Chapter 3: I'll Be Doomsday Nightclub's Only Queen

Orion's POV

The moment I stepped out through the back door of the nightclub, the wooden door vanished instantly behind me, and before my eyes stood the lush, verdant Elven Forest as before.

I spun around in a panic, both hands running back and forth across the tree trunk, but I couldn't find even the slightest trace that a wooden door had ever existed there.

"Your Holiness the Holy Son — so you're here!" A squad of elven guards came rushing over. "After we received your distress signal we set out immediately, but when we reached the area we only found injured dark elves scattered across the ground. We couldn't find you anywhere, and we thought —"

The squad leader dropped to one knee, his left hand pressed against his right breast. "We arrived too late and allowed you to be injured and go missing. Please punish us as you see fit."

I shook my head, smiled, and helped the guard back to his feet. "No — not only have you done nothing wrong, you've actually rendered a great service." I turned to look at that towering ancient tree. "It was precisely because you arrived late that I was able to meet her."

I hadn't seen her face, but that familiar resonance of her soul had made me certain in my heart: the girl in the silver mask was the young woman from my dreams.

Yes — for as long as I had possessed memory, I had dreamed the same dream over and over. In that dream, a beautiful young woman was always at my side, and around that woman's neck she wore the very necklace I had just given away with my own hands. The High Priest of the Elven Clan had told me with certainty that the young woman in my dreams was the one I had loved in a previous life, and that we had once sworn an oath to be together for all eternity. That necklace was the proof of our love.

And the moment I laid eyes on the girl in the silver mask — though her figure bore little resemblance to the woman in my dreams — I recognized her at first glance all the same.

So I had left the necklace with her. Woven into it was a soul-mark bearing my essence, and as long as she kept that necklace on her person, I would be able to find her no matter where she was. Although the strange wooden door had disappeared, I could still sense the mark on the necklace — only very faintly now, as though it no longer existed within this world.

I pressed a hand to my own chest, where a heart beat that was reserved for my beloved alone, and I laughed quietly, low and soft. "My love," I said, "I swear upon the Elven Mother Tree — we will meet again."

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Bonnie's POV

"Layla! There you are!"

I startled awake and turned toward the voice. The one calling out to me was Victor Miller, the owner of Doomsday Nightclub.

"I've been looking everywhere for you — why are you standing out here alone in the cold?" Victor walked over. "I have something big to tell you. Really big."

"Go ahead," I said. I tightened my grip on the necklace and coin pouch in my hand and shifted them behind my back. Instinctively, I didn't want anyone to see those things.

Victor's face fell into a troubled frown. "Layla, Doomsday Nightclub is going to close."

I was immediately taken aback and pressed him at once. "Why? Business has been going so well here. How can it suddenly be closing?"

"Doomsday Nightclub's business really is great — especially since you arrived. Every sleazebag in the whole neighborhood comes in night after night." Victor sighed, wringing his hands together. "But you also know that I have a bit of a — sometimes a little bit of a gambling problem. So..."

I looked at him with mild exasperation. "So you've run up a huge gambling debt, and you want to sell Doomsday Nightclub to pay it off."

Victor nodded, looking embarrassed. "There's really no other way... I've already found a buyer. They're planning to convert Doomsday Nightclub into a student study room."

Convert Doomsday Nightclub into a student study room? That simply would not do. A wave of panic rose in me. Doomsday Nightclub was my only outlet — the only place where I could feel the illusion of being wanted, of being anticipated. If Doomsday Nightclub closed, where would I ever go to prove my own reason for existing?

"How much is the buyer offering?" I asked, my voice tight with anxiety. "I'm willing to pay the same price — just sell Doomsday Nightclub to me instead."

Victor shook his head, unconvinced. "Layla, I've already signed a contract with the buyer. If I back out now, I'd owe them a substantial penalty fee."

"I'll pay the penalty fee for you," I blurted out. "I'll offer a higher price and cover the penalty on top of it. Just tell me — how much is it altogether?"

Victor hesitated, then held up five fingers. "Three hundred thousand dollars, Layla. That's the floor — it can't go any lower than that."

Three hundred thousand? My entire net worth was only a hundred thousand dollars.

"You know how it works around here," Victor said. "Nightclubs in this area start at five hundred thousand minimum. Three hundred thousand — I'm already giving you a big discount."

I knew Victor wasn't lying. To buy a thriving nightclub for only three hundred thousand dollars would be an absolute steal. But even so, three hundred thousand was a price I could barely begin to afford.

Then I thought of the bag of gold coins Orion had left behind. It wasn't the most ethical thing to do, but there was no other option. I bit my lip and steeled myself. "Fine. Three hundred thousand it is. Let's sign the contract right now."

I went and found a twenty-four-hour pawn shop, pawned ten gold coins, and exchanged them for two hundred thousand dollars in cash, which I combined with every cent I had and handed over to Victor.

Worth mentioning: Orion's coin pouch didn't look particularly large, yet it seemed to hold an inexhaustible supply of gold coins inside. Even the pawn shop owner had noticed the somewhat peculiar pouch and asked whether I wanted to sell it outright.

That only made me more certain — I could never take this coin pouch out again, and I absolutely could not allow myself to depend on it. These coins belonged to Orion. Every one I owed him, I would pay back someday.

When I signed the contract, Victor seemed almost excessively excited.

"Alright, alright, Layla." Victor handed me a set of keys. "From now on, you're the true queen of Doomsday Nightclub."

I felt something slightly off about his reaction, but I was too absorbed in the joy of having saved the club to look closely at that small, nagging wrongness inside me.

That night, Doomsday Nightclub opened as usual. I dressed with care, and to the DJ's screaming introduction, I rose slowly into the room on the lift platform.

"Welcome, everyone, to Doomsday Nightclub." I held the microphone to my lips and announced in my most seductive voice: "Starting tonight, I — Layla — will be the one and only ruler of Doomsday Nightclub. Now, you may come and kiss the tops of my feet."

The crowd's cheers rose in wave after wave, and the men lined up one by one to kiss my feet. In the queue, I spotted a familiar figure — Blake. My ex-fiancé. The man who had looked down on me, discarded me, and thrown me away.

He had a bottle clutched in one hand, his tie hanging crooked, arm thrown around a few familiar club regulars as they shuffled forward in the line, his eyes fixed on me without wavering.

I knew that look all too well. It was the look a man gives a woman when he wants her — when desire has swallowed every other thought. I could see it plainly: he was barely restraining himself from tearing the dress off my body right then and there and taking me completely, right on that stage.

How laughable. Just the night before, he had been draped around my sister Catherine, mocking me and saying I looked like a pig.

At last it was Blake's turn. He reached out toward my foot with that leering grin on his face — and I lifted my foot away.

"This guest is the one hundredth male visitor of the evening," I said with a smile. "So he receives a very special gift — the honor of having this queen press her foot against his face."

I raised my foot — black leather, red sole, stiletto heel — and brought it down hard onto Blake's face. I pressed my weight into it and ground the sole slowly side to side across his cheekbone, my eyes bright with the sharp, savoring pleasure of payback.

Blake's eyes went wide. His entire body visibly froze.