I feel so bad for not updating, I've been on a half-year hiatus. (crying emoji)

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this next chapter. ;)

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'Hate builds like scars on the most delicate skin. It builds you up but it serves as a reminder of your broken soul.'

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No matter how hard someone tries, it's difficult to remove a burning image from the mind. If it's a vivid memory you can bet anything that it would take a limitless amount of meditation to forget. My attempt at trying to forget her face has become futile. Of course, I can't forget at all, I look just like her and apparently, I am her and for some insane reason, her spirit is still alive.

She caused a lot of pain and it is my greatest wish that she would stop. Alive or not.

Rath helped me to learn that my soul is even older than I thought it was. He conducted research, in other words, asked one of his demons to look into the archives, and found that I've been a wandering spirit. Datura wasn't lying when she mentioned something about me getting a body. What puzzles the two of us is what she said next. Her mention of a deal I made with the devil had me thinking about all of my poor life choices. I'll be known in history as the woman who always made the wrong deals.

I hold the crumpled piece of paper in my hand and grit my teeth. The letter S stares back at me with invisible eyes - haunting me like a ghost in the night. What bothers me the most is the fact that one letter can stand for either Scarlett or even Sebastian.

I hear a very loud and exhausted sigh and I look up with a glare. Across the table, sits a very amused Rath, who has vowed to watch me in peril as I desperately try to decode the damn note. I don't care if he is the Demon King, I don't want his useless opinions and I-told-you-so attitude.

I don't want him here.

He raises a brow at me and smirks, just before leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. When I first met Rath he was a soul-sucking, motorcycle model wanna-be with an attitude. You'd think that after a month of seeing his face every day I would have grown accustomed to his presence. I haven't the slightest -his ego is too big for his already massive body.

"You know what, Kitten? I think you may be overthinking this a little bit."

I roll my eyes and slump against my chair. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He shrugs his shoulders and closes his eyes. I grit my teeth and think of ways to get him to stay quiet. He knows and he won't tell me. He's being your typical, powerful, know-it-all creature - he'll sit there and watch you fail miserably until you ask for a small hint in hopes of going in the right direction. "You know who wrote that note, you just won't admit it."

His tone of voice and attitude has me wanting to bite my own head off. He may be right and I may be over thinking, but I know it couldn't possibly happen. "That is impossible," I say adamantly.

"What, that I'm right?" He peeks one eye open. He does a side grin and I see a quick flash of his pearly whites. His sharp jaw looks as if it's ready to cut someone. "You know I am."

"No," I say while pulling myself up to stand. My hands remain on the table, while I hit him with a wary look. He looks right back at me with his dark eyes and pops his chair back in place. The heat I'm feeling on my skin seeps into my flesh and muscles. "And even if you were, I won't let anything happen."

"It's been three weeks, Saphira."

"Don't remind me." I fold the note neatly and place it back in my pocket.

If you had met me a year ago, you would have learned my desire to finally depart from this life. I had lived for over two hundred years without a single purpose, and without a soul to spend it with. I began to grow hopeless. I found myself living a life that was not mine. I had no recollection of my childhood and no vision of the future. Being an assassin of the underworld meant that I was taking lives for the benefit of finding my origin - an origin that I could never find.

That all changed.

I met Valentine. He showed me the side of life that I was missing. He pulled me out of the dark hole I placed myself in and helped me to see that I can live a life worth living. No one should go through life alone and that's what I have done for the past century. Too often, have I closed my mind off to everything that stumbled into my path and when I met him, I realized that I was wrong.

Now, I have a different problem, a killer on the loose, possibly still in Numidia. The shapeshifter, Echo, was put to trial and he would have been sentenced to death but since he's under my jurisdiction, I kept him alive. We must find out why he attacked me and killed Augustine, having him dead would be no use. He's now sitting in a lone cell in my basement. You should have seen the look on Sebastian's face when the council found out that Echo was a resident of Talmira and that he isn't even a vampire at all. It feels good to have this much power and use it.

As I was turning around I feel a pair of strong arms embrace me. My heart jumps as I feel his warmth around me. It's the kind that you long for after a brisk day in the snow.

"What are you doing here?" I hear him whisper in my ear as he looks up to narrow his eyes at Rath. I am no fool - any living creature can sense the obvious jealousy that is dripping from his voice. I squeeze my arms gently around his torso to assure him of my loyalty. I know for the fact that, the question he asked was not for me, but for the demon. "Don't you have a meeting to get to?"

I sigh deeply and release air from my lungs through my mouth. Meeting after meeting - I swear the grand council is purposely trying to wear me out. "Yes, in five minutes. Acarius has been bugging me about the damn peace treaty."

Valentine locks his gaze with mine as he pulls me closer to him. A burst of heat travels from my core to my toes. One look from him and I melt into a puddle. I miss those majestic blue eyes. "Go, I'll see you soon." He finishes his sentence with a quick but tender kiss on my lips.

I give him a small smile and a nod. "You better."

I should not have looked back at Rath because the biggest, most obvious smirk is dancing on his lips. He winks at me and I return it with a look of disgust. My walk out to the corridor was quick. The tension in the room was unbearably thick and it felt as if the room was about to explode.

My eyes droop down as I walk down the empty corridor. Seconds of peace and quiet is all I get nowadays. I'm often tossed in different directions as expectations are placed on my shoulders. I'm not even Queen yet and already, they have me trying to make peace with all the inhabitants of Acacia.

I sigh heavily as I hear a familiar click of heels on the stone floor.

"There you are, Saphira," she says behind me. I stop in my tracks and turn around. "I have those papers ready for signing in your office. Your belongings from the estate will arrive in a couple of days."

