CHAPTER 1
VEYA
Present Day
IT’S BEEN CENTURIES, and I still haven’t killed him.
I crumple the correspondence from my scouts in my fist and shove it into my gown’s hidden pocket, pacing the turret I’ve stashed myself in.
We know so little about King Nerian of Goreon’s defenses, and I can’t convince myself to jeopardize my warriors and attack blindly. Nerian should have an army, but my scouts can’t fucking find them anywhere. They can’t get eyes on numbers, skill, location—none of it.
All they’ve found is the squalor and the suffering.
This king has forced his humans to scrap for survival as he consumes the land with his wealth, spreading vampire estates and leaving few options left for the remaining humans. And he feeds with no limits, allowing his vampire population to drink from the vein, fueling bloodlust that can lead to a dangerous addiction. Not to mention the killing of humans at an alarmingpace. And when his human population dwindled, he began stealing lives from his neighboring territories.
Including ours.
So we locked our borders down tight as soon as we finished the construction of the Northern Wall eighty years ago. No vampire has been allowed to pass into the Night Kingdom from Goreon. It is a risk we will not take, and crossing our wall is now a death sentence.
My army makes sure of it.
Dress shoes clicking against stone pull my attention.
“Ah!There you are,” Prince Hathin slurs. “Been looking for youeverywhere, Queen Veya.” The foreign prince hangs in the stone doorway, holding himself upright in his embroidered cream suit, somehow without stains today.
This one is always drunk.
I smile sweetly, plastering on a well-practiced mask. “You found me. Well done,” I praise in a honeyed voice.
“Indeed—”
Hathin begins an obnoxious tirade, droning on about how bored he is. I try not to sigh at him. He’s been visiting for weeks, dragging on about his lack of amusement with all the hard work he’s undergoing to expand his kingdom in the isles of the Sereia Sea. And I can’t help when my focus returns to much more pressing matters.
I rest an elbow on the window ledge, letting my frustration exhale into the cold breeze, gaze sweeping over my kingdom—my entire heart.
This note from my scouts is infuriating. I’m so tired of waiting to take Goreon Kingdom. I’ve spent the last century eliminating evil on my borders, but this target remains out of reach.
“Are youlisteningto me, my queen?” Hathin demands.
I turn back to the prince, yanking my gaze from the lightening night sky beyond. “Of course. You were saying you needed some entertainment before we rest today.”
He winks and steps his muscled form through the archway. Hathin is handsome, and he uses it like a weapon.
The male drinks me in, sauntering away the distance between us, and helps himself into my space. “I believe we’ll be great together, you and I,” Prince Hathin drawls, dragging his gloved hand down my neck like he already owns me.
I have no interest in joining our territories; our beliefs could not be further apart. Hathin is only marginally better than Nerian. This prince has forced his humans to expedite the construction of his cities under hismotivationlaw, as he refers to it. One member of every human family is taken for vampire consumption, and in the wake of their unimaginable loss, that family is then threatened. Because unless they want to lose more loved ones, the remaining members strong enough to work are thrown into continuous labor. And that labor eventually, typically, results in their death. Innocent humans are required to make an impossible choice. Die now, or die later.
So I’ve led Hathin to believe we have a future together, I needed his trust to get this close in private.
Bells toll through the large open window beside us, warning of the sunrise. The light I need is just moments away.
“You know, I’m glad you found me, Hathin.”
His strong hand grips my waist, pulling me closer with a curling grin, and I let him.
“Is that so, my queen?” he purrs, the liquor on his breath violating.
I hum at him, staring into Hathin’s lustful blue eyes as the soft pink of dawn peeks behind him, and my heart races with adrenaline.
