Page 89 of When Day Breaks

"Where will you go?" I ask, knowing the boys will take a second to process. They've been protective over her this whole time and her departure is going to put a hole in this dynamic, as dysfunctional as it may have been.

"I've always wanted to go to New York. I have a friend who lives in the Ruby Stone Society, in Sunfall. I might go there. I won't have to transfer my blood; they'll take me as I am." Her voice shakes with worry that they'll deny her of her wants. To venture and travel, explore the world that she's bound to forever.

"Transfer blood?" I ask Rivian separately, not really sure if I understand what that means.

He lowers his voice to speak to me while the twins continue their argument. "Some Societies require a blood wash, if you will. Kind of like what Ameliana went through," he explains, and I mentally sigh in relief knowing that Troy won't have to go through that, but it brings up the memory of my mom.

Turns out, she died during her blood transfer, shortly after running away to marry Dominek. She was forced to drain herself of her Hollows Trace Royal blood and renew it with the Royal blood of Valor and, like Rivian had mentioned, a few seconds too long and the worst can happen. Dominek drained himself shortly after, not wanting to live without her. It actually sounds like a real tragic love story, but as it is, that's all we were really able to find out about her death.

But everything else started to unravel shortly after that.

Birdania was scorned by Rivian's rejection, and she confided in Zharus who found her crying all alone in a room one day. That was the day that set all of this into motion. They schemed this plan to destroy Rivian—Zharus having told Birdie about hisplan to be Rivian's downfall. Zharus promised her royalty and freedom if she cooperated, and she agreed.

When Zharus found out that Travois was planning on going to sneak off to see if he could find Ameliana—Zharus knew she was dead—he thought it was the perfect time to take advantage of the dark magic that Birdania told him she was capable of. Together, they dug up her mother's desecrated body where she found the dark object—the necklace—and was able to perform the hex, presenting herself as Ameliana in every way—holding her memories and sounding like her—to fuck with Travois, and later, the rest of us fell victim to the illusion as well.

Zharus admitted that his biggest fear was Travois, and he wanted him mentally weak. So after years of toying with him, they decided to act on the next step of the plan which was to kill Renard. That was supposed to enact the wedding of Rivian and Birdania where they would become king and queen. Birdania was supposed to kill Rivian which would leave her widowed and at risk to run a kingdom alone. Though that isn't permitted for queens, and it would force her to remarry, needing to appoint a brand-new line of Royalty into the kingdom. This would have led to Zharus finally getting what he wanted, to rule a Society of his own, as she would have accepted his courtship.

But it wasn't as simple as they had hoped because Rivian's engagement to Birdania was called off once he found me. Rivian had this whole entire agenda of his own that he was working on, one where he would lure me into the depths of his home to hopefully bring out his biggest opposition, enacting his own revenge. So when Birdania's engagement to Rivian ended, she and Zharus had to come up with a new plan. This is where Viktrum became of use.

Zharus had been sneaking out of the castle for over a year to have an affair with Viktrum, and that's when he learned of Viktrum's pure hatred for Rivian. Why? We'll never know, butI assume that's when Zharus decided to bring Viktrum in. His prize in return for his cooperation was the promise of power to be a ruler over the strongest bloodline of vampires in the world.

It was unfortunate of Travois to decide to fall into his dark desires when he did, killing a couple of Outsiders on his way home from the Valor Cove castle one night. Zharus had witnessed the onslaught and decided it was the perfect time to frame him for the murders that followed. The murders that Birdie and Zharus committed. That was going to ensure they'd get Travois out of the way before they acted to kill Rivian. It was Viktrum's idea to use Dominek's death—which was kept in secret from outside Societies along with Ameliana's death—as a motivator for the Faction to investigate, leading them straight to Hollows Trace using the video surveillance of Zharus sneaking out of the castle as bait.

Zharus was able to compel Travois because of his Royal blood, convincing him to take the fall for the crimes as well as making him forget that it was him who freed him from the prison he'd been held in.

Together, Zharus, Birdania and Viktrum devised this elaborate plan to take everything, and they might have prevailed . . . if it weren't for me.

For Lavender Cyn.

My curse destroyed me for days on end, sucking every last bit of humanity I had left to offer while wreaking havoc on anyone else who dared to get in my way. When I killed Viktrum, I didn't know it, but I had thrown a wrench at their plans. Only because his death had left behind his widowed wife who is now responsible for finding a new king and she would have never taken the courtship of the man her husband cheated on her with.

My curse led to the arrival of Nathaira, called out by my husband in a desperate plea for help and if she had never been allowed her release from the deal they had made, she wouldhave never been able to snuff out Birdie like she did. But as it is, Birdania's dark object only held enough power to perform the magic only a tad longer, so her time would have been up anyway.

That day in the dungeon was a true unraveling. An undoing. The end.

And the way we found out about all the inner workings that went into this convoluted plan for takeover? A fucking diary.

Viktrum's wife found a diary next to her nightstand the night after his death. Scribbled inside was 'property of Zharus Fatchelm'.

When the Faction arrived to follow up on the return of Travois and to investigate the death of Viktrum, we handed them the diary. But not before my genius sister forged the imbecile's handwriting for one last entry, confessing to the murder of Viktrum for his unwillingness to leave his wife for him. Anything that was left unsaid was undecided in mystery, but the Faction didn't seem the need to pursue anything further, so they took their answers and moved along.

Just like that.

But in the process of finding out all of this information, Millatrix, Viktrum's widowed wife, said she found another box of old papers. In one of them was a note, one for me and one for each of the twins.

And one for Rivian.

He burned his letter the moment he touched it, having thrown it to the fire and he watched the ashes eat the paper away. I thought it was because he still held a grudge for her, but he claimed it's because he can't revisit that part of his life ever again. And in the case that she explained herself to him, he'd never forgive himself the things he'd done so he'd rather pretend like it never existed.

I hadn't opened mine yet and I'm unsure if the twins have either. But for now, that chapter remains closed.

My head is pulled from my thoughts as I turn to see Travois stand from his chair. "I think I'm going to Valor," he states, and simultaneously we all turn to him in shock, seeing the look of pure solemnness on his face.

"What the fuck kind of business do you have over there?" Rivian says a little too aggressively and I have to warn him to keep his voice down. We haven't had a serious argument since that day we walked away from the dungeon, and I intend to keep it that way, at least until the New Year.

He dips his head, his hands in his pockets as I hold on to Rivian, and Troian waits with bated breath, anticipating his response.

"They need a king." His response is grave and his expression is unsmiling.

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