AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ah yes.” His eyes were bright with a yearning that was at odds with his fragile disposition, and his fingers entwined as he looked at the bottle of blood. His nostrils flared, a faint growl rumbling in his throat. “I heard about your theory,” he said, refocusing on me. “You must know, it’s ridiculous.”
“That sounds like what you would say if you were really Vener.”
He laughed, a dry, raspy chuckle that turned into a hacking cough. His sleeve muffled the sound, but I recognized the thick, sharp scent of blood he spit into the cloth. I knew the sensation—the dry tongue that came with captivity, daydreaming of water in those desperate moments. Except for him, it was blood. “I could give this to you,” I said, holding out the clear bottle shining under the orange light. “Offer you a mercy like you never did for me.”
He rolled his eyes, giving me the same look he had when we were once together. Treating me as if I was ridiculous, gaslighting me into believing I was crazy for thinking he was in the wrong. “Don’t act like the victim. I gave you water.”
I tightened my grip on the bottle, wishing the glass was his neck. “Barely, even then, you were the one who ensured they starved me, so I couldn’t reach Sebastian through our bond. You knew the poison they fed me kept my magic at bay. I was no threat.”
“I had no choice,” he said gruffly, averting his stare. “I’m not Vener. Although, it would be easier if you believed that. I can recall all the times we spent together before I turned. Ask me anything. If I was being possessed by the original vampire, I wouldn’t remember anything.”
My jaw clenched, and my stomach tightened, sending a chill up my spine. If he really wasn’t Vener, then who was? I needed to make sure.
“What was the gemstone on the promise ring you gave me?” I asked, despising having to go back into the memories of what felt like a lifetime ago—when I was mortal, and Astor a protector in the guild shielding us from the creatures we both succumbed to.
“Clear, it was a diamond.”
I bit my tongue. That was too easy. Inhaling deeply, I thought back to something only a mortal Astor would know. That wasn’t easy to guess. Moments I’d forgotten, faded memories came back to me, bringing with them a sadness I’d been trying to escape since I found he betrayed me. “My mom dyed her hair once, for six months. What color was it?” I arched a brow, anticipation building as I waited for his response.
If he was Vener, and possessed Astor’s body when he became a vampire, it made his betrayal half as bad. It would prove the man I once gave my heart to wasn’t a complete monster, although no matter what, he sold my mom out before turning.
Sayingmomsent an ache through my bones, one which threatened to break me if I thought about it too much. I couldn’t think about her being dead, not yet.
He opened his mouth, and I could sense the tension radiating from his body. The sound of clanking from the shackles on his wrists filled the air as he shifted them up, revealing angry red marks where the metal had dug into his skin. “Trick question,” he grumbled, and ran his tongue over his cracked and dry lips. Red spots of blood dotted the lines around his mouth. “She never dyed her hair.”
One last question, I decided, before I made my decision. “I lost a teddy when I was seventeen, one my mom gave me—”
“You were sixteen when you lost it,” he said, and my stomach dipped. “Your mom didn’t give it to you. Draven did. You called him Albert, and I hated the thing because you were never aware of how Draven felt about you, or why the reason he hated me was because he loved you.”
My throat tightened as the image of my best friend’s deep brown eyes appeared in my mind and I heard his contagious laughter echo in my ears. I managed a strained, “correct,” feeling my heart sink as I remembered the many people I had lost.
I wished I could find that teddy bear, but it was just one of the many things that were gone forever.
He shrugged. “Not that it matters. He’s dead now.”
Rage roiled through me as I imagined tearing Astor apart limb by limb. But he helped me, right at the end. Even the smallest act of mercy meant something. He wasn’t redeemable, not to me, anyway. But it meant his loyalty to Salenia had wavered, however brief. I pushed the anger away, replacing it with calm as I focused on what we needed. “Tell me more about Salenia.”
“I told you everything.”
“Come now, Astor. You helped me when I tried to free the mortals. There was something there, a glimmer of good.”
His eyes shone, a brightness filling them that I hadn’t seen in a long time.
That was it. He wanted redemption, or at least not to be acknowledged as a monster.
I recalled when I’d called him that before, at the house, and he gave me speeches about how unfair life had been to him and he didn’t have a choice in anything he did. It was bullshit, but if I had to lean into the pity party and pretend he wasn’t as bad as I knew him to be, then I would. If it meant getting the information I needed.
“Astor,” I said, softening my tone. “I told Erianna, Zach and Sebastian that you tried to save the mortals,” I lied, keeping my composure as he hadn’t even come close to saving them. He’d just looked the other way soIcould help them. “You can still get out of this,” I continued. “If you prove you’re on our side, they won’t hurt you.”
“You were never a good liar, Liv.”
I walked to him, crouching when I reached him, then slid the bottle across the ground. The blood splashed against the edges as Astor’s bony fingers wrapped around the neck.
“I’m not lying,” I said, watching him down the rest of the blood. “Look at me and you will know,” I urged, forcing any compassion I had left into my features. “If I am to believe you didn’t have a choice in any of this, then you have to give mesomething. Help me destroy Salenia.”
He swallowed thickly, his tongue swirling inside the opening of the bottle as he poured every last drop into his mouth. He placed the bottle between us, then sat up, the cuts on his lips healing. “You don’t stand a chance,” he admitted, the hoarseness in his tone fading. “None of us do. She’ll kill me for helping you.”
“Erianna and Zach will kill you if you don’t, and I don’t want that,” I replied, then sat with him, hoping it would show some sort of solidarity. But my skin crawled just from being within feet of the asshole who helped organize my capture. “Also, who’s saying we don’t stand a chance? You know about the prophecy. It’s fated that I’ll destroy her, and I’m stronger now.”
