Page 14 of The Vampire’s Mercy (Blood Melody #1)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

PARIS

My friend broke down into hysterical sobbing as I hacked my guts up, betrayal worse than any rotting flowers.

Did he really just say that?

Did he just condemn me to death to save his own skin?

I fell back, unable to stay upright, the back of my head cushioned by the dead flowers.

He wouldn’t do this to me. Not Hal. Never him. No. I’d imagined it. I mean, I’d already offered myself up in his place. I’d die, no problem. Well, it was a problem, but I wouldn’t allow Hal to die in my place.

So, yeah. My brain was playing tricks.

Right?

Delusional much?

“Is that your final answer?” the king asked.

“Y-yes. Please don’t hurt me.”

“What the hell,” I rasped, my head stuffed with cotton wool dipped in poison.

No way was that Hal’s voice. He must be under a spell or the man on the other side of the bars some sort of decoy.

“Then you’re free to go, mage,” Silvanus said.

“I-I am?”

“Of course. It’s as simple as that. Thank you for your help. Bye.”

“Paris, I’m so sorry.”

I couldn’t lift my head anymore, but his fucking voice only added an extra cement block against my skull.

It wasn’t him…

Shuffling, a whimper, the bang of a closing door, and then silence. A long beat of cloying quiet.

Tears burned my eyes. “Hal…” How could he do this to me?

Not him. It couldn’t have been him.

“Isn’t it a terrible thing to be betrayed?” Silvanus’s voice was a dark wind in the cell.

“Why…why…” Damn, I couldn’t keep up with the speaking.

“You’ll die here,” he said. “Like the flowers around you, you’ll wither, you’ll rot, and you’ll pay the price for fucking with me.”

I managed to roll my head to the side. He stood there with his hands on the bars, eyes ruby fires.

That had been Hal.

He’d betrayed me. He was just like everyone else, giving into the vamps, spreading those legs wide.

“I hope…I hope I stink this place up.”

No outward reaction from the vampire from what I could make out. “What a life you lead.”

“Fuck you,” I grumbled.

“Enjoy your ending, Paris Raine.”

With that, he left me to die.