Blakeshire (Insight #9)(5)

“Drake, you are not running. Not now.”

My shoulders tensed. I was not in the mood for her half-ass attempts to steer me. I knew I wasn’t running, that I was going to claim what was mine, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Why not now, Mother? Would you not be satisfied until I am in the grave?” She had reached my side at that point, so she was in easy striking distance. I didn’t even blink as she slapped my face. That was a first. She’d never even raised her voice at me, much less taken a hand to me. Her eyes welled as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth.

“Mother, if I were the king that you allowed Donalt to morph me into, you would be looking at the gallows before the sun rises.”

“I did not allow him to do anything,” she said with a quake in her voice.

“Why do you want me here? Why am I to play this part any longer? This is not my reign. Not my blood, or my war. If anything, it’s Landen’s.”

“It is my blood that will rule this kingdom.”

I raised my brow. My mother may be fearless, but she had never once been materialistic. “You want the crown? Little Drake princes running around?”

She went to speak, but she held back.

“I get that you have endured witnessing my pain, that you may have a reward due to you, but I am releasing you. I want you to return home. And stay there.”

“This is my home.”

She was born and raised in Esterious; no doubt there. But my father had found her and taken her to Chara, where she had the first of her two sons. He’d rescued her from hell, and somehow my birth had flung her right back into its claws.

“Not anymore.”

“Fate states it to be true.”

My eyes met hers with those words. She had never admitted having any additional insight to me, but I knew this woman kept her secrets, and she was daring to tell me one now, one that she thought would keep me here. Even though I wasn’t running, I needed her to think I was if I wanted to hear this.

“Whose fate? Not mine. This is over.”

“My blood will rule this dimension. This is the beginning.”

Those words were far too close to what Zander had predicted long ago.

“You do wish me to meet the grave. You want me to leave a widow, children that may give you a second chance to get this motherhood thing right.”

Those words stung her, and she swayed back as if I had hit her.

“I sent your brothers for her. You will proclaim her. You will find vindication.”

Weak or not, my brothers would have a hell of a time getting Madison Marie to listen to them on any day of the week. My mother might as well have sentenced them to death.

“I could take you to a thousand kingdoms, I could build you your own. Why this one? Why now?” I demanded.

“It must be reclaimed by our blood.”

“Our blood? It was never ours.” Esterious had been ruled by Donalt for over four million years; he was the one and only king.

“Blakeshire blood is within each of my sons.”

Now I was the one that looked as if I had been slapped. I could not hide my shock.

“His bloodline was destroyed.” From what I’d gathered, that happened not long after the soul of Donalt was overcome by the evil demon that lives in the remains of that vessel now.

“One escaped. One girl.”

“A girl?”

She nodded as she eased herself down on the edge of my bed and stared into thin air. She was trembling, so much so that it took all I had not to comfort her.

“One girl, who bore girls, and those girls bore girls.”

Her story was only believable because it could not be proven. Without a male heir, the name Blakeshire would have forever been masked. The fear of Donalt in this dimension would have caused its citizens to hide the blood relation even further. No doubt, the kingdom itself would have slaughtered anyone that even posed a threat to be as evil as Donalt living amongst them.

My mother balled her fist. “It is said that once our blood bore males, the kingdom would rise, it would become more than it ever was. It would be redeemed.”

“And you had four,” I stated coldly. For the longest time, I thought I was my father’s first son. That was an honor almost as great as royalty in this world. When all hell broke loose, I discovered that I was not the first, but the third. That news triggered the rage I have fought with since the discovery of my past.

“Your third is bowing out.”

“You can’t. Not yet.”

I held a cold stare on her, trying to read her. I almost thought that she didn’t want me to go because my youngest brother was barely six; maybe she wanted him to rule, for him to be older. I couldn’t allow that. He was too pure. I alone had fought to protect him from everything I had endured.

“I can’t, because you feel that some old wives tale has promised you that if you bear sons, this kingdom is yours. I can’t, because you would not dare place your other babes in harm’s way.”

“Not true.”

“I’m not even king yet.” My voice might as well have been ice. She was one of the factors holding me back on that front. Before I could stand, she would have to swear to the court and this world that she was host for Perodine and Donalt; that I was their child, not hers. She would only do so if I went to speak to my father’s spirit.