Chapter 22 #2
Ember looks down at me, sadness touching her features. She rubs a hand across her pale forehead and blows out a breath.
“You ok? You look like you’re in shock?”
I shake my head. I don’t know how to answer the question. I’m not even sure if I can speak. Still too in shock at what I did.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her.” I’ve never hurt another human like that.
The girl shakes her head.
“It’s not your fault. I warned her to stay away, but she’s hot-headed.”
“I killed her sister.”
“By accident.” She comes to sit in a chair in front of me, and that’s when I realize that we’re in some kind of study. “I was there, I should know.”
“You were?”
She nods.
“Are you hurt? Did she catch you with the knife?”
“I’m fine.” I look up at her through blurry eyes. “Why are you helping me?”
“The prince kind of asked me to keep an eye on you.”
I look up at her, surprised by her revelation.
“He asked you? Why?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know, but the prince has been good to me, and if he asks me to do this, then I will.”
I look over at the door. A pang in my stomach as I think of what I took from that girl. She may have been angry, but a deep sadness lingered in her eyes. An emotion I’m solely responsible for.
“Things will die down soon, but Maribelle’s death is still pretty fresh,” she says, interrupting my onslaught of thoughts. “Until then, I will do as the prince asked and look out for you.”
“If he’s that concerned, then surely he could just look out for me himself.”
“I suppose he could if it weren’t for the blood vows ceremony coming up.”
“What exactly is that?” It’s the same thing the council was discussing during their meeting back at the bloodhouse.
She stands to her feet, looking around nervously.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Said what? About the blood vows?”
She nods as she twists her fingers together. Whatever she knows is something big, and I need to know it. It could be the very thing that leads me out of this place, or maybe even gives me more information about the bond.
“Please, Ember. I won’t say anything…I just need to know what I’m dealing with here. Someone just tried to kill me because I wasn’t told that I needed to be careful of the humans.”
I can tell that she’s going through an entire battle in her mind, but there’s a part of her that wants to help me.
“We’re both human, Ember. If we don’t look out for each other, then who will?”
She blows out a breath and comes to sit across from me again. Her eyes sweep across the room one last time before she turns her attention fully to me. Her hands are shaking in her lap.
“You can’t say anything to anyone. I’m not even supposed to know this.”
I take hold of her hands in mine to still the shaking, and then I nod.
“I won’t say a word. I promise.”
“Every century, the vampires hold this thing called the blood vows. It’s a kind of ceremony where every vampire house in the court decides whether they wish to remain here or pledge their allegiance to one of the other six courts.”
“So, the prince is worried that some of the nobles are going to leave his court?”
“Not just some. If a head of house decides to switch courts, then everyone tied to that line must leave too.”
“The entire bloodline? They have no say in it?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “No, and it’s not just the direct bloodline—it includes every vampire that their line has ever sired and every pureblood human their house owns.”
I suck in a breath.
“That’s insane.”
The Court of Shadows has always been the most powerful of the seven courts.
I’ve never even questioned that this could change.
But if too many nobles were to leave, then the court would be completely depleted, leaving it open to an attack from a stronger court.
I may hate things as they are now, but there are rumors of far worse courts, and the last thing we need is to be invaded by one of them.
“A court could be weakened overnight,” she says. “It’s why the vampires are all on edge right now. The ceremony is sealed by magic. Whichever court a house is sworn to, they must remain in for the next century.”
I gasp, finally understanding the gravity of the situation. No wonder Karius was so angry when some of the council members suggested that they would be exploring other courts.
“And that’s not all,” she says as though she has been longing to get this secret off her chest. “Swearing a vow to a court not only shares in the court’s magic but it binds every member’s life to its crown too.”
I can’t have heard her right. “Their life?”
She simply nods.
“You’re telling me that if the crown prince dies, then every vampire in his court does too?”
“Yes.”
I sit back, the realization finally sinking in. Did Julian know this? Is this why he sent me to kill the prince?
“How do you know this?” I ask, my suspicion rousing.
“You’ll be surprised at what you learn when the vampires forget you are there.”
I give her a small smile, but I doubt it. No vampire is stupid enough to divulge that kind of information in front of a human, not when they have so much riding on it. She’s lying, I just don’t know why.
“You won’t tell anyone that I told you, right?”
Her eyes pierce into me, and I see something oddly familiar, but I cannot put my finger on it.
“I won’t tell a soul.” And I mean it because, as much as I hate Karius, our lives are bound, and that means that killing me is now the easiest way to take down his entire court.
If a single vampire in this court were to learn that their lives rest on the survival of a human, then they wouldn’t hesitate to abandon it and take up residence elsewhere, and only the gods know what horrors that could bring about.