40
EVIE
“ P rinceton,” Harmony warned, using a tone one might use for a cat attempting to paw a glass off the counter.
Another conversation had broken out among the others, something about allying with local covens.
“Rules about me?” I asked.
Princeton continued his faux pouting routine as he nodded. The hint of a smirk played at his lips.
“He doesn’t want you talking to me without him here,” I guessed. “Why?”
“Because I’m not like the others,” Princeton said with a shrug, clearly holding back more. “I’m not a worker bee. I’m the queen.”
Blade rolled his eyes so hard it looked painful. Someone from down the table booed and threw a carrot at Princeton’s face. A shadow escaped Princeton’s palm and deflected it at the last second.
When Princeton laughed, the rest of the table’s conversation resumed.
My eyes were locked on the curious tendril of pitch-black smoke. Stranger, it seemed to be staring right back.
When it began to whisper, I blocked it out of my perception.
Princeton’s eyes narrowed, and I wondered if I’d accidentally flinched. I cleared my throat. “I’m not used to being around other witches.”
Princeton clasped his hands, leaning back casually. “I see.” He spoke to me at a lower volume now, closer to my ear, as Blade and Harmony pretended not to be watching us like hawks. “As Kylo has likely informed you, I am more than willing to act as a mentor when it comes to your magick. You set your own boundaries.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Good. You shouldn’t.” Princeton popped a grape in his mouth. “Let’s start tomorrow. If you decide I’m of no use or too deplorable of moral character for your liking, you can fire me and be on your merry way. But who knows! Maybe we’ll prevent the next violent, witch-conjured storm and keep the horde of born and witches from hunting for its mysterious source.”
My stomach dropped. “What? People are looking for me?”
Panic surged in my blood. The urge to run was a potent force. But I was underground. I’d never been prone to claustrophobia before this moment, realizing just how trapped I really was.
Was it just me or were the walls getting closer?
All this worrying about putting Mena and Idris in danger, and now I was being told that they were already on the radar of evil forces? What if?—
“We’re the only ones who have connected the event to you,” Harmony said quickly. “If there was anything to worry about, Kylo would know about it, and so would you.”
Her smile was warm and comforting, and it almost felt like magick the way she was able to coax me into deeper breaths.
She gave Princeton, on the other hand, a glare of cold death.
Princeton smiled sheepishly, as if he didn’t quite understand what he’d done wrong. “Listen, I’m not good with people on the surface level. Never have been.” The way he stared at me now was the most genuine expression I’d discerned from him thus far. “But I am good with magick. Deep emotional depths. Spirits. Dark and mysterious powers. Forces beyond most folks’ control. I was ostracized from the coven I was born into. I had to learn a lot of lessons at a young age very quickly. If your only goal for the rest of your life is to suppress your gifts and pretend to be more human than witch, fine. That would be a waste, but my opinion might not matter to you, and I can still be of help. The basic truth is that your current tactics are failing, and that’s not a matter of opinion.”
At a sharp caw, both Princeton and I looked to the corner of the room. A crow was perched on a shelf.
In the next blink, it was gone.
“What are you two staring at?” Harmony asked.
“Creepy,” Blade mumbled, crossing his arms.
Princeton shrugged. “No idea.” He glanced at me. “Mean anything to you?”
I sighed heavily, my frown digging deeper. I reached for my third cup of coffee. “Unfortunately.”
We’d barely made it another thirty minutes before a stoic man with short, dark hair entered the space and beelined straight for Kylo.
His eyes narrowed on me for the briefest lapse, my stomach souring at the detection of potent, dark magick.
“You may speak freely,” Kylo said.
For the first time since we’d entered Kylo’s world, I detected a shift in him, at long last. It occurred the moment the mysterious man looked at me again, this time with clear distrust.
“I said speak ,” Kylo snapped. The room rattled with power, reverberating straight to my bones. Kylo’s hand never left my thigh.
“Zander has called on us,” the man said evenly, never once showing any flicker of humanlike emotion. “The Isolde region is under attack—one of their primary villages, Florimell.”
Now I was certain that the walls were closing in.
I could feel every last drop of blood leave my face, my hands suddenly clammy. Isolde. Florimell.
