LUNA
Alarge, rather welcoming, soft, feathered cloud was beneath my throbbing head. The pulsing pain against my temples was matched by one making its way through my entire body. Moaning, I burrowed my face into the pillow. Where was I?
A crisp, masculine scent rose to meet my nostrils. Another moan, this one slightly more coherent and resembling actual words, escaped my lips. Keeping my eyes shut, I blindly felt for my left hand. When the tips of my fingers ran over the cool material of my ring, my head spun.
Any hopes I’d had about my arranged marriage to the vampire prince being nothing more than a horrible nightmare dissipated as memory after memory hit me.
Estrella. Traveling through the shadows. A beautiful and violent queen. The winged prince. Hisfangs.The cruel priest with his wolfish smile.
And…
A Binding.
“No,” I groaned.
It was real.
The last thing I remembered was drinking blood from a golden chalice.Thatwas an experience I definitely never wanted to replicate in my entire life.
I pushed at the recesses of my mind, trying to see what came next, but everything was black. A heavy fog hung over my memories, and my stomach churned as a pressing need made itself known in my bladder. At least that was something I could deal with quickly. The rest of the mess that was my life would have to wait.
I was just about to open my eyes when a deep, masculine voice came from nearby. “Good evening.”
A mouse-like squeak left my lips as I jolted upright. Even though our acquaintance only spanned the length of our wedding and Binding Ceremony, I instantly recognized the voice as belonging to the vampire prince.
Hugging the blanket to my chest, I opened my eyes and looked around. Or at least, I tried to. In reality, pitch-black, inky darkness greeted me. No matter how much I widened my eyes or where I looked, there wasn’t a single sliver of light to be seen.
I attempted to speak, to ask for a light, but my mouth wasn’t working. A chill ran down my spine and my heart raced. I noticed every single noise, from the rustling of the sheets beneath me to the clock ticking somewhere in the room. Even the howl of the wind outside grew louder as the throbbing in my temples worsened. My palms grew clammy, and the darkness was pushing in on me.
If there was one thing I hated more than anything else, it was the dark. I wasn’t sure when the fear had begun, but ever since I could remember, darkness and I had never gotten along. I would rather stand in a pit full of snakes than be in a room absent of light.
Shutting my eyes, as if that was going to help the current situation, I clutched the blanket. If I knew where the windows were in this gods-damned room, I would pull open the curtains or light a candle. At home, I never let my rooms get this dark.
But I wasn’t at home. I wasn’t in my bed. I was alone in a new country and I didn’t even know where the bathroom was. My breath came faster and faster as I gripped the edge of the blanket, trying to think of something else. It wasn’t working. The darkness kept pushing in on me.
A whimper left my lips, and I drew my knees against my chest, wishing for light. Every beat of my heart was like a roll of thunder in my ears until, finally, a rustling of fabric came from nearby.
Footsteps pounded on the floor, and then Sebastian barked, “Get me the nearest Light Elf.”
I shuddered, squeezing my eyes shut against the imposing darkness and tried to distract myself by thinking about elves.
Maybe the Light Elf would be able to help. There were several types of elves in the Four Kingdoms. Death Elves, Light Elves, Fortune Elves, and Earth Elves. I’d never met the fourth kind of elf—Earth Elves almost all lived in Ithenmyr before their horrible king wiped them off the face of the planet more than two decades ago.
A few moments later, a female voice broke through my thoughts. “You called, Your Highness?”
“Come in, Vaella,” the prince replied. “We need some light.”
“Of course,” she said.
A moment passed, and then soft footsteps and low murmurs reached my ears. Counting the beats of my heart, I waited for a few seconds before taking a chance and cracking my eyes open.
A flurry of violet ribbons floated through the darkness, crawling along the floors and walls before turning into the same purple orbs I’d seen when I first arrived at the castle. With every passing moment, more light filled the room, pushing away the shadows until they were nothing but a distant, horrible memory. My heart slowed and my breath came normally once more.
Sebastian’s low voice came from around the corner, his words coming in snippets as he whispered. “Tell her… come… always need light… send for…”
His voice lowered, and I clutched the blanket to my chest, looking around the room.
The furniture—everything you’d expect to find in a sleeping chamber—was made of the darkest wood. Where some people might have used color, the decorator of this room kept everything in varying shades of black and the darkest blues.