CHAPTER 21 #2
“Perfect,” Emmanuel finishes for me, his face softening, and I’ve never seen a more relieved male stare back at me. Thank you, he mouths at me.
“Can’t send her into battle this soon,” I tell him, and I’m met with a glower for the ages.
Del steps between our gaze, his attention on Emmanuel. “You break her heart, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
Emmanuel looks him in the eye. “If that day ever comes, I’ll gladly let you.”
Second sharpens his broadsword against the stone dressing table, pulling all of our attention.
Del spins to him. “You’re ruining the furniture.”
Second scoffs. “Like that matters.”
“It’s about to be our furniture.”
“Eh, looks better with some sharpening marks. This can go in my room.”
I snort and look at the men around me, ready to walk into battle at my command and finish this by my side. I couldn’t be more grateful for them.
“We have thousands to save below our feet and countless more beyond the grounds of this castle,” I say as we move into the parlor, my words spewing with a venom laced from deep within.
“I have every belief Charlotte is holding her own in the throne room. We take out whatever guard we can find first, including Balor.” I pause.
“See you on the other side, my friends.”
We exchange our final moment of peace before snapping toward the throne room.
Goreon guards lining the hallway outside the antechamber take one look at our dress and fangs drop.
My fingertips tingle with adrenaline, and I pull a blade from my thigh with one hand and palm a stake in the other.
This is it.
Snarls and sneers face us down the length of the wide ebony and gold hallway, and then vampire guards rush us in a horde.
“Come and get it, motherfuckers,” Second whispers beside me as our blades clash with our enemy.
I smile into my first slice of Goreon throat, blood spraying as the vampire staggers and Second stakes its heart. For Christine.
I stake the next heart running at me. For the farm.
And the next. For the cellar.
I throw my stake into a guard approaching Second’s back and snatch my other dagger.
Spinning in pooled blood, I slice through the neck of the next and swivel, twirling through the foyer outside the antechamber and killing two guards at once, stakes jamming outward at my sides as I lunge and brace for impact. For the prison barracks.
No warrior who devotes themselves to the crown deserves a life such as that.
I continue down the hall, Second beside me, and we slaughter our way through the guards who have sneered at us, locked us in their dungeons, and brutalized the people beneath their feet.
Whirling, I see Del and Emmanuel dance together.
Del is expertly trained, his technique as exceptional as Emmanuel’s, and my curiosity spikes.
I knew he could fight by how he won his position as second, but he and my assassin are taking down twenty guards in mere moments, their movements mirroring each other.
Their resemblance is so striking, it’s uncanny—I was a fool not to be curious before now.
I sheathe my daggers and grab two stakes as a vampire snaps next to me. I stab a stake into his heart without looking.
Del meets my eyes with a smirk, and his head jerks to the left to warn me as a vampire swings his broadsword for my head. I duck and stab a stake into his heart.
Second hurls a headless body at the wall and rips another in half beside me.
An opening to the throne room presents itself, the guard population thinning quickly in the hallway.
To my surprise, King Nerian snaps into the antechamber, his eyes catching mine, and he smiles at me like we’re about to share a cup of tea at dawn.
“Ah, I’m so glad you’re willing to fight for what you want, my dear.
I’ll leave you to it. Let’s be sure to meet up later—I have a surprise for you,” he drawls, and snaps out of existence.
“The fuck does that mean?!” I scream into the mayhem, eyeing Del, who shrugs at me from the other side of the bloodbath.
Night Kingdom guards pour into the hallway, and Charlotte barrels out behind them, her gown snagging on someone’s sword as she tears into a guard’s throat with her fucking teeth, then stabs a stake through their heart.
My most influential courtier—until she’s not.
Until she’s tired of the games and puts her training to work.
My best weapons always hide in plain sight.
Charlotte tears the skirt of her gown from her body, buttons around her waist designed to shed fabric in an instant and reveal her leathers beneath. She yanks out the stakes strapped to her thighs and stabs them into the hearts around her.
