Every time the Lords were mentioned, though, my stomach fluttered with butterflies and my heart swelled with hope. Were they still here? Had they departed for home?
“What happened when I passed out?” I felt like that was the easiest way to ask.
“The Emperor apologized to the rest of the Lords waiting and told them that they would have an opportunity to drink from you at his next party. He brought out the castle’s public Thralls to appease them and invited all to drink and mix for longer.”
My stomach churned at the thought of vampyre fangs sinking into me again. More so at the idea of the three Lords drinking from any of the castle’s public Thralls, a mixture of jealousy and anger grabbing hold of me.
My displeasure at the thought must have been easy to see on my face, for Tristan reached out and grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently as he swore, “That will not happen, Kyella. Hang in there for a little bit longer. I’m going to see if my observations of those three Lords were correct.”
“And what if they aren’t?” I asked, feeling a chill roll over my skin.
“Then we find another way out,” he said with a determination I wish I felt.
ChapterSeven
Dakath
Being back in this empire was an ordeal I never thought I would have to face. It was dredging up horrible memories, ones tainted with the emotional anguish of watching my parents being killed by the ruthless Emperor Malakai.
All because they stole a few loaves of bread to get us through a harsh winter when our crops failed. It was our only source of income, so they did what they had to do to provide for our family.
They didn’t make it far after taking the loaves, the shop owner reporting them to guards stationed around the marketplace as they tried to leave. I was running around the marketplace, playing with the children off to the side of all the shops when I heard the uproar. At my mother’s sharp cry, I ran into the main square, screaming as I saw the guards dragging my parents towards the drawbridge.
My parents pleaded with me to not come forward; they told me to stay back in the crowd. Every night in my dreams, I wondered if I could’ve made a difference. If I could’ve saved them if I would have done something other than stand there crying as Malakai was summoned to handle their crime.
You’d think as the Emperor of the lands, he’d be too busy to handle such a small crime, but no, the fucker was a sadistic bastard that loved to dole out punishments.
I would never forget the way my mother’s head rolled to me after it was severed from her body, stopping right before my feet. Her eyes stared up at me lifelessly, her mouth opened in a scream, forever cemented on her face until she turned to dust.
My dad’s screams as he watched this happen haunted my nightmares as well. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if they were his screams or mine that woke me up in the middle of the night. I would forever be searching for a way to silence the horror, to silence the demons buried in my soul searching for a way to break out.
“Dakath, are you listening?”
Elijah’s voice pulled me back to reality.
After refusing to drink the blood of Malakai’s Thrall, who had finally slumped unconscious against him, the Emperor informed us that we would be expected to be first in line for her blood at his next party. I could tell that he was suspicious of us, but his attention was quickly swept into the orgy that ensued where the line previously was.
An orgy, right in the middle of the room—as if no one was here outside of themselves—using blood as lube while it fell down their naked forms. I suppose it should’ve been appealing, but between the echoes of screams in my ears and my feelings towards the Emperor’s Thrall, I wasn’t focused on them. I couldn’t be without feeling unparalleled anger. Plus, the way they moaned Malakai’s name as if he was the one bringing them pleasure made the contents of my stomach threaten to escape my body.
“No. In truth, I’m trying incredibly hard tonotlisten to anything happening in this fucking room right now,” I hissed as we attempted to casually exit the throne room.
As much as the scene disgusted me, I was grateful that it so easily pulled Malakai’s focus away from us, as we had quickly fallen into a situation that could’ve seen us killed if he’d asked questions of our Lordship.
My hands had wanted to clench into fists the entire time we were in front of him. It had taken every ounce of control I possessed to not look like I wanted to spill his blood and paint the walls crimson with it.
While my disgust with him was palpable, the rage that I felt as he yanked on the beautiful woman’s chain and spoke about her as if she were a scrap of meat for him to do with as he wished was nearly my undoing.
When Elijah had stepped toward her, I knew he was going to go through with it in order to keep our cover. His motivations were always crystal clear—our mission and our empire came before everything else.
But the way she’d pleaded with Elijah to not bite her, desperation filling her voice, had brought the entire situation to a full stop. It was the first time she’d asked someone not to bite her. The way she looked at us, exhausted and anguished, like we would be the ones to finally break her after a long fight of trying to keep her head held high…
It was the first time I’d seen Elijah falter and change his mind. While I was quiet, observant, and serious most of the time, Elijah was steadfast and hard-headed. Kolvar and I had never been able to change his mind before, especially once a plan was in motion.
I thought at first that I was being irrational with my pull towards the Thrall and the desire to break those chains surrounding her delicate skin. I suppose itwasirrational, but it didn’t make the pull any less real. I wanted to take her home to my bed where I’d make sure she was always protected and cherished, where the wounds from her treatment could heal completely. Where I could make her forget what she had been through and replace it with moments that covered the dark, shadowed corners of this existence.
The moment Elijah changed his mind, I knew that there was something more to this woman. Kolvar was the lighthearted one of our group, but since she had come into view, I could see the storm brewing in his eyes as he fought the urge to wage war for her safety.
She was utterly bewitching, and we were all under her spell.
