Chapter 30 Aurelia #2
The only ones who could do something to stop this were standing around us. The people who looked at me as I stood up to my brother and just watched. The same people who refused to intervene now.
If anyone truly cared about my brother taking the kingdom and ruining it—ruining everything—they would do something.
But these people were simply going to let him.
I failed.
In the end, the vampire world had turned its back on me. It was a devastating realization.
There is no one else.
But then the bond flared to life just as a body appeared right in front of me, red hair flashing in my vision.
The blow never came. Hot witch blood sprayed across my face and chest instead.
Everything froze. I wasn’t dead. But the person in front of me would be soon.
Cedar.
Adrian’s claws tore through her chest, his angry growl filling the air. As quickly as he struck her, he pulled his hand back, leaving a hole there.
I felt her pain as if it were mine. It was like being ripped in half.
I grabbed her as she collapsed on me.
“No, no, Cedar!” My scream was hoarse, my throat thick as the unimaginable started to happen right in front of my eyes.
Cedar, with her lovely green eyes and freckled face, was looking up at me with a smile. Blood started falling from her lips as Vesper moved to her other side, taking her hand and helping me steady her.
“Hold on,” Vesper said, her voice barely audible. “Please. Let me bite you.”
“Wait,” Cedar said feebly, already fading away. The blood loss was too much. He might have missed her heart, but there was still a wound to the chest that wasn't easy for anyone to recover from. “I need to tell you—”
“Later!”
I grabbed her wrist and bit into it. Vesper did the same, both of us trying to pump as much venom as we could inside her so she could heal. But even as I did, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. The blood gushing out was more than any mortal body like hers, witch or not, could handle.
“I love you both,” she whispered. “Sorry it took so long for me to say it.”
“Shut up! We can talk about it later,” Vesper said, pulling her teeth from her wrist.
I was feeling Cedar’s death, all of it amplified by the bond.
No. No. No. This can't be happening.
“How cute,” Adrian said in a snide tone. “But you’re forgetting we are in the middle of a Royale—”
He staggered back as not one, but four arrows hit him in the chest. Recognition hit me because I had seen those exact arrows before. Turning to the opening of the throne room, I saw the hunters storming in, Gabriel at the lead.
Hope ran through me so violently I let out a sob.
They flanked us, their hands grabbing us as they tried to protect us. Adrian ran back, and there was a gasp of terror throughout the crowd, but none of the hunters cared. All of them were focused on the monster in front of us.
Vesper and I clung to Cedar.
But the hunters weren't the only ones who had finally decided to show up.
The windows shattered behind us, and the very chilling things that made up the Underground started to climb in.
Vampires. Witches. Other things I wasn’t familiar with, but I could feel their powers. Half of them were in human form, and the other half were…
“Shifters,” Cedar breathed out with a pained gasp. I looked at her and tried to put pressure on the wound. The vampire venom was working slowly. Too fucking slowly.
“I was warned that there were things in the Underground that shouldn't be shown to the public, but this…”
Some of them were indeed monsters. Large wolf-like animals circled my brother, growling at him, each with a witch or vampire at their side, showcasing just how large they were in comparison.
Their teeth were sharp and deadly. Their legs were bent in unnatural directions.
And the closer I looked, the less they looked like wolves.
Sharp ears, some even bearing horns, and there was one with multiple tongues sticking out of their mouth.
Are these mutations?
As scary as they were, I couldn't find it in me to care. They were here like they said they would be.
“You got the Underground to come?” Adrian laughed, but for the first time, I saw his mask crack. When he looked at the shifters in front of him… he looked scared. “I knew they dumped rejects there, but I never would've thought that they did experiments too.”
No one answered his claim, but the shifters stalked him. He jerked back, baring his teeth at them.
“You underestimated us,” I growled.
He turned to me, the anger obvious in his face, but it was his fear that was fueling me now. Finally.
“I didn't underestimate anything. You're still a stupid little princess who grew up in a spoiled, rotten castle. You had one job, and even then you found a way to fail at it. You're a disgrace to this family and to all vampires. You and your whore of a mo—”
Adrian’s face twisted in agony, and dark blood shot out of his mouth. He grabbed his chest and slowly fell to his knees, revealing a still chained-up Tate behind him with not one but two glowing daggers, obviously infused with magic.
He was breathing heavily but standing tall.
“Don't talk about my sister like that.”
My heart soared. Tate, the most unlikely savior of them, but one who perfectly fit the requirements of the prophecy. He would be the one to bring Adrian down. He was the one that was going to usher the Castle rule into ruin.
“Finish him!” I yelled, and everyone attacked at once. Gabriel was there to pull Tate away, just as hunters, vampires, and shifters descended on my brother.
It was a disgusting show, but I watched every second as they tore him apart. Only when one of the shifters had eaten his heart and a hunter had smashed his brain was I finally able to look back at my lover, bleeding out in my arms.
She was still there, but just barely.
“Hang on,” I told her. “Just a moment longer.”
“You did it,” she whispered. “Both of you.”
Bloodred tears filled my eyes, slowly starting to drip onto her.
The bond was going haywire between us, urging me to help, but I had no idea how. We had pumped her full of venom, but it didn’t seem to be working.
Suddenly, there were two witches from the Underground at our side, their hands reaching out to Cedar.
I pulled her closer, and Vesper growled.
“We have magic,” one of them whispered, looking us in the eyes as if trying to show us their sincerity. “Let us try to help.”
I looked at Vesper, and we came to a silent agreement to let them touch Cedar. Their magic glowed to life underneath their palms and sunk into her.
They looked at her with the utmost concentration, their eyebrows pulled together and sweat shining on their foreheads. I knew what they were going to tell me, though.
They pulled away, their faces grim.
“I’m sorry… It’s too late.”
“Don't you dare leave us,” Vesper whispered, her hands caressing Cedar's face.
I pushed Cedar's hand against my face. “Please. Please stay.”
She gave us one small smile. Her final one.
“I wish I could spend forever in your arms. I never felt more at peace than I do now. Knowing both of you will be safe and live happy lives together.”
“It's not happy without you,” I forced out.
“We'll all be together. Please, Cedar—”
“Meeting you two and loving you has been the best part of my life. Thank you. I'm sorry I…” She let out a cough, blood splattering.
“Don't force yourself,” I said, touching her, wanting to fix her. Fix something. But I didn't know where to put my hands or what to do.
She was dying right in front of me, and I couldn't save her.
I didn't care that my brother was dead.
I didn’t care about the fucking prophecy.
I would throw it all away if it meant having her here for one more day.
“I need to say it. I'm sorry I can't be there to see what your life will look like. But I know you’ll be together, so you’ll be in good hands.”
“We love you,” Vesper whispered. “Please don’t do this. Please. I’ll do anything.” Her own bloodred tears were falling from her eyes and onto Cedar.
“I'm sorry I didn’t love you enough,” I said, regretting all the time I’d spent worrying about revenge and the prophecy instead of loving my people. Loving them.
“Your love was so much more than enough. You two were more than I ever dreamed…”
Her eyes widened, and her words slowly trickled off into nothingness.
Then there was nothing.
No light in her eyes. No magic. The only thing left of her was the slowly retreating part of our bond.
Vesper and I crumpled. Her hands reached out to me, mine reached out to her. But it was useless. The pain was too much.
She’s gone.