One more week. The timeline hammered through my skull with each of Ash’s strides.
The massive bulk of the mansion loomed ahead, the sky bleeding deep orange and purple behind it as the sun sank toward the horizon, casting long shadows. Every instinct screamed at me to hurry, to reach it before full dark, before the household woke and someone noticed my absence.
Ash slowed the moment we touched the estate’s boundary, stopping in the long shadow of a tree. I slid from his back. Turning to meet his gaze, I said, “Thank you.”
He trilled and then melted back into the woods, heading, I hoped, to wherever Finn had arranged for him to shelter.
I crouched low, crossing the final few feet of the property line. I ran my hand over the wall, seeking the subtle markers. Finding them, I glided my fingers over the seam and pulled. The loose stones came away easily under my hands. I squeezed through the narrow gap, replacing each cold, damp stone with meticulous care, restoring the wall to nothing but ivy and weathered stone.
With my hood drawn low, I made my way through the garden and back to my quarters. Back to the heat of the fire, the sound of Zane’s voice, and the steady comfort of Finn nearby. Zane was my air. I couldn't survive without him and didn’t want to try, even with Carlyle’s judgment loomingover my shoulder. Finn was my ground, the anchor that steadied me when the world tilted too far. The lies we lived beyond these walls didn’t matter here; what mattered was getting back to my soon-to-be devotees.
Anticipation and dread tangled in my chest, their edges blurring until they mixed into one bittersweet emotion. The need to see Zane pressed down like I was drowning until only he could let me breathe again. Yet Finn pulled at me differently: his crooked grin, the way he weaponized absurdity until laughter spilled out despite everything.
I longed to feel their arms around me. Between them, air and laughter, I found the fragile illusion of safety, even with death waiting beyond the door.
“Vampires wear our faces, speak our words, lie in our beds, but they are parasites. Beautiful, seductive parasites… The Sidney I raised would never hesitate. She would never let a monster’s pretty words cloud her judgment.”
What if Carlyle was right?
What if I’d already slipped too deep into the dark to notice?
I stepped inside to find Finn missing and Zane still asleep, his face softened by dreams. My bones ached with weariness, every step heavier than the last. The sight of Zane, sprawled and breathing deep, alive, almost undid me. For a moment, I just stood there, watching the rise and fall of his chest and the curve of his mouth.
Carlyle was right about one thing—I had a mission. I would cure Zane and Finn just as I’d planned. I would save them from the monsters they’d been forced to become.
A soft creak of hinges made me turn around. Finn slipped through the door, his face tight with urgency, and shoved the door tight behind him. His hands moved in rapid signs.I hid in the corridor outside Mathias’s study, watchingthrough the crack in the door while he and Lord Valerius talked.He paused, fingers hesitating before continuing.Mathias said the next trial, the contestants will go to the House of Whispers to cat-if-attire.Finn scratched his head.Mathias can speak a bit fast, and the angle kept shifting, so I am not sure about that last word.
Cat-if-attire?I repeated in sign language. I rubbed at my eyes, my sleepless day making them gritty and dry.
He shrugged, but the worry in his expression spoke volumes.
“The House of Whispers,” Zane said behind me, voice rough with sleep and edged with something darker. “That alone is a death sentence.”
I turned to find Zane sitting up. His eyes flashed amber in the dim light as he looked between Finn and me. “Whatever word you missed,” he said, his gaze locking on to mine with an intensity that made my chest tighten. “It doesn’t matter. Few come back from the House of Whispers.”
Chapter 20
Sidney
In the strained silence that followed Zane’s declaration, I announced, “I need a bath.”
I strode into the bathroom before Zane or Finn could say a word, and ran the water at its most scalding temperature. I submerged myself in the bath of lava, wanting the punishing heat to penetrate to my bones. Wanting it tohurt.
The House of Whispers. By Aetherius’s light.
For a moment, I closed my eyes and rested my too-heavy body. I could’ve sunk straight into rest if it weren’t for the restlessness of my thoughts.
Like any good slayer, I knew the names of the highest-ranked vampires and most monstrous threats to come from the western part of Pythia. They were formidable, arguably stronger than the House of the Sanguine now that they’d conquered the Emerald Cradle borough.
I’d always thought of the House of Whispers as a necessary evil. Dismantling my grandmother’s work made a void, and the rival coven flowed in to claim what was left behind. It was what it was.
As I cleansed the smell of the road, sweat, and tytoursusmusk lingering on my body, I shook my head. Perhaps this trial would strike at the heart of our rivals. A necessary act. Now that I was in position to destroy the House of the Sanguine from within, I had to be mindful of the balance of vampiric power. I couldn’t allow the House of Whispers to grow unchecked as collateral for my revenge.
“Remember whose blood stains your nightmares. There is no gray area. There is the light of Aetherius, and there is the dark,”Carlyle had said. And he was right. The only good vampire was a corpse. Except…
There was a muffled knock at the door to my quarters and the hush of a male voice as Zane answered. My stomach soured, and bile coated the back of my throat, as if my body were rejecting and attempting to vomit up my conflicting thoughts.
The only good vampire is a corpse, unless their names are Zane or Finn.My two mates, as of the half-moon. Tomorrow.
