A Queen Among Darkness

Chapter Five: Isolde POV

Every wound and injury my body has sustained is screaming out in protest thanks to the weight on top of me, but at the same time, I feel my energy increasing. I sigh with relief when I feel the weight roll off me, only to find that relief short-lived when I glance over to see the venatrix who was pointing a gun at me now laying in the dirt with me.

“C’est quoi ce bordel?!” I shout as I struggle to my feet, “You hijacked my portal?!”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” she groans. Portals can be a little disorienting the first time, even more so for humans, but that’s what she gets.

With a few gestures from my hands I call on my depleting magic, feeling my obsidian eyes take over as purple energy travels between her and myself, latching itself around her ankle and my wrist before turning into a golden thread and disappearing. I then snap my fingers and watch her gun disappear. Won’t be needing that. My knees start to buckle, and it takes everything I have not to fall down as I close the portal behind me. I think I’m going to be sick too.

“What the hell did you do?! Give me back my gun!” She shouts, getting to her feet.

“Sure, allow me to return the weapon you plan to use to kill me. Do I look like a moron to you?” I ask rhetorically.

“All you monsters look like morons to me,” she says snidely. Thank you Goddess Zarseti for such a delightful animai.

I step away from her, my body swaying as my feet struggle to keep me up. Just need to hang on a little bit longer. I hold my hands out and pull on my magic to create another portal and an identical portal a few yards away. Once done I begin walking through the closest portal.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” The venatrix snaps.

“I’m going home,” I say as I roll my eyes. As I make it a few feet away from the little psychopath I can feel a tugging on my wrist as that gold thread appears. I look back to see my animai being yanked in my direction by the gold thread and coping a face full of dirt. I snort with laughter seeing the current state of the woman who tried to kill me minutes ago.

“What the f**k did you do to me?!” She shouts.

“You ask an awful lot of questions,” I say in a bored tone.

“Answer me!”

“It’s a ball and chain spell, so you can try and run but you’ll just end up being pulled back to me, and killing me won’t break the spell either, so if you don’t want to spend the rest of your human life rotting alongside my corpse, best you cooperate,” I say saccharinely.

“Reverse it,” she hisses; her honey-brown eyes looking up murderously at me.

“Hmm, don’t feel like it,” I say casually, “Now let’s go,” I say as I step through the portal. I keep walking, once again seeing the thread around my wrist appear as I glance back to see my animai being hurled through the portal. I’d feel bad, but she was one of my captors and was going to shoot me, so I’ll leave the guilt for someone else.

“I despise your kind,” she says with disgust as she gets to her feet and dusts herself off.

“Sticks and stones, ma chérie,” I say as I wave my hand closing the portal behind me and feel my eyes return to normal.

“I am not your darling,” she spits.

My surprise at her understanding of French is overshadowed as her words send an ache through my chest that hurts almost as bad as my injuries. Her telling me she despises my kind didn’t bother me but hearing her say she isn’t mine was like a knife through my heart. This stupid bond is already getting on my nerves. I never even said I accepted her! Obviously, I’ll do the smart thing and reject her, I just can’t do it while I’m this weak or it’ll probably kill me. I have not survived centuries of hell to be killed by making the sane decision to reject my homicidal animai. Though if I’m going to reject her properly I’ll need to know her name. I can’t keep calling her ‘my animai’ or ‘venatrix.’

“My name is Isolde, I didn’t catch your name while you were pointing a gun at me,” I say calmly.

“I didn’t give it, and I don’t care what your name is, just reverse your stupid spell!” She says in frustration.

“Are you blind or just stupid?” I ask her.

“What did you just say?” She says as she takes a threatening step towards me.

“Look at me. I have been trapped in a cell that drained me of my magic while your buddies tortured me. I barely had enough magic to cast the spell in the first place, let alone reverse it. I am struggling right now and it’s because of your kind. So if you want the spell broken use your brain and realise I need to recover, so maybe pretend to be nice or show a little patience instead of shouting your demands,” I snap at her, getting fed up with her demands. I don’t think she’d last one day in that hell hole I just escaped from.

To my surprise, her face softens, and she slowly looks me over, her eyebrows knitting together with… concern?

“Who did that to you?” She slowly asks.

“I believe his name was Mateo, but hey it was either this or get mouth r***d, so I think I got off easy,” I shrug.

Her head snaps up, her hands ball into fists and she looks ready to kill someone, “Mateo tried to do that?” She seethes.

I raise my eyebrow surprised by her reaction. Quite the enigma this one. “Why do you care?”

“Mateo is my brother, unfortunately, and I find his treatment of prisoners revolting. I’m… sorry that, that happened to you,” she says, the words sounding hard for her to say. Wow, did she actually just show compassion?