I saw Ravenia’s countryside, the rolling hills, the farmhouses, the children…
Kylo was speaking, but the words weren’t being picked up by my brain for processing. The whole table stood, everyone but Kylo and me.
“Evie,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I need to help my allies and the mortals under their protection.”
The world came back into focus. “What?”
I shoved down the visions of my homeland—of the ghost with icy, inhuman gray eyes.
Kylo stared at me in confusion, his irises studying every single inch of me in a way that made me squirm.
“Sorry, I um,” I stuttered. “Is this typical?”
Kylo’s jaw ticked, his brows drawn. “No. Nothing in the realm is typical anymore. But we will have more than enough force at our disposal, and the born will be completely unprepared. I’ll be back as soon as possible, and you will always have protection.”
He grabbed my clammy hand and guided me to my feet as he gave orders.
“I need to feed,” Kylo suddenly muttered, and the server woman from before wasted no time pouring a crimson fluid into a silver chalice.
Our eyes locked. My awareness of everyone else melted away. I was still disoriented, knocked out of orbit and scrambling. But when Kylo’s lips met the rim of the cup, this strange feeling overtook me—this strange mix of yearning, fear, anger, and jealousy.
Knowing that he had to feed, that his lips and fangs needed to consume someone other than me, it did something to my body and brain I didn’t expect.
I didn’t want Kylo to drink anyone else’s blood. I didn’t want anyone else to make him stronger, to give him pleasure or power or satisfaction.
He chugged the liquid unceremoniously, never breaking contact as he gripped my waist.
His features were slightly apologetic, nervous. But he didn’t vocalize it. He showed me who he was without shame. He finished and handed the chalice back to the woman.
“Please be safe,” I said softly. I lowered my voice, hoping the others were too deep in conversation to hear my next words. “When you come back, I want you to feed from me.”
Someone whistled. My cheeks instantly burned.
I hated vampiric hearing.
Kylo’s eyes blew wide, and he let out a curse. “Angel, if I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were trying to get me killed.”
“What? Why?”
“Because if I were any other vampire, I’m quite sure your devious little sabotage attempts would ruin my focus in battle irreversibly,” he growled, running his tongue against his lower lip as his face hovered inches from mine. “Behave while I’m gone. Or, don’t, and be prepared for the consequences.” He kissed my forehead, then quickly spoke to Princeton. “You already know what I’m about to say, so let’s just skip today’s battle of the wills. Fill Allie in on my absence, immediately.”
Princeton’s lips curved. “Yes, sir,” he said in a suggestive, low tone.
My eyes narrowed, but Kylo barely acknowledged the words, as if they were a usual occurrence.
I recognized the name of the vampire woman who’d escorted me home once before, who I’d also seen lurking around on some of my strolls through town. Allie was clearly one of my assigned guards.
“Phineas, inform Commander Lachlan,” Kylo directed toward the scary dark-haired man who still looked at me with a flicker of distaste. Another course of Kylo’s power flowed through the room, stronger than before, as if feeding had amplified its force tenfold.
With his gaze back on me, Kylo lifted me into his arms and kissed either side of my lips and then my neck. My stomach tightened, pleasurable tingles spreading from where his mouth sucked on my skin.
I was flustered and embarrassed when he set me down, and the bastard looked like he was enjoying every bit of my humiliation.
The ruthless vampires around us seemed shell-shocked by the act, and Kylo, in typical Kylo fashion, appeared to not give a single fuck.
He didn’t say goodbye, just gazed at me one last time, those dark tattoos trembling with power as he turned and joined his clan. They were gone in a matter of seconds, leaving me alone with a grumpy vampire and an eccentric witch.
“This way,” the stoic man barked, beckoning us through an open door that led to a wide hall.
Princeton’s eyes sharpened, taking a step toward me. “Yeah, fuck no. Watch your tongue, Phineas. Let’s not forget who bestowed you with the power that has gone straight to your ugly head.” He looked down at me, bone amulets vibrating with a low hum of dangerous magick. “Two choices: Be boring and go straight home, or we start learning to control your power today.”
Option one , my body and mind screamed, especially now that Kylo had abandoned me underground with this chaos witch who had obviously spawned an entire legion of vampires.
Phineas stared at us with irritation and impatience, and I buckled.
