Page 63 of Our Sins in Silver (Coven of Sin 3)

“Sapphire. The light and love inside you are far stronger than your Helsing instincts. I dare say if you stayed any longer, you might have had the stuff to tame the vampire king himself.”

“Th–that’s not true.”

“It is, and you know it. If anything is more frightening than having the vampire king as an enemy, it’s having him as a lover. As an enemy, at least there is an escape in death. When he loves you, well, you’ve seen that it’s a fate worse than death...” I shivered at the inflection in Sterling’s voice. “So you must flee.”

“I can’t. They lock the doors, and security around here is tighter than a nun’s asshole, Ster.”

“I will help you.”

“He’ll punish you. Probably worse than he ever has before. Come with me. Help me raise the baby.”

“I... I can’t. I can’t say why. I just can’t.”

A few minutes passed while nothing was said. The only sounds that met my ears were the soft sobs of my mother. I wanted to hold her and scream at her at the same time. Sterling had helped her escape that night, and she’d succeeded. But she came back and left me on the doorstep in a basket with that note. Why? Had the guild caught up with her? Had she changed her mind about wanting me?

Colors returned, and a scene took visual form, the library coming into view. I turned to Sterling, worrying my lip. “Wha–what’s happening?”

“Your father is getting close. This is from his point of view that night. Look…”

I returned my attention to the library, and my gut plummeted to the ground as I found myself staring at the vampire king from the past, sitting in his progeny’s wingback chair beside the fire. Waiting. His beady gaze bore into the flames that crackled and jumped in the hearth, anger and a whole maelstrom of other emotions carving his glower.

Some time had passed since the prince had fled with my mom, judging by the tell of the sunlight shining from behind the drawn curtains, setting the fabric alight with a dull glow. When Sterling slipped back into the library with a cloak draped over his shoulders and a cowl drawn up, it was painfully obvious that he’d been up to no good. Or, in his master’s eyes, treachery.

The king glanced up from the fire, adopting a calm look so rapidly that goosebumps rose on my arms.

Sterling, unable to see his guest, stared dead ahead. His nostrils flared, and his lips thinned. But his face remained otherwise emotionless as he pulled back his hood, meeting his master’s composed mask of indifference with one of his own. “My King. To what do I owe this visit?”

Thomas Knight rose from the chair, knuckles cracking as he flexed his hands at his sides. “She’s gone. Escaped.”

“So I heard. I’m sorry, Master.”

“Sorry? Are you?” The king’s eyes glinted like an executioner’s ax caught in the moonlight, ready to drop any second. “Considering it was you who let her out?”

Present Sterling went lethally rigid when the scene’s details grew sharper. “He’s coming. He’ll be here any moment,” present Sterling urged, pointing to a bookcase across the library. “Hide.”

“What about you? Aren’t you going to hide with me?”

“No. I’m going to distract him. If I do it properly, his defenses will weaken. You must jump out at the right time and wrench control of the spell away from him.”

“But—”

“Now, Ruby!”

With my heart thundering in my mouth, I scrambled behind the bookcase. No sooner than when I was out of sight, the vampire king’s oppressive eminence flooded the room.

“Little spoon,” my father rumbled. “Why would you lead me here, to the night I beat you black and blue for allowing my archenemy to escape?”

My line of sight drifted to where my prince from the past lay on the ground with his maker looming over him, knuckles dripping with black blood as he lay punch after punch into the younger vampire.

I clamped my hand tight over my mouth to stifle my gasp and peered around the bookcase to see Sterling angled with his back to the memory, standing tall before his master.

“Oh, Master.” The priest clicked his tongue in mock disapproval. “Even after all these years, you’re still lying to yourself. That night isn’t difficult for you to relive because of what you did to me. It’s difficult for you because to this day, you still deny the fact that Sapphire Lockheart was fated to be your mate and cursed to be yours.”

Chapter twenty-seven

Prince of Cunning, King of Hell

Thewordscomingoutof Sterling’s mouth made my vision sizzle red-hot, and tears stung my eyes, as hot as a brand.

---