Chapter 2
M ama wasn’t in the cottage.
Her basket was missing from its spot next to the hearth, which meant she was gathering herbs in the forest.
I slumped against the closed door, my chest heaving from my sprint. Tears streamed down my face as I examined my injured hand. Blood dripped from three smoking wounds on the fleshy part of my fingertips. The edges of the gashes shivered as they drew together, only to spring apart again.
Bile burned my throat, and I jerked my hand back down. For a moment, I couldn’t move. Could only stand there and take shallow breaths as I struggled not to vomit. Regret churned in my gut, its edges as sharp as the pain in my fingertips.
Fool , I thought, letting my eyes slide shut.
I was such a fool. For as long as I could remember, Mama had warned me to be careful.
No lingering. No strangers. No surprises.
Derryton was backward and boring, but it was safe .
The tavern served beer in clay cups with copper lids.
The townspeople dined on wooden trenchers.
No one—not even the Bagleys—could afford real silver.
When I was a child, I’d begged Mama to take me to Sausberg.
Just once, I’d wanted to see the big castle and the wooden sidewalks that allowed the nobles and wealthy merchants to walk above the dirt.
I’d wanted to hear the rattle of a hundred carts and carriages bumping over the stone bridges that crisscrossed the Kingsway River.
I’d wanted to smell the charred meat and cooked vegetables the street vendors stuffed in their pies and sold to the Sausbergians, who ate them right there on the sidewalk.
I’d wanted…something extraordinary, if only for a moment.
But it took only a moment for twenty-four years of secrecy and careful planning to unravel.
Swallowing a sob, I pushed away from the door and rushed to the narrow staircase that led to the loft.
My fingers throbbed in sync with my heart as I raced up the treads and crossed the tiny space that served as my bedroom.
Buttery yellow sunlight splashed over the quilt Mama and I had spent a whole winter making.
I grabbed an old shift from the laundry basket and wrapped it around my bleeding hand as I went to my chest of drawers.
I couldn’t take much with me. Just a change of clothes, a hairbrush, and a little bit of food.
Pain shot up my injured arm as I yanked stockings from the top drawer.
Whirling, I looked around for something to use as luggage.
I’d never needed any. I’d never set foot outside Derryton.
But I couldn’t stay. Cyprio had seen me jump farther than any human could jump.
The fear in his eyes had been unmistakable.
As long as I remained in Derryton, Mama was in danger.
Although my leaving might not erase the threat.
She’d hidden me for twenty-four years. Once the village learned what I was, they wouldn’t let her live in peace.
They wouldn’t let her live at all.
The sob I’d swallowed escaped. What were we supposed to do? Where could we go? Not to Sausberg. Certainly not across the Feyline. We didn’t have horses or money. We didn’t—
I sucked in a breath. Slowly, I turned toward the chest of drawers. Mama and I didn’t have money. But Mama had something special. Something that was probably worth a fortune.
Heart pumping, I went to the chest and knelt.
Blood seeped through the shift as I removed the bottom drawer and set it aside.
There was nothing remarkable about the floorboards underneath the chest—except for one with a tiny chip along the edge.
I slid my fingernail into the groove and pulled, lifting the board away.
The boards around it went more easily, and soon I’d exposed a secret compartment.
Within it, black gemstones glittered, their centers burning with tiny red flames.
With a reverent hand, I pulled the gown from its hiding place.
Material softer than silk brushed my skin.
The gown was blacker than night and more beautiful than anything Horace Alderson had ever brought from Sausberg.
Dozens of black gemstones with bloodred hearts swept down the bodice and scattered over the voluminous skirt.
The sleeves were sheer and slashed to show the wearer’s skin.
The back plunged indecently low. It was a gown designed to captivate.
To seduce. The red centers of the black stones seemed to flicker and swell, each pulse like the breath of a living creature.
My mother claimed she remembered little of her time in Nocta.
She’d been raised in a village that bordered the Feyline, and one day she wandered too close to the edge.
The way she told it, she woke a year later on the edge of her village with the gown’s inky skirts spread around her and no memory of how she’d come to wear such an unusual garment.
Fearing condemnation, she’d buried the dress, returned home, and resumed her life.
