all over again after my death, only now this was in reverse as I opened my eyes and saw the sky above me. I felt the blades of grass surround me, questioning where I was this time.
“Judas… Judas… come on now… we have to go.” I heard a sweet soft voice I barely even remembered, but one I did all the same. As though it had been but a glimpse in my memories and somewhere buried deep. I sat up, squinting and holding my hand up against the sun from blinding me. Then I blinked away the dark spots in my eyes, and focused on my surroundings as that enchanting voice still called for me.
“Mother?” I questioned the moment I recognised it fully this time, but I had been only a boy then. That's when I glanced over to the figure moving in the field we used to play in. She was holding out a hand to me, telling me to go to her. I found myself trying to think back to a time before this. Trying to recollect something I needed to be doing… something important, but then she grinned at me, such a beautiful smile. I remember my father telling me once that he fell in love with that smile and everything else after that followed. He hadn't been the same after she was taken to the next life.
But then again, neither had I.
“Judas, come on Judas… your father will be wondering where we are,” she called to me again.
“I don't understand,” I admitted, the sound of my voice feeling strange, as it too was one I didn't recognise. I then looked down at my hands and saw for myself a pair I had not seen in a long time… so many lifetimes ago. For they were not the hands of Lucius, the vampire King, they were the hands of my mother’s son…
The hands of Judas.
“Now, haven't you got somewhere else to be?” Suddenly this was a new voice, and I spun around as this time it was one I knew well. I then took in the beautiful face staring back at me, a face I would never forget. Gods, she was stunning. She looked like some fallen Goddess, in a white flowing dress with her dark hair spilling over her shoulders in a carefree way.
“Amelia?” I said her name in question, surprised that she was here too.
“We're all waiting for you, Lucius… I am waiting for you,” she added, and this time when I looked down at my hands, they were back to being those belonging to the lover she had called me. I knew now what this was. It was a test with two choices to make. I could go with my mother as Judas, or I could go with Amelia, my Fated One and fight for her and for a future where we may be together.
“Amelia, where are you?” I asked, wondering now if she had some kind of connection to me and this was her way of holding on.
“I am in Tartarus waiting for you. The Keystone is waiting… don’t let him get there.” The moment she said this I sucked in a startled breath, knowing what this meant. Matthias wanted the blood of the Titans to change him into a God. Which meant that we had to stop him before that happened!
I already knew that if I was here in the Elysian fields, that all the souls that had once been a part of me, were now lost. Amelia must have had no choice but to use the Eye to transfer them into Matthias. But that didn't mean that all hope was gone, for if she was able to reach out to me here, then there was still something left to fight for.
And I knew I would rather die fighting, than just give up and turn around to walk towards a memory that was long since dead and buried. Because I was not that man anymore. Judas had died not long after my daughter had taken her last breath. Lucius was who I was now, even if I had to fight to keep the name. For I would rather die with the memory of me falling on the battlefield than dying the moment my souls were taken from me.
So, I took one last look at my mother as a way of goodbye, and then took the only hand that mattered to me…
I reached out for my Queen.
33
Queen of Sins
“He's back!” I heard someone