The vampires made sure of it.
In the darkness, in this prison with only the moisture-laden stones as witness, time trickles into nothingness.
Seconds, minutes, days, they all blur. There are no windows to let in the light, sun or moon, as though it’s some kind of punishment for me to keep me from shifting.
They have no idea how used to the restless prowling of the wolf beneath my skin I’ve actually gotten. They have no idea how I’ve learned to withstand the pull of a moon I can’t see, a change I can’t complete, a release I’ve never been given.
My wolf’s whispers have grown into an ache with no outlet. Being here makes no difference.
I drag my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. My cheek rests on my knees on the spots in my jeans I’d ripped the first night I came to this godforsaken place.
How long ago was it?
When did I come to the vampire castle with Lacey and the witches on a ridiculous rescue mission to save Colt? A dhampir prince shouldn’t need saving, not from four human women.
A shiver races through me. The hollow pit in my stomach opens wider and my wolf claws for release I can’t give.
I am shaking, starving, barely able to keep it together.
I’m not sure what’s worse. Is it better if their mission was a success and they all got out alive? Or is it better if they’re all dead, andthat’swhy no one has come for me?
I drop onto my side and curl into a smaller ball. My humming vibrates up through the starving depths of my gut. The chill roots in my veins but even the lullaby of my childhood means nothing.
Mom used to sing this song to my sister and I when we had trouble sleeping, or eating. Or existing. I only remember half the words because she used to make them up when we weren’t listening to her.
Another cramp constricts my muscles.
The vamps only send in food once a…day? It is the only way I have to tell the passage of time. It’s enough to keep me alive. Suffering. Aching. Never enough to fill me completely.
Did Lacey ever get to Colt? Did Aimee and RJ find a way out of this place or are they somewhere else? Somewhere colder and darker, with no door or light or air?
Shivering, I shrink in on myself. I’m not sure if it’s better to keep hoping someone will come rescue me or to give up and accept the truth.
I’m stuck here until the vampires figure out what to do with me.
Or maybe they don’t give a shit and they’ll let me rot, leaving the decision of death in my hands.
I hope Grayson is okay.
As usual, my thoughts circle back to him, the boy I found in the woods after he’d been attacked. He survived that night, thenthe next, until Dad discarded him on the streets with an order to never come back to the Ironwood community again.
We’d saved him only to let him die on his own.
Like the vampires and their once-a-day pity meal.
His face flashes through my mind the way it does when I’m out of luck, out of hope. The glint in his eyes, the rogue smile and the way my heart beats faster in my chest?—
Then the world explodes.
Magic brushes against my frigid skin in a ripple before a shower of sparks scald my eyes. I squeeze them shut and scoot to the far end of the cell before the scent of chamomile and woodsmoke curl through my nostrils.
The foundation of the prison rumbles, an ominous rattling vibration. The next blast burns a hole through my retinas and I squint. Light burns through my eyelids and the acrid burn of magic clogs every pore.
I cough to clear my airways, flinch, duck when stones fall.
The strange rattling echoes in my ears.
Finally the world falls into a silence more gut wrenching than the earthquake.