If only the humans had known about that weakness a hundred fifty years ago. Perhaps the threat could have been neutralized before it burgeoned and the world would look much different than it does today.
However these monsters sprouted up from the abyss, wherever they originated from, they would not stay shadowed for long. They would emerge in the darkness, sweep through Haven, and transform the very fabric of human society.
Back then, no one could foresee how much these monsters would change the mountain city of Haven. Least of all Councilman Odael, Noblewife Alacine, and their young son.
Chapter 1
Sephania
So, it turns out I have a mother after all.
Here I thought I’d been born from, what, an ape? Dropped on the doorstep of the House of the Broken in a warm bundle made from sticks and leaves, fresh from the forest?
No, I was no feral child back then. My feral tendencies would come later on, borne from a hard life. I was birthed by a flesh-and-blood woman, I’m assuming with the help of a flesh-and-blood man—though my mother would make me question that sentiment once we returned to the Chained Sisters.
With half my lineage figured out now, I still feel no saner about my life or upbringing.
My mother’s name is Jinneth, which is baffling for someone who spent an entire evening weaving a tale to a vampiric chronicler with a fake ally named Jinneth in my story. The name for the witty girl in my saga had been stolen from what Iron Sister Keffa called the painting adorning the back wall of the Chained Sisters’ house.
With Chronicler Kleora dead and Fake Jinneth’s story no longer living and breathing, I wish shedidstill live. The voices in my head, the solitary ramblings that came from a broken mind—it was nice having a name to put to them.
Part of me feels the spry, twanging youngling I made up, the “sister” of Jeffrith the Diplomat, would always remain with me. Even if she never existed, I wish she had, because she was much more interesting and fun than most people I’d known.
After escaping Sutlis Spire’s basement prison by the skin of our teeth, and avoiding an army of militant vampire soldiers searching for us, my wicked vampiric mates and I brought Jinneth out of the Judgment Ward for the first time in twenty years.
Twenty yearsa prisoner.
I’ve spent months at a time in cells and cages throughout my young life, and evenIcan’t imagine that length of time trapped away from civilization.
Yet my mother seems hale and sane, at first blush.
“You’re staring at me again, dear,” she says with more than a little frustration in her tone.
It’s true. I’ve been glancing out the corner of my eye at this stranger ever since we left the rubble of Sutlis Spire’s base level.
We trail northwest from the central Judgment Ward. The first streaks of dawn approach in the sky, so we have to move fast so my mates don’t turn crispy.
“Gauging whether to believe I’m real or not?” she asks with a quick smile. “Whether I’m truly your mother?”
Garroway Kuffich, my bald-headed dhampir mate and the bloodthrall of Lord Skartovius Ashfen, snorts from the front of the pack. “She clearly is.”
“What makes you so certain?” I let out an aggrieved scoff, questioning Garroway’s allegiance.Whose side are you on here, Garro?I think sarcastically.
My dashing grayskin flips a smile over his shoulder. “You two are too much alike not to be related.”
I throw my arms up. “Wha—I—you’ve only just met her!”
“The cub is right,” Skar quips in his honeyed, regal voice, silencing my blubbering. “If not appearance alone, the stubbornness inside both of you is brighter than any sun.”
Jinneth cackles. “I can’t deny that, young devil.”
“Quiet, woman,” Vallan grunts, his voice low. “We’ll be spotted with your cacophonous laugh. Would you like to end up right where we just rescued you from?”
My mother ignores Vallan Stellos, my tallest and sternest mate, and the largest man I’ve ever known. I can tell those two are going to get along like fire in a forest. Jinneth already hates vampires, for good reason, while Vallan hates everyone equally.
At the front of the pack, Skartovius says, “Youngdevil? I’ll have you know I’m over a hundred—”
“I know what I see. A hairless chin and soft features that tell me you could be my child. Your appearance is a deception, like all of you,” Jinneth cuts in before the Lord of Manor Marquin can reply.
