Page 71 of The Vampire's Mercy

Time crawled by, my constant checking of the wooden clock above Silvanus’s bed area not helping. So, I picked up a random book about the geography of Quintrealm. There were notes written on a double-page map in messy handwriting I couldn’t read.

I closed the book, lying down to think.

The memory of waking up on the frozen Albion came bubbling back to the surface. Aidan only knew why, because it stayed confusing.

I’d never willingly stroll into a frostbrood nest, so why had I been there? Magic? A traumatic event I’d somehow blocked? Hal hadn’t noticed me leave, so magic was a possibility. But that didn’t fit right.

Think. Think. Think.

“This is useless,” I grumbled, picking the book back up.

How many times could I go over the same thing and come up empty? And I wouldn’t even know where to begin trying to find a clue. I definitely wouldn’t be going back to the frozen river.

Hard pass from me.

I read for a bit, hoping it might unlock something in my subconsciousness. Read a chapter about the highest mountain in the Werewolf Domain—and the world—named Savage Queen, and part of the Regal Peaks mountain range dividing that country in half.

I got a few pages in before my mind drifted, returning to that tower, the rainstorm still falling behind me.

So cold.

So bitterly cold.

Darkness beyond the door, heat beckoning me forward. But my feet wouldn’t move, rejecting the idea of crossing the threshold.

Bad feeling. Really bad feeling. So many goosebumps prickling my skin, a tongue of ice licking my spine. Up and down, up and down.

I backed away, thunder pealing behind me. Spinning with a yelp, lightning forked across the sky, revealing a vast field of mud and grass, the hint of a tree line in the distance.

Where the hell was I?

Hiss…

I faced the door again, wrapping my arms around myself. “Hello?”

Thunder. Lightning. Wind and rain. The door didn’t move no matter how hard the wind threw itself at the tower.

“I can’t be here,” I said.

“I can’t?—”

Light. So much light. I moved from darkness into glorious daytime, standing in a forest clearing.

My head buzzed with a weird happiness, my feet merry in the grass.

Huh? Grass? What grass?

I looked down, my toes wiggling in the lush green grass, its blades like soft shards of jade.

Hiss…

The rest of me was covered in a long silver robe as thin as tissue paper. The lightest thing I’d ever worn, leaving little to the imagination, the satin-like material clinging to the planes of my body.

Hello there, dick.

One by one, flowers bloomed around me in a variety of colors and species. Their collective perfumes caressed my senses, their energy a great big happy hug.

“Hello, sweeties.”