Page 76 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

There was a beat of silence, a soft stroke of his hand through my hair.

“Oh?”

“Her name is Isabella,” I continued, my heart hammering inside my chest.

I shifted to face him. His dark eyes were guarded as I spoke, but he needed to see me and the depths of my emotion in my features. It would give me my best shot at winning him over to help.

“I wasn’t supposed to be moving to Aristelle. I was supposed to be traveling around the dry lands with my best friend Jaxon. That had always been the plan. Until Isabella was taken by vampires, right before we were set to leave.”

36

SCARLETT

Rune’s face flashed surprise, confusion, and something else I couldn’t quite decipher before he shifted into sympathy.

“I heard them talking, and they—” I stared hard into his eyes as I struggled once again to say this truth aloud. “They’d been looking for me. It was supposed to be me that was sold into slavery, but they took her instead. Now I’m here in Aristelle to find her and bring her home.”

Rune didn’t react at first. He wasn’t easy to read in general, but even less so when he was processing new information. With his background in combat, espionage, and torture, it was safe to assume he was far more trained in guarding his mind and facial expressions that anyone I’d ever encountered.

Then a slight crease developed in his forehead, and his eyes softened. “I’m sorry, Scarlett. Slavery is a scourge on this island, this world. I know some mortals think the turned are either complicit or even involved in the trade, but I swear to you, the clan fights trafficking every damn day. Our world is far more complex than what’s visible on the surface.”

“Explain it to me. I want to understand,” I said.

I expected Rune to deny me, to treat me like a silly human who couldn’t possibly grasp the political landscape of Valentin and Ravenia. But once again, he surprised me.

“The war between the born and the turned ended, and the treaty was written for two main reasons. First, because the kingdom demanded it. Though the turned and allied mortals were the decisive winners, and we’d pushed all born forces out of their strongholds, they were still a powerful force. They had no regard for mortals or the basic tenets of ethical code, not in life or in war. They would wipe out entire villages, covens, and mortal towns on vengeful rampages. Civilians. Children.”

Nausea brewed in my stomach; Rune’s words painted a gruesome side of the war I had only ever heard a few times in hushed whispers.

“Are you sure you want to talk about this right now?” he asked me, searching my eyes.

I nodded.

With one more sweep of his gaze, he continued. “We’d humiliated them, and they were bloodthirsty for revenge. Valentin’s exports to Ravenia—namely our weapons and magickal goods—are invaluable. As I’m sure you know, this island is special, blessed by the gods. We have resources, land, and bloodlines here that the kingdom envies. Though King Earle would much rather he control Valentin, he knows that not a single mortal or immortal on this island wants his dominion. We all want to remain autonomous. He’d have to fight us for it, and in doing so, he’d likely destroy what he coveted to begin with. Instead, he understood that recognizing the turned and mortals as the winners while also prohibiting the total destruction of the born and their right to exist in Aristelle was the smartest move.

“This brings us to our second main reason the war needed to end. In a war led by vampires, it’s the mortals who suffer most. There’s the moral consideration that mattered to the turned, of course, but the reason the born agreed to the treaty was survival. An endless war would have the mortal population continuing to diminish, which would mean a blood shortage. That was already beginning to happen, which—of course—led to even more mortal deaths due to bloodlust. It was pure chaos. In order for Valentin to remain autonomous and for all factions to live here in relative peace, the war had to end, and compromises had to be made. No one got everything they wanted. But Valentin is still a much better place after the war than it had been for centuries under the tyranny of the born.”

Now it was Rune’s turn to watch me process.

“You don’t want to provoke another war,” I finally concluded.

Rune nodded. “No, I don’t. Mortals don’t have the perspective that vampires have. They see that the turned are the ruling clan. They see my power, my image, and they come to the conclusion that I am unrestricted in my will and only choose not to act because I don’t want to act. But all of us are bound from acting on our true desires in this world, even me, at times. I have to consider what’s best for all, weighing the costs and pressure from both the born and the kingdom, and sometimes that means choosing the path of least harm.” He inhaled deeply. “But now, I fear war is inevitable. Not only here, but in Ravenia, too.”

Rune’s eyes were mournful now, and it was a depth of emotion I wasn’t prepared for. He was looking straight inside me, as if it was me he was grieving. It made me falter, unable to conjure my next question.

I knew that there was an underground world of clan fighting hidden from view that sometimes leaked onto the streets. I understood that ruling a city, and by extension, an entire island, was far more complex than what I could imagine. Rune had centuries on me. He was endlessly contradicting, a puzzle I couldn’t begin to unravel. One moment he revealed the humanity he’d supposedly killed, and the next, he was baring his cruelty and god complex.

In the end, what mattered most to me was still Isabella. I was not going to give up on her. Not for anything or anyone.

“My sister isn’t a cost to be weighed or a faceless pawn on the board,” I said. “Not to me. I understand why she has to be that for you—just like all the other slaves that the turned can’t save without inciting more violence. But I cannot live while she dies inside, especially not when I’m the only reason she was taken.”

A flare of intensity broke through Rune’s careful mask. I sensed his power vibrate in his blood, awakening his thorny branches and whorls of shadow on his skin.

“This was why you were playing Frederick and Liza—entertaining their invitation to see the born districts?” he said, anger flashing in his eyes that he seemed to be fighting off.

I swallowed, and he watched the bob of my throat as his muscles flexed and strained.

He inhaled deeply, and his eyes closed for a moment. “Do you have any idea what would’ve happened to you the moment you crossed into born territory? Do you have any idea of the effect you have on everyone?”

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