Vampire Girl 3: Silver Flame (2 page)

Asher’s words gave me a brief comfort. Asher lied to his brother, but Fen never lied to me. Not about this. He didn't know.

But…

Oh god. I did this to him. I made him the enemy.

Fen and I needed to get out of here. Now. Before this shifted into something deadlier.

After all, I was the reason Druids had any power at all. And now that included the Prince of War.

Fen caught my eyes and held them. I could tell he wanted me to leave him. To save myself. But how could he think I would do that? How could I leave him here to face the wrath of his brothers alone? Stupid, foolish man. I shook my head, but he ignored me, continuing.

"Will none of you avenge your father?" he roared. "Is your fear of me too great? Do you piss your pants at the sight of me? Come!" He beat his chest with his fists. "Come at me,
brothers."
His last word dripped with mockery.

That was all it took for Levi to charge him. Fen jumped into the air and their swords clashed.

I pulled at Ace's hold on me again, but his grip tightened. He looked angry. His jaw clenched as he watched his brothers fight.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him. "Fen needs our help. Let me go."

Ace turned his hard glare toward me. "I think you've done enough to help, Princess." His words bit, and I recoiled in shock. This wasn't the Ace I'd come to know.

Fen fought hard, but Dean, Levi, Niam and even Zeb surrounded him, and it quickly became apparent that Fen hadn't yet recovered fully from his near death, despite his posturing. Even with Baron fighting at his side, he was weak. And he was losing.

Asher stood to the side, and I could see in his eyes he wished to help. Yet he did nothing.

I nudged Yami, pleading him to do something. "Use your powers. I know you can!"

Yami recoiled, shaking with fear.

"Please," I cried.

And then he threw himself into the fight, spitting blue fire into the fray. His flames crackled with lightning, setting a wall tapestry ablaze. I felt myself fill with rage as Yami grew bigger in size. But Levi thrashed a sword through the air, slicing into my dragon’s shoulder before he could take his full form.

The blade cut deep. Yami screamed and dissolved into dust as I bent over in pain, feeling the blow in my own body as my dragon left. I fell to my knees, and Ace lost his grip on me. I groaned in pain, spit flying from my mouth.

Fen turned at the sound. His face filled with sorrow. Then rage. He ran to me, and that was the only mistake Levi needed.

He grabbed Fen from behind and swung his blade at his throat. "For our father—"

I jumped up, moving faster than I ever had, and blocked Levi’s blade with my own. "Leave him be!" I screamed.

Levi turned his ire against me, and we exchanged blows, our swords ringing in the stone halls. Baron growled and tried to leap to my side, but Dean and Niam kept him restrained, looking none too pleased at having to keep an angry wolf stilled against his will.

I struck at Levi.

He parried.

He lunged.

And a third blade entered the fray, knocking both of us back.

"Stop!" Dean yelled, standing between us. He was the last person I expected to intervene. Perhaps the others felt the same, because the hall fell silent, all eyes turned to the Prince of Lust. "I love fighting and killing as much as the next demon, but this is not our way. Not against our own. We are more civilized than this. Fenris deserves a trial."

Levi scowled. "You heard him. He admitted his crimes."

Dean shook his head. "Be that as it may, we do not know the whole of it yet. A trial is the way. Our father's way. Our way."

The other brothers nodded in agreement. The anger was leaving them. They didn't want Fen dead. Not just yet. Not like this.

"And what of the princess?" Zeb asked, his voice laced with some compassion.

"She shall be tried as well," Dean said, looking over to me with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

Ace stayed quiet, his sword limp at his side, as if he didn't know what he felt anymore.

Levi didn't look happy, but everyone else agreed this was the way of it. Niam took my sword, while Dean and Zeb kept Fen under control. He struggled, but weakly, drained by the fighting. Together, we marched deeper into the castle. Levi fell to my side and squeezed my arm until it bruised, his face close to mine. "Enjoy your time in the dungeons, Princess. It's the last view of this world you'll get before you're hanged."

***

His words proved prophetic. For here I sit, awaiting a hanging at sunrise. Even as I think these thoughts, it feels surreal, like I am living someone else's life. This is just a movie, or book—a story made up to scare naughty children. 'Don't make deals with devils or you'll end up dead!' sounds like an excellent morality tale.

Too bad I didn't listen.

I made the deal with the devil. I thought I could outthink them. I thought I could come out of this unscathed, saving my mom and myself and all of the Fae and living a happily ever after with the man I love. I was such a fool. I still am a fool, if I'm being honest, because even now I don't entirely believe this is the end.

