I could’ve told him my secret. It was Finn, after all, one of my oldest friends. We’d shared rations when there wasn’t enough food to spare. There’d been endless jokes between us about the absurdities of vampire society from our view as their servants. I’d never laughed so freely as I had with him.
A large part of me wanted to reveal myself. Telling him would only require a few twists of my hands. But I didn’t know what else the years had changed about him. He hadfangs now, after all. Would he send up an alarm and turn me in immediately? I needed allies here that I could trust, and I couldn’t risk choosing wrong.
Would he be happy to see me? Or angry? I hadn’t had enough time to include him in my escape plan years ago. It was life or death, and I’d chosen to live. Yet, had we escaped together, perhaps he would’ve been spared the curse of vampirism.
We walked toward the mansion at a fast clip. The sun didn’t affect me, but it would swiftly burn him to ash. Our fingers danced all the while in a full-fledged conversation.You know sign language, ma’am?
I do.
I figured it was easier to keep my response brief, as his eyes were narrowed with suspicion. After the bloodsuckers learned of his disability, he was placed outside with the livestock. They’d viewed him as defective, not gone out of their way to learn a new language to communicate with him.
My name is…He shaped each letter individually.F-I-N-N. Or you could use my name sign.
As a kid, he’d invented a custom sign for his name. The wrinkled blood servant who’d taught us sign language had been perpetually annoyed by how silly it was. He pressed his hands flat, palms together, and thumbs pointed upward.Like a fish’s fin,he’d once explained. He made his hands swim through the air before making them dip into a dive.
I made his name sign back, then spelled outI-L-Y-A-N-Ato him.It is nice to meet you.
You too, ma’am.
A flicker of motion brushed the edge of my vision. An orange cat wandered up to Finn as if it had been looking for him. It stopped at his boots and stared up at him. Finn tilted hishead. The cat’s tail twitched once before it turned and trotted off without a sound.
Odd. Still, I had no room in my mind for a wandering cat.
My fingers itched, yearning for the chilly stillness of my laboratory and my half-finished experiments. I needed the serum to cure vampirism. Razira was doomed by the competition, but Zane and Finn…
We hurried toward the mansion as the first rays of sun stretched across the courtyard. The entrance was still thirty yards away. Too far, much too far. The sun was rising faster than I'd thought, golden light spilling across the stones like liquid fire.
I quickened my pace, but Finn remained exactly three steps behind me, matching my speed but never overtaking. Even now, with death creeping toward him, he wouldn't dare walk ahead.
A shaft of sunlight broke through.
He screamed and collapsed. Smoke rose from his pale skin, wisps of gray rising everywhere the sun touched him.
Chapter 9
Finn
The sunlight hit me like molten gold pouring through a cracked vessel, liquid fire searing every inch it touched. I screamed, a sound I couldn’t hear but felt tearing from my throat.
My flesh bubbled and smoked, gray wisps curling up like dying embers from the wounds where the golden blaze ate away at my body. I was submerged in a river of agony, drowning in heat that penetrated marrow.
Then the impossible happened. Lady Ilyana stepped between me and the sun.
The shadow of her body fell across mine, and the burning stopped. Just like that. She stood there, perfectly still in the deadly sunlight, not even flinching as it bathed her pale skin. My jaw dropped as I stared at her.
What in the six hells?
She grabbed my arm and pulled me into the mansion. We burst through the entrance just as the sun crested the horizon.
Inside, the hall yawned empty except for two human servants lingering near a columned alcove. They flinched atthe sound of the door slamming behind us, heads snapping from me to her.
They nodded at her and departed, possibly at something she said. If they noticed the sunlight hadn’t touched her, they didn’t show it.
With a sigh, I sagged against the cool wall. My heart pounded through my bones, a relentless reminder of how close I had come to death.If I weren't so busy fearing for my life, I’d actually be quite proud of how thoroughly I messed up. Bravo, me.
The initial terror shifted to a strange, hollow gratitude, an almost surreal relief I was alive, mixed with a gnawing bewilderment I couldn’t shake. My skin still prickled from the sun’s cruel touch, and my mind scrambled to process what I’d seen.
I should have been alert, watching the horizon for any sign of threat, but she’d signed to me. Actually signed. Not the stilted, awkward gestures most nobles used when forced to acknowledge my existence. Real signs. Fluid, confident, like she'd used them her whole life.
