Мишель Роуэн - Reign Check

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.”

“Those records are not for everyone’s eyes,” Kieran said. “It’s top secret, highly sensitive information that my mother, the queen, keeps under lock and key.”

“Okay,” I said. “So the last Darkling had a bit of an itchy trigger finger, or whatever. That was a long time ago, and it doesn’t have anything to do with me. Honestly, I don’t want to cause any trouble or hurt anyone, like, ever.”

“Of course you don’t.” My father nodded. “So, as you can see, Kieran, your visit here was a waste of your time and ours. There’s no indication that my daughter is any danger to you or your precious demon council now or any time in the future, and basing your facts on something that allegedly happened a millennium ago is ludicrous. I realize Queen Sephina has always kept a tight rein on her kingdom and her concern is not completely incomprehensible, but I assure you, worrying about Nikki in any way, shape, or form is wholly unnecessary.”

“I would normally agree with you one hundred percent, Your Majesty.” Kieran crossed his arms as he continued to study me. I swear, during this entire conversation, he hadn’t taken his attention away from me for more than a second. I felt as if I was being inspected like a blonde slab of beef.

“Normally?” I said. “So what’s the problem now?”

“The problem now, Princess Nikki, is not that there are rumors or legends about a past Darkling being troublesome — though this is, after all, what brought about the law forbidding humans and demons from procreating. It was in order to avoid creating a hybrid of the two species. Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?” He glanced meaningfully at my father.

“Kieran, stop mincing words and tell us what the issue really is,” my father said impatiently, ignoring the jab.

Before Kieran spoke another word I suddenly got a chill, a dark sense of foreboding. I looked at Michael and saw the same realization in his widening eyes.

::Princess, do you think this has to do with what King Rhys told you earlier?::

I inhaled sharply.

“There is a prophecy,” Kieran said, confirming what Michael and I were thinking. “It was revealed last week, on the very day Princess Nikki turned sixteen. At the time, it wasn’t known what it meant or who specifically it pertained to, but now it’s very clear to the council.”

“And what does this prophecy say?” my father asked sharply.

Kieran’s blue eyes tracked back to me. “That your daughter, the first Darkling born in a thousand years, will single-handedly destroy us all.”

Rhys had been right, after all. He wasn’t lying. There was a prophecy about me.

And it was a really sucky one.

“That’s completely crazy,” was the first thing I said after I found my voice again. “I’m going to destroy everyone? That doesn’t even make sense.”

Kieran’s intense gaze didn’t waver. “That is what the prophecy says.”

“I don’t care what it says. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I agree,” my father said.

I stared at him. “You do?”

He nodded, and looked at Kieran. “Who related this prophecy?”

“The official palace oracle. One who has relayed prophecies for a hundred years to my mother and to her mother before her. He has never been wrong before and certainly never about something so specific or catastrophic.”

“Well, your oracle is wrong now.” My father dismissed him without missing a beat. “It’s clear to me this must be a false prophecy based on a thousand years of rumors and lies about Darklings.”