Page 8 of The Ballad of the Vampire Prince

A boar masks for Bas and a vulture for me.

Time passes and Gwyn’s corpse is beginning to decay. Bas summons his familiar, an owl to ward off the rats and other scavengers. I listen to the choking gasps from his throat as he stares at his lover’s lifeless form on the settee. He never took his eyes off from her, not even for a second. But as hard as he tries, he can never reach her.

It’s going to be all right.I want to tell them what I know. We will betray the witch and seal her in a tomb in just a few years. But for now, there is nothing else to do other than suffer in this prison of terror. We lay dormant, frozen, becoming nothing more than sentient stones in the aftermath of Lilith’s cruelty.

This is just a memory,I remind myself.

I fail to understand why my mind has brought me to this miserable night. It’s not even the worst of Lilith’s torture in my scarred existence.

Gwyn’s bones have nearly yellowed by the time the door creaks open once again.

A girl enters the room in hunting leathers. Her silver hair cascades smoothly and freely past her waist. She studies the room carefully, marveling at the architecture of the abandoned palace.

Is this the new curse bearer?

Perhaps a lost traveler… Yes, I’m so thirsty. I think of ways to trick her into coming closer.

She rummages through her satchel looking for something. A smile brightens her face as she whips out a notepad and a quill. Her soft scent is sweet and familiar.

No fucking way.

It can’t be.

Rhianelle?

The girl wanders around the large room, her bright eyes blinking curiously like a deer, completely unaware she had just entered a wolf’s den.

Get away from this place, Nel.

Her eyes suddenly catch my presence from across the room. “Svenn?”

She runs towards me without hesitation.

“What happened?” she asks, her face full of concern and sorrow as she leans in closer.

I try to speak but my throat is filled with silver.

What are you doing here?I want to ask her.

The girl raises her hand to reach for my face.

Her touch is like heaven.

She strokes my jaw and I focus on that small movement.

“How do I free you from this thing?” she says, her voice wavering.

The thudding of her pulse triggers a hunger that sets me alight from the inside out. And her scent… I’m glad Ruth had poured that metal into my throat. At least, I won’t be able to hurt her.

“It’s all right, Svenn. I’m going to heal you,” she says soothingly.

Rhianelle’s expression is fierce and determined as she channels her blessing into me.

Fear slams into my gut when I remember the presence of the other two starved vampires in the room. Sane thoughts had left them months ago. Their red eyes glint in the dark, staring at the vulnerable prey in the room.

Rhianelle is too busy healing me to notice the threat to her life.

You need to go!I want to scream at her.