by E. M. Knight
She shakes her head. “Only vampires can leave The Haven. Not humans.”
“How do you know?” I insist. “Has anyone ever tried? Or are they all just bewitched into believing they can’t, just like you were?”
“I —” April frowns. “I’m not sure.” Then she gives an exasperated gasp. “But it doesn’t matter! You’re not hearing me. The Queen will stop my heart. I can’t go anywhere.”
“I heard you,” I say. “I just refuse to believe the situation is as hopeless as they want us to think.”
April gives me a strange look again. “Hopeless? It’s not hopeless for you. You’re to become one of them.”
And then it hits me. The underlying reason for all of April’s resentful behavior.
She’s envious.
“I don’t want to become one of them,” I tell her.
“It doesn’t matter,” she says.
“It does,” I stress. “I’m going to help you. I promise. Whatever way you think I’ve wronged you, I’ll fix it. You’re the only friend I have. And I don’t want to lose you this soon.”
She searches my eyes for a long moment. “You think I’m your… friend?” she asks finally.
“Aren’t you?” I ask. “Forget the fight. We’re in this together, whatever it is, and I won’t abandon you now. We may have had a rocky start, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fix things in the future.”
“I don’t believe it,” she mutters. “I can’t believe you would call me a friend after what I did.”
“It’s forgiven,” I say. “Forgotten. Water under the bridge. All in the past.” I hold out my hand. “So what do you say? Can we move on? Because I truly believe that we are weaker apart — and stronger together.”
She marvels at me. “You are quite something, you know that?” She giggles and takes my hand. “But okay. I accept. We can be friends.”
“Good.” I smile. “And the first thing we have to figure out is how to get into the village below.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
ELEIRA
After a useless hour trying all the doors and windows in the room, and finding them just as much locked as before, April and I come to the same conclusion: we’re trapped.
“So much for that,” she huffs. “All we can really do is wait for the next vampire to show up. You think it’s going to be Raul?”
“Who knows?” I mutter. I hate the feeling of being cooped up. “Could be the serving girl.”
“Who?” she asks.
“You know, the girl who brought me food before.” I gesture vaguely to the door. “Quiet. Meek. Didn’t want to look up at me.”
“Was she human?” April sounds astounded.
“Um, yeah, as far as I could tell.”
“I didn’t know they let humans up here,” April murmurs.
I give a coy smile. “Looks like you don’t know everything.”
“I never said I did.”
“Relax!” I hold my hands up. “I was just kidding.”
“Sorry,” she shrugs. “It just makes me uneasy, you know? The waiting. You know what’s going to happen to you. I don’t.”
“Whatever they do with me, you’re not leaving my side,” I reiterate. “I told Raul I need a guide. Maybe he didn’t accept, but the Queen definitely did.”
“Hm,” she says.
There comes a timid knock at the door. April and I spin to it. The handle turns, and the nameless serving girl opens it.
“I’ve been asked to bring both of you to the Queen,” she says, keeping her eyes on the floor.
I look at April. She nods.
“Let’s go.”
***
I keep my eyes open and try to take in as much of the surroundings as I can. The penthouses are linked by extravagant bridges sweeping through the trees. Some have soft canopy roofs, while others are exposed to the sky above.
The Haven is spectacular — at least above ground. It’s a mix of old and new, of wonderfully crafted carpentry enhanced by modern features like keyless entry systems and motion-detecting doors. Glass and steel blend seamlessly with beautiful, golden wood.
“Wow,” April whispers behind me. “I had no idea that the vampires had… all this.”
I don’t disagree. The wealth and splendor of this part of The Haven is unrivaled.
My gaze goes down past a railing. The wealth up here is unrivaled, but it only emphasizes the stark poverty below us.
None of that sits well with me.
“Come on,” the serving girl says. “You don’t want to keep the Queen waiting.”
“No,” I mutter underneath my breath. “We definitely don’t.”
Another few minutes and we reach a swirling staircase running around the trunk of a tree. We go down. When we reach the bottom and step out onto the path, April’s eyes widen.
“I’ve been here,” she manages. “Right here, I’ve passed this spot so many times. But I never—” she looks at the staircase and shudders. “I never had any clue that existed.”
There are people walking in groups of twos and threes around us. They keep their voices hushed. I catch the eyes of one boy, who’s gaping openly at us.
He jumps and runs off.
“I think he thinks we appeared out of thin air,” April tells me. “That’s what it would have looked like to him.”
I nod, taking it all in. The injustice of this way of life is gnawing at me.
The girl leading us continues down a path through the trees, and we follow.
I notice something strange about her. Her eyes never leave the ground, except when she’s speaking to us. It’s like she’s being led by a string.
I mention it to April, who murmurs her agreement thoughtfully. “It’s probably a variation of the same bewitchment cast on me,” she says. “It allows her to go up without really seeing anything.”
A breeze ruffles my dress, and I shiver. Not from the cold.
We walk through a densely wooded area. Starlight from above provides just enough light to navigate, but not much more.
