I stared up at him, seeing three heads since my vision was like a kaleidoscope. But I understood enough to know he was referring to the book in Elvish that I’d been translating in his library. A homemade book, recently crafted byhim, of what he’d done and planned to do.
“You’re insane.”
Three sets of shoulders shrugged. “Not everyone agrees with you.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “Now, you need to sit tight while I get my potion. I’ve perfected the recipe, which means you’ll be a vampire by evening, and then you’ll be able to blend in with the masses, walk in the daylight, and effectively hide what you’ve become.” His multiple mouths downturned. “The Goddess of Light is my god’s nemesis, but her alterations to his vamfeers have come in useful, and my god understands that.”
I struggled against the ropes, but the room was spinning, spinning, spinning.
My uncle’s face grew fuzzy, but he stood again, and his deep chuckle reverberated through me. “Stay put. Once I’m back and you’re turned, the best part of all happens. As the potion creator,I’llbe your vampire Maker, Niece, which means you’ll always respond tome.”
CHAPTER TWO
Arnel left and doused the fairy lights on his way out, plunging the chambers into darkness.
I couldn’t believe he truly intended to go through with this.
He couldn’t succeed. Surely, someone would know I’d been turned. Images of my uncle Timith’s pale skin and sharp fangs rose in my mind.
Arnel was crazy. Entirely insane. There was no way I could hide that I was a vampire.
Alone in the dark, my thoughts grew sluggish. Unconsciousness pulled at me, but I struggled to stay awake and tried to recall what I’d recently learned of vampires. Nathaniel had told me of them at my sister’s betrothed ball. Vampires were said to live freely in theotherrealm, and they regularly visited the Nolus continent, but I’d never heard of a vampire stepping foot on the other three continents in the fae lands, probably because they realized they would be hunted or run off by the Solis, Silten, or Lochen fae.
But my uncle was convinced nobody would suspect I’d been turned, and if turning me into one meant I could blend in with other fae while being controlled by him, maybe he was right.
I kicked and struggled with everything I had, but the tight rope wrapped around me was like being encased within an unforgiving sleeve. I couldn’t move, could barely struggle at all.
My thoughts raced to Kole, and I fervently wished that he and I had mated after all. If we had, our mating bond would have alerted him to my panic and would have led him to me. Even if my uncle sent a dillemsill stating that I was choosing to stay with him, Kole would have known better. He would have been able tofeelwhat I was experiencing.
But I didn’t have that safeguard. We’d never completed our bond because I’d wanted my parents’ permission first, which meant my stupid trust in my uncle had gotten me here. And even though Royden had tried to warn me not to enter my uncle’s estate without him, I hadn’t listened. I’d been too excited to discover what Arnel had found and too blindingly naïve to think anyone related to me could be behind it all.
Stupid. So stupid.
I struggled to align my thoughts amidst my pounding head.
Think, Primelle. Think! There’s got to be a way out of this.
Sluggishly, I felt inside myself for my magic, but all that greeted me was an empty hole. My magic was either entirely gone or so far suppressed that I couldn’t even detect it, and I had no idea when or if it was coming back.
But Kole was expecting to hear from me this afternoon. Even though my uncle said that was fixable, I prayed it wasn’t. Because if Kole never heard from me, he would come.
If he were allowed to . . .
But that safeguard might be gone, too, since Kole was being held in isolation by the Imperial Council.
Absolute terror washed through me as I lay on the bed in the quiet room. As much as I was trying to find a way out of this, several cold, hard facts were evident.
My uncle was retrieving his potion.
I had no magic.
I was entirely bound and horrifically restrained.
Royden was unconscious in the dungeons.
Kole was being held by the Council or had been banned from seeing me for who knew how long.
And nobody knew who my uncle truly was or what he was about to do to me.
Tears sprang into my eyes. I was entirely at my uncle’s mercy.
