CHAPTER 8 #2
Pulling the edge of her sleeve down, Dani headed back out into the kitchen. She found Evan leaning against the counter, arms folded.
“I sent Ava over to Kayra’s for a little while so we could talk. I’m worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” she said, a bit testily.
“You’re too attached to him. And it’s not just one-sided. He’s obsessed with you, anyone can see that. But there’s no way this ends well.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Dani barely kept her voice even. “Gods, Evan. I don’t need you rubbing my nose in it.”
“What I think is that you want so much for this to be something that it’s not that you’re willing to lie to yourself.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You told Alexander about encountering the werewolf operatives on the road coming home.”
“And?” Dani laughed sharply. “I didn’t even know what I saw, for one. And he already knew. You act like I was giving away rebellion secrets.”
“Okay, fine.” Evan held up her hands, palms out. “I just think you should remember whose side he’s really on. And it isn’t ours.”
“You don’t know Alex.”
“And you do?”
“Yes,” she snapped. Tears stung her eyes.
For a moment, the room was still. Down the hall, the neighbor’s baby began to cry. Then—
“When were you going to tell me that Prince Alexander was the same Zander you had been going to meet with at the legal aid center all these months?”
Heat crept up her neck. “How did you find out?”
“Serafina told me.” Her sister’s tone was quiet, dangerous. “You do feel a connection to him. It’s written all over your face. I should have seen it before, with those stories you were writing, all those forbidden vampire-human romances.”
“I write what sells.” She was breathing hard now, both of them aware Evan had touched a nerve. “And I don’t judge you for what you draw.”
The comment was especially cruel because Evan knew writing was her only form of creative release, the one thing she looked forward to every night between long days on the shipping center floor, endless walks back and forth in the freezing cold, and the monotony of getting Ava to and from school.
It was the one thing that truly belonged to her.
So what if her series wasn’t one of the most popular ones.
She’d never gone viral, but they still earned a small number of silvers from her writing every month.
And Evan had no right to kick her for it when she was down.
“So why did you lie to me?”
“Because I knew you’d never understand,” she exploded. “There, are you happy?”
“What if it were Ava who’d taken up with a vampire boy she’d met on her way home from school, a vampire she claimed to be madly in love with?” Evan shook her head. “Would you approve, or would you keep her as far away from him as possible?”
“Ava is a child.”
“Me, then.”
“You would have staked him through the heart before he could have even attempted to compose a single love sonnet on your behalf.”
“Rather fortunate, I should think, given that nothing rhymes with Evangeline.” Her expression sobered.
“Alexander isn’t good for you, Dani. I don’t know if it’s the emotional connection of the feeding screwing with your hormones, but he’s doing a number on you, and for what?
In a month, he’ll be engaged to that harpy. ”
“This was always to get Ava’s meds,” Dani whispered. “Don’t think I would have chosen any of this if we’d had any other options.”
“But you do want him. Not the prince,” she clarified. “You want Zander.”
“It doesn’t matter what I want, because I can’t have either of them.
Prince Alexander will be forced to announce his engagement any day now, and Zander doesn’t exist.” She looked down.
“But you’re right. I’ve always felt something for him, long before I knew he was Alex.
It’s always felt outside of my control. I can’t explain it. We just have… chemistry, I guess.”
“Did you sleep with him?”
“It didn’t go that far.”
Evan’s phone buzzed. “I have to go. Just… be careful, okay? There’s only one way this ends, and that’s with you getting hurt.”
No sooner had Alexander resolidified on the balcony outside his wing of the palace, than a black hood was yanked down over his head. A fist slammed into his gut a second later, doubling him over.
He fought his assailants, trying to focus his thoughts enough to scatter himself into smoke and reform across town at Serafina’s safe house.
But his heart was beating too fast. Adrenaline pounded through his system as he was forced to the ground.
His hands were wrenched behind his back, leaving him unable to calm his mind.
As they locked silver cuffs around his wrists, Alex tried to curl in on himself, to try to protect his head, futile as it was with his arms pinned behind his back.
The blows began raining down. He lost track of the minutes. There was nothing but the anticipation of the next kick or punch, and his captors’ laughter over him every time he flinched.
Footsteps approached.
“Enough,” Judas Visconti said. “Get him up.”
