Page 5 of Sophie’s Ruin (Crimson and Shadows #2)

My breathing quickened as my anxiety climbed.

When I’d found my mother’s note about the Tear, I’d known that had been a moment of great significance.

I had the same feeling now. Whatever happened here tonight would determine the future of this country—mine and Henry’s future.

Just when my anxiety was about to reach its peak, Camilla broke the tense silence, and with one word, she shattered my heart and crushed any scraps of hope I’d managed to gather.

“No,” was all she said in the otherwise quiet room.

My gaze shot to Henry, and I found him looking appalled. He blinked slowly as if he couldn’t quite believe this was happening.

“No?” he asked low.

“The humans will never learn that the Dark Witches were defeated. We will tell them that when the Dark Witches attacked, we were able to push them out past the border and drive them back to the Black Forest. People will return to their regions, but they will return to the same life they knew before—one of subservience to us, the superior species,” Camilla declared as bile rose in my throat, threatening to choke me.

She was speaking with a level of authority that only meant one thing…

the other clan leaders were all in on the plan; she had their full support.

I glanced at Celeste and found impossible sadness carved into her weathered features. She didn’t look shocked, though, as if she hadn’t expected anything different from the entitled monsters crowding this room.

Turning back to Camilla, I somehow found my voice, but it came out broken and defeated.

“But the human guards who stayed behind…they know the truth.” As soon as I’d uttered the words, I regretted them, fighting the urge to clamp my hand over my mouth.

Camilla’s crimson lips stretched in a sinister smile—I hadn’t said anything she hadn’t already considered. My stomach knotted with dread.

“We will take care of them,” she said without hesitation. “Just like we will take care of anyone who stands in our way.” She gave me a pointed look.

Henry and I—we stood in their way.

No, no, no! A cry of despair sounded in my head. This was not what I had fought for; sacrificed for. What Josephine, Celine, and my mother had lost their lives for.

The pressure burned behind my eyes as tears threatened. I wouldn’t let them fall. I couldn’t let the clan leaders win.

My gaze darted to Henry at the same time he looked at me.

Don’t do anything rash, his eyes pleaded.

I felt the amulet’s pull from where it pulsed in my pocket.

I could use the Tear to destroy the vampires—to finish what I’d set out to do when I’d first arrived at the estate.

Would the amulet let me destroy the very species I was now a part of?

It followed my will, but did I have it in me to wish for my own demise? For Henry’s death?

I wasn’t prepared to find out, I realized with a sinking heart.

Sacrificing for humanity had not been an impossible choice before, because I hadn’t had that much to lose.

But now that I had Henry… The selfish part of me reared her head, refusing to give him up, to lose us and our future.

We deserved to live. Humans deserved to have their world back, but we also deserved a place in it.

“What’s going on here?!” Waylon exclaimed as he burst into the room. I was so shell-shocked by Camilla’s proclamation that I hadn’t even heard him walk into the mansion and approach the study.

My brows shot up in surprise at the same time my stomach dropped.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded, as fear spiked. Camilla was planning to kill the border guards who knew the truth, and Waylon had just made it that much easier for her by showing up uninvited.

“Interrupting a very important meeting by the looks of it,” Waylon snapped, quickly taking in everyone in the room.

His forest-green eyes narrowed when he noticed Celeste.

“You are deciding the future of this country, aren’t you?

And you didn’t think a human should be a part of this conversation?

” he seethed, his blazing gaze locking on me.

“Waylon,” Henry warned in a raised voice.

“You said you’d still be you after you turned,” Waylon continued, looking at me, “but you’re one of them now.” His face contorted in a mix of rage and disgust. “Let me guess, even with the Dark Witches now destroyed, you vampires won’t give us back our country?”

“This country has not been yours for a hundred years, boy,” Moreau spat, his fangs flashing. “It belongs to us. Humans belong to us. We rule this world.”

All color drained from Waylon’s face at Moreau’s words, but his eyes never left mine.

How could you?! Betrayal burned in them, red-hot and scathing.

I thought I was going to be sick.

“The amulet. Do you still have it?” Waylon asked urgently, as his gaze dropped to my chest. When he didn’t find the Tear there, his feverish eyes returned to my face. “You can put an end to this. To all of this.”

Henry went incredibly still next to me, his breath catching. I stopped breathing, too, as all the eyes in the room locked on me.

“What is he talking about?” Camilla demanded.

“Let’s not lose our heads,” Henry said, moving in front of me to block me from Camilla’s view.

“Sophie, please,” Waylon begged, stepping closer to me. “Use the amulet to destroy them. It’s the only way.”

Time screeched to a halt as the world stopped along with my heart. If there had been any doubt in the clan leaders’ minds about what Waylon was implying, his last words had made everything clear—the amulet that had erased the Dark Witches from existence could also destroy vampires.

Camilla was the first one to bare her fangs with a hiss as she crouched down and unsheathed her razor-sharp claws.

The other clan leaders rapidly followed.

Henry became an impenetrable wall in front of me as his muscles tensed.

His nails turned into claws, and he bent his knees, leaning forward with a vicious snarl.

A similar sound escaped Isabelle as she assumed a fighting position next to him.

Waylon stopped his approach toward me, his wide eyes flooding with sheer terror.

“Where is the amulet?” Camilla asked, her voice low and guttural.

“Run,” Henry ordered over his shoulder without looking at me, his eyes trained on the vampires before him.

“No,” I said, defiantly lifting my chin.

