Page 45 of Darkest Heart

“I’m telling the truth.”

He scratched my throat, drawing blood to the surface. “No, you’re not.”

I grabbed his arm instinctively. The bracelet hung from my wrist like a chain, holding back my power, which could burn him into a pile of ashes. How did he know? His intrusive stare bore into me, as if he could feel everything I could. But that was impossible. He was unlike any aniccipere I’d come across.

“Then speak.”

Desperate to find an ember of magic, I squeezed into his skin. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, cracking open my barrier, allowing in the energy of the room. In a flash, the voice in my mind floated, but I couldn’t catch the words. Allowing myself to open meant letting in all the grief and guilt. I couldn’t. Shutting that part of me off, I focused on the king, feeling nothing but insidious instincts from the creature. My eyes widened as I sorted through every emotion. He was never going to let me leave.

Whoever was in charge wanted me gone, and Algor had my lies about the gods and my prophecy, but it wasn’t enough. “You don’t care about the sangaree dying,” I realized. “Or the aniccipere.”

Power emulated from his being, the touch between us connecting our souls. Whispers of darkness swept through us both. He was made of nightmares. Death hung onto his every breath. I felt the pain of his victims when I glared back into his soul. The monster within ravaged as he thought about devouring my soul. Insatiability consumed us both, his desires confused for my own as we stared the other down, lost in a game of cat and mouse. Not one person in this room knew what was happening, except me. Their king did not care about them. I saw right through him. For centuries, the soul vampires were savages, untamed. Wild.

A sangaree was pulling the strings, but this creature was ancient, and far too devious to be that. I sensed his loyalty to someone…else. A devout, unyielding loyalty. I wished I had psychic abilities, to get just a glimpse of what he knew. At least I could feel what he wanted.

Kill or be killed.

He squinted, and before I could say another world, his ancient power ran through us both. Something changed in his eyes. He knew I knew. I reached into the fiery depths of his core, focusing just as Azia had taught me. Moving past all the walls he had up, I reached deep within, searching through the torment of the thousands of souls inside of him.

A gasp left my lips. This aniccipere wasn’t one at all.

He was a demon.

Disguised as one of them.

I wasn’t getting out of this alive. All of this was a distraction. “Salenia,” I said slowly, as I recalled the stories of the goddess trapped in the underworld.

That was who he was loyal to.

None of this was about the aniccipere. It was far bigger than that. Astor was right. I had more to fear than him or the vampires.

The demon let go of me, the burning red in his eyes turning back to an inky black. “Let us go somewhere more private.”

My stomach churned, the voice in my head screamed‘no’. Licking my lips, my throat dry as I searched for the words to somehow get out of this. I had no clue how to fight a demon, especially without my magic. That’s how he knew I was lying. Demons could sense one from a mile away. From everything I had read up on them, and Azia had told me, they were master deceivers, but not easily deceived.

Someone had to have summoned him here. But who? In the castle, there was a demon board. My father said someone summoned one, and it had gotten one of the mortals pregnant. It began in the castle. The skin on my arms and neck plucked into goosebumps. My family was in far more danger than I knew. Whoever was behind this, wanted him here. I’d bet they were loyal to Salenia, too.

Death to all vampires.

The prophecy floated in my mind. There was more to it than that. They weredesperateto know what the gods said. That meant Salenia was. They had formed our monarchy to lead the vampires; they punished Salenia as she rotted in the prison of her own making.

Draven’s conversations with me about the origin story of the vampires came back like a flood. She had created an immortal like me, using the elixir of the gods. She did it for love. What was his name? Vener. But he betrayed her. That’s why she created the curse of vampirism, as punishment, and an eternal plane to hold them forever. But Vener made more like him.

How did I fit into all this?

Against my better judgement, I nodded. His voice rose an octave as he demanded everyone leave us. I watched as he moved, his gait steadier than the others. Shadows surrounded the king as Astor whipped his head around, looking at me through wild eyes. Concern etched his features. He was my enemy, but we were both pawns in a much larger game.

I shot him a look. A pleading, desperate attempt to show him this wasn’t right. Astor stood in the doorway, mouth partly open as Algor tugged him from the room. The doors shut, and the demon’s disguise melted away.

My hands flung to my mouth, my next breath stolen by the man standing in front of me. A man I knew well.

“I told you before,” he said, tilting his head. “I want you and I will have you.”

SIXTEEN

Olivia

After everything I’d gone through, I shouldn’t have been afraid. I’d taken down this man once before. Yet, as he stood in front of me, dressed in a black suit with fiery eyes, the familiar jab of terror shot through my body.

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