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I tightened the blindfold before she woke so she couldn’t bewitch me again, but the second she spoke, her luscious tone rubbed me, and I cursed myself for not silencing her as well.
She sniffed the air. I caught her lips unfolding into a smile as I turned from her, placing the small torch in the bracket on the wall to my left.
“Aaah, it’s the coward.” She chuckled. “The one who stood back while your companion braved my blade.”
Heat fired within me, either anger or desire. The two had become so blurred since I met her it was a battle to separate them. I had to remain calm. I couldn’t let her affect me so easily.
I stepped closer, balancing a tray with soup, bread, and water on my hip. I only brought them to keep her alive. Letting her starve in the darkness would be easier, but my damn wolf insisted we try.
“You were lucky it was me and not him,” I said. “He would have torn your throat out. I stopped him.” My fingers clenched around the tray. It would be so easy to shift, to complete Lucien’s first attempt to kill her.
“Oh, well… How magnanimous of you.” She dipped her head in a bow. “Thank you, my Lord. How can I ever repay you?”
I grit my teeth at her sarcasm, holding back my snarl. Dark fae were known to be tricksters. Mix that with the blood of a vampire and you had a deadly combination.
Her heart beat steady and slow, no flinches or tells that might give away her true feelings. She seemed perfectly at ease, despite the fact we had trapped her in one of the coldest rooms in the tunnel of caves that wound under the large hill that hid our den.
But when you were a vampire, things like heat didn’t matter.
“I brought you food.” I set the tray before her, out of reach of the length of the chain.
“It is not bread I’m hungry for.” Her voice changed, the low tenor stirring me, warming my blood.
It was the same voice that had tempted our Alpha King to his doom.
“You will eat.”
“Or?” She cocked her head.
“You will starve.”
Crimson lips opened as she took a breath.
She was beautiful in the dim light. Her pale skin only highlighted her smooth cheekbones, her straight nose leading down to those lips that were driving me insane, hiding the fangs that would tear into me the moment I got too close. A face that spoke of age, though she had only been alive for twenty-five years. And the way she held herself… Elegance radiated from her. Despite being chained to the wall, her energy was one of command, and I could not help but admire it.
She would make a fine wolf.
I shook the thought away, only to become drawn to her again. My resolve strengthened as memories of the last cries of my friends, the screams of my people, the blood and terror we had endured over the years all kept me firm. I would not let her win.
Vampire compulsion was common knowledge. It was crucial to the Cardinal Kingdom’s power and was one of the many factors that allowed the vampires to reign. I had always believed the queens controlled their subjects through their eyes.
Though from the way her voice curled through my blood like sinister vines binding me, I was beginning to think otherwise.
“So tell me, oh wise and terrible wolf, what is the plan?” Amusement laced her speech. I despised how deeply I wanted to bask in it. “Oh, wait, no. Do let me guess. Keep me chained until the Empusa moon passes? Possibly even demand a ransom from my father. ’Free my people!’ And all that nonsense.” She chuckled at her own joke, as if the death of countless wolves was something to be laughed at.
We had already sent ransom notes to both the palaces. There were three weeks until the Empusa moon would reach its highest point, the point of ascension. If she made it to the Crimson Palace before then, she would rise as a Scarlet Queen, and there would be no hope left for the wolves.
I growled as she smirked again. “What makes you think the Grandmothers will not come for me?” she said.
A black coil of hatred rose within me at the mere mention of them. They, too, were responsible for the fall of the wolves. As punishment to the Alpha King for abandoning us, they revoked their vow to protect the Midnight Castle, which allowed King Cordovan - her father - to enter. He led the Vermillion Knights through the forest, on to the castle to massacre the wolves. I only laid eyes on Cordovan once, but it was his face that haunted my nightmares. I could see traces of him in her features.
“The cave is protected,” I said
“From what?” she asked, more curious than anything else.
“Ghouls, ogres, banshees, and any other creature that might dare attack us. As well as the timeless night of the forest.”
Even children knew that the Black Forest was frozen in eternal night. Nothing ageing or dying. Cherry trees that never gave fruit, beeches, and oaks that could never be more than budding branches, wounded creatures that could not die. All of us trapped in a state that allowed no growth or decay, blanketed by darkness, and trapped by the magical borders of the forest. To keep the monsters in and the people out.
