Page 10 of When Day Breaks

I head toward where I heard the voice come from. It sounded a lot like my step-mother. But shouldn't they be out at the party with the rest of the Royals and their guests? Tonight, after all, isultime nocte.Myfinal night.

Final Night is a celebration of sorts, usually popular for the night before weddings when an Outsider is marrying into a Nocturne family and will turn into a vampire the next day. Tonight, it's in celebration of my final night as a human.One more hour.

But I wasn't invited. To my own fucking party, I wasn't invited. I was forced to be tied down by chains, beaten and burned by my worthless piece of shit father because he wanted to prepare me for what was to come. His father did it to him a hundred years prior so he'd do it to me, day in and day out. So now as everyone is out celebrating my last night as a human, I roam the hallways like I normally do on cold dark nights, usually to allow myself some sort of peace from the shitshows that are my days. But when day breaks and the sun rises over the tops of trees and glistens against the waters, I know I'm in for a world of pain. And tomorrow will be no different, only it will be.

I'll be reborn.

As I approach the room where the arguing is coming from, I realize that my father and step-mother aren't actually at the party anymore.

I step up to the side of the closed doors to their bedroom, hearing both voices echo as they speak over each other.

"Because I am your king and I want you to do it!" My father yells at Ameliana, the queen.

Ameliana was found just a few weeks ago, after running away eleven years prior. She'd run away after giving birth to my half siblings and ever since my father brought her back, they've been like this nonstop. Maybe it’s the symptoms of her vampirism—they performed the blood bind a few days ago and she was finally forced to turn.

I never knew why my father hated me so much, that he used me as a scapegoat for his anger. His need to punish someone undoubtedly always fell on me, but I took it because I wanted him to like me, even just a little bit. But I won’t lie, I’m happy someone else is taking the brunt of whatever has him so displeased.

I listen closer as I hear things being thrown now; leaning against the doorframe and holding my ear to the wooded door. Grunts filled the air, likely from someone being hit by something. And then Ameliana speaks up again.

"I didn't sign up for this, Renard."

"King! You will call me King," he demands, his voice booms so loudly the doors shake. "And you in fact did sign up for this!" I step back, my chest rising and falling knowing that I could get caught and I'd be right back in the dungeon, tied up to the cold metal chair or chained to the cement wall.

Sometimes, it had even lasted for days. No food, no water.

To make sure you can survive on nothing, he'd tell me. And boy, could I.

"I will call you King over my dead body," Ameliana spits at him and then more things bang against the walls.

I don't know why they are like this. Maybe he's pissed at her for taking off all those years ago the first time, making him look high and low for her. Making him run a kingdom alone which is not a respected feat these days. Kingdoms are run by a kinganda queen. Lore deems them powerless without both. But for whatever reason she did leave. As much as I hate her, I can't really blame her. But I don't feel pity for her. She did this to herself.

Why my mother loved this man, I'll never know. Maybe she faked it, but I doubt my mother had a fake bone in her body.She was caring, genuine, and sweet. And my father never spoke to her the way he's handling his wife now. But one day, out of the blue, he'd brought home Ameliana and broke the news to the whole kingdom that she was hisanima vinculum.News that even my mother had found out in real time with the rest of the kingdom, like a peasant and not the queen. Tethers are rare, and when found, lore demands you act on them, even if already married. Facts I learned in Nocturne classes which are forced on teens the year prior to their turning year.

My mother's marriage to my father was simply out of contract. I'm unaware how that came about, but despite being seventeen years old about to be married off to an eighty-year old vampire, my mother was willing and loved with her whole heart.

Then, she was gone. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

The abuse started shortly after.

"If you don't obey my orders, wench, I will have for your daughter's head!" My father's tone growled into the hallway, and I heard Ameliana gasp.

"You wouldn't dare touch her. That was a part of our deal." Her voice sounds worried, and it drives me to curiosity.

Daughter? Deal?

Could they be talking about Troian or…

"She's a pretty little thing, isn't she? Eyes just like yours, colorless yet magical in the moonlight." Silence filled the air.

Ameliana had gray eyes, a color so rare, I'd only seen them on her. Troian had my father's colored eyes; blue just like Trav, except Travois' left eye was split between the blue and gray, also a very unique feature. But he can't be talking about Troy then, because Troy didn't have eyes like my step-mother does.

"I'll do what you ask, Renard. But I swear to God if you touch a hair on any of their heads, you'll live to regret it!" Ameliana shouts back against my father, I press my ear further into the wood of the door to listen closely.

But within a flash, something bangs against the door, causing me to fall back onto my ass.

"Threaten me in my castle again and you won't live to see the things I'd do to your beloved children." My father likely had thrown his wife up against the doors, surprised that the door held its lock but I didn't stick around to find out what was going to happen next.

I stand up and walk hastily down the hallways, thinking about the argument.

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