Still. A few colorful cushions or wall hangings might be a nice, friendly touch.
“I can’t believe you’ve lived here all your life,” I said to Michael in a hushed voice.
“Since I was a baby,” he said. “It’s really not that bad. You’d get used to it if you had to.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone walk by. I jumped. The gray-haired man glanced at us, then disappeared into a room up ahead without saying a word.
“It’s okay,” Michael said. “The servants have all returned to take care of the castle and the king.”
“More Shadows like you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, I’m the only Shadow here. The other servants are all demons. There aren’t that many, really, but you’ll see them here and there. They won’t bother you unless you need something from them.”
“Oh, uh … okay.”
The last time I’d been here, my aunt had sent the servants away while my father was dying, so they wouldn’t see him in such a weakened, pain-filled condition. It was out of respect for the king’s image. Of course, it turned out that he was only dying because she was slowly poisoning him. Any servants she allowed to stay around might have been witness to that.
Michael led me upstairs, and I found that my usual feeling of anxiety was now mixed with something more like anticipation. I honestly looked forward to seeing my father again, even though I was really mad at him for keeping Michael a servant.
My father was waiting for us in his large stone-walled meeting room. He sat alone at the head of a long black table surrounded by heavy high-backed chairs. A huge fireplace blazed across from the archway leading into the room. It seemed to be the only source of light, casting the room in flickering shadows. He stood up and walked over to us when we entered.
“Nikki,” he said, greeting me warmly. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
Even though I didn’t want to, I couldn’t help but smile, still shocked by how much I looked like him. My whole life, I’d never really wondered if I did, but now I could clearly see that I resembled my father.
He had blond hair, a few shades darker than mine, and hazel eyes. He was dressed in black clothes—a shirt and pants that looked surprisingly human, given the medieval ambience.
Yes, in his human form, my father looked like he would fit in just fine in my world. No one would ever guess for a moment, at least not at first glance, that he was a demon king. However, I knew his demon form was very different from that of the handsome man who currently stood before me.
“Glad to be here,” I said. “Because we need to talk.”
“Oh?” He looked taken aback. “About what?”
“About … a promise you made.” I looked at Michael. He’d already backed away from me, putting some distance between us. What did he think I was going to do? Grab him and start making out with him in front of my father to prove a point?
Not likely. I might be a rebel, but I wasn’t a stupid one. At least, I certainly hoped not.
My father glanced at the two of us warily. “There is a more pressing issue to discuss today, Nikki. Can you hold off on anything else until we’ve handled that?”
“Handled what?”
“I have a guest who wishes to speak with both of us. That’s why I asked for you to come here today. He promises to be brief.”
Something caught my eye. Someone else was in the room with us. I hadn’t even noticed him standing over in a corner of the room unlit by the fireplace. It was a man, tall, with jet-black hair. He looked familiar, but it took me a moment to put my finger on who he was.
“Hello, Princess Nikki,” the man said as he drew closer. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”
I drew in a ragged breath. I’d seen him once before. His name was Kieran. Prince Kieran, from the Underworld. He was my aunt Elizabeth’s boyfriend. The one who’d helped her poison my father in an attempt to take over the throne of the Shadowlands and gain control of the barrier protecting the human and faery worlds.
“What is he doing here?” I asked my father, taking an immediate step back from Kieran.
I felt my father’s hand on my shoulder. “Nikki, it’s fine.”
“Fine?” My voice sounded pitchy. “How can you say this is fine?” I looked at Michael. “Did you know about this?”
He shook his head, his jaw tight. “No. I promise I didn’t.”
My father crossed his arms. “I didn’t tell Michael anything other than that I wanted him to fetch you.”
Fetch me? Did he even realize how demeaning that sounded? But at the moment, I couldn’t think about it. I was too freaked by seeing Kieran up close and personal.
My gaze shot to my father. “How could you even let him in the castle? What if he tries to kill you?”
“Prince Kieran denies any allegations that he was assisting Elizabeth with her plans.”
“And you believe him?”
His lips pressed together and I could see the tension he’d been trying to hide. “What I believe is inconsequential at the moment. All I can tell you is that if, by chance, anything unexpected happens while the prince is here in my kingdom”—his eyes turned from hazel like mine to demon red in a split second—“it would be highly unacceptable.”
He sounded civil, but I could hear the underlying threat in his words. If Kieran tried something funny, then he’d seriously regret it … but only for a short, painful moment.
The thought was oddly comforting.
Kieran’s expression didn’t change from neutrally pleasant. “To ease your mind, Princess, let me explain that, while any member of demon royalty visits the Shadowlands, it’s a rule that they must voluntarily give up their powers for as long as they stay. I’m as helpless as a human at the moment.”
“Elizabeth wasn’t helpless,” I said.
“No,” my father replied. “She was an exception, since she was family. But she can’t return again.”
Elizabeth had been banished to the Underworld as punishment for her crimes. Not much of a punishment as far as I was concerned, but at least it meant she was far away from here with no chance of ever returning.
