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The sky isa thick and heavy, endless gray that seems like it will last forever. It makes it difficult to remember the feel of the sun’s warmth on my face. I stroke a black mare’s neck and feed her another one of the sugar cubes I snagged from the kitchen.
The days since first arriving have grown quieter. There was rarely a time without clusters of vampires almost everywhere I turned. Now it’s mostly the bustle of human servants preparing for the coronation and all the celebrations leading up to it, on top of their usual duties.
I spent most of the day tossing and turning, unable to quiet my thoughts long enough to fall asleep, unable to stop going over what happened with Alaric in the library.
When I finally gave up on sleeping, I walked through the servants’ halls. It didn’t take long to grow tired of the cramped, dreary corridors. I soon found myself outside and eventually ended up at the stables.
In the farthest stall, away from all the others, was a black mare. My heart went out to the mare. Isolated. Alone.
She poked her head out as I approached. We watched each other for a while. I expected her to have a mean disposition to be separated as she is. Perhaps I felt sorry for her, or perhaps what I felt was more along the lines of a shared kinship. Whatever it was, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to grab a peace offering from the kitchens before approaching her. She turned out to be one of the most docile creatures I’ve ever met.
The stable hands ignore me, as they have since I arrived, and finish their work, then disappear. It would be easy to ride out of here and never look back…
I briefly wonder if this sweet mare would have been one of the horses Alaric and I would have taken if our plan to run away had worked?
A shiver sweeps through me as the air takes on the added chill of night sets in. I give the mare the last sugar cube. She bumps my hip when I don’t continue to pull more from my pocket.
“Next time,” I promise. “I’ll bring you all sorts of treats.” I let myself out and wrap my arms around my middle as I make my way toward the main castle.
I don’t get far when someone grabs my hair and wrenches my head back. The force of it knocks me off balance. I’m rammed against the exterior wall of the stable before I can right myself.
“Shouldn’t you be with the pigs?” Elise snarls. “It’s where you belong.” The desperation to regain a silver of pride shows in her eyes.
I don’t have the patience for this and I refuse to coddle her need to appear bigger than someone else. Shoving her back with my arm, I push past her. “Leave me alone before you embarrass yourself more than you already have.”
It’s probably not the best thing to say, but I am tired of her attempts to use me as a way to establish the strength she wants but doesn’t have. There are more important things to deal with than status.
Elise moves with vampire speed to block my path. Her mouth curls in a cold, vicious smile. “There’s no one to protect you anymore. He finally realized he doesn’t need or want you when he could have avampire.” She spits each word like a knife, intending to wound me.
I suck in a sharp breath and hold it. My vision narrows. Elise laughs, shoving me back against the wall with both hands.
It’s not what she said that stunned me, or how she hinted it could be her instead of Elizabeth—even if the glee on her face tells me she believes it was—it’s Alaric standing several yards away.
He stopped striding toward me the moment our gaze met. Now he looks from me to Elise as if he hadn’t noticed her before. When she finally realizes I’m no longer paying attention to her, she turns to see what, or who, has my attention.
I thought I have seen every emotion on his perfect features. Turns out, I hadn’t. The murderous gleam in his eye sends a shiver over me.
Demons and saints, I wish things would go how I want them to. Just once.
Alaric approaches. It makes me feel like a bird with a broken wing and him a beast circling before he makes the kill.
Again, he stops, this time within arm’s reach.
Elise swivels her head back to me with a snarl. “It appearsno onewill care if I cut your life short.”
Her voice is distant. Muffled by the roaring of blood in my ears.
“Let her go. She is not yours to punish.”
Either Elise is too intent on what she’s doing to hear him or too arrogant to heed the warning.
Black veins writhe up from his collar like living things, crawling over his jaw and up the side of his face. His gaze snaps to her when she doesn’t do as commanded.
No… no, no, no, no, no.
“I said to fucking let her go.”
Everything happens too fast for me to track. He moves, and her head jerks to the side with a sickening crack. Elise crumples to the ground in a heap. Her neck is twisted in a way that isn’t right. Isn’t natural.
