Page 59 of King of the Damned
I shake my head and squeeze her gently even tighter to my chest. “What if you don’t come back to me?”
She does her best to give me a reassuring smile through her tears, but I can see the emotion stuck in her throat, bubbling up and making her lip quiver. She doesn’t know the answer, but I do.
If she doesn’t come back, then I shall chase her into the afterlife when the sun rises.
She notices when I crumble, ready to risk everything on the minuscule chance that it could save her. “Will it hurt?” she asks quietly.
I tenderly brush her hair away from her neck to comfort her. “No. No, it won’t hurt. I promise.”
I close my eyes and press my fangs through the delicate skin of her neck. She tenses up for a second before she begins to fall limp into my arms as the euphoria takes her. It masks her pain and her fear.
Her blood does not bring me pleasure. Not this time. Not when I’m stealing her precious life from her. I want to stop. I find myself fighting the urge to gag, fighting the urge I have to stop drinking from her. I don’t want her to die by my hand, even if she’s already doomed.
I’ve already ruined her life. I don’t want to be the one to end it, too. As she begins to fall limp from the loss of blood, her soft breath fans across my neck on the opposite side.
“I love you, Kaius. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
My brow furrows and ice shoots through my heart as I softly hold her head. I let her take one last peaceful intake of breath before I quickly and seamlessly jerk her neck.
With a soft click, she goes fully limp and still in my arms. I taste my salty tears as I remove my teeth from her neck and the devastation hits me all at once.
I tenderly kiss her temple. “I love you too.”
A hand grabs me by the back of my head, twisting into my hair and pulling it backward.
“What have you done?!” Amatisi yells into my face, her veil billowing slightly from her words getting caught on her breath.
Yekaterina’s summoning mist has begun to crackle like a storm cloud. Black lightning flashes through the air above us. Amatisi lets out an exasperated sound somewhere between a shout and a growl. The ground shakes below us through her fury. Her hand flicks to her side, pulling Adelasia’s still body out of my grip. Amatisi holds me by the front of my jacket.
I grit my teeth, no longer trying to hide my sorrow. My eyes leak tears freely. I have nothing now. No mortality. No Adelasia.
What else could I possibly lose?
“There is no hell deep enough for you, Kaius Voroninov. The next time you look upon me, my crown will be made from the bones of your lover.”
Amatisi clutches her fist, and like a candle snuffed out from the wind, the Priestesses are gone, taking Adelasia’s body with them.
The only sounds that can be heard through the valley are my wails, drowned out by the harsh sprinkle of a heavy rain.
Twenty-Eight
Adelasia
Cold. That’s the first thing I notice, but I’ve grown used to it by now, the way my toes and fingers never quite find a comfortable temperature anymore.
Then, I hear the soft lap of waves. Not as intense as the ocean, more like the edge of a lake, gently disturbed after a nighttime swim.
I open my eyes and find myself half-submerged in a pool of black water. My spine tingles uncomfortably. The last time I was in black water, I nearly drowned.
But this time…this time I’m already dead.
I pull myself to my knees and brush the strands of hair stuck to my face away from my cheeks before taking in my surroundings.
I sit on a small island in the center of a black lake. The water is eerily still and the ground below me is chilly and lifeless. A statue stands tall before me of a veiled woman. The stone is a deep black adorned with golden details. Her veils and robes sit luxurious on her frame and a black crystal crown proudly gleams atop her head. Golden wings protrude from her back, seeming to both absorb and reflect all light within this strange place.
You shall be punished…
An eerie voice echoes in the space around me.
