Reign Shadowfell's Arc

Chapter 6 of 29

Reign sat where the older woman pointed. The stone floor cooled him through his trousers. The imp climbed onto his knee and stayed there, tail curled, eyes on the brokers. Vixen took a place across from him. The older man stepped back into the dark, leaving the older woman to do the telling. She did not begin with words. She reached into her robe and drew out a red stone set in silver. A raven spread its wings across the face of it. A silver ring coiled above the bird, biting its own tail. She held it up so the chamber light caught the red, then the black. "Who wears this rules House Shadowfell," the older woman said. She placed the amulet in Reign's open palm. It was heavier than it looked. "It is your birthright. It is your seat. The vampires of this realm answer to the one who carries it, and that one is you." Reign closed his fingers around the stone. Beside him, the imp went still. Across from him, Vixen's eyes went wide. She dropped from her crouch to both knees. The imp slid off his leg and did the same, pressing its forehead to the floor. Reign looked down at two bowed heads and did not know what to do with his own. "Your father ruled this house before you," the older woman said. "Your mother was the daughter of Thanos. The demon king himself." Reign's hand tightened on the amulet. The silver bit into his palm. He had come here for a name, and he had been handed a throne and a grandfather in the same breath. He understood now why his adoptive family would have killed him. He understood why brokers had guarded this room. He also understood that the woman in the tunnel, Vixen's mother, had wanted him dead before he ever touched this stone. That fight was still waiting. He lifted the amulet over his head and let it settle against his chest. The imp raised its face. Vixen stood. "Tell me the rest," Reign said. The older woman shook her head. "Not tonight. You carry enough to leave this cave alive. The rest waits until you can hold it without breaking." The wall behind him gave a low sound. A seam of light opened where none had been. The tunnel was unsealing. Reign got to his feet with the stone warm against his sternum and the imp at his heel. He had a name for his blood now. He did not yet have the whole of it.