Page 14 of Of Spindles and Nightfall
“Yes, yes, of course.”
“Then end him.”
It was always the same story. She had to prove that she loved him by butchering rebels and traitors. Sometimes she hesitated and others she didn’t. But always the memory of that night of her father’s death caused her to cave. She pressed the tip of the awl pike deeper into the man’s chest.
“Please, I'm innocent.”
They invariably said that when she got to this point. They consistently tried to bargain or work their way out, but Aryana had been tricked once, she had hesitated once, been manipulated once in the name of love.
She wouldn’t allow it to happen again.
The vampire’s cries burned in her ears as she drove the pike through his chest, ignoring the sounds of it crushing through his body, piercing his heart. His eyes grew empty, the fear frozen in place as his jaw hung wide. A sudden shudder ran through her. They always appeared that way when she was finished with them.
She straightened to meet her uncle’s gaze but only found displeasure there.
“I thought you had learned by now. I thought you trusted me.”
She stepped forward, his disappointment crushing down on her. She pressed a hand to her chest to stave off the ache. “I do, Uncle. I do. I love you.”
“Then why did you hesitate?”
“I-I don’t know. I don’t—” Why, after all this time, had she hesitated? The fear in the male’s eyes, his gasps, his pleas.
Her uncle shook his head. “You are still weak. Allowing feelings to cloud your judgment. If you are to protect my throne, you cannothesitate. You must show only love, only loyalty to me. I’m afraid until you learn this, you will be a danger to our kingdom.”
His words were blows landing on an already battered body. Her throat burned with shame. “Yes, Uncle.”
He motioned to the guards standing by the wall, clubs in hands. “I must teach you a lesson. You will take it. You will not fight.”
She trembled but dropped the pike and bowed before her uncle. “As you wish, Uncle.”
“Someday I’ll discern from your actions that you love me. Until then, you’ll bear the punishment of failure.”
With that, he turned and strode off, not once looking back as the first vampire guard brought his club cracking across Aryana’s shoulders, making her cry out as she fell to the floor, and the next guard stepped forward with another club raised.
After her beating, Aryana sat in her bedchamber at her vanity table and laid the cool cloth against her bruised and broken skin. She needed to feed and then her blood would rejuvenate and she’d heal. She healed faster with fresh blood in her system. A knock prompted her to face the doorway.
Her mother stood there, looking at her with nothing but pity in her eyes. “How are you feeling, my bonnet?”
Aryana’s mother had married her uncle shortly after Aryana’s father had died. She didn’t want to judge her mother, but she’d learned a long time ago not to rely on the female for protection or for anything that mattered.
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. You did your best.”
Aryana shook her head. “He thinks I’m not loyal enough. As if any second, I am going to turn on him.”
“I know he says that he’s doing it to make you strong—.”
“I am strong.”
Her mother wrapped her arms around her own waist, her brows pulled together. “We do what we must for our children. So that they may survive. So that we all can survive.”
Aryana glowered at her mother. Like she knew anything about being strong, about doing what was necessary to survive.
Her mother’s eyes landed on the bruises on Aryana’s body, and she frowned. For a moment something fierce flashed in the female’s gaze, but then it was gone and her shoulders drooped. “Do as he asks, darling. That is all that we can do.”
And that was what it always came down to. Aryana forced a sickly sweet smile. “Whatever you say, Mama.”
