Chapter 2 THE KING WHO KNELT

CHAPTER TWO

Zareth

The princess was crying.

I had watched kingdoms burn without blinking. I had torn the wings from fallen angels and listened to gods beg for the mercy they had denied their victims. I had stood alone in the ruins of my own kingdom and convinced myself that grief was a weakness I had outgrown.

Yet one tear sliding down Seraphina Vale's cheek nearly brought me to my knees.

Again.

"Elyssara."

Her fingers tightened around my wrist.

"I'm Seraphina," she whispered.

I knew.

Gods help me, I knew.

I had spent nineteen centuries learning every detail of the woman I had lost, memorizing the shape of her smile from a portrait that had begun fading before the first human empire rose. I had searched abandoned temples, interrogated dead kings, and followed whispers across realms that no longer existed.

I had found nothing.

Until tonight.

And now she lay dying in my arms, wearing another woman's face and looking at me with eyes that remembered nothing.

"Your Majesty!" a guard shouted.

I looked up.

The royal court had descended into chaos. Soldiers surrounded us, their swords trembling in their hands. The king stood on the dais, pale with fury, while a woman in a silver gown clutched her mouth.

Seraphina's father.

I had expected him to be taller.

"Release my daughter," he commanded.

I looked down at the princess.

"Your daughter is bleeding to death."

"Then summon a physician!"

I almost laughed.

Humans. Always believing death could be negotiated with a sufficiently expensive physician.

I pressed my palm over Seraphina's wound.

Black fire slipped between my fingers.

Her body jerked. The poison inside her blood screamed as my magic consumed it. The dagger had been forged from celestial silver, a weapon designed specifically to kill beings whose souls carried divine power.

Someone had known exactly what she was.

Someone had wanted her dead before her awakening could be completed.

The wound closed.

Seraphina gasped and dragged in a breath.

Relief struck me so violently that I nearly lost control of my shadows.

Alive.

She was alive.

For one impossible moment, I allowed myself to believe the universe had finally returned something it owed me.

Then she shoved my hand away.

"Don't touch me!"

The words cut deeper than any blade.

I withdrew immediately.

Her expression was furious, frightened, and entirely human.

"I saved your life," I said.

"You appeared out of nowhere, killed someone in front of my family, and called me a name I've never heard before!"

"Would you prefer I let the assassin finish his work?"

"I would prefer an explanation!"

A strange sensation stirred beneath my ribs.

It took me a moment to recognize it.

Amusement.

The princess had nearly died three minutes ago, and she was already arguing with the most powerful demon in existence.

Elyssara had always been like that.

The resemblance was unbearable.

"Zareth Veyl," I said.

Her brows drew together.

"The King of the Damned?"

"Among other titles."

She swallowed.

I watched her carefully. Fear had finally reached her eyes, but she refused to look away.

Good.

I had no interest in a woman who bowed simply because someone frightened her.

"Why are you here?" she demanded.

"Because someone has spent centuries preparing for your death."

Silence fell between us.

Behind her, the king stepped forward.

"Whatever you want, demon, you will not take my daughter."

I turned toward him.

The shadows beneath his feet froze.

"Your Majesty," I said softly, "if I wanted your kingdom, you would already be ruling over its ashes."

His face drained of color.

Seraphina pushed herself upright.

"Stop threatening my father."

I looked at her.

There it was again.

That instinctive courage. That infuriating willingness to place herself between danger and the people she loved.

It had destroyed her once.

I would not allow it to destroy her again.

"The creatures hunting you have already breached this palace," I told her. "Your guards cannot stop them. Your priests cannot identify them. And your father knows less about the danger surrounding you than he pretends."

"My father knows nothing about this."

"Ask him why the eastern wards were disabled three nights ago."

Her expression changed.

I watched understanding begin to replace anger.

The king said nothing.

Interesting.

Before I could question him further, a sharp crack echoed from beneath the floor.

Every demon in the hall turned toward the sound.

The princess noticed.

"What was that?"

I rose slowly.

"The reason we are leaving."

A second crack split the marble.

Then something beneath the palace began scratching its way upward.

I extended my hand toward Seraphina.

She stared at it as if I had offered her a serpent.

"I am not going anywhere with you."

"Then die here."

I turned away.

Behind me, the floor erupted.

A creature made of bone and shadow dragged itself into the coronation hall. Its face was smooth except for a mouth filled with human teeth.

The guards attacked.

Their swords passed through it.

The creature screamed, and every window shattered.

Seraphina stumbled backward.

I felt her fear before I heard it.

I turned just in time to see the creature launch itself toward her.

My shadows swallowed the distance between us.

I caught the princess against my chest as black claws struck the place where she had stood.

Then I looked into the creature's eyeless face.

"Who sent you?"

Its mouth stretched into a terrible smile.

"The mother beneath the world."

For the first time in nineteen centuries, I felt something colder than fear.

Recognition.

The creature dissolved before I could question it further.

I looked down at Seraphina.

She was staring at me, her face pale.

"What does that mean?" she whispered.

I tightened my arm around her.

"It means," I said, "that someone has awakened a nightmare even the gods were afraid to name."

And for the first time since I found her, I wished I had arrived a century earlier.