‘Jaguar. Sending his ships, landing at sunset, overwhelming any guards and simply stealing the humans away.’
‘Overwhelming the guards?’
‘Jaguar are fierce warriors. But we weren’t going to take it lying down and wanted to protect our humans. So, Raven went to war.’
God. This is awful. Those poor people. ‘Why just Raven? Why not Lion or Scorpion?’
‘Scorpion was dealing with a rebellion already – oh, yes, the North Wind is not the only time humans have tried to take things back – while Lion were happy to stay where they were. So, it was up to us. We drove Jaguar south, to central America, where we had our final standoff. We had the numbers, his forces decimated due to a lack of blood, thanks to the very thing we were fighting for. His poor policies were what undermined him in the end. But we also had no more stomach for fighting. We wanted to return home to our families, to our lives. So, we struck an agreement.’
‘You let him keep South America.’
‘We did. Out of respect for the family line. A line was drawn at the Panama Canal, with Raven holding everything north of it. Jaguar got to keep everything south. He wasn’t happy about it; Prince Joaquin’s father is a … complicated man, at best. But he knew he had no choice. He set up Safe Zones, not long after, though I hear they’re not as well-regulated as they should be.’
‘You hear?’
‘You have to understand, the great families… We’re close with Lion, but Scorpion and Jaguar went their own way, millennia ago. We know little about their courts or their customs. That’s why it was a surprise to see Joaquin at Versailles. Especially when he offered you his support.’
‘He told me he had a sister like me. Perhaps that’s why he’s open to change.’
My mother’s brows draw together. ‘I see,’ she says. ‘That might explain things.’
‘He said I didn’t want to know what his people did to children like me.’
My mother blinks. ‘I wasthere, Emelia. I saw the temples, the blood running down the steps, the broken bodies. No humans were safe, no matter their age. It was all so wasteful.’
‘Wasteful? They were people, not sandwiches!’
My mother’s eyes widen. ‘Emelia, I didn’t mean?—’
‘Don’t you see that humans had no choice but to sign the Blood Agreement? They wanted their children to be safe, the same way you want me to be safe. But did you ever wonder, when you fought for my life, about the world I’d be ruling? If I can’t even make small changes, like moving the guards from live food to blood pouches, then how am I ever supposed to achieve anything bigger? You tell me that things take time for vampires, but I don’t have time!’
My mother is silent, red lining her eyes.
‘Maybe I should have stayed in the Safe Zone, pretending I was living a lovely human life, even though I didn’t have to bleed into a bag once a month. My reign will be a novelty, because humans, like me, are seen as food and nothing more.’
‘They are food!’ My mother’s voice is sharp.
I recoil, cold shock running through me.
‘But they are so much more,’ my mother continues. A red tear slides down the porcelain curve of her cheek. ‘You are so much more. We ignore what humans are because it’s easier that way, not to face the reality of what we’ve done.’
‘Then help me change it. Help me make it so that humans like Sophie can go for a walk and not be food for idiots like Stefan. You all lived together in harmony, once. I know we can’t go back to how it was before the Rising. But surely there’s a way for us to make it safer for humans, too.’
My mother is silent, her dark gaze turned down.
‘You’re right,’ she says. ‘Of course you are.’ Echoes of words spoken in a jewelled chamber. But this time, I think she means it.
‘I did what I needed to do here,’ I say. ‘I showed them all who I was, and we managed to get two families back on our side. I also realise I couldn’t have done it alone. That without you, and father, and Joaquin, things might have been different. But that’s the whole point. Ican’tdo this alone. You and Father say you support me; now we need to show the world that it’s not just me wanting to change things.’
My mother nods. ‘I did wonder,’ she says. ‘When you were born. You were so small, so fragile. So inexpressibly beautiful. Iknew the path wouldn’t be easy, but even then … I felt it could be something wonderful. The biggest mistake your father and I made was bringing you up as one of us, in the darkness. And not realising that things needed to change.’
‘You didn’t know any different. And I like the darkness.’ It’s like our roles are reversed: she is the child, and I am the mother, reassuring her. ‘I needed to have that experience, so Icould appreciate the light.’
My mother comes to sit next to me, pulling me into her arms. I relax against her as she strokes my hair. ‘So, what now?’ she says.
‘I don’t know. I can’t replicate the Channel Islands, so I need to think of something else. I can’t stop blood donations, but I don’t want humans to be trapped anymore.’
‘We can keep working on it. Look at what you’ve achieved in just a few months.’
