Page 49 of The Nightblood Prince

When the stench of rotting bodies hit the back of my throat, I gagged.

I saw the dying before I saw the battlefield.

A scene torn from my nightmares.

A path soaked in blood, covered in corpses and the injured. Even Beifeng, who had no doubt seen more than his fair share of violence, flinched upon the harrowing sight. His hooves hesitated at the scattered limbs and chunks of torn flesh.

I caught glimpses of some familiar faces. Men with whom I had eaten and laughed with around campfires, whose families I had met through their well-worn stories.

Something inside me shuddered, and my better instincts begged me to turn back. To run from this place as fast as I could.

I kicked Beifeng into motion, followed the crimson trail despite my wrenching stomach. It was too late to save these men, but it wasn’t too late for Siwang.

I shifted the bow from my back, arrows already in hand.

Siwang. His name was the only thing that could drown out the terror in my bones.

Siwang.

Siwang.

I thought of his name like a chant, hoped Fate’s magic would lead me to him.

Dread clutched me tight until I heard the screams. In the distance, I saw blurry shadows of men who moved faster than what should be possible—though not as fast as Yexue.

Red-eyed soldiers in bloodstained twilight-blue uniforms—the color of the Lan dynasty—circled what should have been a mighty battalion of elite soldiers, now dwindled to just dozens of men, being picked apart one by one.

Still, the Rong soldiers remained united in formation, forming a wall around Siwang, ready to protect their prince until their dying breath.

I snapped the reins to prompt Beifeng into a full charge, nocked an arrow onto my bow, and waited for Fate’s magic to guide me. But I saw nothing, felt nothing. There was no hand of Fate guiding me. I touched my forehead. Nothing was covering my mark.

No. I willed a vision to come, but there was nothing.

Another cruel reminder that I couldn’t do anything right.

My only skill was not even mine to control.

Fine, I will do this the old-fashioned way.

I fired the first shot, but the vampires’ instincts were sharp and their bodies were fast. My target dashed out of the way before the arrow was anywhere near it.

I wasn’t even close, however I wasn’t shooting to kill.

I wanted their attention, and to buy Siwang time to run.

“Oh, look, another fool!” one of the vampires cackled, and I was stunned by how human he sounded.

“Run, Siwang!” I cried.

One of the vampires charged at me, moving so fast his body became an indistinguishable blur, and knocked me off Beifeng. Hands came for my throat, and I let out a scream when I saw his face.

As monstrous as the demons of my nightmares. Bone-white skin and eyes that were burning red, dark veins like an intricate embroidery covering his face. And his teeth?

They were not the teeth of a human.

“Fei!” someone cried in the background. “Don’t hurt her! I’ll go with you! I’ll do whatever you want! Just don’t hurt her!”

Run, you idiot! I would have screamed if I didn’t have a demon’s claw around my throat. When the vampire’s fangs fell on my throat, I had only one thought in mind : I’ve come too far to die like this.

Without thinking, I stabbed the silver tip of Siwang’s bow into the vampire’s eye, and the monster let out an earsplitting scream.

I tasted ash in my mouth, smelled the scent of burning flesh.

“Fei!”

Siwang.

When another vampire charged at me, I barely had time to react. I tried to stab him with the bow the way I’d done the last time, but he was too fast.

A sword plunged into my chest.

“Stop!” A voice broke the chaos. Deep and rumbling, like thunder cutting through a storm.

Overwhelmed by the disarray, I had failed to notice the man standing at the edge of the battle, clad in silvery white, a color too pure to exist among the gruesome hues of blood and death.

While everyone else was crusted by blood, he alone was pristine.

Ethereal was the first word that came to mind.

“We meet again.” The wind carried his voice to me.

As I fell to the ground, gasping for air, I saw him smile.

The dimples flashed.

Lan Yexue. The captive prince who was no longer a captive.

Please, don’t let me die, I thought as a blaze of fireworks lit up the twilight sky and something akin to fear flashed across the monsters’ faces.

They weren’t invincible.

Fire.

They are weakened by sunlight, Siwang had said.

We can still win this war….