The Reign of Queens: A Kingdom of Diamond Antlers Novel Read online

  THE REIGN

  OF QUEENS

  ~A Kingdom of Diamond Antlers Novel~

  Zachary James

  ~Praise For~

  The Reign Of Queens

  “From page one of book one, to chapter three of book two, your writing is ‘different’, don’t want to say improved because it makes me feel like that means it was bad before…it wasn’t. I find myself reading and forgetting I’m supposed to be editing,” Heather Falotico, prized English teacher and passionate editor.

  “Once again, Mr. James brings forth another incredible fantasy novel, riddled with more twists and erotic scenes to keep you locked in! The Reign Of Queens is a sequel that blows its predecessor out of the water! Queen Ariadae will stop at nothing to end the cruel reign of Evaflora. With new detailed locations, enthralling characters, and more passionate romances, it will keep the reader never wanting to put the novel down!” Nicole DiRienzo, obsessive reader and novel enthusiast.

  “His brilliance and expertise in the writing field is truly captivating. The way Zachary James looks on life and portrays it into his books makes for a masterpiece that won't leave your mind”-David McMunn, an awakened reader.

  ~Praise For~

  The Rise Of Titanium

  “Excellent example of where one’s mind can wander, what the imagination is capable of, and how one man’s creative ideas can take readers on a journey beyond their own imaginations. With its whimsical settings, dynamic characters, and twists and turns along the way, this book will keep you entertained and engaged. This is your chance to read the first book written by a future best-selling author,” Selected five star Amazon review.

  The Reign Of Queens

  Copyright 2018 Zachary James

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No characters or scenes from the work may be replicated for republishing.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Edited by: Heather Falotico

  Cover Design by: Eight Little Pages

  Physical print in United States of America

  Ages: 16 and up

  Danielle and James

  You two have helped me more than anyone will understand; this book is dedicated to you.

  Pronunciation Guide

  People

  Ariadae Vox- Are-e-ah-day Vox

  Zube Mindelow- Zoo-be Min-dee-low

  Evaflora- Eva-flooruh

  Lhys- Lease

  Molaris- Moe-lair-iss

  Fayla- Fay-lah

  Lunan- Loo-nin

  Archaeminza- Are-kay-min-zah

  Fae

  Fae- Fay

  Succumbus- Suck-um-bis

  Mindinae- Min-dah-nay

  Tempestatis- Tem-pest-tah-tis

  Telekinae- Tell-e-kah-nay

  Forsaken

  Nymph- Nim-ph

  Dreag- Dray-guh

  Troglodyte- Trog-low-dite

  Wendigo- When-de-go

  Umbra- Uhm-bruh

  Places

  Alpri- Al-pree

  Vampyra- Vamp-ear-ah

  Solaria- Soul-are-ee-ah

  Marzia- Mart-zee-yuh

  Part One

  Winter Solstice

  Chapter One

  ~Ariadae~

  I’ve been at the jaws of death. The darkness it resides in, welcomed me with an evil grin, but I am alive. Every day I am reminded of the blessing I received to still be here on this continent, although I’m not so sure this is a blessing anymore. I keep seeing the ghosts of Gaston and Novid- the sentinels I lost during the travel through Elkwood this past summer. I try not to be scared of their presence and it’s sad to say that their spirits are a common sight, but I had seen them in Elkwood. They are always around the castle now and both make a point to frighten the living day lights out of me. It’s like all the air leaves my body and I just become a husk.

  His wheezing breath echoes from the corner of the room and I can see him watching me from the shadows. Novid has been worse than Gaston. I am not sure why, but he likes to appear more than the Novid and I still have yet to see Seri. With Gaston and Novid around so often I have been waiting for my seamstress. I still miss her blue skin and golden hair. I feel that even in the underworld she is trying to protect me and be my friend. The only way I get the demons that were once my friends to go away is if I ignore them. They’re not there, I tell myself and when I open my eyes they’re gone. I do the latter and Novid’s wheezing has vanished leaving me in the quiet bedroom.

  The door to my personal library creaks open; a seam of light from the lit hearth inside sends a beam of light cracking the dark of my bedroom in two. The shadows recoil in silent hiss from the rippling glow. When I roll over I feel the empty space beside me. Jax is up late again. He has been staying up night after night since my death four months ago. He claims that he is fine, but in all truth I think he is haunted of nightmares from that day. June twelfth is the day I died and November eighth, a week from today, is my birthday. My mortal birthday isn’t going to be special, I am immortal. Every birthday from June twelfth on, won’t matter. I no longer will age like Jeremiah, or the other mortals around the castle. I remember a time when I feared my demi-fae heritage thinking it would make me different. I’m even more different than before.

  I rise from my bed and wrap the bone-chilling silk blanket around my naked body. I grit my teeth against the cold. The sheet whispers along the floor as I open the library and lean against the doorframe. His onyx hair, now long and wavy, hangs down just past his hunched shoulders. A quill and inkwell sit on the desk beside stacked papers as he writes and fills out papers after papers. He has been rewriting and rejuvenating the laws of Equadoria. After I repealed the magic ban in my kingdom things have been different. The slums have grown happy, in a way, and the upper class citizens seem to fear the ‘conjurors’ as they call them. I want to abolish the divide between the mortal and immortal, so Jax and I have made it our duty to change Equadoria for the better.