I glared at Kieran. “Speaking of my aunt, how is she?”
“She’s understandably shaken,” Kieran replied coolly. “She’s very sorry for any pain or distress she caused you both and wishes she could take back the unfortunate events that occurred.”
Yeah, sure. She was only sorry that she got caught. But I held my tongue and didn’t say that out loud.
As my heart rate slowly returned to normal, I took a moment to study the prince. I remembered my first impression of him when I’d seen him through my aunt’s gazer—a means of communicating between the demon worlds by looking into a shallow pool of water. He looked unnaturally attractive, sort of like the airbrushed male models on the covers of my mom’s romance novels, with piercing ice blue eyes under slashing black brows. There were no flaws I could see on Kieran’s perfect face. I could almost understand why Elizabeth had been ready to kill her own brother to do whatever this guy wanted her to do. Almost.
I suddenly realized I was clutching Michael’s hand for support. I didn’t actually remember grabbing onto it or when he’d come to stand next to me again.
His green-eyed gaze captured mine. ::It’s okay, Princess. I’m here and I swear I won’t let anything bad happen to you.::
Thank you was the simple thought I projected back to him. I squeezed his hand before letting it go.
The action and unspoken connection between us was observed by Kieran. “You and your Shadow servant are very close, aren’t you, Princess Nikki?”
My shoulders stiffened at the sound of his deep voice. “Michael’s not my servant. He’s my … my friend.”
I looked at my father, who stood next to me, his attention on the prince. I could have sworn I saw him bristle slightly at my wording.
“How very forward thinking of you, P
rincess. But … only friends?” Kieran asked, then glanced at my father. “Your Majesty, the way your daughter looks at the Shadow worries me. I can’t help but wonder if there might be something else between them. But of course, that would be against the laws of our worlds, wouldn’t it?”
The smug bluntness of the statement made my stomach coil, and I suddenly felt extremely self-conscious and wary about every move I made.
“Kieran,” my father said impatiently. “Why don’t you get to the point of your visit and what it has to do with my daughter so we don’t have to take up any more of her valuable time. Her life is not here, after all, and I expect she’d like to get back to the human world as soon as possible.”
“Actually, the point of my visit is your daughter,” Kieran said.
“What about me?” I asked.
“I am a member of the demon council—”
“Demon council?”
He nodded. “Yes, it’s a five-member, specially chosen tribunal that regularly meets in the Underworld and is in charge of passing rules and regulations in the dark worlds. We have been discussing you in great detail over the past couple of days.”
“You’ve been discussing me?” I glanced at Michael, whose brows were raised with confusion at this statement.
“Yes,” Kieran said. “Your existence wasn’t known to any of us until last week. But now that it is … and for you to be the first half human, half demon born in a thousand years … Well, it has obviously sparked some significant discussion about the problem this creates.”
Before I could speak, my father cut in. “My daughter is not a problem. As you can see, she isn’t anyone the council could possibly consider a threat. She’s a sixteen-year-old girl raised entirely in the human world.”
Kieran took a moment to study me. “Appearances can be deceiving, Your Majesty. The last Darkling was also reported to be fair of face and slight in stature, but she was also highly dangerous, a volatile creature who left a great deal of destruction in her wake.”
“I have looked into this,” my father said, sounding less and less cordial with each passing moment, “and I could find no official record of what specific damage the last Darkling caused. In fact, even her name was impossible to find, as well as where she made her home.”
“Those records are not for everyone’s eyes,” Kieran said. “It’s top secret, highly sensitive information that my mother, the queen, keeps under lock and key.”
“Okay,” I said. “So the last Darkling had a bit of an itchy trigger finger, or whatever. That was a long time ago, and it doesn’t have anything to do with me. Honestly, I don’t want to cause any trouble or hurt anyone, like, ever.”
“Of course you don’t.” My father nodded. “So, as you can see, Kieran, your visit here was a waste of your time and ours. There’s no indication that my daughter is any danger to you or your precious demon council now or any time in the future, and basing your facts on something that allegedly happened a millennium ago is ludicrous. I realize Queen Sephina has always kept a tight rein on her kingdom and her concern is not completely incomprehensible, but I assure you, worrying about Nikki in any way, shape, or form is wholly unnecessary.”
“I would normally agree with you one hundred percent, Your Majesty.” Kieran crossed his arms as he continued to study me. I swear, during this entire conversation, he hadn’t taken his attention away from me for more than a second. I felt as if I was being inspected like a blonde slab of beef.
“Normally?” I said. “So what’s the problem now?”
“The problem now, Princess Nikki, is not that there are rumors or legends about a past Darkling being troublesome—though this is, after all, what brought about the law forbidding humans and demons from procreating. It was in order to avoid creating a hybrid of the two species. Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?” He glanced meaningfully at my father.
“Kieran, stop mincing words and tell us what the issue really is,” my father said impatiently, ignoring the jab.
