CHAPTER 5
VEYA
Present Day
WE PAUSE THE CARRIAGES at the massive gates of the Northern Wall, and while the guards unlock the series of barriers, I climb the stone steps of my ramparts to greet my people. A queen does not just pass by those who serve and protect—she gets out of the fucking carriage and honors them.
I step onto the landing of the wide wall, a frigid breeze sweeping past and into my bones.
Males and females stand at attention under flaring torches as far as the eye sees.
Cloaks billow and eyes flash red as I stride down the line of devoted soldiers who fight for the Night Kingdom with their entire heart.
They offer a bow as I pass.
I walk the entire wall, acknowledging every warrior, and it takes over four hours before I snap back toward the gate.
Time well spent and time we planned for in our tactical session yesterday. Ideally, we should have been resting, and I have no doubt Nerian is enjoying the thought of our discomfort from the moment his letter reached me and what it would take to get to him in a timely fashion.
And if this visit to Goreon results in war, I need to see my warriors one last time before hell rains down on us.
“Queen Veya, it’s an honor to see you this evening. I just got your note an hour ago,” Officer Holton says at the top of the steps, voice unusually tight with his concern.
My admiration for this male ignites my smile as I gaze up at the officer in charge of the Northern Wall. “How has the last week been?”
He shoves his hands in his pockets. “Nothing abnormal, no change.” His deep laugh floats between us. “Outside of winter setting in. Always makes life at the wall a bit unpleasant.”
Second steps beside me. “I don’t miss living up here,” he adds jovially.
I jut my chin.
Not helpful.
Second clears his throat. “As our correspondence stated, we hope our time in Goreon is no more than two weeks. But we’ll send word if it’s going to be longer than that.”
“Understood. And we’ll attack as planned if we don’t hear from you.”
“Good,” I say, a shiver clanging through me as the wind whips around us. “Thank you.”
Officer Holton looks down at me, eyes flashing red. “You’ve built a kingdom worth protecting. We will always bleed for it, Queen Veya. And no one will get past this wall.”
Warmth weaves through me against the nipping chill. “We’ll see you in less than two weeks,” I say firmly.
Holton steps aside so we can pass. “See you then, my queen.”
Second and I descend the wall and settle into the royal carriage, the bite of winter following us into the velvet-covered interior. We jolt forward through the gates and into Goreon territory.
The land on the other side is desolate, scarred with abandoned villages, crumbling buildings, and bare farmlands. Only the dead husk of vibrant communities remains.
Humans left this region centuries ago, before I was alive. They either escaped to the old Night Kingdom territories before it was a kingdom with a ruler, or they were captured by Nerian in the early days of his bloodlust when he bled his southern lands dry with his hunger.
Gnarled tree roots thread the unkept road, rocking the carriage and spinning my nerves along with it.
I can hope our journey to the enemy stronghold is unobstructed, but this is Goreon.
And under my nerves, in the pit of my stomach, is the dread of no return.
Because I love the life I’ve built and the people in it.
But the fate raging in the distance might steal everything from me.
I breathe deeply and pray to the gods that this assassination goes as planned.
“We’re five hours from the sleeping house,” Second says, and I nod, flopping back into the seat to get comfortable.
The journey from the Northern Wall to Goreon Castle takes two days, which means we need to make a stop for daybreak. Dotted throughout any vampire territory are refuges from the sun. They’re shelter, they’re survival, and they’re known to be safe places, no matter who you are.
“Whoa!” the coachman hollers, and my body flies forward into Second.
He catches me and tosses me to the side as he darts from the carriage. “What’s going on?” he demands, slamming the door in my face as I try to join him.
I glare at the velvet and whip the curtain away from the window to peer out.
“Movement across the road up ahead,” a soldier says.
Something shifts beside me, and I turn with a snarl, my heart in my throat.
Emmanuel offers me a cheeky smile, daggers in his palms.
I didn’t even hear the carriage door.
“Gods, you scared the shit out of me, Em,” I growl.
Emmanuel’s ability to sneak into rooms without anyone ever knowing he’s there is annoying when you live with him, but lifesaving in every other instance.
“Sorry,” he says with a shrug.
“You’re not sorry.”
