Page 27

“Please, Ari. Just a few hours. For him… and for our kingdom.” Val tried once more.

As if worn down by our persistence, Arianna exhaled slowly. A faint smile curved her mouth—again, not reaching her eyes. “Fine.” With a sharp pivot in the slush, she turned and stalked toward the forest.

We followed her a few steps behind along a trail pressed deep into the snow. For the first time, I truly took in my surroundings.

Tree branches sagged under the weight of fresh sleet, bowing toward the ground. The earth beneath our feet wasn’t frozen, it was wet and loose. Each step sank slightly.

The forest lacked sound. It wasn’t lifeless, but there was something heavy in its silence. Something old. Something watching. The wind moved over the land like a soft, distant cry. Its somber melody slipped into my ears as snowflakes clung to every thread of my being. It swept behind us, covering our tracks as if we had never passed through.

The route felt long. Empty. No homes in sight, not even a distant echo of life, despite my sharpened hearing searching for it.

“Is there no one in these parts?” I asked, scanning the endless white. Snow and trees stretched farther than I could see. It was nothing like Ash Town. A thriving little community with beaches, trails, and color everywhere. It had felt alive. Welcoming. I hadn’t realized how much I’d taken that for granted.

“No,” Arianna answered quickly. “People aren’t up around this time.”

“What do you mean?” It was the break of day. Even with the dim blue light filtered through thickened clouds, I could tell. Valentina had said the sun didn’t break anymore. She hadn’t been exaggerating. There was no sun, just an endless overcast glow.

“The society still prefers living beneath the stars,” Valentina explained. “The tradition goes back to when we were still a part of Earth’s realm. It’s a reminder of the past.” She paused. “And the land honors it. It’s far more beautiful at night.”

It wasn’t strange that they preferred the dark, but it didn’t make sense to me. What was the point of having a world free of humans if you still lived without the sun? Then again, who was I to judge their traditions?

“Well, if the sun doesn’t break anymore, I guess there’s no point,” I muttered. I would miss it. I loved hot days, the way the light deepened my skin and caught in my curls. The sun wasn’t just warmth. It was life. Plants, soil, animals, everything thrived beneath it. Imagining a world without it felt unnatural. Did that mean there was an absence of life here?

Ahead of us, a massive tree, tall as a skyscraper, lay rotting across the trail.

The snow had buried it like a soft white shroud, but its core reeked of decay. Like something old had been broken open. Now that the scent permeated my nostrils I could detect more like these in the near distance, and it made my stomach curdle.

The rotten scent tried to settle into my spirit. It was strong enough to make me want to gag, not just from the stench, but from the dread laced deep into its roots.

Something about it pressed against me, heavy and suffocating. The sorrow in the air felt like a sickness crawling beneath my skin, worse, somehow, than the cold still gnawing at my bones. The wind carried it in restless waves, as if urging me to notice. I forced myself to keep walking. To breathe. To pretend it wasn’t clawing at me from the inside.

Arianna didn’t flinch when we passed it. Val didn’t either. Like they were used to the stench of things dying slowly in this kingdom.

This world felt… sad.

I sensed it in the vegetation, in the depth of the air itself. The wind moved through the trees like a dirge, low and cold, as if joy had long since abandoned it. “What’s this place called?” I asked, my voice rough from the chill.

Both girls glanced back at me. “Velarune,” Val answered. “But we’re in Eari. One of the vampire kingdoms. There are six others in this realm—though our monarchs rule two of them as well. The King and Queen’s daughters oversee the outposts.”

I blinked, absorbing it. The King and Queen had daughters. Half-sisters. Whole lives I’d never known existed.

“So I’m walking through a kingdom where everyone thinks I’m dead,” I muttered. “Is it even large enough for that?” The irony pressed in on me. They believed I was gone. I had believed my father was. Now we were both alive. and everything felt poised to unravel. I tried to push Mark from my thoughts, but he lingered there. Even the bitter symmetry of it all couldn’t explain why he’d done what he did.

Arianna’s voice cut in, sharp and steady. “If the court discovers who you are before your transition is complete, your life will be forfeit.” Her tone was clear. Authoritative. Not comforting. She wasn’t like Val. There was a heat beneath her control that never quite cooled, and suddenly the cold wasn’t the only thing tightening along my spine.

I nodded.

Val slipped closer beside me. “We’ll keep you safe. My father will know what to do.” As if sensing the storm inside me, she brushed her thoughts gently against mine. A soft caress.

The further we went, the air thickened, suffocatingly so. It thrummed with energy, even more than Arianna’s, which reeked of it. It had made me physically gasp. Both woman turned their heads to look at me.

“Are you alright?” Valentina asked again.

It was starting to grate.

“I’m fine. I think,” I replied with a half-smile. “It’s just… my body is reacting strangely to this place. Like there’s a disturbance in this part of the woods.”

Arianna let out a short, cold chuckle. “Really?” she asked, casting me another assessing glance.