Chapter 2
When we reach Willow’s room, Cora is panting.
“The idea…was to not…draw attention,” she says between breaths.
Cora showing any favoritism to a pureblood could land her in serious trouble, so I force myself to stay calm and act as if we’re not doing anything we shouldn’t be.
Still, my mind keeps drawing me back to the last time she called me to Willow’s room.
Her sagging eyes and taut skin still haunt me to this day.
I throw open the door without knocking and find Willow sitting cross-legged on her bed, reading a book, her back propped against the dull gray wall as she keeps her eyes glued to the page she’s on.
She doesn’t look up when she speaks. “I told you not to tell her.”
Her words are aimed at Cora, whose face reddens under the weight of her exposed betrayal.
The door clicks shut behind her as I step forward and snatch the book out of Willow’s hand and throw it onto the small wooden dresser—the only other piece of furniture a pureblood is allowed to have in their room.
“Hey, I was just getting to the good bit.”
I roll my eyes. “You’ve read it a thousand times. You already know how it ends.”
She looks up at me like I’m stupid. “That doesn’t make it any less fun. Maybe if you put down the dagger and picked up a book more often, you’d know that.”
I lift my gaze to the ceiling before meeting hers again.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were sick again?”
My twin stares back at me with a face that does not match my own. We often joke that we might not even be sisters, let alone twins, given how different we look. She rolls a set of dark brown eyes as she scoops her locs up into a bun atop her head, as though this is just another day.
She shrugs nonchalantly. “I’m always sick.”
She moves across the room to straighten the book I threw. Always needing everything so damn tidy.
“You know what I mean, Willow.”
She spins to face me and holds her arms out in a big, dramatic gesture. “I’m fine. See. Some people just like to exaggerate.”
Her eyes flicker over my shoulder to where Cora stands silently.
She’s lying, Athriel drawls.
I know.
“You’re doing it again,” Willow says.
“What?”
“Talking to head guy. Whatever he said, tell him to mind his own gods-damned business.”
Tell her you are my business.
I don’t have time for this.
Tell her.
“He said to tell you that I am his business.”
“Well, you can tell him this.” She flips him off, and he laughs.
“I know you’re just trying to distract me,” I tell her.
“I’m no—”
“Let me see it.” I point to her stomach. “Now.”
Her eyes pin me in a challenge.
“Gods help me, Willow, if I have to rip the clothes off your body, then I will.”
She curses under her breath but gives in, peeling the thin cloth from her body before throwing it to the floor.
“Happy?” Her words are harsh, but her eyes hold a fear I never wanted to see again. The same fear I saw in Jace’s eyes just moments ago.
I gasp at the sight of black veins pulsing beneath her skin, angry lines twisting into a dangerous pattern that spares almost none of her flesh.
I step forward, then pause. It’s grown to more than double the size since I last saw it.
How did I miss this? I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she says.
“I don’t understand. The venom mixture is supposed to slow this down. It shouldn’t look like this. It isn’t possible.”
She sighs in defeat.
“It was helping, but I’ve got none left.” Our eyes meet, and she must see the confusion there because she keeps talking. “It’s coming back faster. The venom is working, but I need a lot more than what is in those concoctions to stop it from spreading.”
“Shit.” I turn to Cora. “How long have you known about this?”
Her face twists with guilt.
“We knew what you’d do if you knew,” she whispers.
“That’s not what I asked. How long?”
“Three weeks.”
I look between the two of them.
“You purposely kept this from me for three weeks?” When neither of them answers, I turn my attention back to Cora. “You knew my sister could die, but you thought keeping a secret was more important?”
“Don’t blame her, she was just doing what we both felt was right,” Willow says.
I laugh humorlessly.
“Then you're both idiots if you ever thought that leaving you to die was what was right.”
Cora’s eyes flick to the door, and only then do I realize that I’m raising my voice. It would take just one of Amabel’s vampire guards walking in and seeing what they shouldn’t to make this worse.
Then we’ll just kill them.
Not now, Athriel.
He huffs.
“That’s the problem, right there,” Willow says as she bends to pick up her top. “You try to fix everything, and I’m not some problem to be solved.”
“I’m sorry for wanting to keep you alive. What a fucking inconvenience that must be for you.”
“Yes, it is. Have you ever considered that I don’t want you to keep me alive?”
Her words are like a punch to the gut, and I almost take a step back. The muscles in the side of my head pound at the sound of her words. Stay calm, I remind myself when I feel my control start to fray.
“Are you saying that you want to die?” I hate that my voice starts to crack.
She sinks slowly onto the bed.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I just mean that when you get fixated on something, that’s it. You don’t listen to anyone or anything, you just do what you want without considering anybody else.”
“All I’m doing is considering somebody else. Do you think I want to risk my life by killing vampires?”
“No, I don’t. But that’s my point, you’ll do it anyway because you have to be the one to solve it all.”
“Keeping you alive isn’t exactly a choice, Willow.”
“But it is a choice. It doesn’t matter if they dress us in the most expensive dresses, give us fancy rooms, and the best food; we’re still slaves.
We barely get a chance to enjoy anything in this life, and the little time we do get, you spend it trying to keep me alive.
” She shoots to her feet as if the bed beneath her just caught fire.
“You keep risking your life to save me, and I can’t bear the thought of something happening to you. ”
Her eyes gloss over, and my anger dissipates.
