someone else stealing in to take the book?

“Why am I not surprised to find you naked, even now, in the midst of battle?” a voice asked from behind them.

Both men turned to see Alessia standing in the archway, a tall harpy just behind her. Stepping into the room, Alessia scanned Zryan over before her eyes turned to Draven. Ailith moved from behind the queen, her taloned feet clicking lightly on the stone floor.

“I was a manticore,” Zryan stated proudly, by way of explanation.

Still holding on to his stomach, Draven moved up to Ailith. “Lucem?”

“Mostly contained, sire. But with the complete darkness, we cannot be sure we’ve hunted down all of the creatures. Those that did remain seem to only be growing more bloodthirsty by the minute. The princess has the palace and most of the capital secured. I’ve left Captain Hannelore and Captain Channon closer to the Veil to aid the princes in continuing the search, but—”

“But they need the sun back.” Draven looked to Zryan and Alessia, who had torn one of the long red drapes out of the window to toss at her husband.

Busy wrapping the piece of velvet around himself, Zryan glanced over quickly, then dropped his attention back to his hips. “Do any of us know what spell was used to douse Lucem in darkness?”

“No. I’ve never seen anything like that. Not since Ludari’s reign of terror,” Alessia responded with distaste.

“Good thing we kept the wench alive,” Zryan stated cheerfully. Finished tying the drape around himself, he rested his hands triumphantly on his hips.

“She’s not going to simply hand over the information willingly, you fool.” Alessia’s lip curled.

Draven looked at Alessia, face darkening. “Then we make her. But first, I need blood.”

The book had not been found. After a thorough search of the castle, through every hiding place Travion’s captain of the guard could think to look, they had come up empty handed. Whomever had been in the servants’ corridors outside of the throne room had managed to not only slip in undetected but to leave as if they had never been there.

It left a foul taste in the back of Draven’s mouth. The Creaturae was not something they wanted out there in the world, in the hands of a foreign enemy. For now, however, they would concentrate on the thing that they could control, and that was Naya Damaris.

Draven had found three who were willing to give him blood, though it wasn’t enough to fully heal the damage that had been done to him internally. With or without the blood, the healing process was going to take a while. But it took the sharp sting of the pain away, leaving only an ache that he could look past.

Once again gathered in the throne room, they waited for the guards to bring Naya up from the dungeons. Eden had been called to join them, and she now stood looking a little lost. Draven felt himself drawn to her side, and his arm slipped around her. He pressed his hand to the small of her back.

“You don’t have to be here if you don’t wish to be. We may be required to do things to get your mother to talk that you shouldn’t see.” Draven saw no point in hiding their intentions.

“No, I need to be here.”

He merely nodded in understanding; Eden did not balk at tough situations. She no longer ran when she was afraid but faced that fear head-on. Feeling pride at the thought of it, Draven kept himself close to her side as the guards ushered Naya back in before them. Her hands were cuffed and chained together behind her back. Even in irons, her chin remained lifted with defiant pride.

“Naya Damaris, you have committed treason against all three realms,” Zryan began. “Death is on your horizon. However, if you tell us how to bring the sun back to Lucem, perhaps we can be persuaded to be lenient with you.”

Naya didn’t bother to even acknowledge Zryan. Instead, her eyes bored into Draven, staring at him so close to her daughter, an angry tick at the corner of her lips.

“Lucem will remain plunged in darkness until I see fit to lift the curse. Kill me if you wish, but you shall never be free of it.” Her tone was even and without fear.

It made Draven’s eyes narrow. Naya did not seem concerned with her own fate, nor that of any of the innocents that lived in Lucem whom she had sentenced to a vicious death by beasts.

“We have ways to make you talk,” Zryan stated, then motioned to Alessia, who smirked at the thought of being able to unleash her abilities on the other woman.

Naya stiffened mildly but still did not pay her king and queen any mind. Instead, her unblinking gaze never left Draven. That was, until his arm shifted once more to lift from Eden’s back and rest on her opposite hip instead.

The woman’s eyes dropped to watch the movement while her lips thinned out. Draven could tell she wished to speak, wanted to tell him to take his hand off her daughter and step away from her.

Suddenly, Draven was behind Eden, his arm wrapping around her body to pin her arms to her sides and his free hand gripping her hair. He pulled her head to the side, exposing her throat. Over Eden’s shoulder, he locked eyes with Naya.

“Tell us, Naya, or I will take Eden back to Andhera with me, and you will never see her again,” he growled lowly.

Alessia halted, leaving Draven to play out his threat.

Though she paled, Naya remained firm in her stance. “I will always find my way back to my daughter. I will always get her home where she belongs.”

“Do you truly think you can take her back if you are in prison?” Draven brushed his lips along Eden’s throat, his eyes staying on Naya. In his arms, Eden shuddered; while it may have looked as if it were from revulsion, he could feel Eden’s emotions in the back of his mind. She was not frightened of him.

“I will never give up,” Naya insisted coldly.

“You will if I make it so that she can never return.” Slowly Draven’s face split with a cold smirk, his blue eyes glinting with a darkness that was often only seen by those about to be slain. Naya blanched beneath it, swallowing roughly.

“What—”

“She’s already had a little of my blood. Did she tell you that?” He pressed another kiss to her throat, his hand sliding down over her stomach possessively. “If I take hers, and replace it with more of my own, she will be one with me. One with the night.” Without hesitation, Draven bit into Eden’s throat.

At the sensation, Eden whimpered, a sound of fear and pain, her hand lifting to clutch his wrist. “No,” she gasped out.

Naya visibly jerked, held back only by the guards holding on to her chains.

“You beast! Unhand my daughter now!”

Draven made a show of feeding from Eden, when in actuality he had already retracted his fangs and lapped the holes clean. But Eden, willing to follow his lead, began to slump in his arms, relying on him to hold her weight.

Seeing her daughter visibly wilting before her, Naya unleashed an animalistic howl, struggling against the chains that bound her.

“Enough. Enough!”

Draven lifted his head and flashed her a bloody smile. “Do you have something to say?” He wrapped his lips around Eden’s throat once more, growling in a sound of blissful bloodlust as he did so.

“Yes! Just stop.” Still struggling, Naya released a sob of despair. “I’ll tell you. Just don’t turn my daughter into an abomination!”

Keeping his mouth on her, Draven lifted a brow at Naya, indicating she could continue.

Naya’s eyes never left the space where his lips were fastened onto her daughter. “There is a talisman in my study. A brass medallion hung on a chain. It has a raven etched into the front of it. You need only destroy it. Now for the love of the sun, stop!”

Draven finally lifted his lips from Eden’s throat but kept his arms around her, holding her back against his chest. Eden didn’t move much, leaving her weight leaned back into him, but her head lifted, and she peered back at her mother.

“You better not have lied,” she stated firmly.

Naya blinked in confusion, her frantic struggles ceasing as she looked at her fully responsive daughter. Draven watched Naya’s eyes drop to Eden’s throat, then lift up to meet his eyes before they returned to Eden’s face.

“Wh-what?” she stammered.

“Return her to the dungeons,” Draven ordered the guards. “And Naya, if you’re found to be lying, I swear you have never known wrath until you’ve seen mine. I vow Eden will become a vampire, and I will make certain you are there to watch the entire process.”

Naya released a shriek as the guards pulled her from the throne room. Draven released Eden, allowing her to step back into her own personal space. Their eyes locked for a moment before both looked away.

“Shall Alessia and I see to this? If Naya was telling the truth, we don’t need you burning to a crisp.” Zryan’s eyes dropped to Draven’s torso.

“Yes. I’ve had enough sunlight for today.”