Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Arnel left and doused the fairy lights on his way out, plunging the chambers into darkness.
I couldn’t believe he truly intended to go through with this.
He couldn’t succeed. Surely, someone would know I’d been turned. Images of my uncle Timith’s pale skin and sharp fangs rose in my mind.
Arnel was crazy. Entirely insane. There was no way I could hide that I was a vampire.
Alone in the dark, my thoughts grew sluggish.
Unconsciousness pulled at me, but I struggled to stay awake and tried to recall what I’d recently learned of vampires.
Nathaniel had told me of them at my sister’s betrothed ball.
Vampires were said to live freely in the other realm, and they regularly visited the Nolus continent, but I’d never heard of a vampire stepping foot on the other three continents in the fae lands, probably because they realized they would be hunted or run off by the Solis, Silten, or Lochen fae.
But my uncle was convinced nobody would suspect I’d been turned, and if turning me into one meant I could blend in with other fae while being controlled by him, maybe he was right.
I kicked and struggled with everything I had, but the tight rope wrapped around me was like being encased within an unforgiving sleeve. I couldn’t move, could barely struggle at all.
My thoughts raced to Kole, and I fervently wished that he and I had mated after all.
If we had, our mating bond would have alerted him to my panic and would have led him to me.
Even if my uncle sent a dillemsill stating that I was choosing to stay with him, Kole would have known better.
He would have been able to feel what I was experiencing.
But I didn’t have that safeguard. We’d never completed our bond because I’d wanted my parents’ permission first, which meant my stupid trust in my uncle had gotten me here.
And even though Royden had tried to warn me not to enter my uncle’s estate without him, I hadn’t listened.
I’d been too excited to discover what Arnel had found and too blindingly na?ve to think anyone related to me could be behind it all.
Stupid. So stupid.
I struggled to align my thoughts amidst my pounding head.
Think, Primelle. Think! There’s got to be a way out of this.
Sluggishly, I felt inside myself for my magic, but all that greeted me was an empty hole. My magic was either entirely gone or so far suppressed that I couldn’t even detect it, and I had no idea when or if it was coming back.
But Kole was expecting to hear from me this afternoon. Even though my uncle said that was fixable, I prayed it wasn’t. Because if Kole never heard from me, he would come.
If he were allowed to . . .
But that safeguard might be gone, too, since Kole was being held in isolation by the Imperial Council.
Absolute terror washed through me as I lay on the bed in the quiet room. As much as I was trying to find a way out of this, several cold, hard facts were evident.
My uncle was retrieving his potion.
I had no magic.
I was entirely bound and horrifically restrained.
Royden was unconscious in the dungeons.
Kole was being held by the Council or had been banned from seeing me for who knew how long.
And nobody knew who my uncle truly was or what he was about to do to me.
Tears sprang into my eyes. I was entirely at my uncle’s mercy.
Minutes passed, ticking by at an expedited rate as I fervently wished for time to slow so I could think. Plan. Escape. Do something that would allow me to stop the inevitable, but only seconds later, the door reopened, and my uncle appeared.
His outline was illuminated by the fairy lights in the hall. He held a vial, just like the vial Verin had hidden in her room back at Gwenery and Timith’s home. The vial Jamie had confiscated, which had held my uncle’s potion. And just like those potions prior, this one pulsed with immense power.
“Oh gods,” I whispered. I couldn’t look away from the vial. Couldn’t stop terror from washing through me.
Once again, I wrenched on my magic with everything I had.
Matron Olsander’s teachings came careening back to me.
Eyes scrunched tightly closed, I searched and searched for just a kernel of power.
Something to assist me and banish me from this horrific situation.
I just needed to mistphase. Just one short mistphase would get me out of here.
But Tylen’s magic had completely annihilated mine.
“There’s no need to be frightened.” My uncle’s tone was surprisingly gentle as he approached the bed.
“And I know the room is dark, but that’s only because in the very early stages of the transition, sunlight is bothersome for both vamfeers and vampires, but once you’re fully changed into a vampire, it won’t hurt you. ”
He reached the bed, and I froze completely, terror making me rigid.
His shadowy expression was filled with mock sympathy. “As I said, you don’t need to be frightened. This will be over soon.”
For a moment, everything about this situation felt surreal. The male staring at me looked so much like my father, a male who I trusted and loved. It was so strange to look at Arnel and have that male create inexplicable fear in me. I’d never felt that way around my father before. Not once.
“Now, Primelle,” my uncle continued in that fake, serene tone. “We can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Which do you prefer?”
Kicking into action, I struggled against my restraints again. “I’ll never make . . . anything easy for you.”
His face clouded, losing its luster. “How unfortunate. For you, that is.”
I braced myself against the mattress and tried once again to lash out, but his rope held.
He sighed. “Very well.”
“Please.” I arched off the bed, limbs locked to my sides. “Please don’t do this.”
Tears filled my eyes, and I wondered if I would ever see Kole again and know that it was him, my mate.
Because if I was forced to drink that potion, I had no idea what would become of me.
For all I knew, my mind would no longer function as my own.
Perhaps my thoughts and feelings would vanish.
Maybe the mate bond that the gods placed inside me would disappear too.
Nathaniel and I hadn’t learned enough about vampires to truly know what it did to a fairy.
My uncle uncorked his vial. Potent magic pulsed from it. The clear liquid looked so harmless, entirely benign. But I knew better. That potion had changed my uncle into a creature with fangs.
With his free hand, Arnel pulled my hair, forcing my neck to arch, and a spark of pain shot down my spine.
Neck angled back sharply, I cried in earnest. “No, Uncle, please don’t!”
“Be a good girl and drink.” He forced the vial between my lips.
I tried shaking my head back and forth, tried pulling my face free.
Dizziness made everything spin around me, but in the same move, Arnel tipped the vial’s entire contents into my mouth and slammed my jaw closed, holding it with his hand and magic.
Cool, flavorless liquid sat on my tongue, but I refused to swallow it. I tried to spit it out, but his grip on my jaw hadn’t lessened, and he must have felt my attempts because he left his magic to hold my jaw as he pinched my nose closed.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Swallow,” he said calmly. When I didn’t comply, my uncle pinched my nose tighter. “Swallow!” he growled.
But I didn’t.
I wouldn’t.
I shook my head back and forth, refusing to give in to him, but my vision began to darken.
My body screamed for air.
He scoffed. “Fight all you want. Your body will swallow reflexively sooner or later.”
Pinpricks of light danced across my eyes, and I knew I could only fight him for so long. He was right. Sooner or later, I would fall unconscious, and my mouth would relax, and the potion would trickle down my throat.
And my body, my damned treacherous body, seemed to understand the inevitable, because as soon as the stars in my vision increased, my lungs desperately wanting air, my throat reflexively worked even though I tried to stop it.
The potion traveled down my throat, a slight burn following in its wake. Horror reared up inside me, but the amount was so small, so tiny. In a blink, I’d swallowed it.
“Very good, Primelle.” He released me, and the reality of what’d just happened hit me. Absolute fury filled me, but Arnel just smiled.
“Now,” he said. “We wait.”