Page 12 of The Blood Crown

“I haven’t seen one in centuries . . .” he said softly. But the deep resonance of his voice became blurred and watery as she drifted into sleep.

Chapter 5

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Her eyelids felt glued shut as Aurelia struggled to open them, but the noise woke something buried deep inside her. Something that made her heart pound in her chest.

She was on her knees. Her body felt weightless and fluid as she tried to stand up, but it wouldn’t obey her command.

She tugged and pulled to release her arms from where they were pinned behind her back, only to realize she was powerless, her arms weak and useless against whatever bound her. And as she struggled, cursing her body in frustration, something wet coated her knees, pooling around her shins and sinking through the thin fabric of her skirts.

Laughter snapped her head up, and the room came into focus.

Not the cave she’d fallen asleep in, but a different stone floor.

One that was covered in blood.

Bile rose up in her throat as she looked to the source.

Her mother’s beautiful green eyes, dull and lifeless. Wellan’s strawberry blonde hair caked with dark red, his neck bent atan unnatural angle. And something about seeing his hair so disheveled, his clothes so askew, was even more grotesque than the fact that he was dead.

That laughter. It drew her attention again, but she already knew who she would see.

The weasel-like face of the First Brother was split open into a garish smile. Triumphant as he slit Asher’s throat and threw him onto the floor next to their mother, her spill of auburn hair darkening as it soaked up the spent blood.

She tried to scream for them, but only a breathless gasp escaped her lips. Like the air had been sucked from her lungs and her vocal cords had been severed.

Someone stepped from the shadows, and as the fog cleared, Bastien’s cold expression cracked into a benevolent smile. “It’s better this way. You’ll see.”

The bitter taste of anguish filled her mouth as she looked at the discarded bodies of her family. Everyone she loved.

Aurelia startled awake, a cold sweat on her brow as she scrambled to make her body obey her in the pitch black. Her fingers scrabbled for purchase against rough stone. Great, heaving breaths tore through her chest, her eyes darting through the dim surroundings as she tried to remember where she was.

The cave.

They were in the Shades. Hidden in a cave.

A nightmare—just a nightmare.

Her hand found the small heavy weight sitting over her chest. They were safe. Her mother and Wellan were alive. Asher . . .

The tears gripped her without warning, the stifled sobs wracking her body in waves as reality came crashing down on her.

There would be no going back—because to do so would mean bringing the King of the Void’s wrath down on the human realm. She would never see them again. Would never have the chanceto explain . . . Could only hope that her decision to leave had kept them safe.

And Bastien—he’d been the greatest betrayal of all.

Not just when he’d finally revealed his true nature, but in the bits and pieces that slipped through the cracks after she’d returned. He’d indulged her rebellious side only when it suited him, but as soon as she became his, he tightened the collar.

It was a funny thing, power. How it could change people. Because it changed everyone—either once they had a taste of it or in the pursuit of obtaining it.

She’d truly thought he loved her and she’d left everything she’d found at Ravenstone for that love.

For that lie.

But she hadn’t really known what love was. And she was guilty of only loving him half-heartedly herself.

What became of him after she left? What pieces of his memory still remained intact after she’d used compulsion on him? Did he remember betraying her? Did he regret any of it?

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