Page 5

“For now. I promise to keep my nose out of your business once we have cleansed this area.”

“And when will that be?” I questioned, impatience an irritating scratching within and without.

“Patience. It won’t be long now.”

I loathe that word, especially while my vampires were suffering.

I sent as much comfort as I could muster into the Heart of All, wishing I could also promise their safety.

This was all because of me—my race being here in this realm, and our home-world of Selene Haven flooded with endless sunlight, where the skies were once eternally moonlit.

Because of my obsession with Aidan.

He’d tricked me, made me fall for him, then toyed with my emotions, leading to the slaughter of so many of my kin with a sunlight spell.

Guilt clung to me like a thousand leeches who were never full, always feasting on me.

I wanted to get back there, to see if I could reverse its fortunes somehow. Maybe with another spell. But I didn’t know how. Even Medusa with her portal power couldn’t open a doorway to get there.

For all intents and purposes, it was lost. Only, my sister was still alive, meaning it wasn’t. The Heart of All did not register Camilla as dead, which filled me with some hope. The source of all vampire life I carried had no recollection of her, which tempered the hope.

Curse it. I didn’t know what to do. How could a vampire simply return to a world filled with sunlight?

One of the three giant waterborne frostbrood loomed close by. A serpent comprised of glacial blue ice spikes and huge jaws, its eyes golden with Aidan’s rot.

My lips curled into a snarl, my anger hotter than any deity’s warming presence.

I’ll break you.

I’ll break all of you.

“How much longer?” I growled, my fury desperate to be unleashed.

“I’ve been waiting inside you since Aidan’s games began,” she responded. “I have been patient, and you will be patient.” There was nothing stern about her tone. “Because we will defeat his rot, Silvanus. Trust me. Together, we can spark a great change.”

She was the First One, creator of the vampires.

“But we are only moments away from your freedom now.”

“Define moments.”

“Shortly.”

A frustrating response. “How did you come to be inside me?” I asked.

“If it’s good enough for Caer, it’s good enough for me.” A sonorous chuckle. “This is a thrilling development to soil Aidan’s schemes.”

Thrilling? I wasn’t so thrilled about being trapped in ice, listening to her words while the terrified pleas of my vampires scratched at the Heart of All.

Let me out.

Let me kill.

Let me see Paris one more time.

Why did it hurt so much? Even if I must accept his choice, the pain didn’t change. Even if we were never meant to be, the sense of loss was a palpable grief, like mourning for what could have been.

He’s not your spark in the dark.