Page 115 of A Vow of Shadow and Blood

“Yeah, but remember we’ve got atruce.”Her voice is dripping with sarcasm, and I remind myself that if I get out of this alive, I’m going to kill Ajax.

Ajax was right. Fighting Kaia made me realize every flaw I have. Ajax is an incredible fighter, but Kaia is a warrior. Every move I made, she predicted, and it wasn’t long before she had my fighting style down and was able to block every move. I may not have been happy at first, but I learned a hell of a lot from fighting with her, not to mention she was the perfect distraction to keep my mind off Celeste and Karius.

I have no idea why I’m even letting it bother me. Karius and I are nothing but allies. If it weren’t for the bond, then I wouldn’t feel a thing. This is why I need to find a way to break it so that I can think clearly again.

“This has to be some kind of pattern, right?” Iza’s voice brings me back to the room as she points to a particular passage in a text that she dragged me out of training to show me. Honestly, I was glad for the break, but I’m also starting to agree that everything does seem to be linked. Iza doesn’t trust the libraryafter what happened, so we are currently both sitting at the tiny desk in her room.

I shift some of the clutter aside to make space for the book as I slide it in front of me. My eyes flicker down the page to the paragraph she pointed out, and I read each word slowly, taking it all in.

One must wonder why the gods turned their backs on their own people. They went to great lengths to imprison the creature within the realm, yet did not stay around to witness the fruits of their labor. One would call it a truly curious thing indeed.

“I’ve read this before,” I tell her.

“Yes, but we didn’t have all the pieces then.”

“And now we do?”

“Nobody wants to admit this, but there were sightings of the impures during the war, fighting alongside the humans.”

I shake my head. “That doesn’t make sense. They attacked me.”

“Because you are bound to Karius, not because you are human. Every death in the last year has been that of a vampire at the hands of one of those creatures.”

“You think the impures and the humans are working together?”

“I don’t know, but the last reported sighting of one of those creatures was just before the gods imprisoned whatever creature they did.”

I suck in a breath.

“You think the impure are looking for the creature that the gods imprisoned?”

“Not just looking but trying to free it. Look.” She points to another short passage, and my stomach drops.

For the gods to lock away any creature and disappear, one can only imagine that it is no less than a destroyer of worlds.

“I think that whatever happened a year ago made them believe that they stood a chance of freeing this thing again. If your theory about them being able to change into human form is correct, then I don’t think that they ever went away.”

“You think they’ve been in hiding this entire time?” I ask.

“Exactly. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to come out and unleash that monster on the world.”

The thought is horrifying. If this is true, then everything I’ve ever believed has to be questioned.Did the humans really start this war? Did we somehow help this monster, all to destroy the vampires?

I believe that this may in fact be the case,Athriel says.

But that would mean that…

The vampires were simply defending themselves in a war your ancestors started.

The thought is unsettling. I turn to Iza.

“If they are here in this court, then they believe that it is somewhere here or very close.”

She nods, and I see a fear in her eyes that sends a chill up my spine.

“And somehow Karius, this bond, and the vampires are all linked to it,” she says quietly as though she is afraid that saying it may make it real.

“But the question is, how?”