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“The vampires.” I gestured to the dilapidated garage, outrage rising inside me. “Why are you helping the people who did this to your country? Who destroyed everything you love?” I couldn’t imagine standing by as an enemy king swept through Trivaea and destroyed everything, then throwing myself into league with his servants. Eliza might have been a thrall, but she didn’tseem to be bound by the same fanatical sense of worship and obedience I’d witnessed in the thralls belonging to vampires I’d hunted down in the past. If I’d been in her situation, I would have taken my own life rather than allow a vampire to use me this way.
Eliza stiffened. “Who says I’m helping them?”
I threw up my hands. “It’s obvious you’re helping them! That weapons factory—” I jabbed my finger in its general direction, “is overseen by you, isn’t it? Along with the rest of this. You’re willingly helping Vladimir use your own technology to subjugate you, when you could be—”
“Keep your voice down!” Eliza snapped, her eyes darting across the street to a vampire striding past. He wore a long tailcoat, and a human slave who looked to be an office assistant hurried in his wake, a stack of boxes in his arms. She lowered her own voice as she continued, “I have no choice. If it weren’t me, someone else would be forced to do it. At least in Maximillian’s service, I have the chance to help my people. To keep the power plants and the crystal factories running so they can continue to heat their homes and feed themselves, and to advocate for them whenever I can.” Her eyes flashed. “My entire family was slaughtered fifty years ago, and I could have laid down and died with them. Instead, I sold myself to Maximillian so I could do what I had to in order to protect the survivors.”
The fierce conviction in her voice mentally knocked me back a step, and it took me a minute to regroup my thoughts. “I… I didn’t think of it like that,” I admitted.
“No,” she said coolly. “You jumped straight to judgment.”
Shame washed through me, but before I could respond, Eliza kicked the bike into gear again. We rode in silence for the next ten minutes, passing through the technological hub into what appeared to be the city’s residential section. It seemed to be organized in concentric circles radiating outward from the city center—the upscale, wealthier homes and establishments located closer to the tower, while the outer sections grew progressively more homely. The shops, restaurants and clubs had all been converted to cater to vampiric tastes—as we stopped at another light, I glimpsed one vampire seated at a table by a window, drinking directly from the neck of a kneeling human, and I ground my teeth as the urge to leap off the bike and intervene seized me.
“Don’t worry,” Eliza said, following my gaze. “The vampire won’t kill him. There are strict regulations in place to protect humans, even ones like that slave who are used for feedings.”
“Regulations?” I gave her a bewildered glance. “Why would the vampires care about that?”
“They didn’t, at first,” Eliza said with a shrug. “When the Eternal Night came and Vladimir’s armies swept through our kingdom, they were ripping our throats out and gorging themselves until they threw up.” A faint ripple of disgust passed across her features. “Max eventually convinced the others to pass laws regulating the treatment and handling of humans under the new empire.”
My mind went back to the scroll I’d found in the library, which I hadn’t had a chance to read yet. “You’re saying that Maximillian is the reason you and I can zip around this city on the back of your bike without being jumped by hungry vampires?”
“That’s right,” Eliza said as I continued to watch the vampire through the window. He removed his fangs from the human’s neck, then delicately dabbed at his crimson mouth with a linen napkin. A vampire server came and took the dazed-looking human by the shoulders, leading him away while the diner picked up his newspaper from the table and began reading.
Despite the horror of it, the scene seemed oddly pedestrian.
I was still trying to digest everything I’d seen when the rows of steel and stone buildings gave way to a massive grid of greenhouses. The aetherbike’s headlamp illuminated the misted glass structures sprawling out in front of us—the patchwork of luminescent panels and clear glass a stark contrast to the dense urban environment we'd just left behind.
“This used to be the city’s Central Park,” Eliza said as we drove through a set of gates. The arched ‘Central Park’ sign hanging above it was faded, but still legible amidst the glow of the aetheric lampposts set out at intervals along the rows of greenhouses. “All the grass and flowers died, so we repurposed the area. They provide over half the city’s produce.” She came to a stop outside one of the glass buildings, then glanced over her shoulder at me. “Just to show you that not everything I make takes lives.”
