Chapter 16
Haven
Holding up my skirts high above my knees, my heeled boots sink into the deep snow with every step. I need to move fast, run faster, but the depth of the freshly fallen snow slows me down and makes it harder.
Emma struggles to keep up at my side. Bursts of frozen breath appear and vanish before her pale lips, and her green eyes are wide with panic. We both aim for the forest line. Our salvation.
The weapon in my hand feels heavier now, my palm slippery around the handle. Then, I hear the very thing that shatters my world.
“Haven!”
Henri.
He’s coming after us.
I can turn around and fight him. At least then, Emma has a chance to get away, but then what? What will become of me?
“Emma,” I gasp against the wind, “do not stop running.”
Her eyes snap my way.
“No matter what, don’t stop running!” I stop suddenly, and when Emma begins to slow, I wave her on. “Go Emma. Run!”
Emma picks up her pace, her blonde head down to hide the tears streaming down her face.
I turn to face my own demon head on. Sucking in as much frigid air as my lungs can hold, I raise my sword.
Henri is taking long strides to reach me, his black hair whipping wildly around his face. He looks deranged. Like a madman. When he spots the blade in my hands, a wicked grin transforms his face.
He’ll be on me in seconds.
“Haven,” he calls to me in a song-like way. “How did you get that sword?”
I shift on my feet and hold the weapon with both hands in front of me. I point the tip at him as he hurtles toward me.
Impossible. There’s no way I’m going to be able to fight him and win. All he’s going to do is rip the sword from my grasp and drag me back to his bedroom to have me tied up again.
Dread seizes me. I’m never going to escape him. I’ll be his slave forever.
No, I would rather die than go back with him.
Lifting the blade, my reflection shines back at me with fierce determination.
I would rather die.
The realization of what I have to do hits me. I would rather die.
Without another thought, I flip the sword around and plunge it into my own stomach. The pain is instant and all-consuming, sending me to my knees.
Blood rises up my throat, choking me with its metallic taste and causing me to sputter and cough. The snow around me is dotted with red—my blood—and it drips down my chin and coats my hands.
To my surprise, the pain ebbs and dies away quickly, and I’m warm all over, tingling even. I hope Avrum can forgive me for this, but for now I’m tired. So tired.
There’s an angry shout from close by, accompanied by the sound of snow crunching under boots.
As I look up for the last time, a dark figure hovers over me, and even though their features are meshed into a blur of color and shapes, I know it’s Henri.
I wish I could see the pure horror on his face and the realization that I’d finally found a way to escape him, but I need to close my eyes.
More hot fluid hits my lips, filling my mouth and sliding down my throat. But the comforting heat of it sends me deeper into sleep.
Finally, I’m free of him.
Avrum
“Haven, no!”
I watch her collapse, see Henri run to her side and kneel there. I yell again, but my voice is muted by the thudding of my own heart in my ears. Tears burn my eyes, out of anger and grief.
Beyond Haven, the shadow of Emma gets smaller and smaller as she nears the forest line.
“I’ll follow the maid,” Lysander says. He breaks away from me and sprints after her at full speed.
The snow around Haven is stained a brilliant red, the smell of blood overpowering. The raw, feral anger in me pushes at my control, and my vision sharpens against the darkness, my fangs releasing.
No more fear or hesitation. This is it. I’m going to kill him.
Henri seizes Haven by the arms and shakes her violently, trying to get her to wake up, but her head whips back and forth, her face pale, her bloody lips parted.
“Wake up!” he shouts. “You think you can get away from me that easily? Now, wake up!”
I rush at Henri’s turned back, grabbing him by the shoulders, and rip him off Haven with a vicious growl. He flies several feet away, rolling in the snow, before collapsing into a heap.
I catch Haven’s body as it drops and lay her gently down. Pain, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, slices through me at the sight of her. Everything—her ivory gown, the ground around her, the sword nearby—is soaked with blood. Her blood.
My entire body trembles.
She’s gone.
I run a hand over her beautiful face, my heart clenching painfully in my chest.
“Haven,” I whisper to her, my throat tight. “It wasn’t supposed to end this way. I was supposed to save you.”
Suddenly, a hard kick to my back sends me stumbling forward. I fall face-first into the snow with a grunt.
“You fool!” Henri yells, as I push myself to my feet again. Blood paints his teeth, lips, and chin crimson, and he holds a sword at the ready. “I gave you everything, and you think you can turn on me?”
I yank out my own and glance toward the forest’s edge. Both Lysander and Emma are nowhere in sight. It looks like I’m on my own this time.
I rise to my feet, my hatred of this man—this monster—fueling me. “Everything you told me was a lie.”
Chuckling, one black brow raises in interest. “You think you can fight me?”