“But you’re not sorry I was thrown in your little dungeon in the first place, are you?” I ask pointedly and watch as she averts her eyes, “I didn’t think so.”

I start walking through the forest, but instead of fighting the spell, she starts walking alongside me. This is not the romantic scenario I envisioned meeting my soulmate would be like. I pictured us running into each other’s arms and claiming one another and feeling my soul become complete. I pictured finally having something good in my life, not this.

“Valeria,” she suddenly says, pulling me from my mental complaints.

“What?” I ask.

“My name, it’s Valeria,” she says as she pushes tree branches out of her way.

In spite of myself, I can’t help but think what a beautiful name that is. I’ve heard of Valerie, but not Valeria. If only she wasn’t a killer.

“And if that d**k is your brother then that makes you Valeria Cabrera, correct?”

“You’re well informed,” she says suspiciously.

“I just pay attention when I’m being locked up and tortured in a cell,” I tell her.

“He didn’t… I mean, did he…” she trails off, becoming too uncomfortable to finish her sentence.

“Did your brother sexually assault me? No.”

She nods and her shoulders relax, “Good. I’m glad.”

I snort, “You have some pretty messed up morals.”

“I’m not the freak of nature,” she hisses.

“I’d rather be a freak of nature than go around killing innocent people,” I bite back.

Finally, my house comes into view, and I sigh in relief. Boy am I glad to be home. I look up at the three-story Victorian house with its grey shingles and cream exterior with teal accents. For the longest time, this has been my only home and sanctuary. Just being in front of it makes me feel calm and at peace. I can’t believe I’m bringing my animai into my home and instead of doing it as my animai, it’s as my prisoner. Quite the role reversal.

We walk towards the house and make our way up the front steps as Valeria looks around taking in the scenery.

“This is where you live?” She asks in surprise.

“Did you think my kind lived in caves and only came out at night to eat the town folk’s children?” I ask bitterly.

“No,” she retorts, “Just didn’t expect something so big… and nice. Wait, is your whole coven here?” She asks with a tone of alarm. Her words hit me hard knocking the air out of my lungs and I can feel the tears stinging my eyes. I haven’t been part of a coven in centuries. I’m meant to lead, guide, and govern over all the covens, but instead, I’m all alone. She’ll never know how painful that question was.

“No. It’s just me,” I say as I turn the knob and escort her inside.

“Don’t you think you should have a key or security around here? No wonder you got caught,” she snorts.

I slam the door shut, “First of all, the door only opens for me. Second of all, I let myself get caught, so before you go throwing a parade for your family on their big catch, just know they only caught me because I wanted them to,” I snap and lead her up the stairs. Valeria trips and stumbles as the spell binding her to me forces her to follow.

“What do you mean you let yourself get caught? No one would be that stupid,” she mocks.

“Some of us are willing to risk our own lives to protect other people, but I don’t expect someone who makes a living by killing people to understand something like that,” I say snidely, leading her up to the second floor, every step feeling like razorblades digging into my muscles. I think I’d rather have all my limbs chopped off than endure this pain a minute longer.

I open the nearest door, “Until I have the strength to be done with you, this will be your room,” I tell her as I lean against the wall for support. She eyes me suspiciously then pokes her head into the guest room, her eyes widening in surprise as she takes in the décor. She probably expected a prison, but I wouldn’t do that to someone, especially not my soulmate. Even though I know I have to reject her, I don’t have to treat her poorly.

Valeria walks in and slowly takes in the room before looking at me with a stunned look on her face, “You’re putting me in a guest room? Shouldn’t you be locking me in a dark prison or hanging me from some torture chamber?”

“My kind don’t do barbaric things like that. I leave that kind of stuff to humans such as yourself,” I snap as I slam the door shut.

“Hey!” She yells as she begins pounding on the door. It sounds as though she’s throwing her whole body into it. You’d think if she was that eager not to be locked inside, she wouldn’t have willingly stepped in.

I snap my fingers and watch the gold thread appear around my wrist, snap, and then disappear. I take a deep breath and feel my eyes change as I reach for the last shred of my magic and let it encase the door, putting a magical seal around the door and window so Valeria can’t get out. I don’t want to risk her trying to kill me in my sleep or running away before I can reject her.

As soon as the seal is set, I feel my eyes return to normal and the last flicker of my magic fade out, and with it, the last of my strength. Using the wall for support, I manage to get myself to my bedroom, but as soon as I step in, my body gives out entirely. No longer able to withstand the abuse and overuse it has had to endure, my vision becomes blurry, and my room begins to spin as I see the floor coming closer until all I see is darkness.