Before Kieran spoke another word I suddenly got a chill, a dark sense of foreboding. I looked at Michael and saw the same realization in his widening eyes.
::Princess, do you think this has to do with what King Rhys told you earlier?::
I inhaled sharply.
“There is a prophecy,” Kieran said, confirming what Michael and I were thinking. “It was revealed last week, on the very day Princess Nikki turned sixteen. At the time, it wasn’t known what it meant or who specifically it pertained to, but now it’s very clear to the council.”
“And what does this prophecy say?” my father asked sharply.
Kieran’s blue eyes tracked back to me. “That your daughter, the first Darkling born in a thousand years, will single-handedly destroy us all.”
6
Rhys had been right, after all. He wasn’t lying. There was a prophecy about me.
And it was a really sucky one.
“That’s completely crazy,” was the first thing I said after I found my voice again. “I’m going to destroy everyone? That doesn’t even make sense.”
Kieran’s intense gaze didn’t waver. “That is what the prophecy says.”
“I don’t care what it says. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I agree,” my father said.
I stared at him. “You do?”
He nodded, and looked at Kieran. “Who related this prophecy?”
“The official palace oracle. One who has relayed prophecies for a hundred years to my mother and to her mother before her. He has never been wrong before and certainly never about something so specific or catastrophic.”
“Well, your oracle is wrong now.” My father dismissed him without missing a beat. “It’s clear to me this must be a false prophecy based on a thousand years of rumors and lies about Darklings.”
“Your opinion is noted, of course, Your Majesty,” Kieran said thinly. “But I’m afraid your objectivity in this matter is at question.”
My father ignored him and placed his hand gently against the side of my flushed face. “There is no part of you that is destructive, Nikki. I know that. You are so much like your mother, and she is a beautiful and truly good woman. She’d never hurt a fly.”
I nodded in full agreement. “She takes spiders outside in glass jars so she doesn’t have to kill them.”
He smiled and rested his hand protectively on my arm. “I don’t doubt it for a moment.”
I relaxed ever so slightly. He didn’t believe the prophecy, so of course I didn’t have to freak out about it. This was a major relief.
“Prophecies are taken very seriously by the council,” Kieran said. He leaned casually against the edge of the large black table.
“And what does the council propose to do about this?” my father asked evenly.
“That remains to be seen, based on my report,” he said. “It’s likely the next step will be for the princess to be presented to the council in person, and a decision will then be made regarding what to do about her.”
“That’s not going to happen.” My father kept his hand on my arm, as if shielding me from the prince. “You insisted you tell us this news in person. I now see that wasn’t entirely necessary, was it?”
“There are procedures to be followed,” Kieran said. “It’s a rule that information of this level must be given face-to-face.”
My father hissed out a breath, betraying the annoyance he’d been trying to hide until now. “You have delivered this news. I respectfully request that you leave my kingdom.”
“But there’s much more to discuss,” Kieran protested. “This is a highly volatile situation and one that needs to be handled immediately. A prophecy like this can’t simply be ignored. I need to ask the princess more questions about her intentions.”
“No. You’ve had your say. You’ve gauged our reactions. Now it’s time for you to leave. If there is anything else you wish to discuss, you may contact me by gazer.”
His hand began to
glow with red light and he waved it toward the door, which turned from a normal entrance to a swirling gateway.
“You may return to the Underworld now, Prince Kieran,” he said.
Kieran’s gaze flicked to me and his head cocked slightly to the side. “Your daughter means a great deal to you, doesn’t she, King Desmond?”
“She does, indeed.”
“I understand why you’d wish to protect her, no matter the cost.” The prince’s eyes moved to Michael, who stood silently at an arm’s reach from me.
I glowered at the prince. How could a statement that sounded so friendly, so matter-of-fact, be so filled with malice?
Kieran gave us a forced smile. “This matter will be resolved. Denying the validity of the prophecy will only complicate things.”
“Please give my regards to Queen Sephina and Princess Kassandra.” My father’s words were clipped. There wasn’t any friendliness in his voice. In fact, I’d describe it as ice-cold.
“I’ll do that.” Kieran dipped his head in my direction. “Princess Nikki, I look forward to the next time we meet.”
Without another word, he walked through the gateway. It disappeared in a quick flash of light a moment after he did.
“I really don’t like that guy,” I said.
“Kieran is only a messenger,” my father said, walking past the table and toward the fireplace. “He has no real authority, here or anywhere else. That’s what makes him the way he is—desperate to please his mother and to show his existence actually matters.”
“Does it work?”
“I doubt it,” he said. “I’m sorry you had to experience that. It must have been a shock to you to hear what he had to say.”
“Not as shocking as you might think. I already knew there was a prophecy.”
His eyebrows went up. “How?”
I quickly told him about Rhys—his enrollment in the high school, his presence in my biology class, and finally his reason for being there—to find out more about the threat of Nikki Donovan, sixteen-year-old Darkling-o’-danger.