Suddenly, the trees open, and we’re in a vast clearing. Standing in the midst of it is an enormous Gothic castle complete with angled spires and curving towers and jagged parapets. It’s beautiful and astounding and old, and it’s nothing I would have expected, but I’ve seen enough not to be surprised.
The girl walks us to the entrance. “This is as far as I’m to take you,” she says. “You’ll wait inside for the Queen.”
I look around the grand lobby. There are chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Every single candle is lit. There are paintings on the walls, depicting men and women in ornate dress. The strangest thing about them is that every time my eyes move past them, the portraits seem to shift. Yet as soon as I direct my eyes back, they are completely still, exactly as a painting should be.
“Okaaay,” I say, more than a tad uncomfortable. “This is not creepy at all.”
Laughter greets my proclamation. I look up and find Morgan descending the grand staircase. She’s changed into a flowing white dress with a transparent shawl draped around her shoulders. She looks beautiful as always.
“Do you like them?” she asks. She walks to the nearest painting and runs her hand along the gilded frame. “I can tell you who they were, if you’d like to know. Each one of them,” she smiles at me, “is trapped here for a reason.”
I give a start. “Excuse me?”
“Oh yes,” Morgan continues. “Each one of these vampires thought him or herself capable of bettering me.” She flutters to the next portrait over. It’s of a striking woman with long, sleek black hair.
“This, for example, was my dear cousin Rebecca.” Morgan turns and puts on the same expression as Rebecca has in the painting. “You see the resemblance, don’t you?”
It’s not immediate, but I nod… slowly.
“Rebecca was one of the first to take issue with my rule. I endured her criticism for as long as I could. After all, we were family. But then, one day, oh!” Morgan ga
sps, and brings her hands over her chest. “A little bird brought me word of a plot to assassinate me in my sleep. The person behind it?” She taps the painting. “None other than my own cousin.”
Morgan walks toward me. “I do have a weakness, you know,” she says. “And that is my soft heart. While Rebecca may have been cruel and evil, and intent on ending my life with no remorse, I could never bring myself to do the same thing. Snuffing out a vampire’s life is one of the greatest crimes imaginable. After all, each of us has been imbued with immunity from disease, from age, from sickness. We are the angels of the earth. To kill one of us…” Morgan shakes her head sadly. “It is a ruination of the world’s most precious beauty.”
I find myself backing up slowly as she speaks.
“But I could not simply leave her unpunished, now, could I? Then I would be seen as weak. Maybe others would get the same idea. Maybe others would stage,” she glances at April, “an uprising.”
Abruptly she slips behind April and grabs her hair. My friend yelps in surprise. Morgan cruelly twists April’s head to one side, exposing the expanse of her neck.
“An uprising,” the Queen purrs in her ear, “of the sort your kind is whispering about right now.”
And suddenly, Morgan sinks her fangs into April’s neck.
I cry out. April goes limp. She doesn’t fight. As soon as Morgan’s lips are on her, it’s like all control has evaporated from her body.
It’s over before I can do anything to help. Morgan pulls up and wipes her mouth with the back of one hand. Two tiny red dots are visible on April’s neck, but aside from that, I see no blood.
“The ‘Little Drink,’” Morgan explains to me. She lets April go. The girl blinks, dazed, and takes a step forward. Her eyes are glazed over.
“What…” she begins.
Morgan comes around her front and takes her by the shoulders. “Oh my,” she murmurs. “You’re a little woozy there, aren’t you?”
April nods, without any sort of recognition. “Yes,” she says. “But who are you —”
Then she gasps, and her eyes go wide in terror. “My Queen!”
“Oh, pah-pah,” Morgan says gently. “Don’t you worry about that.” She holds a hand to April’s forehead. “How are you feeling, dear?”
April’s eyes flash to me. “Fine,” she says, hesitantly. “Why — why am I here? Did you… did you call me?”
“Oh yes,” Morgan says. “Otherwise, why would you be in the presence of your Queen?” She leans in and gives the girl a quick kiss on the cheek. “Run away, now, right back to Eleira. I’m not sure how the two of you got separated with me in between.”
April does exactly as she’s told. As she comes toward me, Morgan tilts her head to the side, smiles, and mouths behind her back, “She doesn’t remember.”
My eyes widen in understanding.
“What was I saying?” the Queen asks. “Oh, right. We were discussing my cousin’s treachery. Well, I didn’t want to kill her, of course not, but I couldn’t let her crime go unpunished. So I came up with the most beautifully intricate solution!”
She comes back to the portrait.
“I severed her soul from her body and bound it within the canvas. Just like I would do to any,” her eyes flash at me, full of meaning, “who would think to try the same against me now.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
RAUL
I race through the village, heart pounding. I grab the nearest human.
“Eleira!” I exclaim. “Have you seen Eleira?”
The woman shies back, terrified. “N-no.”
I let her go, forgotten, and go to the next one. A man, in his early forties. “Have you seen a girl,” I demand, “this high, dark hair, wearing a dress?”
He shakes his head quickly. “Not here, master.”
