Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I reach up to grab Gregor’s arm, to try to get air, but Valen snatches my wrists and pins them behind my back.
I can’t move. My lungs burn. I can’t breathe. A tiny whimper escapes, but nothing else.
“My lord.” Valen’s voice is even. “If this human has the information you seek, I will bleed it from her. No matter her refusal, no matter Whitbine’s incompetence.” His hold tightens. “I will never allow her to escape me. Her body, her mind, her secrets—they are mine.”
“Yet you have no answers.” Gregor squeezes tighter.
My vision blackens, my mind blanking.
“Not to sound impertinent, my lord, but I’ve been razing the human world at your command as well as executing your enemies within our own ranks. Give me more time with the prisoner, and I will grant you the results you seek.”
I go limp. Dark. Silent. I float along, a leaf on a still pool of cool wate—My lungs fill with a searing pain, and I gasp in air. Gregor is a few paces away, his hands in the air, and Valen holds me up as I regain consciousness. I’m still his marionette, moving only when he pulls my strings.
He shakes me, and I gulp in more air.
“Georgia—” Vince reaches for me as Carlotta drags him away through the ballroom.
My throat is raw. I can’t speak, can’t do anything except watch as he disappears, only his blood left behind.
“—lesson must be taught.” Gregor’s voice rings tinny and hollow in my ears as my senses come back.
Head woozy, legs uncertain, I stare at Gregor as he motions for someone. A vampire hoists a long spear of some sort and hands it to Gregor. His white skin smokes and sizzles where he touches it. “My betrayer is here among you.” With a flash of impossible speed he returns to the top of the stairs and slams the silver spike into the wood floor, driving it deep.
A murmur goes through the room at my back.
“Though I may not know which of you it is, I can give you a small sample of what awaits you once you’re discovered.”
There’s a slight scuffling sound behind me, and then someone is dragged up the steps between two vampires. Their body is limp, the crimson of their gown trailing behind and whispering across the floor. It’s a vampire. Finally, Gregor is going to take out his wrath on one of his own. Good. I want to see one of them die. I want them to suffer. I want to know it’s possible to kill them. This is a stroke of luck, a small dose of vengeance.
Valen puts one hand at my sore throat, the other at my waist, locking me against him. He’s almost vibrating with tension.
Gregor grabs the woman’s head and pulls her upright.
My heart lurches. The beautiful hair coiled into a crown, the smooth brown skin. I know her immediately. Melody.
Melody is on the grisly stage, her face marked with slashes, her eyes swollen almost shut. Valen wraps his palm around my mouth as I stare up at her, at the only kind vampire I’ve ever known. She looks right at me, her warm brown eyes steady despite the pain she must be in.
“No objections?” Gregor asks, his mocking eyes on Valen.
Valen remains silent, his entire form rigid, his hand tight over my mouth.
Tears well and run down my cheeks, and still, Melody holds my gaze. Unwavering. Strong. Only when Gregor takes her by the hair does her focus shift above me. To Valen.
With more strength than his withered body should possess, Gregor lifts her over his head, then slams her down on the silver stake, impaling her through her heart. No fanfare. No acknowledgement of taking a life. Just pure brutality.
She screams, the sound so full of anguish it rips apart every wound I’ve ever had. She shudders violently. Once. Twice. Her eyes going black, her mouth still open in a scream. And then she stills, her body sliding down the silver spear until she lies unmoving at Gregor’s feet.
Valen’s hand slips from my mouth. I don’t scream. I do nothing. Nothing. I let her die. Valen let her die. There’s a roar in my ears, a howling of wind and malice and icy hate. Impotent rage. Smothering me slowly with each dead body stacked on top, everyone I’ve ever cared for arranged like kindling for a fire that no one will see, no one will mourn, no one. No one. No one.
“—in. Yes, bring them in!” Gregor shouts, snapping me back, his reedy voice indulgent now. “No more matters of state. Only matters of feasting.” He gives a cold, toothy smile.
Two wide doors to my right open. Faces. So many faces.
“No.” My voice is hoarse, barely there.
People. Naked and bruised, some of them crying, others in near catatonia as they stare around. Not just adults, children too, a little girl screaming and clinging to a man’s arm. The terror in her cries breaks me.