“No!” Frost roars. “It was all me, you stupid leech. I seduced her. I persuaded her to make me a thrall. She’s just confused. Eve, just do it. I’m going to die, but you don’t have to.”
Cain just smirks. His expression is so blindingly cruel that it’s clear our begging won’t make a difference. “As noble and amusing as your efforts are, Evelyn will suffer a much worse fate than you, mortal.”
Immy is thrust forward onto the floor again, but this time the soldiers around her dive on her, their fangs extended. Her screams make it clear they’ve been ordered to dry bite. Releasing none of the venom that makes our bite pleasurable as they rip into her.
“Evie!” she screams after only a few seconds. “Evie!”
“All you have to do is say the words,” Cain promises. “Sever your ties to the mortal, and she’ll be left alive.”
Immy is innocent.
I might have been stupid enough to fall for Frost’s deception, but she went along with me because she loves me.
Frost… never did.
I’m not foolish enough to think my sister can escape this unscathed. Alive doesn’t mean unharmed. It just means Immy won’t be staked or fed to the ghouls.
It’s still better than dead.
I meet Frost’s eyes, searching for something. Any hint of the love he professed just days ago, or the adoration I soaked up from his presence.
All I see is desperation.
I nod once, and Cain’s answering smile is blinding.
Immy is released, but she doesn’t get up. Instead, she hugs her legs as she trembles on the floor, eyes streaming with tears.
The guards force my thrall’s head back and pinch his nose shut before tipping my blood down his throat.
There are only three words needed to sever the thrall bond. They tear out of me, savaging something inside me as Frost sags, falling to his knees as a low keening noise escapes his throat.
I feel the snap. The loss of a human thrall—while painful—is manageable for a vampire. Any bond with them is always one-sided because vampire biology can’t commit to a full bond with a short-lived creature.
No wonder Frost wasn’t willing to turn. The full bond wouldn’t have let him hide his hatred of me. It doesn’t allow for that kind of distance between partners.
For a human, the loss of the bond is agonising, but worse if they’re emotionally attached to their vampire.
I watch Frost collapse. The strong man I adored curls in on himself, cradling his chest like his heart is being shredded inside his chest.
The bruising on his face starts to fade—my blood working hard to heal his wounds—and Cain’s glare intensifies at the visual evidence of my gift in action, but no one else seems to notice.
When Frost looks up with blank eyes, there’s nothing there anymore. Not a hint of that desperation from before. He’s a shell of a man.
He must have felt something for me. He wouldn’t look so wrecked if all there was between us was hatred.
Somehow, that doesn’t make his betrayal hurt any less.
Rejected thralls often kill themselves just days later. Seeing him now, I finally understand why. His eyes are dull, his face is haggard, and he seems years older than he did only seconds ago. It’s like his soul is gone.
Like Frost is already dead.
My eyes burn, but I blink the tears away.
“Now that that’s out of the way,” Cain continues, as though breaking a thrall bond and my heart is a mere inconvenience. “I have something here, somethinghehad made forme.”
More servants struggle into the room, hefting a silver coffin between them. It’s a plain thing, with chains bolted to the inside to hold the occupant in place. Frost’s resistance probably thought the silver would weaken Cain, even if it doesn’t burn him like it does other vampires.
The servants set it on the ground in front of Cain’s throne and my sire drags me away from my guard and over to it, examining it with a critical eye.
