The Prince's Brother

Sebastian charged forward and two soldiers went to block him. He met each of their eyes and they slowly lowered their weapons.

Knowing it was hopeless, Sebastian looked to where another soldier was carefully leading Sabina from the bed. Dante laughed at Sebastian's panic, black blood running down his face from a cut on his lip.

Sebastian turned on him. "I challenge you!" he shouted.

The room stilled.

"W-What?" Dante said disbelievingly, the nasty smile still on his face. "Excuse me, brother? You, what?"

Sebastian straightened. "I challenge you to your rights to rule the living world."

Everyone was watching them, even Estella sat straight with rapt attention. Dante noticed the uncertainty in the room and shook his head.

"Oh, don't you dare, you bastard," Dante grinned menacingly. "If you think Father would-"

"It was my initiative to join the living. I am part-mortal and I have more claim on that world than you."

"My age gives me precedence. I'm older by half a century-"

"You belong in the Under Realm, not with the living."

"YOU AGREED TO THE TERMS!" Dante screamed. "He'll punish both of us if we bring another spat to his throne!"

Sebastian's face was set. "Then I propose a compromise."

"I won't give you Sabina," Dante shook his head. "And I won't wait another decade for this opportunity, you've sabotaged me enough. If you don't give her to me, Sebastian, she'll be entirely unprotected."

Sebastian looked at Sabina a long moment before returning to Dante. "I'll withdraw my challenge on two conditions."

Seething, Dante waited.

"I can't watch her die." Sebastian raised his chin. "I will be excused from the ceremony. I'll await your arrival in the new world with Sabina as your Queen."

"Afraid of a little bloodshed? Your courage is astounding," Dante sneered. "And?"

Sebastian hesitated. "And she will be Queen, equal ruler at your side with the right to preserve her bodily integrity. Not your slave."

"Equal ruler?" Dante repeated as though Sebastian had lost his mind.

"She won't have the power to overthrow you or quell your military campaign," Sebastian said. "But she will have power and influence. Her role must be more than your chattel."

"And what of my heirs?"

Sebastian shrugged. "Do you really think they would survive Estella?"

The Prince abruptly turned to glare at his mistress, who winked back at him. Turning to Sebastian, he was silent a moment.

"You want to squirrel away from the sight of your love's corpse, and you want to protect her from being abused. And if I refuse..."

"We go back Underground. You can imagine the men's response to that development."

"Very well, then..."

"And I want the execution to be quick and without cruelty," Sebastian added.

"That's a third condition!" Dante spat.

"Well, add it on!" Sebastian snapped back.

Dante showed his teeth. "And if I grant all this, you'll withdraw your challenge?"

Sebastian nodded. "You will announce it at ceremony, swear your oath in front of the men to guarantee your promise that she is to be respected as your equal from thereon."

"Gods, Sebastian, you really do love her," Dante remarked, slightly bewildered.

Sebastian held out his hand. "Do we have an agreement?"

Dante considered his boots before nodding. "Aye, brother." He looked around at the rest of the room and sighed heavily before grasping Sebastian's hand. "It is agreed."

He cocked his head. "But Sabina stays in the tower, and you are to leave immediately. I don't trust you, Sebastian." He turned to survey Sabina. "This is the last you'll see her alive."

"But I'll see her again," Sebastian said, his eyes lingering on Sabina's dismayed face. "I'm sorry, Sabina. This is the best I can do."

"No!" Sabina struggled with the soldier holding her. "No! Sebastian, you can't leave! You promised to be there!"

"I'm sorry," he answered without looking at her. He paused in the doorway. "I'll greet you again in the living world. I love you."

"Sebastian!" Sabina screamed, but he was gone.

Dante jerked his head and the soldiers carried Sabina from the room. He took a deep breath. "This evening took an unexpected turn, but not for the worst." He held out his hand to Estella. "You'll be rewarded for your loyalty, my love."

"I can leave the castle?" she said eagerly, her fingers sliding up his chest.

Dante laughed. "Yes, when you accompany me into the world of the living." He pinched her chin when she scowled. "Don't sulk. I've one more task for you."

She pouted.

"Guard Sabina. Sebastian may have negotiated a far better arrangement for her, but he's never been in love before."

Estella rolled her eyes. "You're brothers. This has plagued us long enough. Do you think he'll be pleasant company if you dangle the girl in front of him for eternity?"