Then her stomach started to grow.
Mama ran. She never told me the name of her old village.
I knew nothing of my grandparents or her life before I was born.
That girl is dead , she’d told me, and she’d made me promise to never go looking for the past. But she showed me the secret compartment under my dresser.
With the curtains drawn and the light of a single candle splashing shadows on the walls, she’d cupped my cheek with one hand and held the dress with the other.
If anything ever happens to me, Corinthe, you take this gown to Sausberg and sell it.
Each gem is worth a king’s ransom in gold.
It was never any use asking how she knew the stones’ value, just as it was no use asking about the vampire who fathered me. She didn’t remember. At least, she claimed she didn’t. But Mama wasn’t forgetful. She remembered things, especially important things.
I touched the gown’s sleek skirt. The stones flickered.
Downstairs, the back door opened. I jerked my head up as Mama’s footsteps echoed across the floorboards. As quickly as they’d started, they stopped.
Heart racing, I looked at the hiding spot under the dresser. There was no way I could stuff the dress back in before my mother reached me.
“Corinthe?” she called.
My stomach did a nervous flip. I knew that tone. Somehow, within seconds of setting foot in the cottage, my mother knew something was wrong.
“Up here,” I replied, surging to my feet with the dress in my hands.
“I know ,” she said, her footsteps starting up again. They rang out on the stairs and then she appeared on the threshold—diminutive and strikingly beautiful. Her blond brows pulled tightly together as she stared at the gown’s black skirts spilling over the floor.
I clutched the dress against my midsection. “I can explain.”
“What happened to your hand?” She rushed forward, seized my linen-wrapped wrist, and unraveled the shift. I flinched as the fabric stuck to my wounds.
“Silver,” Mama breathed. The blood drained from her face as she watched my skin twitch and try to reknit.
“It was a peddler,” I blurted. Then I confessed the whole shameful tale, leaving nothing out. Lilawen Trevil had a nose for lies. And this was no time for deception. Cyprio could be on his way to the cottage, a mob of angry townspeople behind him.
“Did he follow you?” Mama asked, jerking her blue eyes to mine. “Was anyone with him? What did he look like? Tell me exactly what you saw, Corinthe.” She tightened her grip on my wrist. “Did you sense anything in the forest?”
“I did,” I said, wincing. She eased her hold immediately, and I repeated the story, describing Cyprio in detail.
My mother listened without interrupting. She went very still, the way she did when she was trying to decide which herbs would best treat an illness.
“So we’ll take the dress and run,” I finished. “We can sell it in Sausberg, just like you said.”
Mama was quiet for a long moment. Then she shook her head. “No. We’ll stay here.”
For a moment, I could only gape at her. My earliest memories were of her telling me how important it was to hide.
The Feyline kept the human and magical realms separate.
Humans didn’t cross into Nocta unless they were desperate or suicidal.
For the most part, the creatures who inhabited Nocta stayed on their side of the line.
Ghedda was full of human prey, but it also had sunlight and silver.
As a dhampir, I didn’t truly belong in either world.
But I was safest in Ghedda. Until now. Sausberg posed its own dangers, but it was the only place we could sell the dress without attracting attention.
Villages were invariably nosy places. Two women trying to offload a gown studded with gems would rouse instant suspicion.
Once we had enough coin, we could find a new place to settle.
“We have to go,” I said. “The humans will kill me if they discover what I am. You’ve always said that.”
She reached up and pulled a strand of hair away from my cheek, her fingers cool on my flushed skin. “Yes, but only if they discover you. That hasn’t happened.”
“But the peddler—”
“Saw you stumble away from a sharp object,” she said firmly.
“Nothing more. He’s a stranger from Sausberg.
Even if he runs into town yelling about creatures from Nocta, no one will believe him.
” Mama bent her head and examined my fingers.
The scent of chamomile filled the scant space between us.
“I’ve spent almost twenty-five years cultivating the goodwill of the people of Derryton.
I won’t lose it over one man’s unfounded allegations. ” She looked up. “ We won’t lose it.”
Anxiety fluttered in my stomach. “If they come for me, they’ll come for you, too.”