“Fine,” I said. “We can talk about magick.”
Princeton clapped his hands together, his features equal parts conniving and nearly childlike in their enthusiasm. “Excellent choice.”
“We’ll see,” I muttered.
Phineas grunted, clearly angry at us for not following his orders quickly enough.
Princeton chuckled as he led me through the door. This hall reminded me of some ancient palace, and voices became louder. When I heard a scream, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Hmm,” Princeton said. “Too close to have come from the dungeons, so I’m going to guess a fight broke out between the newly turned.”
“ Dungeons ?” I whispered.
Princeton waved a hand. “Not all of them are the scary kind, no need to fret. Though most of the fun ones are above ground. Only the most depraved are kept down here.”
I stared at him, mouth agape. “Fun ones? How many sex dungeons does he own?”
Princeton laughed, but when he met my startled features, he made another face of sheepish regret. “Oh, hells. Did I say something I shouldn’t have? I never know with mortals anymore.”
Phineas refused to talk to us. A few vampires meandered through the hall, their eyes going straight to me with curiosity as they nodded at Princeton.
I was still hung up on the dungeons talk. Were these places that the turned fed? On so-called willing mortals? Obviously, I knew about born feeding clubs, though I’d never been to one. There were only a couple in Etherdale, considering it wasn’t a born-friendly city. Even still, these were the concessions that had to be made to keep our regional nobility happy.
My mind spun and spun, parsing through the reality that had spread out before me the moment Kylo had ripped off my physical—and metaphorical—blindfold.
“Kylo is like, really old…” I thought aloud.
Princeton grinned, regarding me with shocked amusement. “True.”
“And you have this whole underground palace—or is it even bigger? Like an entire city?”
At this, Phineas finally looked back at us, his eyes burning into me like a cattle prod.
“Kylo is taking a fleet to help some other clan in a battle against the born,” I continued. “And yet there’s more than enough of you left to defend the city, to populate this strange underground and the above world… And you keep making more of yourselves.”
Princeton sighed. “We’re entering dangerous territory, kiddo.”
I glared at him. “Don’t condescend to me. I’m not a child.”
Princeton raised up his hands in defeat, but he made no move to apologize.
“How many turned are there? Have you intentionally concealed your true power and numbers? What Kylo is doing now… oh gods.” I stopped moving.
Princeton shot me a look of warning, shaking his head.
“Are we heading toward a full-blown war ?”
The lights above flickered, and Phineas snarled. “Listen up, witches. Do whatever it is Kylo has instructed you to do, and nothing more. Do not let me hear whispers of you going where you don’t belong .”
He was clearly only speaking to me, staring me down as power flared. Princeton laughed with an inflection that raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
“I warned you,” Princeton said, high-pitched and melodic.
Bones snapped, the sickening sound of it reverberating through the hall. The scary vampire fell to his knees. He cried out in surprise and pain.
Nausea bloomed in my gut.
“Apologize, and I might fix your legs.” The bone amulets around Princeton’s neck were raised in the air, dancing slightly.
Even if it had stopped, the sound of Phineas’s legs breaking still echoed in my mind as I struggled not to retch.
Princeton had warned me that he was insane. Yet they all seemed so normal at brunch. The suspicious, paranoid part of me rolled her eyes.
I was naive to think that a clan of ruthless vampires and their witch maker would remain deceptively harmless for long.
“I apologize,” Phineas ground out.
“Not to me. To her .”
Phineas’s eyes darted to me. “I apologize, witch.”
Great. I’d made a new enemy. “Um, apology accepted.”
I swallowed down bile as more cracking noises bounced off the walls. Princeton’s bone amulets danced midair until falling back to his chest. Phineas stood with his newly reshaped legs, lowered his head briefly, and then left us.
“Was that really necessary?” I hissed.
Princeton turned down a narrower hall, speaking without glancing at me as I followed behind. “ Necessary is subjective. When you allow small acts of disrespect, you send the clear message that you don’t think very highly of yourself. If you don’t even respect yourself, why should anyone else respect you? And in a world in which you are the only one of your kind, you have no room for such vulnerability.” He met my eyes. “We stand out, Evie. And we always will. Own it and use it to your advantage, or let it spell your demise.”