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Kaleid comes down with me, his fangs deep into my neck, showing no signs of stopping, his bites becoming more savage, his growls deeper.
“Kaleid,” Jeremias says in a sharp tone. “We still need her to make her choice. She can’t do that if she’s half-dead.”
Kaleid grumbles and then rips his mouth away from my neck and I’m gasping for breath. He holds the back of my head, cradling it in a way that would be tender if it were anyone else. “So, what is your choice, Lenore?” he asks, his eyes searching my face in a way that Solon’s often do. “Will you accept my blood? Will you turn dark, rule a kingdom with me and your father, like you were meant to? Become the prophesized blood bride?”
I have enough strength to shake my head. “No,” I manage to say. “You knew I’d say no. You fucking asshole. This is what you wanted all along.”
“It’s the way it was foretold,” he says with a grin, those dimples showing. “My father is dead. You are here. I am king of the vampires, just as I had hoped. The choice is there if you want it.”
“Why even give me a choice at all? Skarde didn’t.”
“I am not my father,” he says with a hint of regret. “I don’t have the power to turn anyone dark. I suppose I’m not evil enough.”
“Yeah, but you’re trying and that’s what counts,” I seethe.
He laughs and then looks over at Jeremias. “Your daughter is a feisty one, I’ll give her that.”
“Feisty, yes,” he says, coming up the steps until he’s looming over me. His black eyes are full of evil and hate and sickening power. “But that’s where our similarities end.”
I close my eyes, trying to find my way out of this. I did it once before, I lit the Dark Order on fire, I can do it again, I can set them all ablaze.
But when I search in the dark well, the only power I feel is the one buried at the bottom. The one in the box.
Open the box, Lenore, a voice says. It doesn’t belong to Kaleid or Jeremias. It’s the voice of the Dark One.
Yes, it hisses inside my skull, making me feel like I’m going to be sick. Open the box and use the power. You can kill all of them. You can claim the throne for yourself. Endless power for all eternity.
I step away from the well.
What the Dark One wants me to do is the same thing that Jeremias and Kaleid want. They want me to open that box, to get the black magic, to try and use it against them, because the moment I do is the moment I am gone.
It’s the moment the prophecy becomes true.
I will turn dark and there will be no going back.
I will rule in this awful world, breeding vampires that will kill humanity in another world. I will lose myself and bring destruction to every person there is, and with Jeremias at the helm, probably every vampire too. He doesn’t kill vampires anymore? Bullshit.
I open my eyes and look directly at Jeremias. “I’m not going to do it.”
He sighs in disappointment, his revolving features turning hard. “As I expected.” He looks to Kaleid, who is still cradling me. “And as I told you. You are not Solon, boy. Now that I had a chance to see him face to face, I know that for a fact.”
My heart lurches. “What are you talking about? You saw Solon?”
Jeremias gives an awful grin. “Who do you think the Lapp Witches belong to? Me. Just as the Dark Order now belongs to me. It’s a wonder what a little magic can do.” He tilts his head sympathetically. “Don’t worry, I didn’t kill Solon or his friend. They’re just chained up in a place of no escape, to starve for all eternity. His world now is an endless one of anguish and pain and torture, especially after I told him what was going to happen to you.”
I blink back tears, my heart ripping open in my chest.
Solon.
No, not Solon.
“You fucking monster!” I scream.
“We’re all monsters here, Lenore,” he says, with a haughty raise of his chin. “You’d think you’d be used to it by now.” Then he nods at Kaleid. “Do what you want with her. I won’t kill her, but I won’t stop you from doing so.”
“Compromising already?” Kaleid comments under his breath. Then he places his cold hand at my cheek, grinning at me with bloody teeth. “Well, Lenore, I guess your no is a no. I have to respect that. Unfortunately, that means I also have no use for you anymore.”
He gets up, hauling me to my feet, and I’m still so weak I can hardly stand. I don’t know how he drained so much blood out of me, why I’m not recovering, but I have a feeling Jeremias has something to do with it.
