Page 19 of Bartered by the Shadow Prince (Bargain with the Shadow Prince #3)

Damaged

ELOISE

W hat has happened to my brave warrior of a mate?

As I follow Damien back to the room where we’re staying, it feels as though I don’t know him anymore.

There is no candle binding him to Nevina’s will, no vampire queen forcing him to cave to her whims, but he barely rebuked his brother and Nevina for the intolerable conditions they’ve levied on Bolvet.

They are demanding the lives of children, for god’s sake.

What types of monsters have a lottery to determine which child should devote their life to endless toil so that the rest of the town can be comfortable?

Why are we even still within these castle walls?

I wait until we’re behind closed doors, and then I can’t hold back my rage.

“How could you pretend that what they’re doing to Bolvet is okay?

” I seethe. “It’s evil! Your brother and his wife are slowly starving those people in the most barbaric way.

And what they’re asking for is sickening.

Imagine selling out one of your children, damning them to a life of servitude.

It’s unjust. I don’t blame Bolvet one second for their act of defiance. ”

“I agree,” he whispers through his teeth.

“Then oppose it! Resist it! Don’t apologize for me questioning it.”

He walks to the veranda, rubbing the side of his face as if it aches. As if I’ve struck him. “What would you have me do, Eloise? I have no position here. I am no longer a prince. On what grounds would you have me challenge the law?”

I stomp after him. “How about the grounds of common decency? You don’t need authority to stand up to bullies. Say what they are doing is unfair. Call on your brother to remember the ways of your family, your parents. Demand better for the people of Bolvet!”

He shakes his head. “That would be a dangerous game. We haven’t been here long enough to assume that such a challenge would be accepted positively.”

“So, we should suck up to these overlords so that we might, someday, speak truth to power and expect to be heard?” A pang of disgust moves through me.

“It’s a better plan than to end up working those fields ourselves.” He grits his teeth and points toward the front of the castle. “Or to end up with our heads on their pikes.”

I cringe. Sure, Brahm and Nevina weren’t happy with me challenging them, but never were we threatened with retaliation.

In fact, I specifically saw understanding in Brahm’s eyes.

“What makes you think they’d do that? Do you think Brahm is capable of killing his own brother over a challenge to a clearly unjust law? ”

His silver gaze finds mine, and I flinch at the sadness I see there. “I am no longer a prince here, Eloise,” he says again as if I’m a child and just not getting this. “I do not have the power to change Bolvet’s fate. I’ll be lucky to change our own.”

My head pounds with frustration. “Our own? So, you do think we might be in danger.”

“Of course we are potentially in danger,” he hisses. “My resurrection from the dead represents a complication for this kingdom.”

I suspected as much the moment Nevina arrived at my door our first night here.

“Well then, it begs the question: why the fuck are we still here, Damien ? Why are you working in their stables? Why am I playacting like this Harvest Festival means anything at all, when it’s clear that shade traditions aren’t respected here? ”

He shakes his head. “Where else could we have gone? How else do you believe we will live? We can’t return the way we came. I will get you out of here, Eloise, but we must be smart about it. We can’t provoke their retaliation. They are the ones with the army.”

I draw back, stung by his reference to my lost magic.

He’s right. We can’t go back to Earth, and punching up when we have no place to go is a stupid thing to do.

But I’m frustrated. Brahm and Nevina are evil.

I don’t want to be in this castle another second.

I want to do something to help Bolvet. “Surely there are avenues we can work through. Allies. Someone who could help us fight this injustice. Even Night Haven had its dissenters, and I went there with nothing but my wits and my blood to fight for you.”

“And look what that decision cost you.”

I gasp, deeply hurt. “What is that supposed to mean? Is that some kind of dig on my being a vampire? Look what it won me!” I point an upturned hand at him.

He shuts his eyes. “I only mean that it took you months to find a way. We’ve been here barely over a week.

” He rubs his head. “I want to leave here as much as you do. I, too, want to help the citizens of Zephrine. I’m only suggesting that we can’t be rash, Eloise.

We have to plan a smart escape. Believe me, little dragon, if there is a way to spark change, it is not by enraging the king and queen of this new kingdom over dinner.

” His voice is low and gritty, the end of his words coming out as barely a hiss.

He has a point. I had to play the part of a blood whore in order to get close enough to the right people to make it into Valeska’s palace, and even then, much of my success was due to luck.

One big difference between being a vampire and being a human is that emotions are on an entirely different level.

My head pounds, fire shoots through my veins, my fangs tingle, urging me to bite and tear and make someone suffer for the feelings happening inside me.

Everything Damien says makes sense, but I hate it.

I hate that I can do nothing while an entire village starves to death for not handing over their children.

I wrestle my tongue under control, but if I don’t get out of this room, I’m going to lose it. I shake my head and turn to leave.

“Where are you going?” he calls after me.

“I need time to think.” I’ve almost reached the door when a shadow wraps around the handle and he forms beside me.

“Be careful, Eloise. Please.”

