But then, the sounds stop. The nightbirds quit singing, and the scurry of animals I still don’t know the names of ends, replaced by an eerie silence. My hand instinctively reaches for my dagger, but my palm pats the smooth side of the leggings I slept in. I changed into a matching set of pajamas that Ariadne had made for me in a beautiful shade of sapphire after Damien and I made love last night. I left my daggers on top of my shed dress.
My mind quickly considers ducking inside the cave to retrieve the blades, but my vampire instincts override this logic. I must keep absolutely still. If there’s a predatory animal nearby, which would explain the silence, my movement could trigger an attack. I stop breathing and just listen. Moving only my eyes, I search the shadows between the trees.
These woods might contain any number of creatures, but a flash of golden eyes in the branches makes me think puma. Perhaps I’m being stalked by a mountain cat. I smile, just a little. The beast will not be pleased if he tries anything. My teeth are sharp and my skin is tough.
But as I sniff the air, I’m baffled by the lack of animal scent. Surely I should be able to smell the beast, even if I can’t hear it. But all that fills my nose is the Tenebris version of pine and oak. I smile. Trees. That’s it. No animals. No animal sounds. What the fuck?
Pfft.
It happens so fast that even my vampire reflexes aren’t quick enough to avoid it. I open my mouth to scream, but there’s something around my throat, burning, draining me of energy. Two elves appear beside me. How? They approached without my hearing a single footstep, their bows and arrows fastened to their back. Now I understand why my throat burns. The weapon wrapped around it is poisoned with sunlight. I’m lucky it hasn’t killed me.
I punch and kick but am easily overpowered as the light around my neck bleeds all my strength from my being, and my legs and wrists are bound. A bag is pulled over my head, blocking out the moonlight. Everything goes topsy-turvy as I’m lifted, one elf holding my feet, the other my shoulders. I swing helplessly between them as I’m carried away.
I can’t move. I can’t scream. I can’t see anything but the inside of the bag. All I can do is shiver at the utter, unforgettable silence.
25
Bartered by the Shadow Prince
ELOISE
Hours pass before my captors stop walking. The entire time, I’m unable to breathe, and whatever is wrapped around my neck burns my flesh like acid. If I were still human, I’d be dead. As it is, I’m tempted to pray for death. It huuuurts. Tears stream down my temples. My hair is wet with them.
I can’t even grunt when I’m dropped unceremoniously on a hard surface and the bag is roughly tugged off my head. I don’t know who I expect to see when my eyes adjust, but Brahm isn’t even in my top five suspects. Yet it is Brahm who crouches in front of me, on the other side of a set of glowing bars. I’m in a box…on a cart. I see the edges of wheels to my lower left and right. I have just enough space to kneel upright, but not enough to stand.
“Take that thing off her. She’ll need time to heal before she’s delivered,” he says to one of the elves who nabbed me. I’m slightly disappointed to see that his nose has healed. But shades, like vampires, have astounding rejuvenation rates when well-fed.
An arm reaches through the bars, unbothered by the light, and pulls the thing from my neck. As I gasp for breath, I see it for what it is—a bolas made of sunlight, the two weights meant to constrict the attached cord around the throat of an enemy. But as the elf straightens it between his palms and fits it into his quiver, I tremble. He didn’t throw it at me. He shot it like an arrow. An arrow guided, I realize, by elven magic.
“Brahm? What have you done?” I rasp. “Let me out of here.”
On the other side of the bars, Brahm waves a hand, dismissing the two elves who captured me. One steps forward and holds out a slim white hand. Grumbling, Brahm drops a bag into it. The clinking coins within are the only sounds between them.
“Hunters. Always with a hand out for payment.” He shrugs, turning back toward me. “Uncanny how soundlessly they move. The magic they wield even masks their scent.”
Gods, that’s how they were able to get close enough to capture me. I swallow through the roughness of my still-healing throat. I want to scream for Damien, but right now, it burns to breathe. “Why have you brought me here?” The words come out choked, but he understands.
His brows rise with his inhale. “You are my blood tax, Eloise.”
“You still want me to swear fealty?—”
He snorts. “No. That part isn’t actually required, although Nevina does enjoy it. King Adril requires at least one blood tax a year in exchange for his protection of New Stygarde.” He looks toward his feet. “I provide one shade to his kingdom annually and, in exchange, I remain king and the kingdom remains at peace. This year, I’d hoped that shade would come from the west. Nevina’s plan to require the tax for our citizens to participate in the Harvest Festival was a stroke of genius. It should have worked, but when it didn’t, we became desperate. If her father doesn’t get a new toy to play with, he becomes testy. And when Adril is testy, shades start to die.”
“Oh my god,” I whisper. “You never negotiated a peace accord. You facilitated a dark elf coup in exchange for a royal place in the new kingdom. Because of you, Stygarde lost the war.”
He shrugs. “You’re wrong. Stygarde would have lost anyway in time. Everything that has happened is for the greater good.”
Tears form in my eyes as I remember his father’s ghost. “Malek didn’t die of starvation or from any disease. You slit his throat and killed your mother and sister too. Was that your first blood tax, Brahm?”
Brahm’s lip curls beneath his red mustache. “I stopped a war. I bartered a lasting peace. And today, you are the price, Eloise. Thank god for you. It seems the elf king has quite the obsession. He’s agreed to take you in payment for five years of blood taxes. He’d never seen a vampire before. Said he was completely enthralled with your spirit and couldn’t wait for the challenge of breaking it.”
I spring for the door, but the moment I touch it, it burns my hands. I yelp and draw back, cradling my blackened palms.
Brahm frowns. “Everything around you, even if it doesn’t glow, is infused with sunlight. Do us both a favor and remain in the center of the box. I don’t want Adril complaining about the condition in which you’re delivered.”
No. No. No. I will not be sent to be that creep’s plaything. “Brahm, if you do this, Damien will end you. There won’t be a corner of this planet where you can hide. He’ll take you apart piece by piece.”
He backs up a step, the corners of his mouth curling upward. “He’ll have to figure out what happened to you first,” he says darkly. “And if he manages to do that and does try to come for me, he’ll find he has to go through a sizable army to reach me. I think I’ll take my chances.”
