Fireblood (Frostblood Saga #2)(97)
“Not truly my daughter.” Eurus’s satisfaction gleamed from Prince Eiko’s green eyes. “Not blood of my blood. My interfering mother, Neb, had long since forbade dalliances with fair mortals, I’m afraid. But your mother, the Sudesian princess, she was possessed by the Minax while you grew in her womb.”
“That’s a lie.” I’d meant to shout the denial, but the words emerged in a trembling whisper. I wanted to use my fire to attack him. I wanted to run. But my arms hung limp at my sides. It was as if I were made of stone and could only watch and listen, helpless to stop the words coming from his smiling mouth.
Eurus crossed his arms over his chest in a way that was eerily similar to what Eiko might have done. “Though I could not interfere with mortals, I have always had the ability to communicate with the two Minax I’d trapped in the frost and fire thrones. I decided on a small experiment: a mingling of the shadows with fire to create the first in a possible new race. A Child of Darkness.”
“No,” I whispered. My worst fear was coming true.
“I told the Minax to leave its host, the Fire King at that time, and inhabit his younger daughter, Princess Rota, who happened to be expecting a child.” He smirked at the memory. “An infant in a mother’s womb surrounded by the essence of the Minax, day in, day out. Things looked promising for a while after you came howling into the world. By the Minax’s account, you were a demonic little thing, with the characteristic quick temper of a Fireblood princess. But your mother didn’t seem to mind. She was tender and endlessly patient, barely showing signs that she’d been possessed for months. And when you were born, she shook off the Minax like a dog shaking off water.”
At the mention of my mother, a pang of grief pierced my heart, and then the power of the Minax eased the hurt back into numbness.
Eurus tilted his head to the side. “She was a problem. She kept soothing all your discontent into patience and your fury into love. Your darkness had no chance to grow. I decided to get rid of her, but before I could act, Rota took you away, somewhere far enough that the Minax could no longer sense her. I suspect Sage assisted her somehow. I have a few scores to settle with Cirrus’s favored mortal when I find her.”
I sensed the Minax rattling around in my mind, but it had grown almost placid, as if Eurus were telling it a bedtime story and it was soothed. I felt its leap of recognition when he mentioned my mother. Horror was laying siege to my body—thickening my throat, forcing beads of sweat to my forehead, twisting my stomach—but the Minax’s influence blocked the feelings from taking hold. I was trapped in a strange, echoing limbo between my own agonized reactions and the Minax’s numb indifference.
“But why did you want to create a Child of Darkness at all?” I asked hoarsely, half-lost in my inner battle.
“Why, the Child of Darkness was to be the first one. The first of a new race of Nightbloods. I want to create my own people, people who are strong enough to host the Minax permanently, people who will do my bidding. My living nightmares will leave the Obscurum and possess mortals… and I’ll rule the shadows. After all, Sud created Firebloods, and Fors”—he gestured to Arcus, who emanated deadly cold on my left—“made his walking icicles. It was my turn. I set out to create humans filled with the very essence of darkness. Nightbloods.”
A wisp of fear penetrated my mental haze. My first night on the ship, I’d dreamed of a creature with shadow arms spreading wide, as if the night itself longed to embrace me. My nightmare was coming true.
Eurus’s eyes glittered, his pupils dilated wide—little windows into a pitiless, obsessive mind. “But instead of creating my own people, the Minax scampered from person to person, using them up like an otter with a pile of clamshells, cracking them open and sucking out the meat before discarding them.”
“You weren’t creating. You were destroying. Taking away identity and free will.”
“Bah! Mortals would do far better if they relinquished control. You make a hash of everything anyway. You warred with each other before Frostbloods and Firebloods were created. The gods have merely made the conflicts more entertaining.”
Arcus made an angry sound. I turned to him with a warning look.
“And now that I have you,” Eurus continued, “the first successful Nightblood, the very thing I’ve wanted to create for a millennium, I can make more of you. You have shown me that sending the Minax to possess an unborn child is the only way to create a vessel that can accommodate one indefinitely. I’ll form a people who will conquer both Frostbloods and Firebloods—or kill them all off, for all I care—and rule the mortal world.” Ice ran down my spine as he rubbed his hand over his chin and added thoughtfully, “I haven’t decided whether to let the rest of the mortals live. The ones without any powers are so dreary. But I suppose they’re useful in their own way. Serfs. Servants. Chattel. What have you.”
My pulse surged, my hands clammy. I didn’t know what I felt. The Minax held the barrier between body and mind.
“They do have their uses,” Marella said, moving closer to Eurus, hands loosely clasped, her white gown and gaunt frame making her appear frail and pure. “And if you prize drive and ambition, I’ve proven myself to you time and time again.”
He turned his head and looked her over. “You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you? A bit starved, but rather fetching in a wasted sort of way.”