I offer him a curt nod.

His face is cast in shadows as he backs away and allows me to push past him.

I shove through the heavy door and run down the stone hallway, my feet falling in a silent way that would be impossible if I were human.

My mind races, trying to make sense of it all.

Everything we’ve done up to this point has been to end an injustice.

I used the candle to call Damien because Tony was trying to steal my home.

I broke the candle’s hold over him because the Gowdies were using him as a slave.

We battled the vampire queen together to free Night Haven from her ruthless tyranny.

We slaughtered the Denardis so that they couldn’t hurt anyone else.

We are the good guys.

So then, how is it we are living in this castle with the bad guys?

Even as I think it, I remember that Brahm is Damien’s only remaining family.

My mate has lost everything he once loved—his parents and sister, but also the kingdom he fought for.

I was wrong to think his actions tonight were a sign of weakness.

It shows incredible control and strength of character for him to be level-headed enough to know we need a plan.

I take a deep breath of the fresh night air, thankful that this castle has no glass or screens in the windows.

In time, I feel like myself again, my former anger ebbing to understanding.

Before I think to turn back to our room, though, I see an open door at the end of the hall, carved with a gorgeous portrait of a stag on one side and a tree with large, round fruit on the other.

Curious at the magnificence of the carving, I run my fingers over it and then poke my head inside.

It’s a library! One that would put the Beast’s from the famous story to shame.

Books are shelved in circular rows that spiral into the opulent, gilded center of the room and rise three stories above me.

A curved staircase follows their ascent.

I’m drawn to the center of the marble floor, where a compass is inlaid in white marble and edged in gold.

I study the stunning craftsmanship, then lift my chin to check out the upper levels.

The ceiling is as decadent as the floor, decorated to a gold-emblazoned point.

I try to think where I am in the castle, where I might see this room from the outside.

I must be inside one of the towers, under a spire.

Damn, it’s a large space for a library and so extravagant.

What types of books are even stored in a place like this?

I approach the nearest shelf, but I’m unable to read the aged spines.

When I brush a finger over the leather, I realize it’s not wear but a layer of dust that obscures the titles.

This library hasn’t been used in a very long time.

Beside me, a gold candelabra holds an assortment of blood-red candles. I’m already exhausted, but I can’t stop myself from trying. I close my eyes and search out the tingle that I associate with fire magic, but I can’t seem to latch on to it. It feels too far away.

I open my eyes and try to force it. Staring at the candle wick only inches from my face, I beg, “Light!” Warm, wet blood oozes from my nose. I swipe it away, more frustrated than ever.

“Phantom,” I call. I’ve tried a million times to call my ancestors to me since arriving, but I try again. “Phantom, come!”

A thud to my left has me spinning on the balls of my feet.

With my vampire speed, I’m there in a heartbeat.

But disappointment seizes me again to find, not the fox that embodies the souls of my ancestors, but a book, on the floor between two shelves.

I lift the tome and blow dust off the cover. Introduction to the Gods of Tenebris.

How did this get here?

“Phantom?” I whisper into the shadows. There’s no answer, and when I draw deeply through my nostrils, all I smell is my own blood and the faintest hint of apples.

Someone dropped this book. It couldn’t have just fallen off the shelf.

It was squared in the middle of the walkway.

I move to the center of the room and search the other floors with my vampire vision, but I’m alone.

I’m sure of it. With a sigh, I carry the book to one of the plush red chairs at the end of a row.

When I open it, my suspicions are confirmed.

Whoever left this for me bookmarked a section.

Thanesia, Goddess of Death . I look around again, now extremely curious about who left me this book. Is it a threat? Did Nevina leave this for me as a warning to keep my mouth shut or I’d be meeting this goddess face-to-face? Who else would be in this library?

I lower my eyes to the page again and begin to read.

Thanesia is a jealous and proud goddess who guards the gate between Tenebris and the Darklands.

She is traditionally depicted in a warrior’s garb with her bow and quiver and her three nighthounds at her side.

Although her title is Goddess of Death, her domain is over darkness and night itself, fertility, and harvest. She is the patron goddess of Tenebris who guards the end of the shadowpath, the route souls take to the Darklands.

Upon the death of a loved one, it is customary to give an offering of blood to Thanesia in exchange for her opening the door to the Darklands for the person who has died.

Without this offering, it is said the door remains closed, and the souls of the departed are left on the shadowpath where they continue to haunt this world.

There’s a sketch of Thanesia on the opposite page, curls of her dark hair breaking free from her braid.

Daggers are sheathed in the crisscrossing leather on her chest. Talons at the ends of her fingers dig into the arms of her blood-red throne.

Her bow is hooked on the edge of her chair, and a quiver of arrows spills at her feet.

Three fierce hounds lie in wait around the sides of her throne.

Under a skirt made from strips of leather, her thigh muscles strain, the heel of one of her gladiator sandals lifted as if she’s ready to attack at any moment.

Thanesia is a force to be reckoned with.

I curl my legs under me and turn the page.