Adrenaline rushed through my veins, coiling my muscles as I prepared to fight. When I tried to step out from behind him, he threw his arm out to stop me.

“Get out of here. Now!” he growled, hoping to jolt me into action.

“No,” I repeated, not rattled by his tone. My voice was full of resolve as I said, “I won’t leave you.”

I knew we were outnumbered, but the wild, beastly side of me rose to the challenge, ferocious and bloodthirsty. Besides, we had Celeste on our side, her curled fingers spewing crackling white lightning of her magic.

“Get her!” Camilla barked an order, and all the clan leaders snapped into action.

Still partly hidden behind Henry, I crouched down and bared my fangs, my claws gleaming, as the clan leaders dashed through the room with supernatural speed, converging on us.

“Celeste!” Henry roared, snatching Moreau by the throat out of thin air before he could get to me.

The next thing happened too fast, but also as if in slow motion. The magic at Celeste’s fingertips disappeared as if snuffed out by the wind. The witch grabbed my arm at the same time Waylon lunged at me, fisting the hem of my tunic.

“You are my heart,” Henry said with one quick glance in my direction.

His stormy blue eyes were the last thing I saw before everything went black.

HENRY

Just like that, she was gone, taking my heart with her.

At least she was safe—as safe as she could be.

When I’d yelled Celeste’s name, I hadn’t known what would happen.

I knew the witch was powerful, and I’d wanted her to do something, anything, to get Sophie out of here. She had, and now it was time to fight.

The momentary distraction to say goodbye to Sophie had cost me, allowing Moreau to take a swipe at me, leaving deep gashes in my chest. I didn’t feel the pain, though, trusting my vampire body to patch itself up.

With a roar, I tossed Moreau away from me, and he crashed into the nearby wall.

In the blink of an eye, he was back on his feet, lunging at me.

I retreated. We began to dart around the room, colliding to exchange blows in a blur of claws and fangs.

We weren’t the only ones. The study had become a battlefield, much like the one depicted on the large canvas, which took up most of the wall behind my desk.

Six against two. Isabelle and I would not win this fight. I needed her out of here.

“Get out!” I shouted, finding her wild black eyes in the moving shadows.

“And miss all the fun?” She gave a savage smile as she jumped back from Yvonne, barely escaping the swipe of her claws. My heart twisted with dread as I took her in. Ragged wounds covered her body, blood seeping out of some, gushing out of others.

“Watch out!” I shouted a warning, but it was too late.

Lena rushed her, her mouth stretching wide before it clamped down around her neck. A strangled cry left Isabelle as she clawed at the vampire, shredding her flesh. She managed to fight her off, but not before Lena tore out a chunk of her throat.

“Isabelle!” I stepped toward her but didn’t make it far.

Moreau appeared before me, slashing at my chest again.

With a roar of fury and pain, I went for his throat, but Emeric and Beatrice stopped me, grabbing my forearms. Moreau’s clawed hand balled into a fist a moment before he slammed it into my midsection.

A grunt escaped as air whooshed out of my lungs.

The world flipped as Beatrice and Emeric brought me down on my back.

The stone cracked under my weight and my eyes watered from the impact because it wasn’t just the floor that had cracked but also my ribs.

Without wasting any time, Moreau jumped on top of me, looking deranged as he lifted his clawed hand high above his head, ready to deliver the fatal blow.

The bastard was reveling in the moment, salivating at the thought that he was about kill me.

My long life didn’t flash before my eyes.

Only the past few weeks did. The time Sophie had been in it.

I had been ready to follow her into the void before when we had thought the Tear would destroy us.

Now, I would slip into the nothingness without her.

A smidgen of sorrow filled my heart, but I pushed it out.

I should feel joy, not sorrow, because she would live, and I would wait for her in the void for as long as I had to.

It might take millennia, but the wait would be worth it if I got to reunite with her in the end.

Moreau’s claws and fangs gleamed in the lamplight.

I thrashed and bucked under him, trying to throw him off, but Emeric’s and Beatrice’s hold on me was strong, and I was weak because I’d lost too much blood.

Isabelle couldn’t help me either—she was pinned to the wall by Yvonne and Lena.

Any second now, Moreau would rip out my heart.

No matter—my heart was not here; it was wherever Sophie had gone.

“Stop,” came Camilla’s husky voice.

Moreau stilled above me. I stilled, too, turning my head to look at the female.

“Stop?!” Moreau snarled.

“Yes.” Camilla’s lips curved upward. Somehow, her smile was more menacing than Moreau’s gleaming claws. “We can’t kill him. We need him,” she explained calmly.

My heart sank.

I bucked under Moreau again, throwing all the strength I could muster into it, but he didn’t budge. Emeric and Beatrice tightened their hold on my forearms, their claws digging into my flesh. I stopped thrashing and locked eyes with Isabelle.

Run, I implored her without saying a word.

Despair and heartbreak flashed in her eyes, but she gave a small nod.

Using the distraction Camilla had inadvertently provided to her advantage, she twisted out of Yvonne’s and Lena’s hold and fled the room.

The two females snarled in frustration, preparing to follow, but Camilla stopped them by blocking the study door.

“Let her go,” she ordered low. “We need her to escape and find Sophie so she can tell her.”

“Tell her what?” Yvonne growled.

Before Camilla could answer, Moreau shifted above me, snapping my attention to him. With a smirk that twisted my insides, he retracted his claws and curled his hand into a fist above his head.

“That we have him,” I heard Camilla say a moment before Moreau slammed his meaty fist into my face, plunging my world into darkness.