I grabbed her wrist and bit into it. Vesper did the same, both of us trying to pump as much venom as we could inside her so she could heal. But even as I did, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. The blood gushing out was more than any mortal body like hers, witch or not, could handle.
“I love you both,” she whispered. “Sorry it took so long for me to say it.”
“Shut up! We can talk about it later,” Vesper said, pulling her teeth from her wrist.
I was feeling Cedar’s death, all of it amplified by the bond.
No. No. No. This can't be happening.
“How cute,” Adrian said in a snide tone. “But you’re forgetting we are in the middle of a Royale?—”
He staggered back as not one, but four arrows hit him in the chest. Recognition hit me because I had seen those exact arrows before. Turning to the opening of the throne room, I saw the hunters storming in, Gabriel at the lead.
Hope ran through me so violently I let out a sob.
They flanked us, their hands grabbing us as they tried to protect us. Adrian ran back, and there was a gasp of terror throughout the crowd, but none of the hunters cared. All of them were focused on the monster in front of us.
Vesper and I clung to Cedar.
But the hunters weren't the only ones who had finally decided to show up.
The windows shattered behind us, and the very chilling things that made up the Underground started to climb in.
Vampires. Witches. Other things I wasn’t familiar with, but I could feel their powers. Half of them were in human form, and the other half were…
“Shifters,” Cedar breathed out with a pained gasp. I looked at her and tried to put pressure on the wound. The vampire venom was working slowly.Too fucking slowly.
“I was warned that there were things in the Underground that shouldn't be shown to the public, but this…”
Some of them were indeed monsters. Large wolf-like animals circled my brother, growling at him, each with a witch or vampire at their side, showcasing just how large they were in comparison. Their teeth were sharp and deadly. Their legs were bent in unnatural directions. And the closer I looked, the less they looked like wolves. Sharp ears, some even bearing horns,and there was one with multiple tongues sticking out of their mouth.
Are these mutations?
As scary as they were, I couldn't find it in me to care. They were here like they said they would be.
“You got the Underground to come?” Adrian laughed, but for the first time, I saw his mask crack. When he looked at the shifters in front of him… he looked scared. “I knew they dumped rejects there, but I never would've thought that they did experiments too.”
No one answered his claim, but the shifters stalked him. He jerked back, baring his teeth at them.
“You underestimated us,” I growled.
He turned to me, the anger obvious in his face, but it was his fear that was fueling me now.Finally.
“I didn't underestimate anything. You're still a stupid little princess who grew up in a spoiled, rotten castle. You had one job, and even then you found a way to fail at it. You're a disgrace to this family and to all vampires. You and your whore of a mo?—”
Adrian’s face twisted in agony, and dark blood shot out of his mouth. He grabbed his chest and slowly fell to his knees, revealing a still chained-up Tate behind him with not one but two glowing daggers, obviously infused with magic.
He was breathing heavily but standing tall.
“Don't talk about my sister like that.”
My heart soared. Tate, the most unlikely savior of them, but one who perfectly fit the requirements of the prophecy. He would be the one to bring Adrian down. He was the one that was going to usher the Castle rule into ruin.
“Finish him!” I yelled, and everyone attacked at once. Gabriel was there to pull Tate away, just as hunters, vampires, and shifters descended on my brother.
It was a disgusting show, but I watched every second as they tore him apart. Only when one of the shifters had eaten his heart and a hunter had smashed his brain was I finally able to look back at my lover, bleeding out in my arms.
She was still there, but just barely.
