AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER TWO
KANA
“I need more answers,” I muttered for the thousandth time, pacing a rut in the floor of my palace rooms.
Kassian and Luca stood on opposite sides of the room like silent sentries, and tonight Blaise lounged on the couch, plucking fruit from a tray someone had delivered at least a day ago. She seemed determined to help, and I couldn’t exactly cut her out after she’d seen so much the night of the gobbelin fiasco.
My fingers stuttered again over my stomach where the icy wound had been two days ago, and I noticed both men watching me with worried, possessive gazes. They would tear the world apart to protect me - that much was evident by now.
But what if the world was tearing itself apart?
We’d been searching each day and meeting each night, and still we had no further information on what had really happened the night Vento strode into Saori Sang with a dead gobbelin, proving wrong every story I’d heard growing up about the Gobbelin Wars.
I’d fallen into a gap in reality that night, and it was more than just redefining vampire history. Like the ground opening up under the force of an earthquake, the magic of Haret had opened its maw and swallowed me whole. I was still processing what had happened when I’d blacked out in the banquet hall, and I wasn’t sure I could speak freely with Blaise in the room.
I was not in the habit of trusting easily, and the continued absence of a certain energy fae was like a knife in my back. Rush had disappeared three days ago without a single word, and then Vento had arrived to accuse the fae of working with Merden to raise an extinct species from the dead.
“I just don’t understand why Rush kept the gobbelins a secret,” I fumed, also for the thousandth time. Of course, Vento had vanished too, leaving nothing but questions behind.
“Can you at least walk us through what you saw when you passed out?” Kas said, his voice tired and hard. They’d all been trying to help me, banging on the walls I’d erected to keep myself safe. They were going to tire of my distrust soon.
“I’ll leave if you prefer, Princess. But sometimes, the only way to learn to trust, is to simply try it.” Blaise met my eyes from across the room, and there was a glint of challenge in them. She was still my competitor, fighting in the Trials of the Moon to claim the throne of Saori Sang just like I was. Just like Luca and Kassian were.
And yet.
Something larger was happening in the queendom.
My entire life had been preparation for taking the throne. As a young princess, I’d been educated and trained in everything a vampire queen should know. After my aunt killed my mother and stole the crown, I’d used my exile to train even harder. Nothing was more important than winning the Trials and gaining the Ancient Magic to protect my people.
That is to say, until last night, nothing had been more important.
If gobbelins had somehow risen from their graves and were on their way to attack the city, the last thing we needed was another of Merden’s parties.
“We need to find a way to postpone the last two Trials,” I finally said, sinking into a chair as weariness unexpectedly washed over me.
“Postpone?” Luca echoed, sharing an exasperated look with Kas. I glared at both of them.
Blaise grunted in disbelief, and I squared my shoulders, getting ready to make my case.
But behind them all, near the doorway, the mist began to sift in beneath my door like it had been listening in. It rose and swirled, forming a shape that hurt my heart to see, each and every time.
