will be lethal.”
The chalice was heavier than I’d anticipated, and darkness slithered into my palms and through my veins when I held it. I gazed down into the blood inside, inhaling its foul scent. Disgust rolled through my stomach, and I swallowed, unsure I’d be able to get it down.
“What your sister and boyfriend did to you is unforgivable,” the Voodoo Queen said, her voice soothing and calming. “I know dark magic can be scary, but it isn’t inherently evil. This spell will take away your pain. It will heal your heartbreak. Isn’t that what you want?”
“It is,” I said, and without further thought, I lifted the goblet to my lips and took a sip. Only a small one, like the Voodoo Queen had instructed.
It crawled down my throat and filled me to the core, the darkness caressing me from the inside out. I’d expected it to be cold, like the silver magic. Instead, it was warm. Welcoming. Like a blanket that had wrapped itself around me and was keeping me safe.
The best part?
The pain was gone. I no longer felt hollow, like I was going to break down at any second. Not even when I thought back to Ethan choosing Gemma over me.
I felt… nothing.
No—not nothing.
I felt strong. Powerful. Calm.
I didn’t need Ethan’s love to feel complete. I didn’t need my sister, either. They never truly loved me, anyway. If they had, they wouldn’t have turned on me like that.
But it was okay. Because I was in control of my feelings now. More importantly, I was in control of my magic. I felt it inside me, ready and eager to bend at my will.
“It worked.” I stared at the Voodoo Queen in awe. “It actually worked.”
“Of course it worked.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out two bright red tablets.
Antidote pills.
The color of each antidote pill corresponded to the color of the potion that had created it. And I knew that shade of red from my studies in Utopia.
It was the color of transformation potion.
The Voodoo Queen handed one of the tablets to Shivani, and Shivani eyed it hungrily.
“What’s going on?” I should have been panicked. But thanks to the dark magic inside me, I simply waited, calmly, for them to tell me why they were carrying the tablets.
“You’ve been tricked,” the Voodoo Queen said kindly. “And it was so painfully easy to do it.”
She popped the antidote pill into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
Shivani did the same.
The air around them shimmered, and I was no longer looking at the Voodoo Queen and Shivani.
Two women with pale skin and jet-black hair stood in their places, both of them wearing long white dresses that looked like undergarments from another era.
The one that had been Shivani teleported out, then returned with a long, pewter-colored wand that matched the chalice. A blood-red gemstone sat at the top of the wand, with a few smaller ones below it.
The Dark Wand. And now that she was holding it, I recognized her from the battle in Nebraska.
Lavinia.
The Dark Queen of Wands.
“You pretended to be Shivani,” I said calmly. “You brought me here to do…” I turned to the other, taller woman.
Her eyes were a deep, dark red.
The eyes of a demon.
“What did you do to me?” I asked.
“I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.” She smiled wickedly, her lips the same color as the blood in the chalice. “I’m Lilith. The Dark Queen of Cups.”
“The greater demon,” I said. “The one who’s been tracking me and Gemma.”
The one the supernaturals had been trying to locate for years.
The one they were determined to kill.
I should have been scared.
But I wasn’t.
“Correct,” she said. “And the spell I just performed wasn’t to bind your pain, although binding your pain is a lovely side effect of it. Because that isn’t any old chalice.” She glanced at the goblet on the table and rested her hand on its rim. “It’s the Dark Grail. And by drinking from it, you’re now bound to me.”
“That’s why I feel so… numb?”
“It’s why you feel so calm. So in control. So strong.” she said, and I nodded, since that was exactly how I felt. “Welcome to the dark side, Mira. You’re going to make a lovely Queen.”
Thank you!
Thank you for reading The Dragon Realm! I hope you loved the book as much as I loved writing it. I’ve always wanted to write a time travel adventure, and I’m beyond excited to write the next book in the series, The Dragon Scorned.
I’ve set the