The world I woke into was a chorus of draconic roars and the scent of destruction.

When I opened my eyes, I expected the warmth of the Great Light to continue, but instead, I found a man.

He looked like a god carved from obsidian and violet gems, his face a mask of grief that shattered the moment he saw me. He called me Mother, and though my mind was a vast, empty gallery of white marble, my chest ached with a rhythm I couldn’t explain.

​Now, as I walk through this palace of stone and shadow, the pressure of his world pressed against me.

Soon, we entered a large hall, where several gorgeously beautiful waiting us.

​"Those women...They are your wives?" I whispered, my voice sounding thin and fragile in the hallway.

​Adonis nodded. He held my arm with a grip so gentle it was as if he feared I might dissolve into mist if he pressed too hard. He led me toward four figures who stood like monuments of power at the end of the hall.

​The first to step forward was a woman of silver and gold. Her golden armor hummed with a draconic power, and her golden hair was pulled back with chivalrous grace.

​"Madam Adelaide," she said, her voice a resonant chime.

She dropped into a warrior’s salute, her knee hitting the stone with a heavy thud.

"I am Claudia, the Queen Of Knights. I lead the Emperor’s vanguards. It is an honor beyond words to see you returned."

​I looked at her, seeing the scars on her hands and the unwavering fire in her eyes. She was a shield, a weapon made manifest, yet she looked at Adonis with a devotion that bordered on worship.

​Then came a woman who seemed to be created from the very stars. Her gown shimmered with a thousand tiny stars, and her presence was so ethereal it made my head swim.

​"I am Mariana, the first Queen of Stars and Fate," she murmured, bowing with the grace of a willow branch.

"Mother-in-law, Adonis spoke of your kindness very often. I hope to learn that same grace from you."

​I felt a pang of inadequacy. How could a woman like me, who remembered nothing but a quiet light, teach anything to a being who commanded the heavens?

​The third, Sapphira Long, stepped forward with the bearing of a true sovereign. Her violet eyes, so much like his, scanned me with a terrifying intelligence.

"I am Sapphira, mother-in-law. I usually handle the logistics and the duties of the crown so that our husband can focus on the horizon. Welcome home."

​She was the foundation, the one who kept the gears of this empire moving.

But it was the final girl who made my soul shiver. She emerged from the shadows like a ghost, her skin pale as moonlight and her eyes filled with an ancient darkness.

​"You know me, lady Adelaide. It’s me: Millia Arwen," she said, her voice a melodic haunting.

She took my hand, and her fingers were as cold as the void I had just left.

"I am now the Goddess of Darkness. I stood by him when the world was silent. I owe my life to your son, and in turn, my soul is at your service."

​My son. They all kept calling him that. A goddess, a queen, a celestial, and a knight... all of them bound to a man who looked at me as if I were the only thing in the universe that mattered.

​"Who are you, Adonis?" I whispered, looking up at him. "What kind of man commands such power?"

​He didn’t answer. Instead, he led me to a balcony.

​The sun was high, but it felt cold. Below us, in a sprawling plaza, thousands of soldiers and creatures I had no names for were gathered.

Then, two knights of bone dragged a man in tattered gold robes to the center.

The man, no, he was a king. The king fell to his knees, his face distorted by a terror so pure it made my stomach turn.

The king shrieked in terror:

​"Please! Emperor Adonis! I will give you everything! Just spare me!"

​I looked at Adonis. The tenderness he had shown me in the warship was gone. His face had turned to stone, his violet eyes glowing with a cold, indifferent hunger.

He looked down at the begging man not with anger, but with the boredom of a gardener looking at a weed.

​"Repentance is for the living," Adonis said.

His voice wasn’t loud, yet it carried like thunder.

"You will serve me better as a memory."

​With a casual flick of his hand, a blade of violet energy tore through the air.

​I didn’t have time to blink. The man’s head rolled away, and his body slumped into a heap.

The crowd below erupted into a roar of approval that shook the very floor beneath my feet.

They cheered for the death. They cheered for the blood.

​Adonis turned back to me, the violet glow in his eyes faded into genuine warmth.

He reached out to touch my shoulder, and I found myself flinching.

My heart was thumping against my ribs from a frantic warning.

​"It is done, Mother. The man who threatened our peace is gone. You are safe here."

​Safe.

​I looked at his blood-red boots and then at the four women standing behind him. Their faces wete impassive as if they had just witnessed nothing more than the setting of the sun.

I looked at the "Goddess of Darkness" who smiled at me with those hollow eyes.

​I do not know who I am. I do not remember the boy who supposedly loved me. But as I look at this Dragon Emperor, I am certain of one thing.

​He is a monster. A beautiful, terrifying monster who has built a paradise out of a slaughterhouse. He treats me like a saint, he calls me his mother, and he kills kings as if they were insects.

​I am back among the living, but as we walked back into the dark splendor of the palace, I realized I hadn’t been rescued.

I had been captured by the most dangerous creature in existence.