“What’s wrong?” the third man demanded, the one whose name I didn’t know.
“This is the first time I’ve left the castle walls since being imprisoned there.” I didn’t think I needed to explain further why that felt so significant.
The man stared at me with an intensity that had my skin lighting up before he spit out a ‘fuck’ and ran a hand through his hair and began pacing.
“Dakath.” Kolvar’s tone was warning and put me on edge.
“Dakath—is that your name?” I asked, rolling the unique sounds around on my tongue. I liked it.
My voice snapped him out of his agitated state enough that he nodded sharply. The vampyre had a reserved, almost lethal edge to him that heightened the intense energy I could feel rolling off of him in waves. There was a darkness within him I’d never come across before–perhaps darkness due to trauma.
“We’re almost there. Come on,” Elijah said in a gruff tone, leaving no room for argument.
We continued, a radiating sense of discomfort growing in my chest at the clear fact that he had no interest in interacting with me.
When I turned the next corner, tucked between Kolvar and Dakath, I immediately breathed out a sigh of relief that we were finally close enough to the docks—our apparent goal. I could smell the salt brine of the Cursed Divide, and I nearly lunged forward, wanting to get closer to freedom. The massive ship docked there, dark in color, sat silently as if waiting for us.
My breathing hitched nervously at the idea of getting on the boat. As I looked around for Tristan and his family, Kolvar pressed a gentle hand to my back. “He’s coming. Let’s get you on board. You haven’t fully recovered from today, and we don’t want you to be spotted.”
I nodded, knowing he was right and feeling a sense of warmth that he had noticed my well-being wasn’t the best… But then I really thought about this moment and what I was about to do. Doubt began to creep in as I considered how little I actually knew about my future that lay in these vampyres’ hands.
“What’s wrong?” Kolvar asked.
“I just… I haven’t even asked where we’re going,” I explained, offering all of them a wide-eyed look. “I mean, I barely know you, and now I’m about to get on a boat to go who knows where. I assumed we were going somewhere within Malakai’s lands…” Honestly, I hadn’t really known what to assume, but it seemed the obvious conclusion. “You’re not from these lands, are you?”
“No,” Dakath answered with a somewhat snappy tone. “We are from across the Cursed Divide.”
Oh.
Wait, what?
“Across the Cursed Divide? Is there something across there? I’ve never heard anyone speak about that before.”
“The Tridian Empire,” Kolvar explained.
Shock rolled over me. There was an entire empire on the other side of the Cursed Divide? I suppose the name of the body of water made a bit more sense now. A divide between two empires. Okay, I needed to put a pin on that and focus on my main question, because I knew we didn’t have long.
I nibbled my lip. “So you aren’t under the Emperor’s rule?” I felt far better if that was the case. “But why are you here? Why were you at the event?”
None of this was making much sense.
“We need to go,” Elijah murmured, looking behind us before pinning me with a look, “but we can explain further on the boat. We were gathering intelligence—”
“Like a spy?” I whispered in excitement. “How long have you been here?”
“A few days,” Kolvar answered. For some reason that made me feel better, knowing they hadn’t been exposed to Malakai for very long—his darkness tainted everyone he was involved with.
“I don’t want to go back to being a prisoner or Thrall…” I tilted my chin up, trying to look brave as I finally said my peace. “I can’t do that again. I can’t live like that. I would rather leave the empire and travel to distant lands alone once we reach there—”
“No,” Dakath growled, narrowing his eyes as his lips thinned in disgust. “In the Tridian Empire, we don’t have Thralls.”
I let out an exhale in surprise. “You don’t?”
“None. It’s a completely different situation. It’s why we didn’t have Thralls to bring to that party,” Kolvar explained. My chest lightened with every word. It made me so happy to know they didn’t have Thralls, partly because of jealousy but also because I didn’t want them to be like Malakai.
I let out a final sigh and nodded. “Okay.”
“Any more questions?” Elijah asked, not looking impatient, exactly… But he also had this frustrating ability to be commanding while avoiding my direct eye contact, in this case watching the street behind me while he asked his question.
