Raleigh swore and ground to a halt.
‘The halls are enchanted,’ I said, coming to my realisation just as Raleigh did.
‘She’s the one who taught me how to do it.’Raleigh paced in a circle, then tried opening one of the windows.It wouldn’t budge.He cursed again.
‘You didn’t notice at some point in three hundred years?’
‘I was never stupid enough to try to kill her!’Raleigh cried.
‘Ah, so you made it after all.’A cold voice cut through the hall.
We both froze, turning as one to see a dark-haired figure making its way towards us.Yorik.
‘I did worry you would lose your way, but Lukas insisted we prepare the court for your arrival.’
Raleigh threw his shoulders back.‘As much as I love these little chats, I have to cut this one short,’ he said.‘Her Majesty has called for me, and I can’t imagine she’ll appreciate being kept waiting by your sadistic little games.’
A gleam in Yorik’s eye was the only warning we had before he attacked.There was a blur of movement and suddenly my back was against the wall, the breath knocked from my lungs.Cold fingers pressed into my jaw, cutting off my breath while leaving my throat exposed.I kicked at him, but he barely seemed to feel it.
‘That’s not what she told me,’ Yorik said.His eyes washed over me, but his words were for Raleigh.‘It’s a shame really.You should have tasted this one while you still could.’
Raleigh flew at him.But we were no longer alone.Seraphina – the woman he’d danced with earlier – caught his hand, eyes flashing wildly as more of their coven seeped into the corridor.They drifted towards Raleigh, surreal in their beauty, too many to fight unarmed.All eyes were on him.He didn’t stand a chance.
So no one was prepared for me to plunge my dagger into Yorik’s heart.
I’d never killed anything before, but I knew well enough that cutting though layers of skin and bone and muscle wasn’t as easy as it appeared in novels.So I was shocked by how easily the silver carved through his flesh.By the time he realised what was happening, it was already too late.
Everyone froze.In one tick of the clock the entire court went from frenzy to statue.Even Raleigh was staring at me with somethingclose to horror.The wound started to smoke.With a roar Yorik tried to throw me off, but I held on fast, and his movement only sucked the blade deeper into his body.The knife was hotter now, the smoke choking me.I gave one more push.
He vanished into a cloud of ash.
Without missing a beat, I flipped the knife and spun in a circle, displaying the handle to every devil in the room.‘Stay back.’
I yanked Raleigh behind me, relieved when he took the hint and stood with his back flush against mine.‘Let us leave and no one else has to die,’ I said.
‘You can’t kill us all,’ one woman sang in a lilting voice.
‘She can’t,’ came a familiar voice.‘But I can.’
Something glittering flew through the air and lodged itself in the woman’s forehead.She didn’t have time to raise her hands in defence before she exploded into ash.The man beside her followed.There was a flash of blonde hair, a flutter of a dirty apron, and then Moira was driving a gleaming stake into the heart of the man beside him.
‘Catch,’ she said blandly, and threw Raleigh his sword.He unsheathed it in an instant, slashing blindly at a woman who had driven towards him.She staggered back, wound hissing, giving him enough time to lunge in and finish the job.Ash settled on his lashes.
‘Stay behind me.’He cut his way through the crowd with the mercy of a medieval prince, never hesitating, never wavering.This was the Prince of Rostenburg, the Count of Triz, high commander of armies lost to time.We were no longer helpless.The vampires weren’t armed; they were lethal enough with claws and teeth to forgo the time it took to train with blades.But they were unprepared for the brutal efficiency of one of their own wielding a blade of silver.
Bringing up the rear, Moira fought like a hurricane.Her movements were precise, her reactions almost vampiric.With every cloud of ash her smile grew wider, wilder.I felt like a joke beside her, waving my crucifix at anyone who dared come too near.
Everything began to fall into place.Her book collection, her penchant for silver.Why she had remained Raleigh’s only servant for so many years, despite having such an aversion to housework.Why he was so insistent on keeping her at his side when they both made it clear there was no love between them.
She had never been his housemaid.She was his guard.
‘You’re a vampire hunter?’I blurted as the final attacker fell.
Moira raised her brows.She looked amused, unbothered by the situation, despite being covered in ash.‘Glad to see you spent the last six months productively.’One of the attack party still hadn’t turned to ash.Moira nudged her onto her back with one foot, then drove a stake through her heart.She didn’t watch the ash settle; she only wiped off the stake with the corner of her apron.‘I really thought you’d work it out sooner.’
‘Can you both focus,please,’ Raleigh snapped.‘Moira, how did you find us through the enchantment?’
She reached into her apron and produced the bulb of garlic that had given Raleigh so much grief at the start of our journey.‘A clove of garlic under the tongue wards against enchantment.It won’t do much if someone’s trying to hypnotise you directly, but it works a treat for something like this.’