Emmanuel snaps through the room, coming up beside Charlotte, and their coordinated brutality thins the guards filling the corridor. They’ve been training together for decades, and the orchestrated chemistry is breathtaking.
Knuckles kiss my cheek as I spin away from a punch just in time and drive my stake upward into the heart of another guard.
Second curses beside me. “Watch yourself, Veya, before I make you sit this out.”
I scoff through the swing of my sword. “Like you could ever make me do anything.”
He tosses a body out of the way. “If it’s your life, I will.”
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to disown a vampire who’s like a brother and has devoted centuries to your protection. So I refocus instead of arguing with him.
“Behind you!” Second bellows, and I spin, but I’m too late.
The vampire already has a hand around my throat and a blade aimed at my skull. Its eyes blow wide, and the guard’s mouth fills with blood, bones crushing in on themselves, and its hand falls away from me.
I gasp for breath as the vampire crumples at my feet.
Del winks from the other end of the corridor, his stake clattering onto the stone floor before me.
Thank you, I mouth across the divide, and he grins through a swing of his sword.
“That was so fucking close,” Second spits, staking two vampires beside us.
I twirl around, rejoining Second, and slash my blades into my next opponent.
“I know,” I growl, thankful for Del’s perfect aim. And his attention.
My focus catches on General Balor climbing the front steps of the castle, his shadowed form outlined by the dim moonlight through the open iron doors.
I snap down the hallway for Balor, Del joining my side, and we block the entrance to the fortress.
I know I have my grievances with this male, but I can only imagine how deep they go for Del.
“You won’t win this,” Balor sneers on the wide landing. “Although I’m sure you think you will,” he cackles through his mocking tone and draws his broadsword in the falling snow.
The general lunges for me as Del skirts to his other side, but Balor’s already snapping around me out of the way before I can react.
He’s fast. Really fast.
Del flashes past me onto the steps, and I spin, snow flying around me, daggers in each hand, and slice forward, catching Balor’s wrist, but nothing else.
He laughs at me, and my anger spikes as Del swings his sword with strength and dexterity for Balor’s neck.
Balor ducks with a smile aimed at me. “You’re so damn slow. I can take you all night at this pace, Queen.” He winks at me, tongue threading his fangs through his insinuation.
I slash for Balor, and he snaps away, spinning from Del’s sword again.
Balor’s boot slips in the snow as he catches himself.
“Watch your fucking mouth, Balor,” Del growls.
Balor’s eyes blaze red, his breath billowing in the cold as his lip curls at Del. “Did you have fun with her in that cell, Deleos? Quite the beauty, huh? Those thighs.”
This motherfucker.
Del’s eyes flash, crimson burning through amethyst. “You’re a dead man.”
The general chuckles. “Been dead for centuries.”
Del unleashes a fierce snarl, snow crunching under his boot as he lunges for Balor.
Balor snaps behind me.
But I’m already turning, flitting to his right, forcing him to shift his balance. I drag a boot through the snow-covered stone and shove my daggers forward, catching him in the gut.
Balor’s hand grabs my throat, squeezing my airway so I can’t breathe, while his other wields his sword, clashing with Del’s.
I’m tossed down the unforgiving stairs, face scraping on impact.
Shit.
I snap behind Balor, one dagger and one stake in hand now as the males fight each other.
Balor shoves Del, and he flies back, slamming against the giant open iron door, its hinges groaning under the force of his body.
The general takes the opening, snapping for me, and I don’t hesitate before jamming my dagger into his maw, right where it belongs, before he’s even fully formed.
His shocked eyes search mine for mercy he can’t beg for.
“We told you to watch your fucking mouth,” I spit, yanking my dagger out of flesh and staking his heart before he can speak another word.
Del takes off Balor’s head with his sword, and the general’s body collapses between us, his blood painting the snow red.
“That was my kill, right?” Del clarifies through the blood spatter across his face, plum eyes vibrant and alive.
I shake my head at him, my stake stabbing out to my side to run through a guard snapping next to me. “It was mine.”
Del narrows his gaze, swinging his broadsword to take off another head. “Agree to disagree.”
