Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
‘PUT THAT AWAY.’ RALEIGH was trying to reach me, shielding his eyes as he approached.
I readjusted my grip to cover the cross, but kept the blade drawn. ‘Where did she go?’
‘I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out.
Come on.’ He grabbed my left hand and tugged me after him.
We fled the room, running along the empty corridor, while I tried to ignore the building sense of foreboding when each corner we turned greeted us with more empty halls, and an eternal mirage of mirrors upon mirrors.
Raleigh swore and ground to a halt.
‘The halls are enchanted,’ I said, coming to my realisation just as Raleigh did.
‘She’s the one who taught me how to do it.’ Raleigh paced in a circle, then tried opening one of the windows. It wouldn’t budge. He cursed again.
‘You didn’t notice at some point in three hundred years?’
‘I was never stupid enough to try to kill her!’ Raleigh cried.
‘Ah, so you made it after all.’ A cold voice cut through the hall.
We both froze, turning as one to see a dark-haired figure making its way towards us. Yorik.
‘I did worry you would lose your way, but Lukas insisted we prepare the court for your arrival.’
Raleigh threw his shoulders back. ‘As much as I love these little chats, I have to cut this one short,’ he said. ‘Her Majesty has called for me, and I can’t imagine she’ll appreciate being kept waiting by your sadistic little games.’
A gleam in Yorik’s eye was the only warning we had before he attacked.
There was a blur of movement and suddenly my back was against the wall, the breath knocked from my lungs.
Cold fingers pressed into my jaw, cutting off my breath while leaving my throat exposed.
I kicked at him, but he barely seemed to feel it.
‘That’s not what she told me,’ Yorik said. His eyes washed over me, but his words were for Raleigh. ‘It’s a shame really. You should have tasted this one while you still could.’
Raleigh flew at him. But we were no longer alone.
Seraphina – the woman he’d danced with earlier – caught his hand, eyes flashing wildly as more of their coven seeped into the corridor.
They drifted towards Raleigh, surreal in their beauty, too many to fight unarmed.
All eyes were on him. He didn’t stand a chance.
So no one was prepared for me to plunge my dagger into Yorik’s heart.
I’d never killed anything before, but I knew well enough that cutting though layers of skin and bone and muscle wasn’t as easy as it appeared in novels. So I was shocked by how easily the silver carved through his flesh. By the time he realised what was happening, it was already too late.
Everyone froze. In one tick of the clock the entire court went from frenzy to statue.
Even Raleigh was staring at me with something close to horror.
The wound started to smoke. With a roar Yorik tried to throw me off, but I held on fast, and his movement only sucked the blade deeper into his body.
The knife was hotter now, the smoke choking me. I gave one more push.
He vanished into a cloud of ash.
Without missing a beat, I flipped the knife and spun in a circle, displaying the handle to every devil in the room. ‘Stay back.’
I yanked Raleigh behind me, relieved when he took the hint and stood with his back flush against mine. ‘Let us leave and no one else has to die,’ I said.
‘You can’t kill us all,’ one woman sang in a lilting voice.
‘She can’t,’ came a familiar voice. ‘But I can.’
Something glittering flew through the air and lodged itself in the woman’s forehead.
She didn’t have time to raise her hands in defence before she exploded into ash.
The man beside her followed. There was a flash of blonde hair, a flutter of a dirty apron, and then Moira was driving a gleaming stake into the heart of the man beside him.
‘Catch,’ she said blandly, and threw Raleigh his sword. He unsheathed it in an instant, slashing blindly at a woman who had driven towards him. She staggered back, wound hissing, giving him enough time to lunge in and finish the job. Ash settled on his lashes.
‘Stay behind me.’ He cut his way through the crowd with the mercy of a medieval prince, never hesitating, never wavering.
This was the Prince of Rostenburg, the Count of Triz, high commander of armies lost to time.
We were no longer helpless. The vampires weren’t armed; they were lethal enough with claws and teeth to forgo the time it took to train with blades.
But they were unprepared for the brutal efficiency of one of their own wielding a blade of silver.
Bringing up the rear, Moira fought like a hurricane. Her movements were precise, her reactions almost vampiric. With every cloud of ash her smile grew wider, wilder. I felt like a joke beside her, waving my crucifix at anyone who dared come too near.
Everything began to fall into place. Her book collection, her penchant for silver.
Why she had remained Raleigh’s only servant for so many years, despite having such an aversion to housework.