  He looks up at me, his ice blue eyes look like pulsing lights from the flickering fire on the opposite side of the room. He doesn’t smile.

  “Did one of them wake you,” He asks quietly, as if when he speaks about my dead friends they will suddenly appear. I can’t help, but wonder the same thing. I told him about everything that happened when I died and for the first two weeks after I awoke, I pointed out each time one of them appeared and what they were doing, if Jax was around that is. He suddenly started vanishing for hours at a time and I wouldn’t see him until he was in bed later that night. He started to sleep in my chambers because he believes he is ‘protecting’ me, but I know it’s more than that. We are more than just a queen and her guardian. We always have been something different.

  “Yes,” I respond, my words getting lost to the echo of the library. “Novid decided to wheeze his way out of my dreams and into the corner of the bedroom.”

  “Is he still there,” He questions rising from the leather chair. He walks around the wooden desk and saunters to me, looking past my head into the dark beyond. I look up at him and pull his attention back on me.

  “No,” I whisper.

  “Good. I would hate for him to be a bother to my queen.”

  “Why do you call me that,” I ask sounding a bit negative. He places his hands on my hips and pulls me into his body. Any previous negativity leeches f
rom my every pore and vanishes in the brisk night.

  “Because you are.”

  “I am not,” I correct him. “I did not knight you because you told me that your allegiance lies with your father.” His father is the Winter Kingdom High Fae. Jax was a prince until he decided to lift all his duties and become a sentinel and military leader.

  He nods in agreement and lifts me into his arms carrying me from the library back into the bedroom. A giggle passes my lips as he falls back onto the mattress and I straddle his hips the plush bed fluffing up around us.

  “Be my queen,” his voice shudders seductively and I can’t help, but feel the urge to listen. “For tonight and every night you want me.” I place my lips to his and start to kiss him.

  “Just for tonight,” I growl against his mouth. Hot heavy-panted breathes pour from him. Laughing I lay more into his hard body. His strong muscles become less tense and loosen to my touch. It feels like my own form of power. It’s like I am his weakness, but in many ways, he is mine. Ever since our time together in Elkwood I’ve been undeniably attracted to him.

  He begins to move beneath me when he says, “Let me just-.” I press him into the mattress and look down at him, dominate him. His slightly longer canines gleam against the moonlight streaming through the window. Strands of my hair hang around my shoulders and I drop the blanket away, revealing my whole body to his ravenous eyes. My hair hangs past my breasts and although it wasn’t as long as it was before my mother cut it off, my immortal body makes my hair grow much faster.

  I always wanted him. I wanted his hands touching my breasts and his mouth against my neck the moment I learned who he truly was. It’s as if a physical attraction to Jax was immediate after realizing the true skin beneath his fur. I may have liked Jeremiah, my child-hood best friend, before, but now that I have felt Jax inside me and his hands along my skin I know what I want- Jax.

  “Let me,” passes from my tongue into the night. He always pleasures me, but I still have yet to return the favor. He lays back and I remove his trousers revealing the thick length of him.

  I grip him firmly and he moans loudly, the sound echoes off the walls. He throbs and pulsates in my grip and his whole-body squirms and writhes beneath my touch. Laughing I crawl up to him and grind my hips into his firm form. We become a painting, a dance, a work of art. Our bodies move as one and we transform into growling beasts wrestling through the sheets. Our primal and Fae instincts make us animalistic and hungry for the taste of each other. I smell the dirt beneath his nails that dig into the sheets and I can hear the throbbing beat of his blood pumping through his veins. I see the particles of dust flurrying through the air above us in the dark as I claw aimlessly at his back. Being immortal has transformed and turned my focus into a sharp blade, my senses are too strong to be healthy, and my powers are honed as if crafted by a fine-toothed comb. They can be a constant pressure, but Jax is my distraction from it all. He releases the pressure within me that is clawing to come out.

  I scream as he dives into the apex of my thighs. Back and forth we rock making the springs in the mattress squeal in anguish. I press down on him as he pushes up into me making my pelvis flood with bliss. I moan provoking his growl in answer. A warm flutter builds in my stomach as I watch his back, the rippling muscles tense and thrusting. I claw through the pain and moan at the blooming flower of feeling within me. There’s no stopping the explosion of butterflies beneath my skin and a blush that turns me pink. I want him, and I want to love him. I want to say that I love him but for some reason I can’t. I have so many different feelings for Jax, but I’m not quite sure I truly love him with all of my heart. I am not going to lie; I do love the sex, although he is the only man I have ever been with intimately. I don’t want him to be the only man I am intimate with either. I’ve never heard of someone’s first relationship lasting forever.

  We later reach our bending point and I am positive our screams shook the castle. The euphoria making white fire burn my brain and my body tremble. After we finish he falls asleep, like always. I was completely awake and he just rolled over. I stare unhappily at his heavily scarred back. Asshole. I wanted to talk to him and ask what he was working on, but why wake him to ask when I can look for myself.