"I don't expect him to be in your company often," he said, his eyes flaring warningly. He kissed her again. "Now go do my bidding."

Sullen, Estella went to leave but Dante caught her wrist and pulled her back. "Maybe not right away."

Estella was slightly appeased when he traced her cheek and then her lips.

"You've missed me," he murmured, his features softened by tenderness. "Admit it."

"You banished me from the castle, then you trapped me in it!" she sulked.

"You've missed me," he huskily repeated. "Tell me. I need to hear it."

Estella's eyebrows shot up. "You know better, Dante."

He lightly shook her. "Gods, when I don't want to fuck you, I want to kill you."

This brought a smile to her face. "You're a Prince of the Under Realm. You enjoy the aggravation."

"Do I?" Dante smirked, gently tugging her hair. "Perhaps I still can't believe a woman with your daring exists." He pulled her hair until she went to her knees.

Pleased, Estella stroked her hands up his thighs, working on his belt.

"You do love me, Estella?" he asked, staring down as she pulled his swelling cock free. "You never say."

She coyly met his eyes and shrugged.

Dante wanted to push the point but then her mouth was working on him, taking him into her throat, her tongue lashing his shaft.

His hand formed a fist in her black hair, guiding her back and forth, watching his cock disappear into her face, then out again, shining with her saliva. He groaned when she cupped his balls and lightly squeezed, massaging with her fingers.

"Estella," he muttered, his other hand stroking her hair. "Look at me."

She did, with those beautiful, deadly eyes, and he almost came. He quickly released her and stepped back, then pulled her up and carried her to the bed.

"Are you not hosting a ball, my Lord?" she teased, laying back and spreading her legs.

"What ball?" he said unsteadily, crawling over her. She turned away, but he forced her back. "We belong together. Tell me you love me."

Estella grinned against his lips. "No," she teased.

Dante growled into her mouth, his hand sliding down her face to her neck. "You drive me to lunacy, you, fucking witch."

****

The night was still as Sebastian emerged from the veil and rode through the dark, his crimson coat billowing out behind. He slowed to a trot then rounded to face the shimmering Kingdom. He surveyed the sparkling veil, his face grim.

Alert to his disturbed mood, the horse snorted restlessly and Sebastian leaned slightly to smooth a gloved hand down its flank. Then he straightened in the saddle, squared his shoulders, and tensely waited for dawn.

****

Sitting on a bed in the cell, Sabina cried. She felt Sebastian's absence, an unexpected dull pain through her chest. The moonlight poured through a hole in the ceiling. It was better than the dark. The hours continued to pass until finally she stopped crying and sat in bleak silence.

It wasn't just her life that was ending. All the innocents across the world were about to have their existences violently altered. The women and men, families, and children to be separated and enslaved or killed. It was heartbreaking.

The old door sprang open, and Sabina almost burst into tears again when Estella happily swanned in.

"Does your cruelty have no limit?" Sabina said miserably.

"Dante suspects Sebastian," Estella shrugged. "I'm your merry guard." She settled cross-legged on the cold floor in front of the bars, an unusually casual position for such an impressive woman, her regal skirts spread elegantly across the stone ground.

Sabina wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to imagine she was alone.

After a while, Estella broke the silence. "I know what it's like to sit in a cell like this, awaiting death," she revealed, her watchful green eyes going reflectively about the room. "Except I wasn't waiting to be a Queen."

"What happened?"

"A purge," she smiled. "I was tortured but wouldn't confess."

"That's why you became a witch?"

"Oh, I was already a witch," she laughed sinisterly. "They were right to fear me."

Sabina swallowed. "How...How did they execute you?"

"They didn't. Dante intervened."

"I thought he couldn't walk the living plane?" Sabina frowned. "Unless it was..."

"Yes. It was almost midnight on The Black Eve," Estella laughed evilly. "My village were imbeciles. They thought it would be a show of fearlessness to kill me in the forest. Dante practically manifested amongst the peasants."

"Why did Dante intervene?"

Estella shrugged. "My beauty caught his eye. When he slaughtered the villagers and saw me at the stake, laughing with delight, his heart was mine. He never dreamt I could still be a virgin. It was a happy discovery for him."

"But...A virgin at the stake?" Sabina said slowly, her cheeks colouring. "I've heard...I mean..."

"Yes, death row witches are always vulnerable to abuse from the guards, or 'holy cleansing' as they call it," Estella replied with a devilish smile.

