I rejected Alaric’s bond.
He told me escaping him would hurt.
And each life lost was a knick across my skin, one sharp sting after another, breaking open pale flesh, marring it in crimson. Until everything burned as I bled out slowly.
“What are you going to do?” Pari asked once we had a moment of silence.
“They aren’t attacking me.” Not a single newborn neared close to me, and I had a feeling they had been ordered not to touch me. “I’m going to find him.”
She caught what glinted in my eyes. A finality. A goodbye. Her shoulders sank. She wilted like a flower burning in the summer heat. She wrapped her arms around me, her blood drenched hands staining my white gown. It was a poor choice for today.
“I will see you soon,” she spoke firmly, refusing to accept the inevitable.
“I love you, Pari.”
“Don’t you dare,” she ground out. “I will see you soon.”
I choked back a sob. “I will see you soon.”
My theory was right as I stepped into the riot of bodies clashing on the main floor. My presence repelled the newborns, each one giving me a wide berth as they slinked by. I vaguely remembered Sebastian pulling me in close and telling me something when the chaos first broke out, but I couldn’t remember what he said. I was already well lost in my haze then. I think he wanted Pari to take me to the safe room as well. He’d lose it if he saw me within the thrall, but I had to find Alaric. I had to end this. My grip tightened on the hilt of my dagger until my arm trembled.
I floated through the throng, drifting out the back door, pausing within the center of the expansive marble veranda that overlooked the open land beyond. Our home had turned into a battlefield. Blood stained the grass. Cries rang out. Glass shattered as bodies rained down.
“Charlotte!”
My attention snapped over to James.
It only took a second of holding his eyes for the newborn to rip out his throat.
I didn’t even notice the scream that tore through me until my breath ran out. I didn’t realize I had sunk to my knees until I feltthe warmth seeping through my dress as blood bloomed around him. I held him in my lap, stroking his hair out of his face. His mouth opened and closed, but he couldn’t speak through his injury.
I placed my fingers to his lips. “I’m so sorry, James.”
He shook his head, the movement choppy and forced.
“I love you,” I said between sobs.
He brought a shaking hand up to mine, squeezing once before it fell away.
The light in his eyes grew faint, narrowing to a pinprick in the dark, until it was nothing at all. Until he was gone. And I rocked him back and forth. My tears spilled from my face to his.
Grasping hands rooted around my chest with spindled fingers, clawing at all that was fragile. The ache expanded the more they took. My eyes held the ones that saw through me, boring into me until I snatched the hands that aimed to take, snapping their wrists. I let out a guttural scream at the life taken in my name.
My brother. Someone I loved.
After a moment of hollow silence, the riot came back to me in a deafening roar. I set him down gently, rising to my feet with a burning I could no longer contain.
When it snapped into place, I felt him. I needed to find him quickly. I accepted the tracking spell without a second thought. I saw through his eyes as he surveyed the destruction of his making. Of course he’d stand tall above everyone else.
The roof was only accessible by thin, rickety ladders situated at each corner of the manor. I stalked towards the nearest one, towards the outskirts of the raging chaos. The din stretched out behind me the further I went. The glow of spreading fires faded as I stepped into darkness.
As I looked up to the towering rungs of the ladder, my chest opened up into a cavernous ache. I choked back a sob. I wanted tosay goodbye to Sebastian. The ring around my finger seared into me at what I was about to do, branding me with eternal loss.
And I knew he could feel me. It was how he found me when Alaric forced the bond. And I could feel him. It was a faint thrumming within my very marrow, a gentle hum of energy. He was filled with a wrath that fled from him like lightning, in the midst of battle, striking down every newborn around him. I knew in a moment he would feel my fear and a breaking, the beginning of my unending sorrow. I didn’t have much time before he’d try to stop me.
I lifted my skirts, white veiled with the blue light of the moon, now covered in scarlet. It was difficult to climb the ladder with one hand holding on to my skirts, so I settled on biting into the fabric to free up my hands. The manor was three stories, threehighstories. I was well past halfway now, and one slip would send me careening to my death, or at the very least, wishing for it.
The chilled, autumn breeze brushed over me like the reaper’s whisper. I clenched my teeth to force out the fear as I neared the top, replacing it with a vengeance that had been long starved.