It's been a week since my coronation and I am up to my neck with paperwork, requests, and meeting. I haven't been able to sit down and think. The dark winding walls of this dead castle isn't helping either, every turn I take reminds me of the hatred my creator had. I stop walking and slightly turn my body toward my assistant. "Am I doing the right thing, Chelsea?"

"I think you're doing what's best. You have the world in your hands, not many will get an opportunity to run a kingdom," she says wisely. This is why I've brought her back. Chelsea may be one of the only few people that I trust, more than anyone else in this world. She has been with me for fifteen years and has accompanied me since the release of my first book until the day she was turned into a vampire.

We still have no clue as to who turned her and manipulated her into attacking me. Although she did, she's still the same girl I know and trust.

Her words shoot through my head and the noise around me blurs. Ever since that damn hallucination at the coronation, I haven't been able to focus. I shake those dark, unwanted thoughts away and try to change the subject into something a bit more light.

"Enough of that. The grand council will hear from me about the new policies soon enough. How are your boys?"

She sighs deeply which causes me to bite the insides of my cheek. I look at her as she recalls how her husband and son are. A frown replaces the neutral look on her face and I immediately regret ever asking.

"Bryce hasn't let me hold him for days," she says quietly and sorrowfully. "H-he keeps crying and asking for his momma. Luke keeps trying to convince him that it's still me and he thinks it's because Bryce hasn't seen me in a while but I think it's because he can feel that I've changed."

I feel a deep concern for her in my heart, I've never met either of her boys but I know that she loves them both dearly. "And Luke, how does he feel about all of this?"

"He's slowly getting used to it. Especially with all the blood intake, he was never into vampires, not even after all those movies we used to watch. We just never thought it would happen," her tone sounded better talking about her husband than her son. "He's grateful, though, for letting us stay in your home and for the generous supply of necessities you have delivered every day."

I let out a small sigh of relief. "It's all yours now and those deliveries will never stop as long as you take them in."

She smiles before giving me a nod to walk through the doors. We arrive at the conference room where two chairs are placed in front of a dark mahogany table. A large television screen flashes with the profiles of all the royals in the other kingdoms. The hairs on my neck and arms stand as I hear the chair next to mine scrape against the floor.

How did I forget that he was even here?

"Don't you have a place of your own in Inferus?" I question his daily presence in my home.

He gives me a dark and mischievous look. "Why, did you want to come over? My parents aren't home."

He adds a wink and wolfish grin and I look at him in disgust. How can someone as old as him be so immature? I refrain from saying anything as our cameras turn on and we are face to face with the grand council. King Acarius of Elriel, Kingdom of Witches speaks up, as he is presiding over the meeting.

"I apologize if we could not meet in person, but we have an urgent matter in our hands..." His voice fades into the background as I look into the eyes of the man who contradicted everything I said the last time I saw him. Sebastian's glowing green eyes burn through the screen like snakes in the dead of night. I shouldn't be accusing him of anything but I can't help but assume. The fake illusion of his smile melts as I stare into the darkness of his eyes.

The rest of the meeting blurs into my ears as I think of all things that could go wrong as they append Tenebria into the Underworld. The council will meet as one during the renewal of the treaty at the pool of Immortals. Lavare Immortalis, also known as the unified waters, will grow as it will now flow through my Kingdom. They make plans to raise a barrier between my kingdom and theirs but the position of Talmira makes it difficult.

My shoulders grow heavy as they all continue to discuss what is to happen within and between the kingdoms. Sebastian even had the audacity to mention Echo, my prisoner - the shapeshifter who he desperately what's to execute. The veins in my neck and forehead throb with stress and frustration the longer I listen to him.

I squeeze my fists until I can feel my nails puncture my palms. Every time I speak, my voice becomes aggressive and blunt, I wonder if he is getting the message that I do not like him. It doesn't help that he was the one that shot Datura knowing full well that I would die the instant she does. He made that choice all on his own - he knew what would happen.

"Saphira," a calm voice says in my ear. His firm hands grip my shoulders to try and calm me down. I sigh heavily through my nostrils as I feel his comforting touch. I notice the screen has been turned off and that I'm the only one in the room. Did that entire meeting just go over my head?

Valentine gives me a kiss on the forehead as he helps me up and escorts me to our quarters. His intimate touch sends different vibrations through my body. I may be tired but I'm not tired enough for what we both have planned.

"Let me help you relax," he says in my ear as he massages my back. I let out a slight moan as his hands work their magic on my tense muscles. I feel his body against mine and I am instantly electrocuted with intense heat. It starts from the deepest parts of my core to my toes.

He places and hot kiss under my ear and that's what makes me turn my whole body around to face him. I press my lips against his -  desperately wanting to drink him in. He's all I need to forget about what's happening outside our doors. He can make all of my worries disappear.

"Did you lock the door?" I whisper in his ear.

"Of course," he says as he picks me up and places me on the desk.

His energy and passion pass through our lips and our tongues as they collide in a slick exchange. In a short amount of time his shirt was on the floor along with every piece of clothing, I had on my body. I see the titanium necklace dangling from his neck and I wrap it around my hand to pull him toward me.

I remember this necklace and the key that is held. It was the subject of my current curiosity. I look down at it and examine its small details. Valentine stops and looks down along with me. It was then that I said something I completely regret - something I should not have asked.

"Are you ever going to tell me what this key is really for?"

The moment he heard those words, his normally majestic blue eyes turned into pitch black orbs.

***

Quick update on me :

I'm still in college, GPA is okay-ish.

Hawaii is freaking amazing.

I've taken way too many selfies.