Chapter 29 – Neve
NEVE
Vale snored beside me, peaceful in rest. I wished to join him in that lovely, soft place, but for me, slumber hovered on a far distant horizon. My mind was far too busy.
Thyra and Thantrel were mates. Brynhild was the maid who had saved my sister from death. Though I barely knew the older faerie, and my sister seemed to despise me, I found myself so grateful for Brynhild. She’d saved my last remaining family member.
Well, not the last. I corrected myself quickly.
Poor Prince Calder, my uncle on my father’s side, was still rotting in the eastern dungeons of Frostveil Castle, and earlier Vale had spoken to a rebel Hawk Seed.
So I did have more family, just none so close as my twin. A full sibling. A sister. Maybe a treasure, should we get to that place.
Is that possible?
I wasn’t sure and though the skin-changer would be no replacement for my twin, I yearned to know more of my family. I resolved to ask Vale to introduce me to the skin-changer he’d met in the dining hall. Perhaps the fylgjarn and I would click right away.
Vale tugged the fur blanket, yanking it off me and ripping me out of what could have been a nice daydream of siblings reuniting.
A chill washed over me as cold air nipped at the bare skin of my calves and arms. I tried to recover some of the blanket, but he was so large and somehow had already tucked the blanket beneath him.
I moaned. Not again! At Frostveil, we’d always had extra-long blankets and as many as we wanted. The abundance hid Vale’s propensity to be a cover thief.
I frowned at my mate and nearly woke him out of sheer annoyance, but then decided against it. He’d worry about why I was still up and alert. I didn’t wish to go over the many matters of my mind.
As Valrun Castle was falling apart, wool and fur blankets were one of the few ways the rebels fended off the persistent chill. They had provided extra blankets, and we kept them in the shared living space. I’d grab one and bring it back so I would not disrupt Vale.
Slipping from the bed, I rubbed my hands along my pebbled arms and padded out of the room. What I wouldn’t give for a sauna right now.
The annex was silent, save for the volley of snores coming from the Riis brothers’ room. I smirked. I’d be teasing them about that trollish racket tomorrow.
I reached the sitting area where we’d spent most of our day and stopped on the threshold. My lips flattened. Thantrel never made it to bed, but rather he slept in the same chair he’d been in all day. No blanket covered his body, and his arms hung limp over the edges.
Careful not to wake him, I grabbed two woolen blankets from the basket by the fire and slipped one over him.
The stench of sour ale wafted off Thantrel, and five empty horns littered the ground at his feet.
He hadn’t gone to dinner, but we’d brought him back food and a single ale.
I was guessing he’d somehow convinced the guards outside the door to bring him refills to dim the pain of being rejected.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, tucking the blanket in and hoping it was enough to keep him warm. His head lolled, and with my heart breaking for him, I turned to return to bed.
I made it three steps when a soft creak of the door opening hit my ear. Twisting, I caught a figure dressed in a black cloak slipping inside the annex.
Her wings were white and shimmering, her hair as black as a starless night sky, and her face set in cunning and hard lines—but none of that set my heart racing like the sight of her fangs or her red eyes.
Vampire. A hungry one at that.
Two more vampires, also female, slipped in behind her. They stared at me, eyes wide and as red as the first vampire’s. It was as if they had not expected to find me here, though the entire rebel force was aware of where Princess Neve and her cohort rested.
I reached for my magic, but as the rebels still required us to be bound by the ice spider silk, no power came to my aid. Nor had I brought a weapon with me to get a blanket.
What of the guards at our door? One glance beyond the females brought only more questions. The guards were standing there, as if nothing at all was happening.
Compelled. That I’d forgotten that trick of the vampires spoke to how much I’d moved on from that world.
I opened my mouth, preparing to call for help, when the lead vampire blurred over, pulled my back against her chest, and slammed a hand over my mouth.
“We’re not here to hurt you. Don’t scream.”
I stared at her, breathless. Was she serious?
“We came here to find you. To help. We promise you can trust us.” She lifted her hand slightly, just enough for me to speak. “We’ve actually already helped you once.”
“How?” I demanded.
“The Dream Eater,” another said. “We chased it away. At least the first time. It circled back as the rebels approached, and we dared not show ourselves to them.”