I whirl my sword at him, but he blocks it without effort.
“You do!” The amusement in his eyes reminds me of a child. “How funny!”
Remembering Lysander’s teachings, I strike again, this time low. Again, Henri blocks it, laughing.
“I made you,” he hisses, and takes a great step toward me. “Haven was a human, insignificant. What could she possibly have meant to you?”
I grind my teeth. The rage inside me swirls around like a river current.
Then, Henri pauses. His head tilts to the side. “You’ve developed feelings for her, haven’t you?”
I lunge forward, but he dances away.
“You have! You have!” he teases. “You’re even more pathetic than I thought.”
I hate the way his laughter sounds. Mocking, loud, and rumbling. It echoes in my ears.
“She isn’t your Linna. She never was! You’ve gone mad!”
“She loves me,” Henri says. “She’s mine.”
Our swords lock again, the tips dangerously close to skin, but Henri is unbothered. “I chose you that night I set fire to the Brenin Farm. I couldn’t’ve killed you too, but I didn’t. I chose you.”
His confession is like an arrow to my chest, and my lungs squeeze painfully. It can’t be true… It can’t. But, knowing this man’s true nature and how far his delusions go, I know it must be.
He’d killed them all. My family…
Fury rockets through me. “You-You—”
“I was going to let you all die, but I saved you and brought you here,” he says calmly. “You are as ungrateful as Haven was.”
“You’re the devil!”
Henri comes at me then, his sword raised. I scramble back, my boots sinking into the deep snow. I land on my back as Henri swings again. This time, when our two weapons clash, mine lifts out of my grasp and hurls through the air, feet away, out of my reach.
Breathing hard, I peer up to see Henri’s face has drained of all its humor. His black eyes lock onto mine and his nostrils flare as he readies to deliver the final blow.
“You’re all ungrateful,” he spits. “And unworthy.”
I’m left unable to do anything but hold my breath as the silver blade whooshes through the air with blurring speed. I squeeze my eyes shut, awaiting the sharp pain and the finality of the eternal darkness.
But there is nothing.
Confused, I open them to see my own terrified reflection staring back at me on the sword’s smooth face. It hovers just inches away from my nose, frozen in mid-air.
Henri doesn’t move either. His lips are pulled back in a snarl, but something’s not right.
That’s when I notice a thin line of crimson across Henri’s throat. It grows thicker and darker until a waterfall of blood begins to spill down his neck and onto his white collar. Suddenly, his arms drop, his knees buckle, and as he falls forward, his head rolls off his shoulders.
Haven stands behind him, breathing hard, with the short sword in her hands again, dripping with new blood.
There’s something terrifyingly different about her face. Her pale skin shimmers against the ivory color of her gown, and her eyes flash from black to an arctic blue as she gazes down at me.
She isn’t the Haven I knew anymore. She’s like me. A vampire.
I can’t believe it.
“H-Haven?”
She blinks rapidly, and her head tilts to the side as she studies my face.
“Haven,” I whisper again, trying to reach her in her dazed state. There must’ve been an exchange of blood before I’d arrived. Henri must’ve tried to change her before I’d arrived, and—
“Haven, please. It’s me. Avrum.”
Every emotion flashes across her face at once—anger, confusion, relief—but fear remains above all. When her gaze drops to Henri’s disembodied head and then back to me, her pupils dilate. “Is he—?”
“Yes. He is. Dead.”
Haven’s grip loosens and the sword falls, landing in the snow. Her bloodied hands touch her middle. “But I-I was too…”
I stand and take her by the arms. She is bitter cold to the touch. “Not anymore,” I whisper.
The truth is painful to say out loud. She may be like me—forever alive and cursed—but she isn’t dead. Not like before…
I shake off the memory of her falling to the ground in the blood-soaked snow. I’d been so close to losing her, and the pain of it still has its claws buried in me.
“I am like you?” she asks, panic ringing in her voice. “No, no, no. I can’t be like you. Like him.”
I pull her close, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight. It’s all I can think of doing to comfort her. She’s rigid against me, her arms hanging loosely at her sides.
“It’ll be alright, Haven. Henri’s dead. You’re alive. We are alive, and Emma’s safe…”
“No, no, no,” she murmurs against me. “Please, no. Please!”
I stroke her back, trying my best to soothe her. “Haven, don’t you see. You’re free from Henri.”
She quiets, and her body sags against me.
“I’m free…”
“Yes. It’s over. You’re free.” Finally, her hands slide up my back and grab onto her my coat. She begins to cry into my chest softly, and I hold her tight, never wanting to let go of her again.
“I’m free,” she says, the truth of it sinking in. White, pure snow drifts around us, dusting our hair and covering the stained snow at our feet.
“We are free.”