Alexander said nothing as the hood was yanked off. He tried to draw in a breath and saw a sea of black spots. At least two of his ribs were cracked. Henri was nowhere to be found. He could only assume his father’s men had gotten to him, too.
“Where were you?”
Alex thought quickly. His mother’s bruised face came back to him in a rush.
In the memory, she dabbed ointment on a cut on his lip as he sat at the end of her bed.
He’d been very small at the time. He could recall there had been tears in Charlotte Visconti’s eyes, even though her bruises had been so much worse than his, and he’d reached up to brush the tears from her cheek.
“Why does he hit you?” he’d whispered.
She’d looked so sad in that moment that he’d hated himself for asking, had started to cry again. Quickly, she pulled him into her lap.
“One day, your sister will be queen,” she whispered. “And together, you will heal our broken world. Until then, when your father comes to ask what we’ve been talking about, remember this: the best lies weave in tiny bits of truth.”
Alex blinked, his thoughts returning to the present. The king knew he’d gone to see Dani, or at least suspected. He had one chance to save her from meeting the same fate that now awaited him.
“I went to see Sera.” The balcony fell silent.
The answer had caught them off guard. Before his father could regroup, he continued, “This is all happening so quickly. I never consented to any of it. Not to the royal ball, and not to getting engaged. I went to ask her advice about stepping aside so Dante can take my place.”
His father strode forward, and slapped him across the face. Stars blurred his vision. Judas gripped his arm. His dark magic slithered through Alex’s veins like ice water, sucking the life force from him. He gasped, falling to his knees as his legs went watery.
On either side of him, the two guards holding him collapsed. Alex was fairly sure they’d stopped breathing. Gods, he hoped Henri was still alive. This was all his fucking fault. The remaining guards shifted uncomfortably in place.
At last, the king released him, seeming wholly unconcerned about the pile of corpses on the terrace.
“Get up.”
Shaking, Alex staggered to his feet.
“You are the heir. This has been decided. The ball where you are to choose a bride has been announced. It is going forward, and you are marrying Lara.”
“You decided.” Alex wiped the blood from his mouth. “Not me. I never wanted any of this.”
“If I have to destroy your sanguine whore to get her out of your head, I will. Think carefully before you force my hand.”
“She’s nothing to me,” he said coolly. “This isn’t about her. It’s about me having no choice in my future. I don’t want to be heir. And I certainly don’t want to marry Lara. I’d rather abdicate. Dante or Isabella can take my place.”
“You are not stepping aside.” His father motioned to the guards. “Take him to the dungeons. A week down there should get these fool ideas out of his head.”
The guards were considerably gentler on their way down the cold, dank staircase that led to the dungeons, even apologizing when Alex tripped on an uneven stair.
“Sorry about that, Your Highness. Snuck up on us.”
“It’s quite all right,” he managed through gritted teeth.
He knew the king was loathed by most of the guards and servants.
But they all had families they feared for, too.
No one could risk word getting back that they’d defied his orders.
Not when it would mean reassignment to the front lines, fighting in shifter territory where the casualty rates were much higher.
“Is Henri okay?” he asked quietly. “Please. If he was hurt because I chose to sneak out—”
“He’s just up ahead. Looks about the same as you, but no permanent damage, I expect.” The guard paused. “I tried to go easy on you, but His Majesty made us—"
“I know my father,” Alexander assured him. “None of this is your fault.”
Henri sat up when the cell door clanged closed behind him. “You’ve looked better, Your Highness.”
“I expect I have.”
Alexander stretched out on the cot and grimaced. Every breath felt like drawing fire into his lungs. But all vampires healed quickly. The bruises would fade by nightfall.
Over the next few hours, he tried to rest, but every time he closed his eyes, all he could picture was Dani’s terrified face.
Dani pushing her sisters behind her as vampire guards broke down her door.
Dani’s broken body lying on the floor of her bedroom, the place where just hours ago, they’d shared such tender intimacies, her last thoughts of why he hadn’t come for her—
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. They’d taken his phone. He had no way to warn her. He could only pray that somehow they wouldn’t find her.
It was all but impossible to judge the passage of time in the dungeons, but he would have guessed it was close to nightfall when someone finally unlocked Henri’s cell, then his.
“I have orders to take you to dinner, Your Highness.”