"But that was for the majority, and the majority were unfortunate innocents. I was a real witch. Comely as I am, I was so strongly associated with superstition and death that none dared touch me. I was a bad omen."

Sabina observed Estella's cold beauty and deathly aura. "You would have been very suited to be Dante's Queen," she said.

"I was supposed to be his Queen." Estella beamed at Sabina's shock. "Yes, it was meant to be me. But I didn't understand the ritual. I'd fallen in love with Dante, then found out he had a mistress. I sought the best way to hurt him, and tricked Sebastian into taking me."

Estella laughed as Sabina's eyes widened. "Oh, Sebastian was in such a fury when his awareness returned. Though it was nothing to Dante's rage when he discovered us."

"Sebastian?" Sabina echoed. "You weren't lying about bedding him?"

"He was my first," Estella grinned, running her tongue across her top lip.

"Oh," Sabina said, watching the bright moon. There was little point being upset. "How will I die?"

"Dante would cut your throat, but who knows now since he promised Sebastian quickness," she shrugged.

Sabina tiredly buried her face in her arms.

Estella comfortably lay back against the floor, her hands behind her head as moonlight illuminated her body. "I love the moon," she mused distantly. "It warms me, more than the sun ever did."

****

The moon faded and dawn approached. The women quietly watched the sky change colour.

The door opened and Dante strode in, dressed handsomely in his usual black but more majestically adorned. His eyes went straight to Estella while Sabina quickly looked away from him.

"My love," he smiled, holding out his hands. "The new day is here."

Estella was drawn to her feet. Dante tried to kiss her, and she dodged it with a pout, wriggling irritably in his embrace.

"Still so cold?" he grinned, leaning close to whisper in her ear. "I'll thaw your icy heart in due course."

Estella didn't answer, her eyes fluttered when his hands caressed her breasts. Sabina was watching them.

Dante released Estella and she flounced from the room. He unlocked the barred doors.

"I don't expect merriment from you, either." He paused. "Sebastian has significantly elevated your benefits to this arrangement. So, I expect you will cooperate through the ceremony. Come." He stood back to let her pass him. "The sooner this is done, the sooner we all have what we want."

Sabina opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Dante laughed and flicked her cheek. "I'd have enjoyed bedding you to torture Sebastian. But the loss of that privilege won't matter in the scheme of it all." He looked at the wall, reflecting. "The battle to conquer your world will be nothing to appeasing Estella. She's going to sulk for centuries, I know it."

Sabina said nothing. Dante smiled in return.

"Come," he said, considering her elegant blue gown. "You are dressed appropriately enough. It won't matter, your attire will change the moment you are Queen."

Sabina followed him from the tower. She could hear the large crowd of men, feel the restless excitement without seeing it. When Dante led her out, the audience fell silent.

Thousands of soldiers watched her follow Dante to the platform. Estella was there, solemn for once, her lovely face devoid of her habitual wickedness.

The senior generals were closer to the platform, Ambrose among them, all serious. Dante cleared his throat and addressed the crowds.

"As you know, my passage to the living depends on this ceremony," he began, his voice carrying with a slight echo across the masses. "All will go as planned, with some minor differences."

The men stirred slightly, ripples of nervous curiosity through the crowds.

Dante took a deep breath and held up a slip of parchment. "I take my oath that in this marriage, my Queen will be equal ruler-"

There were gasps and the men quietly muttered among themselves. Ambrose's mouth was hanging open, until one of his hands wisely closed it.

"-not to surpass me," Dante continued, louder, the agitated men falling silent when his fierce gaze went their way. "But she will have power, which may entail some...small military entitlement."

He curtly glanced at Sabina, who was staring at her feet. "She is to be respected, and anyone foolish enough to challenge this will be swiftly and severely dealt with." He swallowed as though his next words were distasteful. "As equal rulers, I will have no ownership rights on her personal freedoms. There will be no heirs. We will rule eternal."

The men were clearly displeased about this announcement.

"Enough!" Dante roared. "These changes apply only to my Queen. They have no impact whatsoever on the occupation, specifically, the enslaved population of the living."

The anger quickly dissipated from the crowds. A black-robed man, the dark priest, a hood concealing his face, stepped forward with a knife.

Dante accepted it, slicing his hand and pressing it to the base of the parchment. The robed man inspected the oath and nodded. Muttering words, he waved a hand across the parchment. The lettering glowed gold then turned red as Dante's blood on the parchment.

