A performer in a bright-colored, skin-tight costume pranced by on their hands as comfortably as if they were walking on their feet. They tilted their head up to me and smiled a trance-like, eerie smile.How didthey get this close to us?I looked around, wondering where our guards had gone.
“Delightful,” Rhazien greeted them with a coolness I could not muster. No, something else was creeping through me. A different flavor than my usual sense of dread I constantly carried with me.
I searched the crowd. I recognized no one. Not even the passing servants.
“Your Majesty. My lady. This way, if you please,” a masked attendant beckoned. Their protruding nose resembled a ripe radish. It was an unforgettable feature I knew I would have recognized on one of the servants of the Hive.
But Rhazien paid no mind. If he wasn’t concerned, I didn’t need to be. Right?
I stepped, commanding each movement to seem more confident and sure-footed. This was the beginning of a new age. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was what Atoris needed.
Fame wasn’t something I longed for, but it would be inescapable after this moment. I would be on the arm of the first King of Vampires. The first royal to ascend over all others since the four Originals. I would make his rise possible. My name would appear next to his in Oddo’s history books whether I wanted it or not.
So, if it was going to happen anyway, I would create as much good as possible from the opportunity. Crowds parted as I considered my first decree—abolishing human slavery to vampires. Something that might never be accomplished without Rhazien’s rise. Yes, this could be a good thing.
We climbed the stairs, the crowd beginning to hush behind us. More servants in animal masks framed our path to the top of the dais. The priestess, Orla, was covered in painted black runes and stood with arms spread, welcoming us to her sides, not unlike the executioner from Illica only a few months ago. This woman didn’t hold an earthly weapon but one of the spirit worlds. Her power to bind my soul to Rhazien’s would set in motion the steps to becoming an immortal undead myself. My life would end and begin again at her hands.
My heart thundered as I braced myself for what would come next. What would it feel like to be bound? Would it feel like coming home? Like an embrace to make me feel a wholeness I could never imagine? Or would it feel more like a leash? A heavy, invisible, inescapable chain?
My stomach churned, acid roiling in the back of my throat. But Rhazien’s hands steadied me as the priestess addressed the crowd.
“Welcome all—” her voice splintered into many, as if multiple people were speaking in synchrony “—to our Winter Solstice gathering!”
She raised her hands high and the room brightened. Popping sounds cascaded around the space as every candle throughout the ballroom burst, temporarily darkening the gathering before the light twinkled down like gently falling snow. The crowd gasped before waves of delighted laughter and applause ebbed between the guests below us. I looked in awe at the display of magic, admiring the glowing buds.
One of them fell directly between myself and Rhazien and that’s when I saw him. Him and the way he was looking at me.
It was a gaze I wasn’t sure I would see again. Not after what I’d done. What Dommik and I had done. Like he was seeing me with new eyes.
“You don’t have to do this,” he whispered before the crowd’s reaction conceded to Orla’s signal for silence and every muscle in my body froze.
“What?” I wasn’t confident I’d heard him correctly.
“We—we don’t have to do this. We can end this now. Celebrate Solstice. Find another way.”
He squeezed my hands tighter as if to assure me it would be all right if I took the opportunity to back out. But why now? Why atthismoment? A moment that felt entirely too late to have this conversation.
I repeated his words back to him, “But there is no other way.”
The priestess cleared her throat. Her narrowed gaze looked more menacing in the dim light and blinking orbs.
The audience was still admiring the scene, murmuring about the grandeur of the spectacle when Rhazien said, “Reyva. There is no reversing this. And as much asIwant this, no one else should make this choice for you.”
“I’m—”
The change in lighting startled me. Like I’d had the fleeting opportunity to waver in the brief bout of darkness. But now, Orla’s dark eyes flickered as she channeled her magic to light every wick throughout the room again, and I felt exposed in the regained illumination.
Rhazien’s face remained solid and focused on me. Like a cliffside that would refuse to yield to an unrelenting sea. He leaned down, kissing me gently on the cheek and hiding his lips from the horde of guests.
In one ear I heard delighted whispers from the onlookers below, and in the other, Rhazien softly said, “If I could go back and have the choice tokeep my humanity, I would have. I refuse to forcefully take yours from you.”
Stone by stone, I had built a mental wall around my feelings toward this night and everything it would mean for me. Each one represented a piece of my anger, frustration, and fear. For the betterment of humanity, for the safety of my family, I had committed myself to do this. Reluctantly, and with a lengthy list of reservations, but I’d planned to agree all the same. The choice had been stripped from me and assembling this barrier was the only way I knew how to go through with it.
“Why now?” I mouthed, the ghost of a whisper barely leaving my lips.
His hand gently ran down my cheek. In my peripheral, the crowd had a natural sway. They parted to allow masked performers who were still moving throughout the room to pass by as others watched the tender moment.
“It’s now or never.” He winked and the faintest smirk lifted the stubble on his cheek.
