“You presume too much,” I stammer.
“Do I?” he asks softly, as if daring me to argue.
My gaze falters, dropping to the floor as nerves coil tightly within me. I hesitate, then lift my eyes again—drawn back to him despite myself.
“Since you know so much about me,” I say, tilting my head, “then surely it’s only fair I know something about you.”
I pause, drawing out the silence just long enough to feel intentional.
“Or do you always lurk in the shadows, waiting for opportunities you can’t resist?”
The words come out harsher than I intend, but I don’t soften them. If he’s going to dig into me, then he can stand to be questioned too.
He steps back slowly, keeping his eyes locked on mine.
“What would you like to know, Princess?” he asks.
I smile as I lean casually against the balcony railing.
“How old are you?” I blurt the words out before I can stop myself.
Casper’s grin widens slowly as his lips curl to reveal the faintest hint of his elongated fangs. Warmth stirs low in my stomach
“How old do you think I am?”
It’s a game, I know—one that vampires love to play, forcing mortals to stumble through guesses about their age as though it’s some grand mystery to be solved. I tilt my chin defiantly, unwilling to take the bait.
“I’m not playing that game,” I counter, my tone firm but light.
I turn toward the balcony railing, looking out onto the moonlit garden below. The soft glow of the night wraps around me, offering a fleeting sense of calm. My gaze shifts back to him, searching his face as if the truth might already be written there.
“Where do you come from?” I ask, unsure of how much I truly want to know.
He studies me, a flash of something deeper behind his eyes that I can’t quite decipher.
“Here.”
“Astral?”
“Yes,” he answers coolly.
“But this kingdom was ruled by humans until recently.” A question teeters on the edge of my tongue, slipping free before I think better of it.
“How could you?—”
The words catch in my throat. His eyes flash, a knowing glint cutting through the dim light, and his lips twitch into the faintest hint of a smirk.
“You’re wondering how I could have grown up in human territory,” he says after a pause. The ease with which he seems to read my mind makes my skin prickle. “How someone like me could walk among them, live among them—survive them.”
The thought twists in my chest, a strange mix of guilt and intrigue. Humans ruled Astral for centuries, their reign absolute, until it ended in ash and darkness.My ash. My darkness.The memories make my stomach churn, bile rising as I try to push them aside.
“You must have been...” I pause, my voice faltering as I struggle to find the words. “It couldn’t have been easy.”
“Easy?” His voice carries a bitter edge, though his expressionremains composed. “Humans rarely make anything easy for those they fear or don’t understand. They see what they want to see—monsters in the dark, myths in the unknown. But I learned to adapt, to blend in.” He leans slightly closer, his tone dropping. “You’ve lived a life surrounded by shadows, Princess. It’s easy to forget what lurks within them.”
My fingers twitch at my sides, the urge to press him for more clawing at me, but the look in his eyes warns me against it. The thought coils even tighter in me, my curiosity and unease growing with every beat of silence.
The humans’ rule over Astral left little room for vampires to thrive, let alone procreate. During that time, most vampire bloodlines faded into obscurity, weakened or extinguished entirely. The few who survived relied on turning others—a risky, desperate process that rarely ended well.
