The guards never even glanced at me.
Usually, I would have been insulted by the fact that they didn’t consider me a threat. Right now, I was grateful. I needed time to think.
Syndra was dead. No one could survive an injury like the one she’d sustained. What did she mean about lies? Was the plant really a cure or had she been misleading me this entire time? What did this mean for Marius? How could he be a harbinger of anything? He was a sickly halfling.
And these vampires. Even while sleeping, violence radiated from their pores. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that they were evil. Why were they so interested in me?
It all came back to the Tether.
Every time I thought about that, tears welled in my eyes. Sebastian was gone. Dead. He must have been. What else could explain the lack of burning in my gut?
His death hadn’t set in yet. Not really. Once it did, I would be in trouble. Even now, I could feel grief prodding me, as though it was looking for a way into my heart.
For once in my life, being the Ice Queen was a good thing. There would be time for tears later. Time for grief and mourning and all the pain bubbling up inside of me. Time to weep for the male that had somehow stolen my heart. Sebastian was gone, and I hadn’t even told him how I felt.
Right now, I needed to survive. Then, when the time was right, I could break.
Once night fell, the same vampire as before scooped me up. He held me against his chest, and soon, we were moving through the seemingly never-ending forests again.
This time, I couldn’t ignore the pull of sleep. I had evaded it in the cave, but now, it tugged at me. My eyes drifted shut, and I gave in to the exhaustion.
* * *
“Wake up, mortal.”
The harsh words broke through my nightmares, drawing me back into the present. As soon as my eyes opened, I groaned.
Darcy smirked, her face far too close to mine. “Good evening,” she crooned. “Aren’t you glad you heeded my warning about the wine?”
Thiswas the reason she didn’t want me to drink that faerie wine? Because she wanted to abduct me?
Gods. Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any worse.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that.” Patting my hand, she chuckled, leaning in close. Her breath tickled the skin on my neck, and I shivered. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Leave her alone, Darcy,” a male called out.
The black-haired vampire had the audacity to wink at me. “Until later, Princess.”
She walked away, joining a trio deep in conversation. I watched her, my stomach twisting into a knot as I took in the space. Someone had removed the bindings on my hands, but that did not make me feel good. Nothing about this situation was good.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that this was the dictionary definition of “very bad”.
Familiar purple lights filled my vision, but for the first time, I found myself wishing for darkness.
If it was dark, I could ignore the chandeliers that appeared to be made of bone. If it was dark, I wouldn’t have to see two dozen vampires with very sharp teeth and dead eyes standing around me, wearing black cloaks and hoods.
If it was dark, I would have been unaware of the gleaming set of knives near me or the large altar I was lying on. It was one thick slab of stone, large enough to span a third of the room, and exactly as uncomfortable as one would assume it would be. If it was dark, I could have ignored the dark, temple-like setting until the moment they came to kill me.
But there was light. I did see it.
I thought I was ready for death when I came to marry Sebastian, but I was wrong. I was not ready.
As if confirming that every single one of my fears was true, a redheaded vampire turned around. His eyes were dead as he pulled back his lips, baring his fangs in my direction. I gulped at the sight, and a harsh, vicious laugh echoed through the cavernous temple.
My blood ran cold within me as my heart pounded in my chest.