The Toad Prince

Chapter Fourteen

Sorin toyed with his silverware, unsure why they always set him a place even when they knew he wouldn’t eat. Nadaria seemed to be in deep concentration during this meal, staring at her food while she chewed slowly. A few times she muttered to herself, only for him to realize she was speaking to Roux.

It made him nervous, unsure if she was upset about earlier, so he jumped in surprise when her voice slapped across the room.

“This curse isn’t right.”

“Why?”

She shook her head, thrumming her fingers on the table. “I need to hear the rest now, Sorin. I need details about how the vampire witch died.”

Sorin rubbed his hand down his face and nodded. It was time, and he’d gotten more of a reprieve than he expected. He was thankful for it, because with that time he’d gotten the record player room, the best moments of his life after he was turned.

He cleared his throat, and drank what wine was in his cup, then filled it again.

“When I tell you this, I want you to remember that… I wasn’t…” Sorin searched for words, trying to find the correct way to say it. “I was… f****d up. Obsessed with revenge.”

He shrugged, unsure of how else he could put it.

Nadaria only nodded, her normally expressive face flat. His heart thudded, and he wanted to take her hand across the table, but he didn’t.

“After everything settled, when the thirst was finally under some control, it was… horrific. We all knew what we’d done. Crina, and the baby, gone. Everyone in town, dead at our hands. It was awful. Relia took control of the castle, deeming it the location of our new family. That’s what she called us. Being the one that turned us, she had control over us. She could compel us to some extent.” He rolled his lips in, pausing and letting the memories drift forward, and the disgust churn his stomach. “She finally got to have me how she wanted. I was a fun toy for her.”

Nadaria frowned, anger burning hot in her chest again. Did his torment ever end? She looked around. No, it hadn’t.

“At first, I aggressively resisted. But after a while, I understood that the only way I could ever kill her was to make her trust me. See, she would… play with me like a cat with a mouse. And then she would lock me away again. I’m sure you know vampires are vulnerable in their sleep.”

She nodded for him to continue. It was all part of the legend, Dracula and his coffin.

“So, I needed her to trust me enough to sleep in front of me. If I could get a silver chain on her…”

“She’d be weak enough to kill, and she’d lose her ability to compel you,” Nadaria finished when he trailed off.

“Yes.”

Sorin stood and walked to the fireplace, staring into the flaming embers. Shame burned his veins like acid.

“So, I locked myself in my mind and became someone else. I pretended. That I liked her. That I desired her. She stopped having to compel me, and she was over the moon with joy. Finally, I had come around and seen what a treasure she was.”

He laughed, but there was no humor, and then he winced, closing his eyes and remembering.

“I could tell after a couple of months that it was working. She became more comfortable with me. And then, one evening, guess who shows up at the door?”

Nadaria stared at his back, unsure.

“She called him Papa. Dracula himself came to this castle with a handful of other vampires.”

Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. Sorin had said he’d met him.

“Relia was very proud of what she’d done here, and she invited him. Come see Papa, come see my house and my family. Gods, it was so… strange. She had a grand meal prepared.” Sorin turned over his shoulder and indicated the food. “That meal. And...”

He paused for a long time, turning his back to her again. “Dracula, as odd as it is to say, was a very charismatic man. He was pleasant company. I don’t know. But he was pure, wicked evil. Part way through the meal, they brought in a young girl, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. She wore a white gown and sobbed for her mother. That she wanted to go home." His shoulders sagged, and he sighed, long and loud. "This girl. She was my test. From the way Relia watched me, I knew this was my last step to earn her trust. And… that’s all I cared about. I obsessed about it every second of every day. I am ashamed to admit I didn’t think of the girl, or the Mama she begged for. Crina, my lost son, and my people's frozen rotting corpses were the only things that lived in my head.”

Nadaria listened, hearing his torment and feeling his shame. She knew what he would say, and her heart pinched with pain and sorrow at this unending story of horror.

“Dracula said to me, ‘Aren’t you the man of this house? Why don’t you serve the main course?’ I knew then it had all been planned between them.”

Sorin paused again and put his face in hands, sighing and muttering through his fingers. “Right there on that table, in front of all of them, I did it. I made it as quick as I could for her. Minimal suffering. It was too merciful, in his opinion—Dracula. ‘Don’t you know torment makes the blood sweeter, boy?’”

