I purse my lips. “Why didn’t you kill me for lying to you?”
“You’re still human; you can still get us to the anchor. I just have to work a bit harder to keep you alive on the way.”
“I know how to fight.”
“Yes, and thank the old gods for it, but you’re no hunter.” He tips his head to one side. “Howdidyou learn to fight though?” Ruvan speaks again before I can answer, clarity lighting up his face. “Your brother, the hunter. The one I was fighting in the ruins.”
“His name is Drew.” I don’t know why I am compelled to tell him the truth. One truth escaped and now I don’t know if I can keep the others. I’m tired. The fear that nearly smothered me earlier is still lurking in the corridors we fled from. I press my eyes closed. He’s right, I’m not a hunter, I can’t do this with the stoic strength hunters possess. I have to forge my own path ahead, one that’s as uniquely mine as the metal I pull from the forge.
“And what is your name, yourfullname?”
I slowly open my eyes and bring my gaze back to him. He holds it. Calm. Expectant.
“You knew?”
“Of course I did.”
“How?” I ask, though part of me suspects I already know. It’s the same way I’ve known when he’s worried or afraid. This deepening connection that lives between us.
“I can feel you.” The words are almost sultry in how softly he says them.
“Floriane,” is all I say. I don’t know if I could manage anything else.
“Floriane,” he repeats with that smooth accent of his. It sends a shiver down my spine. “It’s a beautiful name.”
“Now you’re just flattering me.”
“What reason do I have to flatter you?” he asks plainly.
I blink several times. “None, I suppose,” I say with a laugh. One he joins in on. But his amusement ends with a soft wheeze. “The poison—the curse—it’s already getting worse, isn’t it?”
“It doesn’t feel great, I’ll admit that much.” He wears a tough expression; I’ve seen it before on Drew. Some nights, Drew would come to me to teach me but I would end up patching him up with the medical supplies Mother kept stored in the smithy. Now I know why she never asked why those supplies were dwindling, and why I never had to replace any myself.
“Is that why you didn’t use the mist to get us away?”
“The castle is warded, remember? Old blood lore. The only way in and out is through the receiving hall.”
“Right.” Though that still doesn’t explain how the Succumbed manage to wander to Hunter’s Hamlet during the full moons… There has to be another way out.The gate I saw when I first arrived, perhaps?No, that was shut tight. It must be somewhere else…
Ruvan’s eyes flutter closed and my thoughts are interrupted. His breaths are becoming shallow. Throughout our conversation his muscles have been relaxing. He needs more than rest to fight the poison trying to claim him at the rate he’s deteriorating.
I gather my resolve. “You need to drink more of my blood.”
Ruvan’s eyes open and stay open; the firm line of his mouth, pressed tight with pain, relaxes. Is he shocked? Excited? There’s definitely a new energy thrumming in the air around him, in his magic, in me.
“I can’t do that.”
“Why? You just said fresh blood can help stave off the curse.”
“Iwon’tdo that.”
“Why?” I repeat. “You have no problem taking blood from Hunter’s Hamlet.”
“We only took what we need to sustain our magic so we can try and find a way to destroy this curse. And any blood we take by force isn’t as potent—blood lore, to be truly effective, needs blood that’s freely given.” He sighs. “We are not strong enough to wage war with your kind and, even in the darkest points of our history with humans, we have never intended to. We just want to survive and end this nightmare.”
“Does Ventos know the vampires don’t want war?”
“I know my covenant all have their own opinions, but I am their lord, and the ultimate decisions fall with me.” He stares into the corner of the room, looking at something I can’t see. “I don’t care if not killing you and working with you makes us weak. I don’t care if future generations of vampir curse my name for not expunging the humans that hunted us and our forefathers relentlessly. I don’t care if they see me as a traitor for not pursuing vengeance and retribution for the curse. I wantpeace. I want an end to this long night. I want to make sure no one else has to wake up to a rotted world.”
