We had told the vampires they could leave, but many of them still stayed on the outskirts of our palace grounds. They showed up for my mother every single day, whether it was to help her with the garden or just to bring things to help redecorate.
“I don't think I can be lonely, even if I tried,” she told us with a smile. “Just in time! Place them over there!”
Fate was telling me to leave.Along with everyone else, apparently.
Looking at Vesper and Cedar, I stood up, brushing the dirt off my dress.
“Then it's settled. We'll be back in a few days.”
My mother pulled me into a tight hug that made my eyes water with blood, and I hugged her back as tightly as I thought she could handle.
“I love you.”
“And I love you, my perfect, sweet daughter.”
No one ever called mesweetorperfectbefore.The thought came unbidden.
As my mother turned away, Vesper lowered her voice so only we could hear.
“Yes, our perfect, sweet princess.”
“And our perfect, sweet brat.”
Cedar
The crack of a twig had my head snapping to the right. Adrenaline rushed through me.
I took off.
Fear that I wasn’t going to make it in time mixed with the excitement that this wasdefinitelygoing to be my turn.
I maneuvered around the trees, narrowly missing a large boulder that was hurled at me. I let out a crazed laugh.
“No cheating, Princess!”
A feral growl rang through the trees, the sound of pounding footsteps rushing after me.
But she wasn’t going to win. Not this time.
I saw a flash of white right ahead, so I pumped my legs, urging them to go faster.
She thinks she’s going to get away. Not this time.
Excitement and heat ran through the bond.
There.
She pivoted, but I saw it coming. I launched myself at her, and my body hit hers with a thud, sending us rolling into the clearing.
I grabbed Vesper just as she tried to escape my grasp.
“Fight me, hunter.Harder.”
She was lying on the ground below me, bucking to get me off. She did her best to push herself off the ground—and even got halfway there.
But then Aurelia was there too.
“Damn it,” she growled.
