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ONE
Olivia
Isquintedthroughthedownpour along the cobblestone walkway, scanning the street for any sign of aniccipere, but there were none. Thankfully, most of the ones in this part of the city had gone. I relaxed my shoulders, but my heart still pounded at the thought of running into one of them. I squeezed Sebastian’s hand, grounding myself as the flashbacks threatened to throw me into another panic attack. Swallowing thickly, I shook my head, as if to scatter thoughts of them and continued down the road.
Sebastian's wings cast a shadow on the ground, shielding us from the storm. The cold seeped through my jacket as we hurried toward the shadow market on the other side of the city. He held me close, as if he could sense my fear in our bond—which was likely. The barrier I’d formed in my mind to prevent others’ emotions from consuming me was still strong, but the soulmate bond was different. Whenever he felt something deeply, I could sense it, taste it even. It was a beautiful thing to share with another person, but it made us vulnerable. Especially when those emotions were negative. Knowing each other’s pain but being helpless in stopping it, was awful. All we could do was be there for each other after everything that happened, but the nightmares, the anxiety, the terror—they were all our own to deal with and sometimes, it was suffocating.
I glanced up at him, relaxing on seeing his piercing blue eyes. He was on edge; I could tell by his clenched jaw and tense shoulders. But we were okay. Azia had disguised me well with a spell, so no one would recognize me. But that didn’t stop my husband from tugging me closer every time someone made eye contact with us.
No one could know I was alive.
Sebastian clasped my hand tighter as I cast my eyes up at the ominous-gray sky, black clouds merging as if in warning of what was to come. The lightning streaked purple and blue, illuminating the afternoon sky. Rain pooled on the sidewalk and soaked through my shoes as we walked around the corner. I halted, the blood rushing into my cheeks as I stared at the newspaper stand. There it was—my face, staring out from the front page of a newspaper.
‘Another blow to the monarchy. Princess Seraphina, announced dead.’
My eyes climbed the wooden stand, with a small roof protecting the pages from the onslaught of rain. Fortunately, the stack with my picture was shorter than the others. A picture of my father, sitting on his throne wearing a crown of rubies, covered the front page of the rest.
‘Our beloved king, slaughtered by the aniccipere.’
My stomach dipped as if a brick had slid into it. “I guess we know for sure he’s dead now.” We knew he had been taken prisoner and assumed it wouldn’t be long before he was killed. There was no way Salenia or Kalon would allow him to live.
Still, it was like a punch in the chest. I was an orphan.
Salenia would pay for this once we found a way to kill her. Sebastian had wanted to tear her heart out, but according to Azia, she would only come back and possess another body. Then we would have no idea who she was.
Pain shot through my chest as I stared at my father’s face, thinking of what could have been. I hadn’t got to explore our relationship, to really feel that bond we shared. He’d come to save me from the aniccipere, and in his own twisted way, loved me. I couldn’t help but grieve for a relationship I never had with him.
Then there was my mom.
A lump formed in my throat, and I quickly buried those feelings. I couldn’t linger on them, not now when so many people were relying on me. If I allowed myself to take it all in, I feared it would ruin me.
The stall owner—a stout man with a long, unkempt beard—eyed me, then shoved a newspaper in our direction.
Sebastian thrusted his hand into his pocket, pulling out a lone stagma, and threw the silver coin to the vampire who pocketed the change and handed us the thick paper. He tucked it inside his black jacket and guided me toward a narrow lane.
“People are scared,” I whispered as we passed an empty tavern.
He nodded. “They don’t know what’s going to happen.” A vampire eyed us from further up the street, his eyes narrowing. “Stay close.”
We hurried past an apothecary, standing empty on the corner with a sign glistening wet on the door.‘Mortal supplies.’
It was just another sign of the trafficking problem here, where they seemed to think it was okay to enslave mortals as their own personal pets. The shelves inside with stuffed with the bare minimum needed to keep a mortal alive. I gritted my teeth but kept calm. This would all end soon. If I defeated Salenia, then perhaps I could stop this from happening. I had to stay focused on the task at hand—kill Salenia, at any cost. I didn’t breach the subject to Sebastian, knowing his reservations about me going after her.
As we reached the end of the road, I glanced over my shoulder, watching a tall woman with painted red lips pulling a mortal woman into the shop by a collar around her neck.
Sebastian loosed a sigh, then ran his other hand through his rain-soaked black strands. “I’m sorry about your father.” He looked at me with bloodshot eyes, then cast his gaze back onto the road. Nausea bit up my throat, stealing any appetite I had as the words sunk in.
No. I can’t think of this now.
But seeing his death written in ink was chilling. Too many people I loved had died, and the world felt so much grayer without them.
At least I had Sebastian, I told myself, and Erianna, Azia, Zach and Anna too. We were safe, for now at least, in a house Zach brought. Being in Sebastian’s home in the middle of the city was far too dangerous, with Salenia looking for us. It was imperative for everyone else in the kingdom to continue to believe the story of my death. For their sakes and mine.
The wind howled as storm clouds billowed, the tall, Gothic buildings faded into the background, cloaking the world in further darkness. Thunder growled, and Sebastian’s fingers laced around my waist as we reached the shadow market. We pushed open the rusty, wrought-iron gates that creaked in protest. I breathed in the scent of spices and herbs, the intense aromas creating an almost hypnotic atmosphere as we stepped into the shadow market.
I looked around at the narrow alleyway lined with wooden stalls. Carefully, we treaded over bits of cardboard and discarded newspapers, dodging the path of a rat which scurried to the rest of the swarm. I watched as they raced around the drains, their claws tapping against the metal grates, their red eyes flashing as a couple darted up the pipes. We had the same problem in the city in Baldoria, except those rats lived off scraps of food. I shuddered to know what these survived on.
Shouting drew my attention back to the crowded market. Despite the eerie unrest that had shrouded the kingdom after the death of their king, people still gathered here, more than in the city itself.
