My father was so elated with the advancement of his rank, he completely forgot the lunch that I had prepared.
Doing my best to remember the path we took to attend the ceremony, I made my way through the trail in the woods nearby. I had hoped to catch him before he passed through the gates, where my entry wouldn’t be allowed. Only the guards could pass.
Just as I reached the clearing and could see the guards entering in their lined formation, the sound of rushing hooves clashed behind me. As I turned to look, I realized the horse wasn’t slowing down. I quickly leapt back, tripping over my own feet as the animal neighed to a stop, and I fell onto my ass.
“Are you alright?” a man called out just as I heard feet land on the grass.
When I turned to my side, I saw that I had dropped all of the food and it was now covered in dirt.
“I apologize. She’s still being trained, and I hadn’t expected to see anyone here at this time of day.”
Cheeks hot with fury, I huffed as I pushed myself up, ready to give the stranger a piece of my mind, when I found myself frozen in place.
“Please allow me to replace the food I seem to have soiled,” he offered, stretching out a hand for me to take.
I couldn’t speak. His eyes… They were so deeply shaded and captivating, like I was staring into a twilight abyss. There was only one person that I had heard of with eyes as dark as night.Oh, gods…He was…
“I’m Kaiden.”
Chapter 1
DEZ
Iwoke drenched in sweat, my heart racing past the thunder that bellowed just outside of my window.
Since Morrigan’s disappearance, the sky seemed to cry with the grief that clouded our once-vibrant world. Most days, the sun remained hidden behind the heavy clouds that drenched the earth with rain almost daily. Perhaps the gods were angry with us. We hadonetask. They created a woman so perfect, so beautiful… and her birth meant we would never need to feed from anyone else ever again.
All we had to do was keep hersafe—keep herhappy.
Keep her complacent?My inner conscience argued with me, reminding me of just how wrong all of this was.
It would have been different if she understood what her true purpose had been from the start. But, choosing to play the game ofchosen queen, without disclosing the fact that we planned on feeding from her for the rest of our eternal lives…Well… I knew why she hated us.
A sharp twinge of pain in the pit of my stomach pulled me from my own thoughts. For the past few weeks, the hunger I felt was something my body had never been subjected to before. No amount of food could satisfy the emptiness that kept me chained to my bed. It weakened me. And, with Morrigan gone, I had no other substance that could replenish my strength.
Rising from the bed, I threw my legs over the side before another cramp struck in my core—palpable enough to bring me to my knees as I fell from the sheets. Pain pierced me as I landed on the cold, wooden floor. And, almost immediately, the doors to my room flew open.
“I heard a fall,” Lyra called in, turning to find me on my knees as I clutched my stomach. “Are you alright?”
Just the sound of her voice made the ache dig itself deeper inside of me. “I’m fine,” I groaned, pushing myself back up to stand. For a moment, the room around me spun, and I slagged against the wall, waiting for it to still.
“You’re not fine,” she scolded. Within seconds, she stood at my side, placing a hand on my lower back to steady me. “Do you want to try and feed again?”
Whatever had caused this…hunger… spread to the damned curse we bore. With food unable to satisfy me, I needed blood. The gods had never actually explained to us exactly what would happen if we failed to feed for too long—and none of us ever dared to test it. But, with the blood bond now in place, we also hadn’t known what would happen if we fed fromanother.
Lyra had offered almost immediately.
Our first feeding was… memorable to say the least. When I first tasted her blood, it felt normal and had begun to energize me again. But, as the minutes passed, my stomach began to burn. I emptied almost all of what I had taken from her, hanging onto the mere drops that remained.
“I’d rather not get sick again,” I grumbled, already feeling the phantom nausea rolling through my abdomen.
Pushing off of the wall, I dragged my feet toward the bathing room. Behind me, Lyra’s voice followed closely. “Yeah, well, sickness sounds a lot more manageable than death.”
I quickly dipped my hand into the basin of water on the counter, chilling it as much as I could with what little power I could manage, before splashing it against my face.
“Gods, Dez… You look like shit.”
“Thanks.” I tried my best to avoid her body as I stumbled around her.
