Crimson Queen

one.

My uncle was waiting for me out in the hallway, leaning against the marbled wall with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his tailored blazer jacket loosely over his shoulder. He gave me a faint smile, somehow managing to liven up his five o'clock shadow in the process.

"You know, Tori, you could always give up on the whole Enchantress thing and live a normal life if it's too much for you. You could settle down, have a couple of kids, maybe start a bakery or something."

It was as if he could sense the nerves oozing from me. And damn him for using my love of sweets against me.

I gave a half-hearted laugh. "In your dreams, Uncle."

I followed him to the other end of the hallway just before standing outside of the council's conference room. I was so used to coming to this room on a weekly basis. And yet this time it felt strange. Foreign, even. 

My hand lingered on the door handle for just a second too long. My nerves were racking. Uncomfortable. I could feel an immense energy on the other side of the door. An energy that trumped all of the council members combined. My insides felt like static. 

Keep it together, Victoria.

I put on a mask of cool and calm before striding into the room like it was business as usual. 

Our conference room was rather large, with an entire wall of glass on one side to overlook the magical crystal city of Selenium. Two lamps made entirely out of selenite towers sat in the far corners of the room with a projection screen nestled between them. The two corners closest to the door were home to two potted bamboo palms. As for furniture, we liked to keep things minimalist for the sake of maintaining focus. 

There, seated in cushioned leather chairs at the long, oval-shaped mahogany table were the magical faction leaders.

Sibella was the head of the fire elemental faction. Her naturally red hair was as firey as her passion in the council room, as she was usually never afraid to speak her mind.

Marcus leads the water elemental faction. He was an older man, kind and gentle. He always proved to be a fantastic source of knowledge when it came to helping with my training. 

Genevieve belonged to the air elementals, and she was nothing short of an airhead. Pun intended. Sometimes I wondered if she ever even paid attention during our meetings.

Lyle represented the earth elementals. He was a burly mountain of a man and had no problem pointing out my lack of training despite my age. Beyond that, he was hellbent on trying to set me up with his son and heir. I guess he figured if he can't beat them, then he'd have to join them. Literally.

He and Sibella were probably the two biggest threats to my birthright of Enchantress that sat on the council. Marcus, thankfully, was an avid supporter of both my mother and now myself. As for Genevieve, well... I highly doubt she even knows what the hell is going on let alone what day of the week it is. 

Seated at the far end of the table with his back to the projection screen was our mystery guest, and he was-

Holy shit, he was the King of Vampyre.

"Matthieu Sinclair," the whisper hitched on the cusp of my breath, and felt my knees go weak as my uncle shut and locked the door quickly behind us.

I did my best to maintain my professional composure as I took my chair at the head of the table on the door-side of the room. My uncle quickly took his seat beside me and began addressing the room.

I didn't process a single word he was saying. I was too busy staring down the infamous vampire king. I was no stranger to what he looked like. I'd seen him in the tabloids plenty of times. He was a tough nut to crack, so all the press ever really had to go off of were his good looks and brooding charm.