Everyone at the castle knows that I’m celibate, at least for now, but that doesn’t stop the occasional employee from trying. I’m not the most attractive king, but I’m good-looking enough, I suppose
, and besides, the females here love whoever holds the most power. In the castle, that’s me. Hell, in the kingdom it’s me. That’s one of the reasons I never date. I have no idea to tell who wants to spend time with me because they like me and not because they think I can give them something.
The women I know are nothing like Cheryl.
Cheryl was the perfect wife. She was a wonderful bride and an incredible queen. Together, she served the people of Dark Falls with me. She was beloved as a leader and did so much to help the children, the families, and the individuals of our city. We loved this kingdom. Together, we ruled it. With Wyatt as our advisor and Cheryl’s sisters to help, we made this place better.
And then she was gone.
In the years since her death, the kingdom, as I knew it, has fallen away.
It’s gotten dark.
Lonely.
And now we have a demon problem.
Fuck.
I keep moving down the hallway until I reach the one place I can truly be alone: the library. I close the doors behind me, locking them, and then I pace the aisles of the room until I find the book I’m looking for.
It’s an old one. The pages of the leather-bound copy are worn and well-read. They’ve been loved because together, Cheryl and I used to read these pages as a couple. Fairy Tales for Dark Falls Fairies is a silly title, perhaps, but it’s a collection of stories from our community. We both loved losing ourselves in the pages of these stories.
We loved everything about immersing ourselves in books that could help us forget, just for a little while, how much we’d lost. As an individual, losing a child was painful. As a couple, it was devastating. I don’t think either one of us really ever recovered from losing our little boy. It certainly didn’t make things easier. In a world where vampires hunted and demons roamed, the death of a child was just one more horror that we shouldn’t have had to bear.
I sit in the library and I turn the pages of the book. Soon the old, crinkly pages are wet with my tears, but I don’t care. I don’t care about anything anymore.
I just want the pain to stop.
I want the killing to stop.
I want all of it to stop.
It’s not very king-like to cry over a girl. It’s not very royal-ish to shed tears over losing your love, but that doesn’t stop the fact that it happened or that she’s gone or that I’m alone in the universe now.
I guess that’s not entirely true.
I still have Wyatt.
I still have my people.
I still have the tiniest sliver of hope that somehow, things will be okay.
What I need is a plan. Every king needs one. What I need is to figure out exactly what steps I need to take in order to get rid of these damn demons.
Step one: figure out what’s attracting them. They certainly didn’t wander into Dark Falls by accident.
Step two: find out how to fight them easily. As faes, we’re strong, and we’re wonderful at avoiding danger, but we don’t often come out on top in fights with demons. Other creatures we can slay without issue, but demons? Demons are a tricky bunch.
Step three: get rid of them for good.
Banish them.
Say goodbye.
I miss my wife. I miss having Cheryl around to help me bounce ideas off of. I miss her in so many ways that it hurts, but most of all, I miss the way she always seemed to know exactly what to do when things got hard. She always knew exactly what I needed to hear. She could guide me.
She was my lighthouse.