Fanatics.
Would they throw away their lives for the vampires?
Would any of the kingdoms who bend the knee to me truly defend Draca Kingdom, if we were threatened? Don’t they only fear us and not love us?
These Shadow Humans must love the Bloods if they are prepared to face me with no more than a spear.
How is that possible? Why are the featherglass so committed to Daire?
Why are they relentlessly petitioning me for their fallen leader’s return?
Would anyone care about me this much? My Golden Family? My army?
Do I trust them to stand by me?
I skirt the walls of Sheut: The Shadow Vampire capital that I always dreamed about visiting as a child.
Lanlin would excitedly sprawl in Mother’s rose garden playing with one of his rats, while telling me about the courtyards with honey-scented blue lotus pools, thrones built out of bone, and pyramids that reached to the skies.
He graciously told me that he would take me on a tour when I had finished my training at the Shadow Military Academy.
He would chatter, lying under the moonlight like we were both safe in the dream, about how one day he would find a way for us to live together, uniting our kingdoms of sand and gold
Except, we both needed to wake up sometime.
He didn’t know that I spent most of the time he told me about his kingdom, planning to fly into his territories as soon as I was old enough and steal my best friend away on my back from the High Priestess who hurt him worse than Caligo (or even my uncle), did me.
Who called himlittlemonsterand forced him to wear gloves.
Yet I didn’t because then our kingdoms went to war.
Yet I never stopped thinking of Lanlin as my friend, hoping that we could still unite our kingdoms, until the day that I saw him with his fangs in my brother’s throat.
I flap my wings, flying lower over the limestone Void Pyramids. The sun glints on their giant sides.
On the Shadow Gods, I’m risking enough. I may as well take the tour now.
Lanlin’s capital is spectacular but silent. I wish that I could see it at night.
I wish that this peace could be real.
I heard a roar somewhere close. I know that the Shadow Vampires can’t get to you during the day, but still, what the fuck? What happened to keeping a low profile?Freya’s voice demands in my mind.
Ask the buck fuckers who threw spears at me.I drawl.They weren’t very welcoming.
Those buck fuckers are dear to me, pun intended.To my surprise, Daire’s voice sounds strained. Why would the Shadow Vampire’s Blood Lovers matter to a fae?So, no burning them, aye?
You take away all my fun. How far away are you from Mount Eternal?
We’re climbing up the side now.Freya sounds out of breath.You didn’t tell us that it was a sheer cliff.
Then I would have taken away your fun.I squint through the bright sun toward the sandstone cliff face of Mount Eternal, which shimmers brown but with a pink hue beneath the sun.
I can make out two small figures who are struggling up the side of the mountain. They’re almost at the mouth of the main cave.
I circle over their heads several times, enjoying the creative cussing from Daire in my mind, before I land in the entrance.
I transform back, smoothing my crimson cloak and straightening my gold crown.