The pointed look she gave me made me want to crawl off the bike and disappear beneath one of the park benches. “I’m sorry,” I said, and this time, there was no defensiveness in my tone. “You’re right, I spoke out of turn.” I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for her—judging by her looks, I imagined that she’d been in her teens when she’d taken the blood oath to Maximillian. While the blood bond didn’t give humans immortality, it did slow the aging process significantly, allowing them to retain their youthful looks for many decades.Even though it had been fifty years, she looked like she was in her early twenties. “You’re a very brave woman, Eliza. Your ancestors must be incredibly proud of you.”
Eliza quickly glanced away, but not before I caught the sudden sheen of tears in her eyes. “One of the aetheric cores in the greenhouse is malfunctioning,” she said, swinging her leg over her bike. “I figured you could have a look around while I see to it, and then I’ll bring you back to the compound.”
“Sure.”
I tucked my hands into the pockets of my duster as we walked up the paved path to the greenhouse, the sounds of the city fading behind us. The door hissed open, leading us into a world of verdant growth and soft, pulsating light. The air inside was warm and moist, and I sucked in a breath as a sudden rush of magical energy filled me.
“Good morning, Miss Silverstream,” a gardener in a brown leather gardening apron greeted us, straightening up from a bed of lettuce he’d been tending to. He was human, tall and spindly, his square spectacles perched on the end of a long nose smudged with dirt at the tip. “I take it you received my report about the malfunctioning core?”
“Yes,” Eliza said, but I was barely listening. My eyes roved over the space, taking in the row upon row of leafy greens stretched out before us. This particular greenhouse seemed dedicated to leafy vegetables—lettuce, spinach, kale, as well as magical varieties such as auragreens (for cleansing energy) and velvet chard (for soothing stomach ulcers) grew in abundance here. Their frilly heads basked in the luminescence of the crystal-powered lamps hanging above them, but my gaze narrowed as I noticed another set of crystals dotting the ceiling—pure whiteand shimmering. A sort of metal grid ran between them and connected them to the lamps below, and I tilted my head, trying to puzzle it all out.
“Are those moonstones?” I asked, interrupting them.
Eliza opened her mouth, but it was the gardener who answered. “Yes,” he said, giving me a small smile. As powerful as the aether is, it is not a replacement for sunlight,” he explained. “Lunar energy is simply a weaker form of solar energy, so Eliza here rigged a power grid that allows us to gather lunar energy using the moonstones, then amplify it using the aether crystals.” He gave Eliza a quizzical smile. “I don’t believe you’ve introduced me to your friend, Miss Silverstream.”
“Catherine,” Eliza supplied. “Or Cat, for short. She’s a new member of the viceroy’s household.”
I nearly choked on my spit. Nyra had told me I’d be going by Catherine during my stay—Kitana was far too uncommon, and they didn’t want to risk anyone connecting the dots—but I hadn’t thought about the shortened version.
“You fought well, Kitten.”Maximillian’s voice echoed in my mind. I had no doubt he’d done this on purpose, just so he could keep using that stupid nickname. The vampire’s audacity knew no bounds.
The aetheric lamps flickered, and I blinked as another surge of energy filled me.Lunar energy,I realized. My body was drawing on the lunar reserves in the moonstones, refilling the magical well inside me. Eliza scowled as the flickering intensified, and I gasped as the surrounding shadows began to shift, responding to my magic.
“I need to go.”
“Kit—I mean, Cat!” Eliza called as I rushed back down the path. The flickering grew even more erratic, and I burst through the doors, my heart pounding in my ears. Tendrils of shadow curled around my legs, not unlike the way Jinx sometimes did, as if they were welcoming me back, but I shoved them down, away, gritting my teeth to shut down the flow of magic.
“Hey!” Eliza grabbed my arm and yanked me around to face her. “What’s happening?”
