“And then you’ll help us?” Niklaus asks.
Vrath pauses. “I cannot lie.”
The sun unfolds over the clouds, and it begins to rain softly, pattering gentle against the black shingles of the roof.
“Then don’t…” I offer.
“I am not certain you’ll still be alive when I get what I want.” The strange man rubs at the paint along his jaw. “I could start by seeing your blood.”
Well, fuck.
“Hand me your wrist, please,” he requests, holding his gloved palm out to me.
“Bad man! Bad man! Bad man!” Dellilian’s, small, frightened voice shrieks through my mind. And judging based on Niklaus’s slight widening of his eyes, he heard it too.
The sickness isn’t so subtle anymore. It’s as if my body is aging prematurely. It crawls down my throat, melting into my bloodstream, and rots away my white blood cells.
I didn’t need to hear our gentle friend’s warning to feel the dooming strike of fear rattle my bones. It isn’t exactly what Vrath says, it’s howstillhe is when he says it. He’s been dead a long time, yet his body just isn’t aware of it yet. It’s that the knowledge behind his eyes is centuries old. He’s the kind of figure in an evil nursery rhyme that was told to children to keep them obedient and terrified of the dark. But not evil in a traditional sense, the kind that is without shape or pleasure. The kind that peels the wings off a butterfly out of pure curiosity.
Never have I had this strong of a gut instinct to stay far away from someone.
Because he’s right. His blood, his skin, the air he breathes—it all sings with an incurable plague, infection, ancient disease no one’s heard of.
And as he jerks my hand closer to his chest like an animal getting ready to bite, I amterrified. With the good sense to scream, and Niklaus yanking me away from him…
The night captures us in the middle of the brightening morning sunrise.
And it doesn’t hurt as much this time.
Letter #8
Skylenna
Dear Dessin,
I attended a harvest ball in the woods with our friends. I watched them dance and kiss, and although I was happy for them, I wanted to die inside.
It reminded me of when I danced with you for the first time at the Dellilian Castle. You weren’t even supposed to be there. But you made a point to attend after you saw the black eye Aurick gave me. Do you remember when I collided into your body after switching partners? When you held my waist and pulled me close? I never told you then, but I was mad for you. I knew my feelings were inappropriate because I was your conformist. So I tried to bury them. I tried so hard. But seeing you in a suit you stole from Aurick’s closet (Ha!), wearing that mischievous look in those dark brown eyes…
I was all yours. You had to of known that didn’t you? I’ve always belonged to Kane—since I was a little girl. He was my first love. And then I had forgotten those memories.
But in that asylum and in that ballroom, my heart would sing again.
I wish I could tell you this with your eyes open. I wish I could bring you back to that memory in the void and relive it with you all over again.
After the ball, I returned to our home in the Red Oaks and sobbed at the foot of your bed. I begged for you to wake up. Although Chekiss was in the next room, he pretended to be asleep. There are times he knows to get up and comfort me. And there are times he leaves me to cry for you all on my own. This was one of those times.
And now I’m sitting on the front porch, looking up at the stars, and writing you this letter.
I pray to God you get to read them one day. I’ll write thousands if it means you have reading material for the rest of your waking life.
I love you. I want to share a dance again. Maybe at our wedding?
Your soulmate,
Skylenna
28. Alpha