  Rolling out of bed I walk to a velvet chair in the corner of the chamber and pull the heavy dress-like robe from atop it, wrapping the silk around me. The fabric reminds me of Jax’s fingers along my body. My wardrobe dramatically changed after I became queen and it’s almost every day I have to go to the tailor’s and get measured for a new dress he creates. His name is Rasgard. He and his handsome husband, Theon, create the most amazing gowns. Tomorrow I have a dress being made for the Winter Solstice ball.

  I head into the library and close the door carefully, not to disturb sleeping Jax across the room. The library is dark and heavy with just the fire in the center of the room, now small and will soon be embers. I ignore the temptation of poking around the logs to flare up the flames and instead head straight to the desk where Jax had been sitting. His dark quill sits inside a rippling inkwell. I dig around the stacks of papers not sure what to look for and I notice something different amongst the stacks. A written letter, sprawled in handwriting I recognize. It isn’t Jeremiah’s, Jax’s, or Zube’s. It’s my mothers.

  Dear Ariadae Vox, Queen of Titanium Antlers,

  Are you enjoying your new body and mind? I can’t wait to see you and your horrible Kingdom fall to the ground. I know what you’re thinking. Is my mother really writing to me? The answer is yes.

  Ignoring the latter I am writing to you because I am gifting you with warnings to end your rebellion against me. No more of my people will die by your hand and I hope you know that the Forsaken have been begging to get their hands on your mortals. Now, you can write back to me and this can all stop. The murder and destruction of Equadoria will end if you just write a simple letter. A letter stating that I will own everything inside Equadoria. If not, well, I hope you have an army prepared because I will be sure to ruin everything you love, including that little mortal boy of yours, Jeremiah.

  If you refuse to answer my request by Winter’s Eve I will make sure to collapse Equadoria and every Mortal kingdom on Abella. I hope you understand.

  Love,

  Evaflora Vox, Queen of Diamond Antlers

  I hope Jax only received this letter today because if he has opened and read this earlier without telling me then I will be more than angry. I will be livid. Who am I kidding? I am livid. I pull a blank piece of paper from one of the many desk drawers and begin to write my own letter to Jax.

  Dear Jax Lycus Archaeminza,

  I summon you to the throne room and make sure to bring the letter that my mother wrote to me. I hope you have a good reason for your lack of telling me of this devious threat.

  Sincerely, Queen Ariadae Vox

  I drop the note onto the center of the desk and leave my mother’s threat beside it. I head back into my chambers ignoring my flaring rage at the naked male sprawled on the mattress and saunter into the closet where I begin to dress myself. I need to distract my mind for a while so I decide to spend that time deciding on what to wear. I want to wear something simple, but when you’re the queen nothing is simple. I also have a court meeting after I report to the throne room where I will decide the fate of four individuals who have done treasonous crimes. I barely remember their reports, but I recall reading that they had murdered six young children in search for some ‘prophet’. In no way does searching for something for religious purpose make murdering citizens alright or disregarded. I don’t even know how to punish them. From the sound of what they done I have the urge to rip out the bones from beneath their skin, but I know that’s not what the court will vote on. Trying to grasp these courtly rules has been a lot harder now that I am queen.

  I tighten the bone crushing power of a corset and slide on a heavy blue velvet gown. The neck line plunges downward which lets the world see the curve of my breasts. It may not be appropria
te for court but it’s truly a beautiful piece of clothing. I don’t want to think or worry about today. I don’t want to think any day and I just want everything to stop. I do not want to be an immortal and I don’t want all my friends to die before I even look to be seventeen. This is what my life has become though. Never dying or aging because of immortality. Dressing nicely, sitting on a throne and watching generation after generation of my people come and go. It’s not pleasant, but neither is death, so I guess this was the better option. Or did I make a mistake trying to come back when I died? Should I have not fought the legion of decaying Fae in the underworld?

  I remember after I had come back from the dead, Jax said he used the leaves from the Tree of Light to wake me from the cold grasp, but a part of me thinks it wouldn’t have worked unless I fought for life. What would it have been like if I hadn’t fought back? Would I walk into the darkness and join my corpse friends or would I have wandered into the light? It doesn’t matter what would’ve happened because now I’m here, and it’s behind me.

  A maid enters the closet pulling me from my thoughts. Her tightly bound black hair gleams as she bows before me. I hate that bowing is part of court etiquette. Although respectful it reminds me of the title I don’t want, don’t deserve. There was a time when I wanted to be queen, but that was before I was reborn as immortal, before my father was murdered by a curse that cursed his mind.

  “May I assist you in dressing, Milady,” she asks. I nod in answer, but what hurts more is I can’t even remember her name. She is close to my age, my mortal age. Maybe she is one of the older maiden’s daughters.

  She gets busy pulling out a pair of black leather boots and small accessories. Laying the jewelry down, I sit on a chair and allow her to put my boots on. Even when I was a princess maids would help me dress. Although I don’t need them, it’s nice to not be alone or surrounded solely by men for once.