“Dream Eaters float.” I gaped, putting the pieces that I’d learned since the attack together with what had happened that night. “And you have wings. That’s why Vale didn’t find footsteps in the snow!”
“Correct. We—”
“Bleeding skies!” Thantrel screamed.
I jerked as he leapt out of the chair, scooped an empty horn off the ground, and chucked it at the vampire holding me. “Let her go!”
The other two vampires blurred over, and one compelled Thantrel to be silent while the other held him still. The fight rolling through my friend died.
My jaw tightened at just how powerless we were. They’d compelled him so fast and with such little effort.
“Rustling in the rooms. Someone heard,” the vampire who compelled Thantrel whispered.
A few thundering heartbeats later, Vale appeared, his gaze hinging from me to Thantrel, who stood limply in the room. Before Vale leapt at the vampire constraining me, she held up a hand.
“We aren’t hurting her. We just wanted to speak with her. I’ll let go, but please, don’t make noise or attack.”
And then, to my utter shock, she did as she claimed and released me.
“I’m not harmed, Vale. I—”
The others rushed into the room and suddenly all my friends were staring at me and Thantrel, aghast.
“Than?” Luccan’s voice came out strained. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s compelled,” I said. The fear that had filled me moments ago had dimmed. Now only curiosity simmered. “They want to talk to me. Thantrel surprised them and lashed out, so they compelled him to be silent.”
The vampire holding Thantrel nodded. “I will release him, if that makes you feel better.”
“Do,” Luccan commanded.
She did, and before Thantrel sprang into another drunken attack, Luccan was at his side, calming his drunk brother.
I turned to the vampire who had grabbed hold of me. “Are you Red Assassins?”
“We are,” she replied, dark eyes open and honest. “But we’re not here to kill you. We want to join you. To help you if you’ll have us.”
My eyebrows screwed together. “Why?”
Her white wings spread out behind her. “We were born in Winter’s Realm, and our sire turned us against our will.
We want to return home and doubt the current king will allow us to do so.
However, maybe someone who has been in a situation much like ours will?
Could you, if you achieved power, be different enough to change perceptions?
And if you would, then we will pledge ourselves to your cause and protect you with our lives. ”
Yes, of course, they’d been fae and turned. The wings were one of the first things I’d noticed when they slipped into our room. Then, somehow, they became assassins.
I had to know their story.
“Sit.” I invited them to take chairs. “I’ll hear you out.”
The small hour of the direwolf neared when the vampires finally finished telling their tale.
I shivered and pulled my blanket tighter around me.
We had not dared to light the fire in case the smoke from our chimney drew attention so late.
As a result, the annex was frigid and not only from the cold.
The vampires’ story chilled me to the bone.
Sisters. Three of them. All taken from Winter’s Realm. All slaves to none other than Prince Gervais and later sold to the Red Assassins to pay his staggering gambling debts.
If I thought I couldn’t hate the vampire I’d killed more, I’d have been wrong. What he’d done to these sisters was beyond horrific.
And all of that might have happened to me.
Well, maybe not the being sold to an assassin’s guild part. I hadn’t had the prowess these sisters had accumulated before their turning, but all the rest . . . The abuse that Gervais was famous for, that would have been me.
I didn’t regret killing him. Not even with the consequences that action rained down on me. He deserved a hundred painful deaths.
And these faeries of Winter’s Realm turned vampires deserved more than the hand the Fates had dealt them. The issue was helping them when I held so little power and influence among the rebels. Among anyone outside this small annex, really.
Vale and the Riis brothers continued to pepper them with questions, so I sat there and watched Astril, Freyia, and Livia.
Each one had wings as white as snow and skin only slightly darker.
With striking hair the color of a starless night sky, they appeared around thirty turns.
Their differences were slight—found only in their builds, and in Livia’s charming lopsided smile.
Her older sisters’ smiles were straight and brilliant.
It was easy to tell that they were sisters.
Invisible threads of love and loyalty bound them, and one could feel those bonds.
Would I ever have that love with Thyra? My heart, though guarded around her, wished for it so.
“You hail from Virtoris Island then?” Luccan asked, and my ears perked up.
“That’s why we grew up sailing,” Freyia, the middle sister, answered. “Our parents were merchants before they journeyed to the afterworld.”
“Were murdered, you mean.” Astril, the oldest and the leader among the trio, scowled.