Page 1 of Darkest Heart

ONE

Olivia

The last streaks of daylight dissolved between the drapes as the darkness swallowed all hope.

I lowered my tired eyes to the rotting floorboards. Panicked whispers climbed through them as the mortals caged in the room beneath mine came to the same terrible realization. It had been three days since the aniccipere’s last feeding.

Soon, they would wake, and the nightmare would begin.

Footsteps pounded through the unintelligible chatter, and the door opened. The creatures made their way inside the rooms beneath my feet, their tongue slathering saliva around their lipless mouths. Immortal hearing was a curse. Every sound from their insatiability reached me. I was helpless, unable to do anything to help the people also trapped here.

I struggled against the restraints on my wrists, desperation clawing under my skin as I tried to reach my magic, but it was numbed, kept away by the poison they fed me daily.

I’d barely formed a relationship with my magic before it was stripped away again. For most of my life, I couldn’t access it. Then when I was first brought to Sanmorte, they kept a bracelet on me, suppressing my powers. Fate kept intervening whenever I got close to becoming the sorceress I wanted to be. I thought being immortal, and keeping my sorceress abilities, meant I would be more powerful than ever.

Yet here I was, naked, soaked in urine, at the mercy of my ex-boyfriend and the soul vampires. My depression came back with a vengeance, sucking the hope out of every fleeting‘what if’moment. I glared at the window, almost tasting the freedom laying beyond this place.

For the first couple of days of my capture, they held me in a house in Dragoirmer. Then they moved me here. Someone must have gotten close to finding me, or disclosed information about where I was. Whatever it was, the aniccipere felt the need to drag me out of the city in the middle of the night. Now, hidden eight towns over, I was a prisoner in this crooked mansion overlooking a forgotten cemetery.

I peered around the room, doing my best to shut out the terror seeping from the people below. An old grandfather clock stood in a nearby next room, ticking the days away. The sound slowly drove me insane.

I missed Sebastian, Erianna, and even my mom. Being alone with my thoughts, after the initial hit from the poison wore off, meant a lot of time for reflection. Memories of Sebastian, my friends and Draven kept a part of me alive, but did little to combat the sadness clouding me. Because Draven was gone, too. Killed by my uncle to hurt me. The gaping hole left behind by grief would never heal.

I wondered about my husband, if we’d ever find our way back to each other again. Clinging to the memory of Sebastian’s voice, and reassuring words kept the threads of my sanity from snapping. But the more time that passed, the more that hope seemed like a dream.

The door creaked open, and Astor emerged from the shadows, flicking on the lamp. The brightness seared through my eyelids as I clamped my eyes shut.

“Are you ready to listen yet?” he asked, his tone laced with desperation.

I blinked him into sight, my nose scrunching as I glowered at the man I’d once loved. Hatred pushed through the barrier I’d spent years building, which shut out the heavy emotions from others. Being an empath had never felt more dangerous.

He rolled his brown eyes, puffing out his cheeks in an inaudible sigh. “How much more of this will it take for you to see sense?”

Behind my parched lips, I ground my teeth until they ached. I wouldn’t dignify him with a single word.

He shook his head, tutting under his breath, “Fine. Have it your way. Spend another week here, listening to your people die.”

They were your people once, too.

I stared him down, venom dripping from my unblinking stare until he averted his gaze. He sat on a chair opposite mine, pity on his treacherous face as he took in the urine-soaked wood under my naked body. It was all for show. He could have offered me more than this, considering he was supposedly in charge. Although, I sensed from his bloodshot eyes and flat expression, that his power here was waning.

“Liv.”

I tensed hearing the nickname he’d used when we were dating. The last of my restraint dissipated as I dug my fingers into the chair’s arms, splintering wood under my fingernails.

“Sebastian will come for you,” he said. “He’ll die trying to save you.”

My heart stuttered. He wasn’t wrong. Sebastian wouldn’t stop until he found me, even if it meant sacrificing himself. The idea of a world without him hurt more than any physical torture. Images of my soulmate floated in my head. Occasionally, I felt a pang of grief or anger ripple through our connection. But it weakened with each passing day.

He turned his head, arching an eyebrow. “Can you still feel him?”

Flicking my eyes to meet Astor’s, I realized he knew that. That’s why he was starving me. The poison kept my magic at bay. There was no need for the lack of food or water unless he wanted me disconnected from Sebastian entirely.

You bastard.

“Liv,” Astor said again and hunched his shoulders. The glow from the lamp danced color through his mousy hair, illuminating the gold flecks in his irises. “If you talk, I’ll give you a glass of water.”

My throat tightened, my tongue darting to my lips as if my body was begging me to accept the offer, but my contempt was stronger. I stared at his chest, imagining how it would feel to carve his heart out of it. My mouth curved into a sadistic smile, cracking open the cuts on my lips, until blood spotted against them.

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