He winks at me, and I refocus on the window I’m forced to look out of.
“There!” a guard calls.
Second curses and throws open the carriage door I’m plastered against. I start to tumble out but Emmanuel’s hand is on my belt, suspending me in the air before I even have the chance to catch myself.
“We’ve got company, Em,” Second warns, pointing at him.
I roll my eyes, not surprised in the least.
“We’ll be here,” Emmanuel says, pulling me back. I recover into my seat, pulling my own daggers into my palms now.
Outside the carriage, the clash and clank of blades mixes with the snarls and hissing of vampires. And I can’t see shit out of the window into the night. The soft glow emanating from the carriage torches is infuriatingly limited.
“We should assist,” I say.
Emmanuel sighs. “We should not.”
He’s right, because I promised Second I would hang back when possible, one of the agreements I made to ensure my safety in enemy territory. But it doesn’t soften my urge to leap from this carriage and slash some Goreon throats.
It only takes a few minutes before we hear a guard yell from further down the road. “Clear!”
“Same over here!” Second says, opening the door again and barreling inside, spattered with blood.
“Fuckers were completely feral with bloodlust. Probably smelled our stores.”
“Must have been cut off from the royal stash,” Emmanuel muses, exiting our carriage to ride beside it on his horse. He latches the door, and we’re moving a moment later, not wasting any more unnecessary exposure on this road.
“Did we know vampires were being pushed out of Goreon City or cut off?” I ask Second.
He shakes his head.
There’s no food source down here; it doesn’t make sense for them to be here. Unless—
“I wonder if they tried to leave but got stuck between a king who won’t feed them and our wall.”
“Fuck,” Second spits.
I sigh and try not to blame myself, if that’s even the true story.
Our carriages finally pause at the sleeping house, and Second and the twenty soldiers with us enter the house first while Em stands guard outside my carriage.
I wait, trying not to fidget.
Pulling a pin from my bun, I lock it between my fingers and stare at the front door of the inn, counting the minutes. Finally, Second’s form fills the doorway, and he jerks his chin.
I climb out and join him inside, Charlotte and Emmanuel behind me.
Second sheathes his sword, and I shove the pin back in my hair.
“It’s empty. I’ve secured a room for you at the end of this hall. And I’ll be sleeping on your floor.”
I smirk at the blood smeared across his face. Seems reasonable.
I see myself to our room, and Second joins moments later, squeezing through the doorframe and flinging a featherbed he filched from another room onto the floorboards.
It takes us over ten minutes to fully disarm ourselves, and just before daylight, the front door of the house slams.
My eyes dart to Second. “A visitor.”
“Indeed,” he growls and grabs his sword, edging to the door and listening.
My muscles twitch, nervous energy ricocheting as I race to my daggers.
Footsteps tread confidently down our hallway, and the door across from us opens and shuts.
Second bolts our door, slides his featherbed in front of it and plops his heavy ass against it.
“They’re going through me if they want in here,” he says, leaning back, sword across his lap.
I smirk. “You’d be more intimidating on the other side.”
“I like the element of surprise better,” he lobs back.
“Of course you do.” I glance at the door. “I don’t hear anything else, you?”
He shakes his head, ear against the door.
“I should’ve locked this place down,” he growls.
I frown. “We’re not sentencing someone to death because we happen to travel through. And you know sleeping house rules. Safe space.”
Second cocks his chin like I’ve spoken another language. “And you know how loose the rules can get here.”
True. But I’d still make the same choice.
I ease into the bed, exhaustion setting in. It requires great effort to remain awake during the day.
Second thuds his head against the door and shuts his eyes. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
I snort. “Me neither.”
“But I’m also so fucking ready,” he says as I stare at my closest friend.
“Me too.”
Second’s torso bounces as the door knocks him forward, and he’s on his feet before I can track him, shoving the door outward and breaking it from its hinges. He pushes the slab of wood into the hall with whoever is on the other side of it.
“I didn’t mean any offense, sir!” a female yells, voice muffled.
I leap, daggers in hand, to the center of the room to get a look into the hallway, now crowded with our entire party.
Second has the vampire pressed against the wall, body squished between plaster and wood. “You shoved your way into our room. Pretty offensive in a sleeping house,” Second growls.
