Chapter Seven: Sons of Twilight

River Black

House Eventide was a sprawling manor surrounded by a wrought iron fence dripping with crimson roses. Four stories and made of marble, it was the most beautiful building she’d ever seen in person. It did look like a prince would live there. Something about it was sad too, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Most of the windows were dark, heavy curtains drawn. The gardens in the courtyard were a little overgrown. It looked to be a grand place forgotten. She supposed that’s what made it sad.

Tamsin helped her from the carriage and took her into the manor, sneaking her in almost. He said that though he hadn’t seen his brother in a long time, he wasn’t keen on visitors and had a fiery temper. Plus, he’d broken the treaty, and he was sure his older brother would be angry with him. He promised her he would deal with it and told her not to worry.

River was too confused and dazzled to worry. Opulence and wealth surrounded her. Plush carpets on marble floors, heavy velvet drapes. But again, she was struck with just how empty it seemed. And dark. No torches or candles. Tamsin didn’t speak, he just led her by the hand down dark and twisting corridors.

She didn’t know how many turns they took and she realized she was just as lost as she’d had been in the woods. If she needed to run, she had no idea how to make it back to the entrance of the manor. The further they went, the older the building seemed to be. The dustier and less used too.

As if sensing her ill ease, Tamsin stopped as they headed down a winding, stone staircase, candleabra in hand. Once more, River marveled at how handsome he was, how beautiful. He wore it casually, as if he weren’t aware of how attractive he was. “It’s for your safety,” he told her. “This manor is vast and enchanted. You’ll be hard to find. It helps me...protect you.” His voice sounded rough at the last of what he said.

No one had ever wanted to protect her before, save her parents. Her ex never stood up for her when they’d been in high school together. He just hadn’t seemed to care and in her darker moments of self doubt, River was pretty sure he agreed with her detractors.

“In the morning,” Tamsin went on, taking her hand and helping her down the dark staircase, “I’ll explain all this a little better. Show you around. We’re only in danger at night. The Witch Queen never comes out during the day and neither do her sons.”

“Her sons?” she questioned.

Tamsin nodded. “The Dain, Dub, and Dother.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. “There are -more- of those things?”

He nodded with a sigh. “They’re all different, but equally monstrous.”

River shook her head as if it would clear it or she’d wake up. She couldn’t help but feel she was lost in a dream. Maybe, when she’d gotten lost in the woods, she’d fallen and hit her head and this was all some vibrant hallucination. A little, sinking voice inside her head said that wasn’t true and this was all too real. She couldn’t think about that, though. Not right now. Instead, River tried to focus on the moment.

At the bottom of the staircase was a hallway, long and desolate. He led her to the first door on the right and took a large, iron key ring from his cloak unlocking the door. “This room hasn’t been used in...oh...hundreds of years,” he told her, opening it. The door groaned, rusty hinges whining in protest.

“What...am I supposed to...do? In there,” she asked gesturing to the dark room. She could see in the candles’ meager light that there were large pieces of furniture draped in white cloths.

Tamsin sighed, brow knotting. “Sleep? Rest? I’ll bring you something to eat in the morning. I promise.”

River hesitated. She didn’t want to be alone in a strange place. In the dark. The manor was the sort of place that seemed haunted. And things that shouldn’t have been real, like the Fae and Witches...definitely were. There were monsters here. She looked up at Tamsin, feeling desperate and afraid.

He stood close. So close she could feel the warmth radiating off his body in the chill hallway. He looked down at her, expression hard to read, a cross between worry and hunger. Desire. She saw it glittering in his eyes which were now silver. The sea green had utterly been consumed. Raising his hand, Tamsin slowly dragged his knuckles down her cheek.

“I won’t let any harm come to you,” he told her, flicking his tongue over his bottom lip. “I couldn’t bear it. When I saw you...” he trailed off, closing his eyes and dropping his hand. “When I saw you, lost, afraid, so beautiful. I couldn’t let the Dain kill you.”

He leaned in and for a moment, River felt caught in a spell. She leaned in too. Her breath caught in her throat and she was certain he’d kiss her. But he didn’t. Instead, he pressed the candleabra in her hand.

“Goodnight, River,” he said, his voice rough again. He turned away from her and left her standing in the hall.

#

Aelnith Eventide

As he always did of late, Aelnith entered his manor through the crypts. He didn’t want any of the staff or his brother to know of his comings and goings. In fact, he slept in the crypts during the day.

The sun was now his enemy. If the light of the sun touched him, it would turn him to ash, destroying him. In the first few months of his curse, he considered letting the sun take him away. He was a monster, after all. He deserved to die.

But his father didn’t raise him to give in so easily. He had all of eternity now to find a way to break his curse and to defeat the Witch Queen Carmun. He had to restore House Eventide to its former glory.

His younger brother Tamsin was certainly making that difficult, he thought as he traversed the dark, dank crypts, weaving in and out of the tombs of his ancestors. With ease, he pushed up a trap door that lead to a storage room in the basement. Before his curse, it would have taken incredible effort to lift the heavy, iron trap door, but now, he possessed the strength of ten men. It was effortless.

The very moment he pulled himself up into the storage room, Aelnith could sense her. -Smell- her. The human woman River. He swore he could hear the faint drum of her heartbeat, somewhere in the manor.

As Sons of the Twilight Wood, Aelnith and his brother Tamsin were touched by many gifts. Their court had once been full of life and beauty. Elves and Fae. Elaborate feasts and balls every full moon. Now, they were all but destroyed. Cursed to be terrible monsters, night creatures that preyed on living beings.

Tamsin became a vicious dire wolf, in direct opposition to his gentle nature. Uncontrollable and intent on killing anything in his path. Aelnith, once a gregarious and charming bachelor, set to become King of Eventide, became a wraith, a vampire, forced into seclusion. Forced to feed on the blood of the living to sustain him. He’d tried to resist his hunger, but if he went to long, it made him a mindless revenant, no better and no less ruthless than Tamsin.

His natural gifts were only enhanced and perverted by his curse. He could feel River. Smell her. Almost taste her on his tongue. It made it easy to find her where Tamsin had thought to cleverly hide her away in the East wing of the manor.

Aelnith stood outside her door, forehead pressed to the rough wood. He waited until he heard the soft sound of her even breathing. He waited until she fell asleep.