Chapter 27 Aurelia #2
I was prepared for it, though. I shoved the sword forward into his torso.
“I am calling a Roya—”
His hand was suddenly around my mouth, and he was forcing me to the ground, even with the sword still shoved into his body.
“Let's not be hasty now, shall we?” he said, using his other hand to pull the sword out. It cut through his skin with a sickening squeal, and more of that disgusting blood fell all over me.
He let out a pained groan, but that was the only indication that he’d been stabbed right through the stomach.
“Unfortunately, I can't let you be some sacrificial lamb, no matter how much I want to fucking kill you right now,” he whispered. “They were kind enough to free your mother, so I need someone to take her place.”
Hands that were not his pulled me up. When they got me into a standing position, I realized that both Vesper and Cedar had been taken as well. My mother was on the ground, unable to stand, but still looking at me.
“Stay fierce,” she mouthed.
“Can't you see?” I yelled as they tried to pull me away. “The queen isn't dead! My father tried to kill her and then stowed her away—”
“To do what exactly?” my brother asked. I watched in horror as the wound on his side started knitting itself together.
“You're stealing her power,” Cedar said, fighting the guards.
He might only have a handful left, but they were loyal to a fault. No matter what they were watching unfold, they held us like it was their lives’ most important task.
They didn't see the betrayal. To them, the woman in front of them was just a random washed-up queen who deserved nothing from them.
Maybe I had been wrong about everything. Maybe the people had never loved my mother, because how on earth would they just let her lie there otherwise?
Anger burned within me, and I reached for her.
“Mother, I’m here! Mother—”
“What are you waiting for? Take her away,” Adrian hissed.
As he motioned for someone to step forward from the crowd, I saw someone else I recognized.
None other than the coven head that almost got us killed.
“Poor little witch thought that she could get away,” Adrian teased, going up to Cedar and grabbing her by the chin before throwing her off to the side and toward her ex-coven leader. “Take her out of my sight,” he ordered.
“Gladly. We have some catching up to do.”
Horror unfolded in my chest as I watched them disappear, leaving nothing but a cloud of red smoke behind.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, another boy was brought in from a side hallway, the last two guards holding him. There were chains around his neck, wrists, and feet.
They pushed him forward so hard, he fell to the floor before us.
Tate.
“I knew you would try to do something to ruin this for me, but little did you know that every single one of your allies sold you out. No one is coming for you. No one is going to save you. You are going to die here, and if anyone so much as dares cross me…” He gave me a meaningful look. “I have the kid.”
The guards carried me and my mother away. I tried to talk to her, but the moment I did, I was reprimanded with a slap to the face.
I looked at Vesper, who was staring at Tate with a heartbroken expression. I couldn't bear it. The bond was running wild.
Cedar is gone. And now they’re making me leave Vesper behind.
We underestimated him. We thought we were clever enough—I thought I was clever enough. But he proved me wrong. It wasn't just that he was stronger or faster than any other vampire. It was that people obeyed him without question.
I waited until we were down in the dungeons to talk to my mom. She was sitting there, surrounded by piles of dead bodies, but her eyes were on me. I hastily crawled to her, reaching out and hesitantly touching her.
I was afraid she might disappear if I didn’t.
“What did they do to you? Where have you been?”
She gave me a smile that calmed all my fears.
“I've been right here,” she said, and lifted her hand to cup my face. “They fed off me. Kept me alive as they drained my blood so I couldn’t fight back.”
It was all starting to come together. I couldn't believe it.
“Was it just your blood they were drinking?”
She shook her head and gestured at all the dead bodies around us.
“There were a few powerful visitors too. They came and went but were never kept for long. Maybe a week or two, until they felt the power waning, so they got rid of them.”
“This is how they're getting stronger?”
She nodded. “For some reason our blood—the blood of Krae—sustains them most. There's a reason why our blood doesn't taste as good to each other. It was the goddess’s design that we did not feed off each other for fear that we would become too powerful. But Aurelia…” She grabbed my face between her shaky hands.
“This is not over yet. The prophecy can still be completed.”
“I don't want to hear about the prophecy anymore—”
“You’re right. This family was never supposed to last. Your father and his father tried to do the same thing—to run from the prophecy. In order to do that, they have been stealing our blood for decades.”
I stood straighter.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that this family was supposed to have died out long ago. They stole us. Murdered our people and impregnated our women. But no more. The three of you can do this, I am sure.”
“But Mother—”
“Hush now. Rest while you can. This isn't over.”
I wanted to fight her, but I couldn't because, for the first time since I was a child, she started singing to me. Slowly, my body lowered so that my head was in her lap, and she was stroking my hair.
My eyes met the bodies piled in the cells, and my heart started breaking in my chest when I met very familiar eyes looking right back at me.
My stepmother and stepsister never got away after all.
I closed my eyes and let my mother’s voice carry me away.