WE DIDN’T DARE STOPto plan our next moves until the sun had risen, and we were well out of sight of the palace.
After Enrique drew up to a grassy patch where the horses could graze, the four of us crammed into the back of the carriage to take stock of our situation.Raleigh sat in the furthest corner, broken leg stretched ahead of him, bound against a makeshift splint he’d shown me how to improvise.I tried to forget the feeling of the bone healing itself under my fingers as I worked.It would be completely healed in a matter of hours, but it would sap energy from him that I feared he couldn’t spare.
None of us were under any illusion that the Queen would let us go peacefully.No matter how much Enrique insisted he’d only lit the spark that had been smouldering for decades, we knew that as far as the Queen was concerned, he had turned her court against her.Moira had killed a significant number of the people she called family.Unbeknownst to the others, I had Raleigh’s blood in my pocket, and with it her hold over her favourite pet.And at the centre of it was Raleigh, the man who’d started it all.
The fact we survived as long as dawn gave everyone a glimmer of hope.If the Queen had given chase in the night she would have caught us in moments – even I could probably outrun a carriage as heavy as ours – but she was trapped in her palace, fighting a force of her own people, and it had bought us the time we needed.
‘She’ll win,’ Raleigh said.
‘We don’t know that,’ Enrique said.
‘You can’t plan a successful coup in an hour while sitting in a driveway,’ Raleigh said.‘Even if what you did manage was remarkable.’
‘I’ve told you a million times, they’ve been planning a coup for years.I only came up with the plan to get you out.’
Raleigh scoffed.‘Why would they plan something so reckless?’
‘When you left court, everyone thought you were still part of the inner circle,’ Enrique said.‘They saw you leaving as a crack in her control, and you became a symbol for their resistance.Why do you think she was so desperate to get you back?’
Raleigh picked at a chip in his coffin.‘I left them there to die,’ he muttered.
‘They would have fought anyway.Your rescue was just the trigger.’
‘So what now?’Moira slurred.She was slumped in Raleigh’s coffin, barely able to keep her eyes open.I’d bound her throat with a bandage Raleigh fashioned from one of my petticoats, but it had almost bled through.
‘I have to return to Rostenburg,’ Raleigh said.
‘You bloody well don’t,’ Moira said.She tried to lift herself but fell back in defeat.‘If the Queen lives, that will be the first place she’ll look for you.’
‘Exactly,’ Raleigh said.‘And if I’m not there to fight her, she’ll kill my people in my place.’His resolve was oddly comforting.Fight her,he’d said.For the first time it didn’t feel like he was planning to die.But then he ruined the moment by adding, ‘The rest of you don’t have to come with me.’
‘We’re staying together,’ I said before anyone else could.‘She’ll hunt us all down eventually anyway.If we stay together, we have a chance to win.’
To my surprise, Raleigh had no retort.We’d already survived this long.Why couldn’t we do so again?
Our chances would be better if we reached the castle before the Queen.Centuries ago Castle Rostenburg had been built as a stronghold for times of war – it was only in the medieval period that the royal family made it their place of residence.I didn’t think for a moment that the ancient battlements would hold against an army of vampires, but I let Raleigh distract himself with plans once Enrique began to drive again, and tried to keep hopeful even after those plans involved walling ourselves in Raleigh’s tower.
We travelled for three days and nights without stopping, barely speaking, only taking brief moments of sleep between shifts at the reins.Raleigh drove at night, urging the horses to push themselves harder than was safe.When I caught him trying to hypnotise away their fatigue, I made him switch them out.
Moira spent two days asleep.Every morning and evening Raleigh changed her bandage and searched for signs of infection.I watched him one evening as he worked, scouring his features for signs the blood affected him.He seemed remarkably under control, though with each day that passed I knew that control must be weakening.
‘What will happen if the wound becomes infected?’I asked, when I was sure she was asleep.
Raleigh took his time in replying.‘Do you think she’d ever forgive me if I saved her on the brink of death?’
My stomach dropped when I realised what he meant.Moira was formidable enough as a human; I couldn’t imagine her limitless strength as a vampire.Perhaps she would be strong enough to turn the tide.Would she want that?Raleigh and Moira’s bond ran deep.If she wanted eternal youth, I imagine Raleigh would have offered it years ago.But giving up her humanity could save us all.
It was an option for both of us.
‘For what it’s worth,’ I sounded out, ‘if I was ever in her position I’d want you to save me.’
Raleigh blustered.‘Don’t make me picture that!’
‘Well, it’s worth mentioning, isn’t it?’I said.‘We’re not safe yet.I don’t want you to have to make that decision if the Queen catches up with us, and I certainly don’t want you to make the wrong decision.I want to live, no matter what.’
‘This isn’t life,’ he reminded me.
‘So you would rather die?’I asked.‘If there was no cure, and your choice was to die now or continue like this for eternity, which would you choose?’