“I’m starving. I’m sorry,” she pleads, her fire-red hair falling into her eyes. “I tried to control myself, I swear it.”
I let my daggers dangle at my sides.
“Are you in control now?” I ask, and her panicked, green-eyed gaze flicks to mine.
She nods, peering over the door in her chest.
“Release her,” I command, and Second steps back, dragging the door in one hand with him.
The wood scrapes against the floor as the female fidgets with her ratty clothing, skinny fingers shaking.
“I saw the carriages and knew there would be blood somewhere in this inn.” She shakes her head at herself, eyes locked on mine now. “I’m not usually this person.”
“Why are you starving?” I ask.
She sighs, slumping against the wall. “I refused to participate in the taxes in Goreon City. And so I was banished, but there’s no easy way out of Goreon anymore.”
My eyes narrow. “What are the taxes?”
“We have to turn in one human per month to the king.”
Oh my gods.
Emmanuel spits on the ground, and Second tosses the door into our room.
Charlotte approaches the female. “Come on, I’ll get you something to eat. And you need a new dress,” she offers kindly. “I’m Charlotte.”
“I’m Penny.”
They disappear down the hall to Charlotte’s room.
“What the fuck,” Second hisses. “When did that start?”
I scrub at my face. “I’m guessing Penny can tell us.”
Emmanuel sheathes his dagger. “What are we doing with this woman?”
“We could send her to the wall with one of the guards,” I suggest.
“I’m not keen on lessening our numbers given the wild state of things we’ve seen so far,” Second challenges.
“Are you keen on sentencing her to desiccation or suicide? Because those seem like her only options here.”
Second rolls his eyes at me. “Obviously not, Veya.”
I raise my eyebrows at him. “So …”
We step back into our bedroom, and Second rearranges his featherbed. “Let’s ask her what she wants. Night Kingdom, or with us to Goreon.”
“She was banished. Can’t imagine bringing her with us is going to win favors,” I say.
“Let’s sleep. We need to be at our strongest tomorrow. We can figure out Penny then,” Emmanuel says and disappears before we can respond.
He’s not wrong.
We rest fitfully in our doorless room; no other threats will be arriving during daylight, so we don’t bother with the effort of switching. As the sun sets, we find Penny and Charlotte waiting amongst our travel cases in the entryway.
“Penny,” I say, and she turns to me, cheeks flushed with a meal in her belly. “You have two options. You can go to the Night Kingdom with one of our guards, or you can come with us to Goreon Castle.”
Penny pales, shaking her head vigorously. “No. Please. The king’s men took my daughter and turned me when I refused to hand her over—” Her voice breaks, and she inhales deeply, gathering herself. “I have nothing left in Goreon City and no desire to go back.”
“I understand,” I say, her sorrow edging its way into my heart.
I eye the young guard Second lectured before our departure, his kind eyes softening at Penny’s words.
“Theo.” The guard’s gaze darts to mine. “Please escort Penny back to the wall and see that she is settled in Prosperity until our return.”
“Yes, my queen,” he says with a swift bow and hightails it out of the front door to ready his horse for them.
Second eyes me, tamping a smirk as I choose to send Theo back to safety.
Within the hour, our party is packed into the carriages, Penny and Theo headed in the opposite direction.
In my travel dress, with a dozen stakes stitched into the bodice of my corset, I’m stuck upright with wood encasing my ribcage. As the carriage rattles along, I savor every stiff jab against my bones from the stakes that will stab the hearts of my enemy.
I peer out of the window during the last stretch of our journey.
The night doesn’t hide the ramshackle human towns covered in snow or the posturing wealth of vampire estates lit with torches and boasting cleared, private drives.
We edge into Goreon City toward the stronghold, hooves clopping on frozen cobblestone shining under fire lamps, and my nerves whip and snap.
Second looks at me as we come to a stop in front of Goreon Castle.
“Be bold and be brave, my queen.”
I swallow, heart racing. “With all that I am,” I promise him.
Second flashes a rare smile and opens the carriage door into the swirling snow.
It swings wide, and I glimpse the shadowed stone steps ascending to the giant iron doors of the Goreon stronghold.
I’m finally here.