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The villagers exchanged looks, seemingly just as confused as I was.
“Then why have you come to Revekka?” Adrian asked.
“To hunt a witch.”
Chaotic chatter broke out at his comment, and I rose to my feet, gritting my teeth as I spoke to Adrian.
“End this,” I said. “Now.”
He looked at me, his eyes passing over my face once before he turned back to the witch-hunter, but he hesitated as he started to speak, eyes narrowing. When I followed his gaze, I saw Noblesse Dracul pushing through the crowd. He was dirty and dressed in black; his clothes were weathered and worn. Something about the way he moved seemed wrong. He was staggering, almost as if he were drunk…but the longer I looked, the more I realized that he did not have dirt on his face.
It was blood.
Then a woman screamed, “His eyes! His eyes are bleeding!”
“It is witchcraft! We have been cursed!”
Panic ensued as those gathered rushed to put distance between themselves and Dracul while Adrian took a step forward, attempting to shield me as the vampire stopped before us.
“Dracul,” Adrian said, but whatever he had intended to say was useless, because the noblesse was already dead. He tipped forward and landed hard on the marble floor, a pool of blood blossoming around his head.
A second passed and then Adrian lifted his gaze to Solaris.
“You have my attention,” he said.
Ten
Isolde
I had gone horribly numb.
It took everything in my power to remain standing when all I wanted to do was collapse, my legs suddenly too weak to hold me up.
“Silence!” Adrian commanded.
“Allow me,” said Solaris. He pulled one glove off, revealing a mummified hand, and turned toward the crowd, palm out.
Everything went quiet and everyone was motionless.
He had frozen all the villagers in the room.
Razan snickered. “What was it you said, Queen Isolde? Only women can possess magic?”
I glared at the noblesse.
“It is not magic exactly,” said Solaris. “It is an ability granted to me by the goddess Dis.”
“What did you say?” Adrian asked.
“I am no different from you,” he said. “You were made to drain the blood of mortals, and I was made to kill witches.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed. “Dis is the mother of witches. Why would she create you to hunt them?”
“Some mothers turn on their children,” he said. “Especially when they misbehave.”
“How do you know you were made by Dis?” I asked.
I hated to ask any question of Solaris, hated to draw his attention, but I wanted to know.
