She would protect him, no matter the cost.
Those thoughts remained in her mind even as Felix said his final goodbyes and led the limping horse down the road.
When he was out of sight, she placed her hands on her hips and turned to Marius. “Are you sure you don’t want to turn around, Your Highness? We could go with him.”
“No.” Defiance flashed in the stubborn man’s eyes, and he shook his head. “Absolutely not. I want to see this through.”
Vivienne sighed. She’d expected his response, but it was still frustrating. Unfortunately, she recognized that arguing in a forest surrounded by dead bodies would be a pointless waste of time, so she stuffed her frustrations down, to be dealt with later.
“Alright.” She gestured to the carnage surrounding them. “We’d better get to cleaning this up.”
She didn’t want to leave the bodies scattered over the road. The men had tried to kill them, but they still deserved some decency upon death.
And then, they’d leave for Hoarfrost Hollow.
Maybe she could convince the prince to return to Castle Sanguis once they reached the ancient tombs.
She doubted he would agree, but she still had to try. After all, she would do anything to keep the halfling prince alive.
Bloodlust
Blood.
The creature needed blood. No matter how many throats it tore into or how many people it drained, its hunger was never satisfied.
It would never know satisfaction again. The creature’s stomach was a hollow pit, and its fangs were burning entities that resided in its gums. A fog filled its mind; no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t get past the dark mist.
Not that it really mattered.
The only thing that mattered was sating the incessant hunger. Every time the creature ate, its need for blood multiplied.
When it had first escaped its forever tomb, the hunger was present but not overwhelming.
That was no longer the case.
Now that the creature had tasted the crimson decadence that was human blood after all these centuries, starvation was a living beast under its skin, clawing incessantly at its insides.
Appeasing the cold, dark hunger within it was the only thing the creature could think about.
The ancient being slinked through the forest, the gnarled, brown trunks of massive trees rising around it.
The creature didn’t care about the trees, the small animals running through the woods, or the birds whose calls filled the night air. None of them could ease the ache in its stomach.
It wasn’t sure how much time had passed since it first left its stone coffin. It didn’t care.
All the ancient being knew was that it was cold, drained, andhungry.
It walked too close to a tree, and needles brushed against its bare skin. A mangled snarl crawled out of its throat, and it darted away.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Every touch was foreign. Every sensation was too much.
The hunger worsened.
The night wore on.
Guided by the light of the moon, the creature stumbled through the forest. Food. It needed food. That was all it could think about, all it could focus on.