Once the lettering returned to black, the man held it high to show the audience, then rolled it up and handed it to two others in similar black robes. Together, they bound the parchment and left the platform.

"Your oath is sealed. It is time for the ceremony," the robed man rasped, gesturing for Dante and Sabina to join hands.

The Priest commenced and Dante's gaze was steadfast on Sabina's pale face as he repeated the vows. Sabina repeated her vows with impressive clarity, her eyes fixed blankly on Dante's chest.

Declared husband and wife, the men erupted in cheers when Dante pulled Sabina into his embrace and planted a firm, lingering kiss on her mouth. Sabina didn't return or resist it. Dante took her hand and raised it to face the masses; his chest swelled with victory.

The dark priest handed him a new blade, delicate silver with blue diamonds embedded in the handle.

"Sebastian crafted this," Dante mused. "Long before you existed." He guided Sabina to stand in front of him, facing the audience. "I would love to slice your throat," he murmured against her temple. "But I promised Sebastian swiftness."

Without any warning, he plunged the knife into her heart.

Sabina cried out with surprise and arched in pain, gazing blindly at the sky. Dante held her tightly until she slackened in his hold. Releasing her, she slowly slid down his body to lie limp at his feet.

No one moved except Estella. Visibly upset, she fled the ceremony, tears running down her face. Dante looked like he would go after her, but the crowd cheered deafeningly, reminding him of his purpose.

Dante bent and pulled the knife from Sabina's heart, handing the bloodied blade to the waiting priest.

The priest quickly muttered over the weapon, turning it in his hands, coating his fingers in the blood. Finally, he nodded.

"It is done. She is your Queen," he said loudly, for the benefit of the rapt audience.

Dante took a deep breath and closed his eyes, ruminating in the moment. The crowd continued to roar with joy.

Sabina's body convulsed.

The priest inspected the knife. "Your Highness..."

"It's time," Dante breathed, his black eyes maddened as Sabina gasped and heaved, moving to all fours, choking. "It's finally time."

"Your Highness!" the priest hissed, rushing over. "Look."

Dante frowned at the blood on the knife, the glistening bright red quickly turning black.

Sabina wheezed to life, unsteadily getting to her feet. Tossing her hair back, she faced him.

Dante screamed.

****

The crowd's uproarious cheer carried through the Kingdom's boundary, and Sebastian moved restlessly, startling the horse. Not long after, all went silent as a lone rider burst through the veil, galloping urgently his way.

Sebastian let out a deep breath when the rider's hood fell back and he recognised Estella, her black hair flying out gloriously behind. Closer and closer, then finally in reach, she'd hardly slowed enough to wrap an arm around Sebastian's neck to pull him into a passionate kiss.

Sebastian indulged it a short while, then broke away. "Where is it?"

Estella slyly reached down her shirt and showed him a necklace, chaffed brown leather with a large black bead at the end, the centre swirling green.

Sebastian ripped it from her neck and crushed the bead in his hand, throwing the remnants to the ground and wiping the murky fluid on his pant leg.

Estella's dark beauty vanished, and Sabina faced him; gorgeously alive, her cheeks flushed with excitement. Sebastian feasted on the sight of her a moment then pulled her in for a proper kiss.

"Much better," he murmured, gripping her jaw and kissing her with so much force she almost slipped from her mount.

****

Dante's scream was followed by a horrible silence, until sounds of unrest built up amongst the men.

Ambrose stepped onto the platform. "We must disperse them quickly," he urged, the following generals nodding agreement.

"Your Highness," he prompted, lifting his head to see Dante's shocked face. "Say something!"

"Shall I make an announcement, dear husband?" Estella laughed; her grin victorious.

Dante whirled on the priest. "This can't be upheld," he demanded. "Can we march on the living?"

The priest gave him an imploring look. "We were all aware of the requirements to conquer the mortal plane," he said delicately.

"Then..." Dante struggled desperately to think. "Then the ceremony wasn't...wasn't valid."

"The ceremony may not grant the access you seek," the Priest said carefully. "But it was irrevocably valid and...and..." He gulped, afraid to speak his next words. "And so was your pledge," he finished in a whisper.

"WHAT!" Dante shrieked.

Estella stood tall and regal, feeling her new power and knowing the oath was in effect. She laughed at Dante's dismay, sweeping back into a low curtsy to dodge him. His attempt to seize her throat was barred by Ambrose and two others.