He looked back, but not at her, at the table. His eyes played the scene like a moving picture show, because he remembered it as vividly as it had happened yesterday.

“Then, they… ate her.” His eyes shifted to Nadaria. “I am a vampire. But I understand your disgust at the race. Vile creatures. Wicked and cold.”

He shook his head. “After that, Dracula thanked us for a lovely evening, and he left. Relia and I went upstairs, and I f****d her like she was the love of my life. She curled into my side like a kitten, and whispered, ‘I love you, my vampire prince.’ And I said it back, and kissed her forehead, and smoothed her hair.”

Sorin clasped his hands at his back and squeezed until his fingers were white. “When you’ve had a lot of time to reflect, like I have, you understand things. Relia did not know what love was. Because if she did, she would’ve never stopped locking me in the dungeon. For her to be so stupid as to think I would be past Crina and in love with her in a matter of months… she just could not know love.”

He looked back at his bubblegum witch, and she stared at him with the same flat expression. Sorin swallowed, sure she hated him.

“I had a silver chain hidden in the chest at the base of the bed. And an axe.” His lips curled back over his teeth, and he hissed, “I chained her, and cut her f*****g arms and legs off. Then I grabbed her by her red hair and dragged her to the garden while she screeched horrible things at me. I tied her to the tree that sees the first sun, determined to watch her burn, and then step into it myself. We all were there, happy to see her die.” He shook his head. “But I should’ve just staked her.”

As he spoke, Nadaria leaned closer, taking in every word.

“A silly toad loves a lily, so he burns his rose,

But she’ll make him pay, so everybody knows.

Shoes of iron will sear his feet

while he dances his Love Dream.

The moon full will be his torment

until his last lily is gone, spent.

And that’s how Sorin’s fairytale goes.

A little toad should be a prince, but he loved a lily, not a rose.”

Nadaria digested the words that hung heavy in the air.

“She laughed while she said it, so I cut her bottom jaw and tongue off. The sun rose, and she burned up screaming. But the rest of us didn’t die in the sun. Our first clue. Then, the next full moon, the iron shoes appeared, Crina came out of the lily pool, and the piano played our song by itself. I built that pool for her when we married. It was stupid expensive, but I did it, and had hundreds of the famous lilies brought from the Danube Delta.”

“And now there’s only one left.”

“So it would seem.”

“I need to think hard on this,” she said. “I still don’t understand what happened to the other witches. Or how that curse can necromance everyone in town. All very curious.”

She got up to leave, speaking in whispers to Roux.

“Do you hate me?” he blurted, unable to stop himself.

“Why would I?”

His eyebrows lifted. “I killed that girl so I could have my revenge.”

“Would she have lived if you’d done otherwise?”

“No, he would’ve killed her.”

“And he wouldn’t have been as merciful?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Then I don’t see what other choice you had.”

His heart stuttered, and he was sure it had stopped in his chest. Was it really that simple for her?

She bit her lip, her brow furrowed. “I don’t mean to rush out, but I must think. I must.”

“Okay. Goodnight, Nadaria.”

She walked to him and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. “Goodnight, Sorin.”

She left, still looking pensive, and he stared at the door, stunned.

***************************************

Nadaria paced in her room, sure the answer was right in front of her, when there was a knock on the door.

“Sorin,” she said, smiling when she opened it. “I thought we said goodnight.”

He looked sheepish, a lopsided smile tilting his lips. “We did, but I thought you should see what you’ve done.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come.”

He held out his arm, and she saw he had a blanket tucked under the other.

In silence, he led her to the stables, and put his finger to his lips to show she should be quiet. She arched her brow at him, but nodded.

Inside, he led her to a stall, and her heavy heart lifted and blossomed with happiness. Codi lay with the doe wrapped in his arms. Both were asleep. The little deer was bandaged, and Nadaria could sense the peace between them. She knew it. She knew he needed something to nurture.

Sorin spread the blanket over them and smiled over at her. But she stared at Codi, feeling the pressure of the situation.

She would save that boy. And she would save Sorin and everyone else. The evil of Relia had lasted long enough, and she would lay it to rest. She swore it to the Goddess and herself.