The immortal and damned.., p.1
The Immortal And Damned (The Everlasting Curse Series Book 3), page 1
The Immortal And Damned © 2021 G. Bailey
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and formed by this author’s imagination. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design by Amalia Chitulescu
Edited by Polished Perfection
Created with Vellum
Contents
Description
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
16. Bonus Read
About the Author
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Description
There is no place for immortal love in the world of the damned.
Vampires. Witches. Sirens and hellcasters.
Can one queen rule them all?
Who will survive when the final war is over?
Riona Dark survived being sold at the auction, living with two vampire princes, and taking the magic of the island as her own.
But losing Maddox, the Mad Prince and the vampire who owns her heart, is too much. The sirens offer Riona a way to erase her emotions, to escape the empty pit inside her chest and the island full of vampires looking to her as their queen.
But what if it’s not the end for Maddox?
Can they save each other before it’s too late?
Warning: This book is a dark romance, and it contains themes not for the faint of heart.
Prologue
Reign
“Staring at the rubble of this building isn’t going to bring Maddox back to life or save Riona from the sirens,” Katy’s cold, piercing voice echoes around me like a fog. I barely breathe as she stops at my side, close enough for her scent to overwhelm me. Ice and berries, that’s what she scents like and always has done. But even she, my most trusted guard and a woman I have never wanted far from me, can’t dull the sting of this place. The place I watched, powerless to do anything, as hellfire burnt my brother into nothing. Everything after his death is a blur of red and black, including the smashing of the building in Riona’s outburst. I woke up under a bunch of brick, the weight of it keeping me buried. But part of me wanted to stay under those rocks forever and never face what happened.
My brother is dead.
My heart cracks in my chest, splintering into pieces. My brother is dead. My little brother, who I was meant to protect. Our mother must be horrified, looking down at just me now. At least he is with her.
Part of me always thought Maddox, the Mad Prince, would live forever and outshine us all one day. When he got his head out of his ass and stopped using his past to define his future. Turned out it took a certain witch/hellcaster to do just that. Riona Dark. For years, Maddox and I argued over everything small and everything big, like the throne. He was never a king until he met her, and for the first time, I realised that maybe he was meant to be the king, with Riona at his side. The pair of them are the perfect mix of light and darkness, and together they shape a future where everything could be free. The vampires love them, the power chose them, and I would bow to them both. But even she couldn’t save him from her father.
“She has run away to be with the sirens. That’s her choice,” I snap back, turning from the rubble of the building my brother died on and back onto the messy street. People are out, cleaning and picking up what is left of the burnt houses in this row. I watch a young vampire woman sweeping ash into a pile, the brush of her straw broom etching on my nerves with each swipe. My fangs ache, reminding me I haven’t fed since my brother’s death.
It’s been two weeks. Fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty-six hours.
It still doesn’t feel real. He. Is. Gone.
“Reign,” Katy softly murmurs, stepping in front of me this time, capturing my attention as she always has done and never once realised it. Her black hair is cascading down her back, braided away from her perfect and beautiful face. For a second, I remember her in a dress, dancing in my arms with witches all around us on a night not so long ago. It feels a long time ago.
I’ve never felt much for females other than a burst of desire, easily sated with one long night. I have a feeling one touch, one kiss, from Katy and I’d fall to my knees to beg for a lifetime with her. Something changed between us that night, or at least I had hoped it had, and now there is a coldness between us created by me in my grief. I’ve pushed her away, and I don’t have a single clue how to make a relationship work between us. Part of me wants to run away from her, fight what I’m feeling, but another part of me needs to figure this out because she isn’t running away, leaving me to wallow and scream in my pain. I don’t deserve her; I don’t deserve to be falling in love with her, and I’m powerless to even stop myself thinking of what it would be like to kiss her right at this moment.
I hate that I’m even thinking of her when my brother is a pile of ashes under the rubble of the house behind me.
Katy comes closer and places her hand on my arm, her touch warm. “He would want you to save her.”
Fuck, she is right. Maddox would haunt my arse forever if I let the sirens take Riona and warp her soul into something new and heartless. I meet Katy’s eyes, not bothering to hide the pain in my own, and she flinches. “I have nothing to show her, nothing to give her. I could save her from the sirens, and then what?”
“I have something.”
Katy and I turn to see two of the hellcaster children standing on a flat stone. The girl I recognise from seeing her at Riona’s side sometimes, her blonde hair and ember eyes are unforgettable, as she doesn’t look like a normal child. A haunted one, perhaps. The other child is a boy, around the same age as the girl.