I curse. When I came to Eleira’s chambers, and found them empty, alarm took me. None but I have the authority to release her. I’m terrified that one of the other vampires caught scent of her blood and found it impossible to resist, even if they knew that she was mine…
“I’ll destroy anyone who lays hands on her,” I promise.
I run forward blindly, calling her name, probably looking like a lunatic. The humans know the law. They know they’re safe from my kind now—but that doesn’t stop them from being frightened by seeing me raging through their midst.
So be it. The only thing on my mind now is finding the girl who’s exerted such an insane pull on me.
I turn a corner and come face-to-face with a young serving girl I recognize from my mother’s clique. She gasps when she sees me and tries to step aside, but I grasp her by the arms.
“Eleira,” I say. “You know her?”
She bobs her head up and down. “Of course, my Prince.”
Hope blossoms inside me. “You’ve seen her? Recently?”
“Y–yes.” She points the way she came. “I just brought her and her friend to the Queen.”
“You what?” I yell.
She cringes in fright. I realize I’m hurting her — scaring her with my reaction.
I force my fingers to uncurl from her arms. I level my voice. “You did this by the Queen’s command?”
“Of course,” she breathes.
I sigh in relief. “Thank you,” I say. “For being honest with me.”
She gives me a look of complete surprise. For a second, I wonder why, and then I realize. If she’s mostly dealt with my mother and my older brother James — they share the same faction of servants — then she would never have expected words of gratitude to come from the lips of a vampire.
I step around her. She’s already forgotten as I start to race toward my mother’s castle.
But then she calls out, “If the girl is important to you —”
I stop and turn around. I’m on her in an instant. “Yes?” I press.
The serving girl takes a deep breath. The next words seem to take all of her resolve. “If she’s important to you, then I wouldn’t interrupt. The Queen, I heard her say, she cast a spell on her.”
“What?” That’s news to me. “What kind of spell?”
“I don’t know,” she dry washes her hands nervously. “I just heard her say… accidentally, you see, I wasn’t eavesdropping…”
“Yes, yes, get on with it,” I growl, losing patience.
“I heard her say that Eleira’s days are running out, unless she follows the Queen’s exact orders.”
I grunt. That could be in reference to a million different things.
The girl drops her gaze. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s probably nothing, but I just thought… well, never mind.”
She gives a little curtsy and turns to go.
“Hold on.” I catch her arm. Fear flashes in her eyes. I’m still scowling, so I force myself to smile in a somewhat reassuring way.
At least I hope it’s reassuring.
“You did well,” I tell her. “What’s your name?”
“Monica, my Lord,” she whispers.
I doubt any vampire has ever asked her name before.
I soften my voice. “You don’t need to be frightened of me, Monica. I appreciate your help. I’m not like my brother. If he - if he harasses you, on his return, you can come to me. I will make him stop.”
“That’s very gracious of you,” she stammers, “But the Prince has never done anything bad —”
She gasps and cuts off when I lift her hand and expose her wrist to reveal the bite marks hidden there. “Only James leaves marks like these,” I tell her softly.
She jerks her hand away and looks extraordinarily ashamed.
“I won’t press,” I promise. “But if you ever need help you can come to me.”
“Thank you,” she whispers.
I nod and let go, then run the rest of the way to the castle.
Chapter Twenty-Five
ELEIRA
The Queen takes us on an elaborate tour of the castle, chatting frivolously the whole way throug
h. Her easy manner is completely at odds with the horrors she show us.
The portraits were just the start. The men and women — vampires — inside there do move, but only when they are unwatched. They’re like prisoners struggling in straitjackets. Their bodies are locked more or less in place. But they still fight to break free of the restraints.
The rest of the castle is no better. There are rooms we go through that I’m sure are dedicated only to torture. They are side-by-side with those adorned with fancy throws and beautiful beds and all sorts of comforts, the rooms dedicated to pleasure.
I hear and sense the presence of others in here with us, but I never see them. I don’t know if they’re vampires or humans. I don’t even know if it matters much at this point.
Eventually we reach the throne room. It’s a huge, open space, empty except for a single gold chair raised high on a dais. Its back is inlaid with shining crystals that rise halfway to the ceiling, like an enormous growth of rock. The higher they go, the more jagged their edges get.
I swallow on my first look at it. It’s very intimidating.
Morgan walks straight to it, her dress flowing behind her, and flutters down. “Oh!” she says when she sees me standing. “Come, come. Take your proper place.”
She snaps her fingers, and in a puff of dark smoke, a hard iron stool appears beside the throne. Right when it happens, my vision goes red, and a sharp pain stabs through my temple.
“Ah!” I cry out.
April looks at me in concern but says nothing. She’s more intimidated by the Queen than I am.
The pain fades a second later. I blink in confusion. What was that?
“Well?” the Queen beckons. “What’s taking you so long? You don’t want to keep your monarch waiting…” She raps her nails against the armrest.
I share a look with April and slowly climb the steps. As I climb higher and higher, an uncanny feeling of being watched creeps over me. The Queen’s eyes are directed outward. She has a coy smile on her face.
I approach the stool apprehensively. There are small metal barbs on the back half. It’s really something you’re only meant to perch on.