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Maybe because we’d stopped earlier than usual, though, I lay there awake. The three moons would soon be chased away by the sun.

And instead of waking with the hunger on my mind, I woke with a name on my lips.

Chapter Seven

Learning the vampire’s nameshouldn’t have changed anything.

In many ways, it didn’t. No more than the rabbit I woke up to the next morning, neatly drained of blood. Or the way Raphael watched me eat, any semblance of my once fine manners long gone.

It was late in the night when we veered close to a lake. Excitement thrummed through me at the sight, at the thought of possibilities. Clean drinking water. Buckets and buckets of it. I hadn’t submerged my body in water since I’d been a small child, oblivious to the luxury. Dirt caked my skin in layers upon layers. When I’d first arrived at Greymere, I’d done my best to maintain the fastidioushabits my mother instilled in me. Of course, most of them involved someone doing everything for me, which had no longer been an option. Cleanliness was a losing battle, and my useless efforts cost me precious time I could’ve spent sleeping. My nose had gone blind to the stench in a matter of weeks; the men of Greymere certainly didn’t waste any effort cleaning. Anyone who had leverage used it for extra food or alcohol rather than something as mundane as soap. And I never had anything to bargain with anyway. But there, glittering in the moonlight, was a lake.

“Your heart is racing. Why?”

“It’s nothing,” I mumbled.

We couldn’t afford to waste time stopping at the lake. At best, when we got closer, I’d veer off long enough to take several long sips of water. That would be enough for me. It had to be.

He narrowed his gaze at me, brows furrowing. That was one thing that had changed since I’d learned his name. Now, instead of lingering two paces back, I walked shoulder to shoulder with the vampire.

“You want something.”

“I don’t.” I did. Desperately.

His gaze flicked past me to the lake. His expression didn’t change, but I sensed him putting the pieces together.

“We may as well stop here,” he declared. “Besides, you reek. You can do something about it over there.” He lifted a hand to the lake in a careless gesture.

I wrinkled my nose. “You’re no fresh lilac yourself.”

Raphael grinned. “Then perhaps I should bathe with you.”

I stumbled at his words, and he chuckled. “Don’t like the idea of bathing with a vampire? Then don’t complain.”

I huffed and broke his gaze. The trouble was, my shock wasn’t from the thought of seeing the vampire naked. It was from the thought of bathing with any man at all. Or any man who looked the way Raphael did—broad-shouldered, towering over me, with a face that would have been arresting even without the red eyes and the elegant, savage panes nearly carved from marble.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Raphael declared when we reached the lake.

My neck snapped back. “You’re leaving?”

“Did you want me to watch?”

My cheeks flushed. “I don’t want to be eaten by a… a kobold!”

“Relax, dove. I don’t scent any kobolds nearby. I’m going to get some dinner of my own and see what’s ahead. I’ll be back in an hour, two at most.”

With that, he disappeared back into the woods.

I was alone for the first time in days. My shoulders relaxed immediately. There were knots in my back just from how I constantly tensed around the vampire, even though I was forced to admit he hadn’t actually done anything tome—yet. But there wasn’t long enough for me to lie about and massage them.

The first thing I did was fix a small fire. I wasn’t sure when I’d get the chance to wash my clothes again, so I stripped and dunked them in the lake, then set them to dry by the fire. I unwrapped the band of fabric that pressed over my chest, slipping out the necklace I’d taken from Greymere. The fabric was thin, not really a proper undergarment, but it was the best I’d managed since clothing was hard to come by in the prison. Most of what I had worn through the years were hand-me-downs from dead prisoners.

With my clothing settled, I went to the lake. Phrygia’s full glow lit the water around me, chasing away some of the darkness. The water was cool, bordering on cold, but I didn’t care. The water wasn’t deep, which was good since I wasn’t the best swimmer.

I cupped my hands and splashed my face, clawing off the layers of dirt and grime with my nails. Then I gulped more water from my cupped hands, trying to take advantage of this chance. I had no soap, so I made up for it with hard scrubbing. Tall stalks grew at the edge of the lake, so I snapped one off and tested it, then used it to scrape at the years of filth that coated my body. My skin burned bright red under the harsh ministrations, but I savored the feeling of my clean skin. My hair, I rinsed as best I could, frowning at the color. It darkened as years of dirt and dustfell out, turning from a hazy brown-gray to sable black. Unrecognizable.

Just like my situation.

Free. I was free.