“Ember, right?” Katy questions. “This isn’t a good time, kids.”
Ember holds her ground, and not many would have the strength to do that when Katy told them to go. “I am Queen Riona’s friend, and I like Prince Maddox, so I asked my friends for help.”
She blows out a long breath of air, the only sign she is nervous. “Hellfire can be a portal as much as it can destroy. Prince Maddox is not dead, and we can prove it. If you will let us, your majesty.”
I shake my head, a low growl escaping my throat. “This isn’t a funny game to play, kids.”
Katy places her hand out in front of me and steps forward, watching them. I don’t know why she is entertaining this madness. I’ve never understood children, and now isn’t the time to be playing their games. “Prove it then.”
Ember turns to the boy and sharply nods. “Show them, Dust.”
Who names their kid Dust?
Katy lowers her voice just for me, like she can read my thoughts. “They named themselves. But still.”
I turn back as the kids hold hands, making a circle with their arms, and one bright flame flickers to life in the middle of their arms. Slowly, the flame spreads in a circle, washing through the air and creating a flat surface of flame.
Ember turns to me, sweat lining her forehead and her eyes glowing like the fire she has made with Dust. “Quick, come and see him.”
Katy moves first, and her gasp when she looks down into the flame makes me move, my feet out of my control, brutal hope wrapping around my heart in a vise. I walk up to the children and look down into the flat flame that shows a world far from here.
What I see changes everything.
Chapter One
My dreams are haunting me.
Punishing me.
Destroying me.
What is left of my soul, my heart, my core, cracks as I look at a man on his knees, in chains, blood pouring down the muscles in his chest and down his flat stomach before disappearing into the black trousers, mixing with the fabric. His raven black hair is a mess of locks around his head, covering his forehead and touching his eyes. The only colour is the red crystals woven into his hair strands, glittering from the flames outside the cage he is in. The flames almost make the black steel bars of the cage seem red, clashing with the blood covering him.
His eyes have never looked as dark as they do right in this moment. In this dream.
His eyes, that focus on me, like we are really together, are pits of blackness. Pure black, and there isn’t any light there like I used to be able to find in the redness.
Red and black, pitted against each other, luring me into their depths.
Now there is only darkness, and it hurts my chest, like someone is physically stabbing me there.
Because this is a dream, and he isn’t alive.
Maddox Borealis is dead, and this dream...it’s another dagger to my chest.
It’s another death for me.
Because I have to wake up.
I gasp as I wake up, clutching the sea blue silk sheets crumpled by my waist and legs, feeling like they are pushing me down. I push them away and crawl off the large bed, stepping onto the cold tiles and letting them shock me back into the real world.
The world without Maddox.
Hot tears fall down my cheeks, following a path marked by so many of them that have fallen before, until they touch my lips. The salty taste only makes me feel numb, like everything does at the moment. I touch my lips for a second, remembering every kiss, every stroke from Maddox like he was just here. I lower my hand, catching a glimpse of the white veins crawling over my fingertips, across my palm. The curse is going to take me to him, eventually. Maybe. Who knows how witch magic works?
I miss him. I need him. I want him back.
But he isn’t coming back, and every single time I think about him, I could break apart with how much it hurts. It hurts in my chest, in my soul, and I can’t breathe. I gasp for air, choking on sobs as I fall to my knees, wails escaping my lips that echo around the beautiful bedroom. The glass door slides open behind me, and seconds later, cold arms wrap around me and hold me tightly. I push her away and stand up, holding my hand up.
“Th-thank you, but I want to be alone,” I remind her. Natalia pauses, rising from the floor, a white dress pooling around her, hanging off her slender shoulders.
Her blue eyes, the very colour of the surrounding ocean, lock onto mine. “They have waited fourteen days to see you, but they will not wait any longer. I tried to give you time, but they wish to meet you and meet the fate all sirens share. There is magic in the sea, and some of our people call her a goddess. She will take all the pain away, transform you and share your power with all our people. We all will be safe, and you will feel free. Finally. Don’t you want that?”
“I’m not ready,” I say, shaking my head.
She softly smiles at me, walking closer, and I watch her warily. “You called for me. You asked me to take it all away, and I promise it won’t hurt in here.” She places her hand over my heart. “When you become one of us, you won’t feel anything.”
Her promise is so alluring, and a massive part of me doesn’t even hesitate to want to accept it, to go with her, to have all my emotions taken away and become something new. Something cold and empty.
Natalia isn’t those things, not really, but perhaps she could be if she wished, and I need to be like that. The pain from losing Maddox needs to stop. I can’t live through this pain.
