CHAPTER 1
SERAPHINA
The cold wakes me first.
And it’s not a subtle chill. It’s sharp and unforgiving, biting into my bare skin like tiny teeth. It seeps through my skin and settles into my bones, dragging me up from the dark depths of unconsciousness whether I want to surface or not.
My eyes flutter open, met by a sky bleeding crimson and purple, the last gasps of a winter sunset painting the horizon in bruised colors. I'm lying on my back in... dirt? No. It’s grass. Dry, winter-dead grass that crackles beneath me when I try to move.
Where am I?
I push myself up on my elbows, and the world tilts. My mind is moving slower than normal, almost like honey oozing through the cracks in my skull. Everything is fuzzy at the edges of my vision, and sounds are muffled, like I’m wearing headphones. I blink hard, trying to force clarity into the haze.
The first thing I register is the red.
Thousands of tiny red lights pulse through the darkness ahead of me, strung along in endless rows, stretching in every direction until they disappear into the growing dark. The lights blink in a slow, hypnotic rhythm, like heartbeats. Like it’s alive and watching.
I sit up fully, trying to get a clearer view of what’s happening around me.
I find heart-shaped black balloons, dozens upon dozens of them, scattered throughout the rows. Some are tethered to wooden posts, bobbing gently in the February breeze. Others drift lazily between what I’m realizing are grapevines. I'm in a vineyard. I'm sitting in the middle of a fucking vineyard in the middle of nowhere, and I have no idea how I got here.
Panic makes my chest tighten while bile threatens to rise in my throat.
I look down at myself and only get more confused.
I'm in a dress I don't recognize. Blood-red silk that barely reaches mid-thigh, thin straps that leave my shoulders exposed to the icy air. The fabric clings to my body, offering absolutely nothing in the way of warmth or protection. My legs are bare. My feet are strapped into black heels—stilettos, so tall they're impossible to walk in, let alone find my way out of a vineyard.
I press my palms into the cold earth and force myself to think. What do I remember? Wine. Lots and lots of wine. I was on the couch with a massive box of chocolates, stuffing my face...
And then... nothing. A complete blank, like someone reached into my head and erased everything that came after. And then I woke up here.
Alone.
In a fucking vineyard of all places.
Music reaches my ears, and my blood runs colder than the February air.
It's faint at first, drifting through the vineyard from speakers I can't see. A song so distorted I can’t make out what it is. The melody has been slowed down, stretched and warped until it sounds like a fucking nightmare. Haunting notes that seem to curl around me like smoke, making the hair on my arms stand up straight.
I scramble to my feet, nearly twisting my ankle in these stupid heels. The world spins again, and I have to grab onto a nearby post to steady myself. The wood is rough beneath my palms, wrapped in dormant grapevines that look like gnarled fingers in the dying light.
I shake my head, forcing myself to think.
I need to find a way out of here. I need to find a road, a building, another person. I need to?—
"Happy Valentine's Day, my love."
The voice cuts through the night like a blade, and I freeze in place.
It's deep. Masculine. Coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, amplified through hidden speakers so it surrounds me completely. There's no face attached to it, no body I can see, just that disembodied voice rolling through the vineyard like distant thunder.
My heart slams against my ribs so hard I can feel it in my throat.
"You have until the song ends to run."
The distorted music swells slightly, as if punctuating each of his words. I spin in a circle, searching the shadows between the rows, but I can't see anyone. The red lights pulse. The black balloons sway. The grapevines reach toward me like skeletal hands.
"After that..." A pause that seems to stretch for eternity. "You're mine."