Why he was so insistent on keeping her at his side when they both made it clear there was no love between them.
She had never been his housemaid. She was his guard.
‘You’re a vampire hunter?’ I blurted as the final attacker fell.
Moira raised her brows. She looked amused, unbothered by the situation, despite being covered in ash.
‘Glad to see you spent the last six months productively.’ One of the attack party still hadn’t turned to ash.
Moira nudged her onto her back with one foot, then drove a stake through her heart.
She didn’t watch the ash settle; she only wiped off the stake with the corner of her apron.
‘I really thought you’d work it out sooner. ’
‘Can you both focus, please,’ Raleigh snapped. ‘Moira, how did you find us through the enchantment?’
She reached into her apron and produced the bulb of garlic that had given Raleigh so much grief at the start of our journey. ‘A clove of garlic under the tongue wards against enchantment. It won’t do much if someone’s trying to hypnotise you directly, but it works a treat for something like this.’
That would have been helpful to know six months ago. She handed me one, put one under her own tongue and, seeing Raleigh’s discomfort, added, ‘Just hold hands with Clara.’
The world felt clearer with the garlic in my mouth.
Raleigh couldn’t lead, so we retraced Moira’s steps.
The halls were empty, a vast contrast to the crowds we’d passed on the way in.
Not a single servant bowed in my periphery, no whispering courtiers decorated the corners.
We walked in silence, unmolested and unwatched, and with every step my unease grew.
Raleigh was the first to stop walking. ‘Stop,’ he said, pulling me back to him. ‘We’re walking into an ambush.’
I pushed the garlic into my cheek. ‘He’s right. It’s too quiet.’
Moira stopped several paces ahead of us, then spat her garlic into her palm, to Raleigh’s obvious disgust. ‘Would you attack us? We must have killed, what, twenty vampires? And look at you.’ She nodded to me.
‘You’re practically a little hunter yourself.
They’re probably cowering somewhere until we leave. ’
‘Take this seriously, Moira.’ Raleigh’s fury rang out through the empty hall. ‘Do you think they’ve never fought vampire hunters before? They wiped out your entire family!’
‘I’m not my family.’
‘You are,’ he cried. ‘You’re just like them and I will not let your arrogance kill you like it killed them.’
‘Keep your voice down,’ I hissed.
Raleigh whipped around to face me. ‘Do not tell me what to do.’ I had never seen his expression so dark. ‘We wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t ignored all of my warnings and tried to kill her in the first place.’
‘She was trying to kill us!’
‘She was toying with us. It’s what she does. She’s doing it now. She’s probably enjoying watching us panic.’ Raleigh pulled away, throwing his arms out, yelling at the ceiling. ‘Are you happy, Constantina? You’ve had your fun. You might as well— Ugh.’ Raleigh doubled over, covering his eyes.
Moira advanced at him, dangling her necklace from her fingers, the cross glinting in the candlelight. ‘Calm down.’
Raleigh didn’t resist. He kept his head bowed, even when Moira withdrew the pendant. ‘I should have come alone,’ he said. ‘I knew you’d never wait quietly outside.’
‘How did you know to look for us?’ I asked her. ‘It can’t be midnight yet.’
‘Enrique knows some of the guests who arrived after us. One of them ran out to tell him after they saw you disappear with the Queen.’
‘Why?’ Raleigh asked.
‘Are you really asking me why one of his childhood friends would warn him that someone he cared about was going to die?’
‘Stop it,’ I said before Raleigh could snap back. ‘Did you leave him alone?’ I pictured Enrique, left with the carriage, a sitting duck for anyone attempting an ambush. The realisation dawned on Raleigh’s face as I spoke.
But Moira looked away. ‘We split up once we were inside.’
‘He’s in here?’ Raleigh’s voice was rising again.
‘Half the court wanted to talk with him. He’s one of you, he’ll be fine.’
‘He’s one of us.’
‘Can you stop arguing for one minute so we can make a plan?’ I cried.
They both turned to me like scolded children expecting a hiding.
‘Raleigh. You know the Queen’s tactics better than us. Why has she left us alone? Think.’
He frowned. I could tell he was forcing himself back into rationality.
‘She’s making us complacent and concentrating her force somewhere.
’ He thought for a moment. ‘Most likely the entrance hall. At least, that’s what I would do, but maybe that’s too obvious.
She’ll expect us to work out this much at least.’
‘Actually, my love,’ came a chilling voice. ‘I never realised you were capable of such complex thought.’