Neither of us knew our parents—that’s the price of being a pureblood.
We were bred to serve, and the only thing we’ve ever truly had is each other.
Cora is the one who told us about the venom.
She and my mother were best friends until the day our birth took her life.
Cora has always looked after us, somehow keeping us together even when we should have been separated like every other pureblood family members.
Up until a year ago, she was the one who sourced the venom that kept Willow alive.
When she no longer could, that responsibility fell to me.
“I’m fine. You know what I can do.”
She shakes her head. “And if the vampires find out, you’ll be dead.”
“I’m careful,” I remind her.
She closes her eyes for a second before meeting my gaze, the features on her light brown face softening.
To look at her, you wouldn't think a damn thing was wrong. She’s wearing baggy gray pants and a white shirt.
She seems happy. Alive. She doesn’t look like she’s dying.
And when the venom is working, the veins just disappear.
Those are the moments when I let myself pretend that she’s ok.
“Everyone is careful until they’re not. I just want you to live, that’s all, enjoy the little bit of life you do have.”
“I have no interest in enjoying a life you aren’t a part of,” I tell her.
“You’re so annoying,” she says, but a grin curves the corners of her lips upwards, and relief fills me. I can’t bear it when she speaks of dying—but her jokes, those I can handle.
“It’s my job to be, as your older sister.” I flick the tip of her nose, and she swats my hand away unsuccessfully, but a smile still creeps onto her face. Maybe if she’d spent more time training with me instead of burying her nose in a book, she wouldn’t miss so easily.
“Three minutes older.”
I shrug.
“Semantics.”
We both laugh.
“It’s my fault, girls.” Cora’s voice causes both of us to turn toward her.
She carries a sadness that causes her shoulders to sag and the space beneath her eyes to darken.
It’s a good job she’s no longer of feeding age since she wouldn’t last a night in her condition.
I hate that I’m mad at her since she has done nothing but look after me and my sister our entire lives.
She hid my secret when anyone else would have run straight to Amabel, but not Cora.
She’s brave and fierce. “Four vampires were found dead yesterday.”
Her words make my entire stomach hollow out.
“The Crown Prince has increased the guards on the streets. They are actively searching for the person responsible.” Her brown eyes fall on me. It takes a moment before I realize what she’s insinuating. I turn to find Willow looking at me as well.
“You two think I killed them?” I nearly laugh. Not even I'm stupid enough to kill four in one night.
Cora leans in, her voice barely a breath. “I know how you get that venom,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Yes, but I didn’t kill four vampires to get it. I thought Willow was ok for at least another month. Why would I risk killing them?”
“Maybe you’re getting a taste for it. The thrill of overpowering them. Taking revenge, like—”
She stops herself, but what rattles me more is that she thinks I’d be reckless enough to try.
“You think I’d risk Willow for a thrill?”
She watches me for a beat.
“She didn’t do it,” Willow says, studying my face. I look between them incredulously.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Then if not you, who?” Cora seems to be thinking out loud more than really asking us.
“This is why you didn’t want me to know Willow was ill?”
She nods, and I almost feel guilty for being so mad at her.
“I thought she could at least last until these patrols died down, but the marks on her stomach...” She looks as though she is seeing them again for the first time.
“She needs more venom,” I finish the words she doesn’t want to say out loud.
“No.”
My head whips in Willow’s direction, but she stands straight with her hands on her hips.
“You heard what she said, vampire guards are crawling the streets, it’s too dangerous for you to go out there. To do…what you do.”
“I told you I’m careful.”
Willow laughs. “Yeah, that’s what you said when you convinced me and Tori to sneak out of the orphanage when we were kids. Cora still caught us, didn't she?”
I smile at the memory. Those were the days before feedings and vampires.
“That was one time, and admittedly, if Tori had played her part, we would have gotten away with it.”
“And yet we didn’t.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not some stupid kid anymore, I know what I’m doing.”
“Adina—”
“Please don’t ask me to promise not to go out there, Willow. I don’t want to have to lie to you.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t want you to die either?”
She kneads her lower lip with her teeth, and I can see the fear in her eyes. She’s right, she has just as much reason to fear for me as I do for her. But I can handle myself.
“You’re going no matter what I say, aren’t you?”
“Yes. How many days of respite do you have left?” I ask.
“Three.”
Damn. That means I only have seventy-two hours to get what we need.
I mask my worry with a smile.
“I promise I won’t go near any vampires unless I have to.
I’ll go and see what stock Finn has left.
I’ll be in and out before you know it.” A long moment passes before she nods, and a weight lifts off my shoulders.
I am going no matter what, but it’s much better to do so without her trying to stop me.
I have no idea what’s wrong with Willow.
She’s been sick since the day she was born, but before my mother died, she managed to tell Cora one thing—that vampire venom helps.
I still wish I could ask how she knew that Willow would be sick or that she needed to pass that information on, but not even Cora has those answers.
Either way, venom’s not a cure. It only slows down whatever this is, enough to give me the time to find one.
And for as long as it works, I’ll risk anything—and anyone—to get it.
Because I’ll be damned if the vampires ever discover she’s sick.
The afflicted are never allowed to live, and I’ll burn this gods-forsaken realm to the ground before I let them throw her into the pit like the rest.