Chapter 154

Adolph emitted hot, boiling fury the entire ride to Ash Castle. If he didn't know that Adolph was a man of his word, Eden might have been worried that Adolph was going to kill him at any moment. As it stood, he was just glad that he'd gotten the man's attention.

The problem they faced going to the vampire nations was one that Adolph wouldn't be able to begin to comprehend until he had seen it for himself. Morrigan's evil had done more damage to the spirit of the people than the curse could ever do.

People scraped together a living if they had hope. They found ways to survive famines, wars, plagues, and natural disasters. They found ways to rebuild under the guidance of a good leader.

In the hands of a tyrant, in the hands of a monster like Morrigan, there was no hope.

When he'd found his way to the Wiccan Alliance, he'd been shocked at the sight of the solar temple there and the lunar shrines in the smaller towns where vampires who had escaped Morrigan and werewolves who had found a way to live in peace among the Wiccans lived.

He had never seen a temple before, never known there was such a thing as hope or a goddess who might be watching him, let alone two.

He remembered the anger in him at this deity who had let Morrigan rise to power and kill his father. He remembered hating the fact that he was alive and seemingly a cursed existence. He remembered why he left the Wiccan lands to travel and get involved with the vampire nation. He remembered why he plotted Morrigan's downfall.

He still didn't remember when his plans had changed so much that he'd risked his life and his goals for the sake of one woman. The thought of Laurel still stirred a warm, foreign feeling in him, but it was fleeting and as gentle as a breeze.

He almost wanted to call it a hopeful love, not to be requited but to simply be a small light in his long bleak life.

A flicker of Morrigan's memory of meeting Caedan for the first time made him sneer, lined with that same hopeful love. Where Eden's had been pure, Morrigan's was twisted with ambition and obsession. Caedan had been kind and hopeful, as bright as the sun with his deep brown eyes and dark hair, but he had also been an opportunity.

With her sister dead, Morrigan inherited the throne. The darkness that had come after that threatened her control and she'd sought a means to keep her standing. A slew of male faces went through his mind, each of them dismissive and twisted in agony upon their deaths. They were so blurred with disregard he couldn't make out their faces in her memories, but Caedan's face was clear. He had not died screaming in fear but fury.

Then gray eyes like his own looked at him from within her memories, a young boy with her eyes and power like his father.

Eden shuddered and tried to push her memories away. It wasn't time to sort through her memories about him or his father right now. He needed to focus on what Morrigan knew about Ash Castle's defenses and how to support the people to take hold of their newfound freedom.

Adolph had likely considered taking over the lands under his throne, but Eden knew he would soon rethink that once he understood the work ahead. He was smart enough to want an alliance, but what terms he would ask for, Eden didn't know.

There was only one way to find out.

When they reached the entrance of Ash Castle, Eden stopped his horse and slid from his horse's back.

"Where are we?" Chasel asked, looking around.

"The entrance to Ash Castle," Eden said easily, handing his reigns to another of the Wiccan envoy as he walked to the gate. He placed his hand on the door and the shield rippled as he opened the gate, startling Adolph's escort.

The horses neighed and a spooked gasp went through the group. Eden wasn't sure if they could see the gate or even the handle, but it didn't matter.

Eden could see it as he'd seen it several years ago when he returned to ingratiate himself with her plot to take down the werewolf kingdom. It was as dark and foreboding as ever.

"Welcome," Eden said grinning at him. "Here's the true face of the vampire nation."

Adolph's eyes narrowed. He lifted his head proudly and followed Eden inside without a fuss.

Silence greeted him, but he felt the presence of vampires and half-breeds still in the city, peering out from their homes in terror. A small group of people, dressed in rags and barely hiding their trembling stood just ahead of the gate like a little welcoming party.

None of them were armed, though they looked like they wished they were. He wondered if any of them had ever owned a weapon more powerful than a farmer's scythe. They looked like they could have been farmers or foragers.

The group looked at him in shock, likely noting the color of his eyes. The Ash grey had haunted and controlled them for centuries, he wasn't surprised to see them back up in terror and apprehension.

Then, someone gasped, and they all scurried back. Perhaps Morrigan had terrified them and ruled them with blood and violence, but she had never killed a vampire or even a half-breed without reason. She threatened and coerced, but she regarded the lives of vampires above all and saw half-breeds as useful tools.

Adolph's reputation proceeded him into Ash Castle, growing more grotesque and fearsome with each battle he'd won and each vampire he'd murdered. Eden could almost hear the tales people would tell about him when soldiers came back from the borders alive.

*Hair like the sunlight that burns.* *Eyes of the clear blue sky.* *As fast as a shadow.*

*Beware the red-eyed darkness, a soldier's voice said from the back of his mind.* *That is the true face of Adolph the Destroyer with a giant maw full of teeth.*

Eden wondered if werewolves had similar stories about vampires in general or the vampire queen.

Adolph felt oddly uncomfortable. The scent of vampires permeated the air, but it was almost hidden by the tears and suffering that hung in the air. He heard them whispering his name in little frightened gasps as they entered the gates. The gate closed behind them softly, almost imperceptibly soft.

Eden approached the group ahead of them slowly.

"T-That's Adolph the Destroyer"

"Is he going to kill us, mommy?"

Adolph's stomach turned at the small voice and he turned to look at the small child with bright blue eyes staring up at him from within a dirty face. The woman beside the child lifted the child into her arms and scurried back, trying to shield the child from his view. He could make out her frightened whispers, but they sounded an awful lot like a prayer to the moon goddess.

A monster is what they thought of him. It was weird considering the terror that Morrigan had brought on his border that these people he had never even gotten close to finding feared him so much. What had the vampires who had survived the war told them? What sort of propaganda had Morrigan spread about him?

There were women and children, old people barely standing on their feet looking at them from within their homes. Dressed in rags with dirty faces, they looked worse off than even the poorest people in the werewolf kingdom.

From the journals of the previous kings, the vampire lands were full of mines where precious metals and jewels could be mined with ease. He had always imagined Morrigan's private keep to be lavish with high walls and droves of sneering, hissing vampires.

These people weren't warriors.

They didn't even seem to be the kind of vampires he was used to.

The vampire slave he'd killed seemed more dangerous than these people. A twinge of guilt went through him. Had she been captured trying to escape the terror that these people had endured? Had she been innocent or had she been sent over the border to gather intelligence?

She was dead and he would never know, but the possibility would probably haunt him for a while.

This was the problem with the aftermath of war. In battle, there was no time to empathize with the enemy. Now that the line of battle was blurred, he saw in their faces people with families and lives, fears and problems, the same as any werewolf or human under his rule.

"That man has her eyes"

"Is he an Ash?"

"I don't recognize him"

Eden walked forward, seemingly unafraid.

"Eden," Adolph called.

Eden turned to him and met his gaze.

"I will let you take lead," Adolph said and looked around. "But we will have to talk more about the future of these people."

Eden smirked and nodded, "As you wish."