She pulled back with a growl, before snapping out of her frenzy and staring down. Her trembling hands pulled the dagger from her side with a grunt. It hurt terribly, but she could already feel her body healing.
She turned back to Jonathon, ready to either explain herself or let him kill her, only to watch him cough on his own blood as he collapsed. And then she realised, she had torn his throat out with her teeth.
“No! No, no, no, no, Jonathon, please no!”
She caught him before his head could hit the floor and knelt down beside him. His eyes met hers and the hatred within them only reflected the loathing she, too, felt for herself.
“Please, I can save you—I can turn you!”
She brought the dagger up to his mouth, urging him to lick her blood from it, but he shook his head, his mouth clamped shut. Even as he bled out, he tried to get away from her, to get away from the monster she had become.
“No, please, no. I’m sorry, Jonathon, I am so sorry. I did not mean for this, I swear I did not mean for this to happen.”
She cried as she held his body, the blood pumping from his torn throat gradually coming to a stop as his chest stopped moving. She had killed him. In ravenous bloodlust she had killed her oldest friend, her first lover, her stable boy.
The grief and shame of her actions assaulted her mind in waves of pain. She was a monster, a bloodthirsty monster, and she knew what she had to do.
The sun had finally fully risen and it had begun to snow, a thin layer of white covering the grounds of Amara House. Adriana stood in her destroyed wedding dress, clutching Striga’sTales of Daemoniumand staring at her home as it was engulfed by her flames.
She had laid all the bodies of the staff, her father and Jonathon in the hallway, before she lifted Striga into her bed and left a rose from the garden in her hands. She could not find it within her to cry anymore as she watched her home burn down. There was nothing left for her now.
A dark wisp slithered up her arm and wove through her hair before coming to a stop on her shoulder, its cool touch familiar. It was one of his shadows. She had felt that comforting caress so many times. She’d felt it as a child when she first found him in the cellar, again when he first worked out who she was the day he moved into Duran Manor, then when they’d spend night after night tangled up in one another, and when she had taken her final breaths as he killed her. It was his shadow, and it was offering itself to her.
She didn’t want it. She didn’t want any of this. Xander knew she had never wanted to become a Lamia and he had agreed. And yet here she was, a figure forever frozen in time, cursed to live an undying death.
As she threw the shadow away in disgust, there were shouts from the manor across the lake, one of which she recognised as Deion’s voice with her heightened hearing. She knew it wouldn’t be long before they came to investigate, and so she stepped forward to join the fire. This was not a life she wanted. It had been forced upon her, but she refused to be forced to live it.
Adriana felt the flames lick her bare feet when she was suddenly pulled backwards. She spun round, ready to attack whoever it was from Duran Manor that had come for her, but froze in her tracks. It wasn’t any of Xander’s brothers, but a woman, dressed in a pristine purple dress with her black hair held in several braids that ended at her waist and familiar eyes.
“Do I know you?” Adriana asked.
The woman smiled as she held her hand out for Adriana to take. “In a sense, yes, as all family know one another. I am Armida Romilly, my grandmother was Divina. I had a feeling you would need my help today.”
Adriana’s heart skipped a beat. She knew Divina’s family had gone into hiding when she had died and had no idea where anyof them had gone, nor if she would ever meet them again. She had thought she was all alone, with no one left.
“We do not have much time,” she continued. “His brothers are on their way, and he will come back soon now that he is awake again."
Adriana paled. She could not see Xander, even if he was back in control of himself. She would never be able to meet him again, it would destroy any last bit of humanity within her. He could never know that she was alive.
She turned to watch the porch of her house collapse as the fire ravaged the building. Just a few steps forward and it would all be over.
"Do not stay here to join the dead," Armida softly spoke, her hand coming up to rest on Adriana's shoulder. "You do not have to live as the monster you think you are, nor do you have to lose your life. Please, let me help you, cousin.”
She faced Armida again and, before she could contemplate it any further, she took her outstretched hand.
They ran behind the treeline to a horse before anyone could see them, where Adriana climbed up on the saddle behind her. She refused to glance back as they sped away through the trees, away from the life she was leaving behind, from the life that had been stolen from her.
But Adriana could not help but weep into Armida’s shoulder as she heard the unmistakable sound of Xander’s gut-wrenching roar of despair.
Part 2
Chapter sixteen
A New Life
2022
Adriana
