Reign Check (6 page)

5

The moment after I stepped through the gateway there was a familiar feeling of vertigo, where I couldn’t see or hear anything. But before there was a chance to get scared or think about anything at all, I’d already arrived on the other side.

The gateway from the human world opened up at a beautiful pastoral clearing between the Shadowlands and the faery realm. Green grass replaced snow-covered pavement. The scent of spring flowers hung in the air. It was warm enough for me to remove my winter jacket immediately.

A second later, Michael appeared next to me—just like magic. He pushed his dark hair back from his face. “So are you ready to see your father again?”

I looked toward the line of tall thick trees—the forest that bordered Rhys’s land. So beautiful and lush and strangely welcoming. Then I turned to look at the field of flowers where we stood. Slowly it changed from soft green grass to sharp gray rock, leading to a black, windowless fortress with massive spires reaching up into the stormy, lightning-etched skies above.

The Shadowlands castle—the nasty-looking, scary place my father called home and that filled me with a healthy dose of dread whenever I saw it.

Despite how uneasy the castle made me instinctively feel, I finally nodded. “Let’s go.”

The walk took ten minutes, after which we reached the twenty-foot-tall front door of the castle. We stood on the threshold, and the door slowly began to creak open enough to let us inside. It did that automatically for me—apparently the castle itself could sense that I was the princess and therefore allowed inside.

Michael led me through the cavernous foyer toward a spiral staircase at the center that seemed to extend right up to a ceiling so high I could barely even see it. I’d been here before, of course, but this time I took a moment to look around at the darkness that surrounded me. This wasn’t a happy place. It was cold and unwelcoming, and it sent a shiver of fear down my spine.

The very stone this castle was made from helped keep unwanted elements from the dark worlds—including any demons who would like to find a way into the human and faery worlds for malevolent reasons. Supposedly it worked well—and had for a long time. I guess it didn’t have to look like Disneyworld, did it?

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, Princess. 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.”