Page 13 of The Vampire King's War

The last was almost a question. Jack suddenly was blinking and shaking his head as if to clear it. He focused on his wife’s face. She was staring up at him with her lips parted and her eyes wide with worry.

“What happened, Jack?” Joanna asked.

He ran his uninjured hand through the hair on the side of her head. He was smiling. “I saw Julian, honey. No matter what happens to us, he’s going to be okay. He’s going to… come here.”

“We were going to bring him here tomorrow,” she said uncertainly.

“No, no, later. When he’s older. He can’t come here until…” Jack looked over at the still and silent and stony figure of Daemon. “Not until he’s older.”

That familiar pull occurred again and Christian figured the next thing he saw was some sweet encounter with Julian before the Harrows’ deaths by Kaly and Caemorn’s hands. He thought perhaps it would be good for him to witness that. He was finding himself liking Caemorn. But this man had ended the Harrows’ lives, no matter that he was ordered to do it by a being he couldn’t have resisted.

But it was not a moment in the Harrows’ lives that he was brought. Instead, his journey crashed to a halt in complete blackness. The two glittering threads of the Harrows’ lives hung before him in this blackness. And a figure stepped towards him, holding those threads in one delicate hand.

It was a boy of unnatural beauty. He was like an angel in a niche come to life. But the eyes were so cold and the mouth, though smiling, held absolutely no warmth. Christian didn’t have to read minds to know who this was.

“Kaly,” Christian said flatly.

The boy inclined his head. Curls flowing over a clear brow. Silver eyes alight with intelligence and malignancy. “Yes, and you are Christian. Our new Speaker to the Dead. I knew we would meet at some point. When I felt a tugging on the line, imagine my surprise.”

Christian ground his teeth together. He had given them away! His inexperience, something, had caused Kaly to know that he was coming!

And now I need to get back--need to get away from him--and I still don’t know where the Harrows are!

“Oh, no, don’t go!” Kaly held up his other hand that wasn’t clasping those golden strands and held it up towards Christian, freezing him in place. Dread spilled over him. “You can’t go. I won’t let you go.”

Christian tried to speak, but he was unable to. Kaly let out a shushing sound as he walked towards Christian with that delicate fingered hand still raised. “I don’t need to read your thoughts to know what you’re thinking, Christian. You want to return to… oh, where are your friends? Ah! The Well of All Souls.”

He let out a laugh that sounded like chimes. Kaly should not be so beautiful.

“Yes, I see. That was quite clever of Caemorn. But…” Kaly’s eyes narrowed and his smile seemed more like a slash across that pale, perfect face. “But that place is mine.”

And Christian remembered that sense that the Well of All Souls was another’s territory. This was why the other Kaly Vampires did not go there. It was Kaly’s place and he did not share. He had only let Caemorn think it was something that was his too.

Only to choose a later date to show him how very much it wasn’t. How there was nothing that Caemorn could have that Kaly could not take away,Christian realized. That date is now.

Kaly nodded happily. “Yes, that date is now, dear Christian.” His hand was poised over Christian’s cheek. “I’m afraid you won’t see it though. You will be staying here.”

Christian frowned and his eyes flickered to the darkness above them. It wasn’t completely black. There were glittering lines that met at angles that created… facets. Horror bloomed in Christian’s chest as the knowledge of where he was and what had happened to him filled him.

Kaly held up a black soul gem before two elegant fingers and nodded happy again. “Yes, Christian. I have you. And I will never let you go.”

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