A lot didn’t really seem to cover the extent to which my life had changed since the night of my birthday. But at least Julieta was here. A taste of home.
I looked her over. “How are you?”
A strange violet ribbon adorned Julieta’s neck, but other than that, she looked as she always did. Her brown hair was coiled in a tight bun, and she wore a simple black dress with white thread embellishing the square collar.
Julieta lifted a shoulder. “I’m… fine. The first night was rough. They shadowed me here, which was—”
“Horrible,” I finished for her as flashes of that terrible method of travel filled my mind.
“Yes,” she nodded. “It was quite unpleasant, wasn’t it?”
“The worst,” I said vehemently. “I was not a fan.”
Laughing, Julieta stood, grabbing the tray. I ate the porridge; the food warming my insides as she told me about her week. If it wasn’t for the scratch of the quill coming from the vampire prince seated at a desk on the other side of the room, it would have felt like old times.
When I started yawning in between every other word, Julieta stood. Gathering the tray, she promised to come back the next night with more food. The door slipped shut behind her, and I leaned against the headboard.
Tiredness was pulling at me, but there was one thing I had left to do.
“Sebastian?”
The scratching of the quill stopped, and he looked up from his desk. “Yes?”
“Would you happen to have a spare piece of parchment? I’d like to write to my father and brother.”
He raised a brow, glancing down at the workspace now littered with papers and books. Whatever he was working on seemed important.
A pang went through me at the sight. I used to work on important things. Now, I didn’t know what I would do. Who would I be here, except the wife of the Prince of Darkness?
He nodded. “Of course.”
Gathering the necessary items, Sebastian brought them over to me. I penned two quick notes, one for Papa and one for Marius, before handing them to the vampire. He folded them quickly, tucking them into his pocket and promising to have them sent in the next post.
I thanked him before closing my eyes, resting them against the carved wood at my back. Writing the letters had taken far more energy than it should have. My hands were shaking, and the pain in my head was so bad, I could barely think.
Sebastian took one look at me before hurrying to the door and summoning one of the castle witches. The vampire prince hovered by my bedside as the witch looked me over, only moving when the male assured Sebastian that all I needed was more rest.
“It’s just the Binding,” the witch told the prince before gathering his supplies and heading to the door. “She’ll be fine within a few days, Your Highness.”
Sebastian continued to question the witch, until the male made it clear there was nothing else he could do. By the time the witch left, my eyes were drooping and I had trouble staying awake. I watched the vampire prince out of the corner of my eye.
His demeanor was so at odds with the way people spoke about the Prince of Darkness, I was having trouble reconciling the two.
Who was he, really? This male who refused to leave my side, or the one who called darkness his own? The thoughts swirled in my head until finally; I shut my eyes as the scratching of the quill started up once more.
A small smile, barely more than a twitch of my lips, danced on my face as I drifted off to sleep. Maybe my life wasn’t over. Perhaps, in time, I could find a way to continue my studies here, in Eleyta. Maybe I could still help Marius, even from here.
After all, the vampire didn’t seemthatbad.
* * *
Seven more dayspassed in the same manner. I ate so much porridge, soup, and plain bread, I came to hate all three. They did their job though, and each night, I woke feeling a little bit more like myself.
The witch came back three more times, each time assuring Sebastian I was recovering well from the Binding. It just made me more determined than ever to find out what, exactly, had been done to me.
Whenever I asked Sebastian about the Binding—which was often—he avoided the question, saying he would explain more when I was at my full strength.
Every night, I wrote a letter to my family, and every night, Sebastian promised to deliver the response as soon as it came in. The vampire prince never ate, drinking something red from a goblet, and the pile of papers at his desk grew. He would meet with various vampires in the hallway, but he never went any further. When I asked Sebastian about it, he said he wouldn’t leave me alone when I was sick.