I wink at him and snap back through the entrance and down the hallway to Second. “Balor’s dead.”
“Good fucking riddance,” Second growls as we stab through the next layer of guards, clearing the way further down the hall toward the doorway to the cellar.
My eyes find Del as an opening emerges for my escape, and his focus is already on me.
“Go! I’ll meet you there,” he yells, slashing a head off a guard while his eyes remain locked on mine.
I nod, whipping away from him, and Second follows as I race down the stairwell, snapping around the curves. We breach the cellar door—and freeze in our tracks.
Samantha cries out to us, naked and beaten.
My skin crawls. How is she back in her cage?!
Second rushes her, ripping the flaming door off its hinges.
“What happened?” he demands.
“They caught us,” she cries. “We were so close to the wall, but we didn’t make it.”
Panic surges through me. “Where’s Aurelia?” I ask while Second hands Samantha the shirt off his back.
She shakes her head, tears running, and looks up at us with sad eyes. “The king has her.”
Second snaps for the cages, ripping them open as I dart for Aurelia’s empty cage and start searching the wall behind it for a latch or a way through.
I peer over my shoulder as Second hands Samantha the dagger from his hip.
“Do you know how to get to the dungeon?” Second asks her.
She nods. “It’s where they brought us from when we first arrived, before locking us in here.”
“Good. Take the girls to the dungeon—there’s an exit to the sewer.
The others are waiting to help you. Swim under the gate, and you’ll dump into the bay.
Take the bridge and run to the nearest village,” Second tells Samantha while wrenching open the last cage.
“We will find you when it’s over,” he promises.
“And if we don’t, you know the way to the Night Kingdom now.
Try again. Don’t ever give up. Tell them everything you know. ”
Samantha nods at him, girls clinging to her. “Thank you, Second,” she says and wraps herself around his torso.
“Go!” he demands as my hands find a crevice in the stone.
I press into it, and my heart leaps when the wall groans and slides. I race through the opening, eager to hunt my prey and desperate to find Aurelia.
The passageway is dark and damp, and my boot slips in my haste. I catch myself on the stone wall and regain my balance, my nervous rasp exhaling into the dim corridor.
I can do this. I have to do this.
I sprint to the right as Del instructed and come upon a large wooden door that creaks open with ease.
Nerian is hunched over a work table. At the sound of whining hinges, he spins.
My eyes dart around the room, searching for Aurelia.
I try not to be distracted, but the horror in here is the illustration of an insane vampire, a portrait of death and pain and gluttony. The stone walls are lined with canisters and bottles and boxes, filled with bones, jewels, hair. Trophies.
I step over the dead girl at my feet, her neck broken at an awful angle, body several days old. And then I step over the next.
They’re not Aurelia. Thank gods, but where is she?!
A large window on my left is unshuttered, the soft light of dawn beginning to break, and I wonder if Nerian likes to suffer in sunlight, too.
“King Nerian,” I address him, kicking an empty wine bottle away with my boot. “I’ve come to take your throne.”
He grins at me. “It’s not for sale, dear.”
“I wasn’t planning on purchasing it from you,” I say, spinning my twin blades in my palms, my mind racing with how to approach this. “Seems you’ve curated quite the collection.” My eyes flit around the room, landing on his bloody worktable and then on the large wooden crate in the corner.
“Yes, thank you for noticing.”
Gods, how could anyone not?
The king threads his bloodstained fingers along the teeth around his neck.
A thousand years of dreamwalking has caught up with this vile male.
I can’t fathom the mental fatigue of that torture for so long.
It has broken him, alongside his bloodlust. The curse of the vampire will take us all someday.
And I hope there’s someone willing to kill me when I can no longer stand it.
Second approaches behind me, the gait of his boots closing the distance in a few strides.
I hum, taking a short step toward Nerian, buying time to assess my options. I don’t see a weapon on the king, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
“Any favorite pieces?” I ask as Second stands beside me, sword poised.
He taps the teeth he’s fingering on his necklace. “My most prized piece! A canine from every Hunter I’ve killed over the centuries. Beautiful, isn’t it?”