“Will it stop me seeing him all the time? Seeing his death,” I question, my voice cracking and making the whole question seem like a plea. It is, in a way. Being here, on the sirens’ island, in their home, is a plea.
For it all to stop. The pain to go away. I need it to go away, into a void, and not to come back.
“Yes,” she tells me, her eyes understanding what is so broken inside of me without him here. The only reason I don’t tell her yes and leave this room with her, is my brother. My mother.
They are both down in the hellcaster city, with him, and I might be able to save them. I just can’t save them when I’m like this, so broken, so crushed.
I look down at my hands and feel the power of the orbs spreading through me, pulling me back to The Onyx.
My home. My city. My world.
But it’s all nothing without him.
If I get rid of my emotions, of the pain of losing him, then I can be a better queen. I can be what the people need me to be, and I might be able to go and get my family back. Kill my father.
I meet Natalia’s eyes. “Let’s go then.”
She smiles widely and walks across the windowless room. The only light coming in is from a strange magical light hanging above the bed, glowing colours of blue and green. There is a small wardrobe and a bathroom attached to the room, but I don’t know what is outside the glass door. I haven’t even looked. I didn’t want to leave this room since...well, since I asked Natalia to bring me here to escape everything. I might have killed Reign and Katy in the blast I caused. I likely did, and I can’t face that.
I can’t face anything, and I’m an utter coward. A coward for a queen. The vampires sure lucked out.
“First, you must change,” Natalia says, chatting away like I’m more than a broken doll of a girl. That’s all I feel like I am at this point. A doll she can dress if she wishes, because it really doesn’t matter.
Nothing does. “This dress will suit your colouring.” She looks back at me. “Maybe a quick wash too.”
Natalia clicks her fingers, and a whirlwind of water surrounds me, washing me in a warm caress. I close my eyes, feeling my clothes washed away from my body and a dress slid over my shoulders, curling around my neck and tightening around my ribs. The water disappears, leaving me dry as a bone and my hair softly flowing down my shoulders. The dress is a wash of blue layers of satin with a tight corset.
“Perfect, dear friend,” she says, hooking her arm in mine and coaxing me to the door. The glass door opens without a touch when we are close to it, and we walk out into a large room with several other doors. I look up at the glass ceilings and realise we are underwater, far under it. The sirens’ home is made of glass rooms and tunnels, and outside, there is nothing but crystal-clear sea for as far as I can see.
“Welcome to Lazuli Island,” Natalia tells me. “Years ago, before my time, there used to be simply caves, and that is the base of the island, but we have expanded, and now there is all this. The island is nearly as large as The Onyx, and it goes all the way to the surface in parts. This is the main citadel.”
“It’s beautiful,” I tell her, because it is. Through my pain, I can’t help admiring the silver and glass structures, the flowers and water fountains filling the edges of the room. It smells like salt with a floral undertone, and it’s soothing for a second. Until the numbness settles back into my chest, into my heart, turning the world cold once more.
Natalia, if she notices any change in me, doesn’t comment on it. She rambles on about the various structures, statues, and flowers as we walk through a tunnel and through two other rooms, all of them empty, and it makes me wonder where all her people are. We come to a stop in a room with glass walls, glass ceilings and gold-plated tiled floors that make a circle pattern on the floor. I trace the patterns, noticing they are waves in the sea, as three women walk into the room. They are each as stunning as Natalia, graceful with each step like the sea, and slightly taller than me. Two of them have white hair, eternally beautiful faces, and dark skin covered in white dresses similar to Natalia’s.
Ceremony dresses, I realise.
This has all been planned. It was never a question of if I was leaving the room, but a carefully asked demand on Natalia’s part.
The clear leader of the sirens has hair the colour of the sea, dark and mysterious, and so much of it that it follows her like a veil across the floor. Her dress is black, but white stones are held in metal around her waist. Like armour. I wonder if she thinks it will protect her from me and the power of the orbs.
“Queen of The Onyx, it is an honour to have you here with us. I sense your power is great,” she starts off, no introduction, no asking for my name. Just talk of my power.
I don’t need to ask why they want me here then. “My name is Riona, and I haven’t been officially crowned queen of anything.”
“Yet,” she replies with a cool glance at Natalia. “Does she know who I am?”
“No, Andraste,” Natalia replies. I hate when people talk over me. My hands glow with power, and everyone steps back from me, even Natalia.
I cool myself down and meet Andraste’s cold, empty gaze. She doesn’t show a single emotion on her face, because she feels nothing. “Why did you choose to become a siren?”