I can't allow myself to believe that, at sunrise, Fen and I will both be hanged. Not because of something we did. But because of what we are.

The trial, if it can even be called that, was such a farce. If I thought there was corruption in my world's justice system, it's downright perfection compared to what they do here. There was no 'jury of my peers', no evidence, no real testimony, just Levi expounding his own hateful rhetoric and convincing the princes they didn't have to worry about the contract, because with me dead, there was no contract. They'd be free to rule their own realms. As long as none of them made a claim for High Castle, no one would suffer.

No one but me and Fen, of course. We were kept separated the whole time, and Fen was given no voice as part of the council. They treated me more as animal than human. I cannot even imagine how they treated Fen.

Then they voted behind closed doors. I never found out who voted which way, but I can only assume Asher was on our side. I pray Ace was as well, but perhaps the lies he endured sealed our fate. In the end, both Fen and I were sentenced to death.

Asher brought me the news.

"I’m sorry," he said, standing outside my cell. "I brought this upon you."

I clasped the bars, still possessing some energy. "Asher, no. You fought for me in the trial—"

"No. Before that. I am the reason your Fae blood was revealed." He paused. "I dropped the contract."

The contract. That one that prevented me from revealing my true heritage. The one only Asher and his father could cancel. When my Fae powers emerged during the battle, I thought perhaps my magic had broken the oath. In truth, I was fighting for my life, I was fighting for Fen, and I barely gave it much thought.

"When the fighting started," Asher continued, "I wanted you to be able to defend yourself. So I dropped the contract, hoping your magic would aid you. I… I couldn’t forgive myself if you had died because of some oath I made you swear to uphold."

"It was my choice to sign."

"But I arranged it. It is my foolish mistakes that brought you here." He started to turn away, but I grabbed his hand through the bars and pulled him back.

"My magic saved me," I said. "If you hadn’t stopped the oath, I’d be dead. At least now there’s a chance."

He smiled. "As hopeful as ever, Princess." His smile dropped as he held my gaze. "But this time, I am not so sure you’re right."

I let go of his hand and clutched the bars tight. "There must be something more we can do. Can’t you break us out? You have soldiers you could send. They can—"

"Shh," he whispered, raising a finger to his lips. He glanced at the two guards behind him, then kept his voice low. "I am doing all in my power, princess, but my brothers are watching me closely. They know I am on your side. It took calling in favors just to allow this meeting."

My shoulders slumped. "There must be something."

"Perhaps another contract," he said. I could see him thinking, thoughts and emotions spiraling over his face. "Maybe if you and Fen swore to obey the other princes."

"Then we would have to fight the Fae," I said.

"Perhaps." He smirked. "But all contracts have loopholes. You taught me that."

I stepped back, sighing. "I can’t fight the Fae. And you wouldn’t want me to."

His eyes fell. "No. I wouldn’t."

We were silent for a moment, searching for ideas and finding none. "Did Fen know?" I asked.

Asher looked to the distance, to the light from the window. "No. He never knew he was Fae. No one ever told him."

For a moment, the cell became less cold, less dark. Knowing Fen had been honest with me made all the difference. "But… he would never have known the land you came from. The land before here. Didn’t he ever wonder why he couldn’t remember?"

"He thought he was forgetting, just as I have been forgetting. The pieces he could recall, yes, they were fictions told by our mother, but told so often they had become memory."

"So what changed?" I asked.

"You," he said. "You awoke his powers. But I suspect his injuries are what finally forced his body to use his natural abilities."

I nodded. It made a sort of sense, though I would have to discuss it later with Fen. How did he feel about this? Did he despise me for revealing him as Fae? For changing his life forever?

"So, what next?" asked Asher.

The only thing left.

"We hope," I said. "We hope."
Dum spiro spero. While I breathe, I hope.
I could practically hear my mother's voice in my mind, saying those words to me so many times over the course of my childhood. What I would give to have her with me now, to seek out her wisdom, to find comfort in her arms.

Asher, however, did not look hopeful, and with a resigned look, he walked away. It was the last time I saw him. Two weeks ago.

Now, I slouch against a cold wall, wrapping my arms around my knees for warmth. There are no clocks down here. No natural lighting sources. I have no way of tracking time other than the once a day slop a guard brings in for me to eat, if I can stomach it. I wonder if I'll be granted a last meal, like I would on my world. But it seems unlikely. I'll die with the taste of this rot in my mouth. 

My greatest fear, my deepest sadness, is that others have to suffer with me. My mother, whose soul still lays trapped in a hell dungeon waiting for me to fulfill my contract. The man I love, who will die by my side, his only crime that of loving me back. Es and Pete, who will never know what happened to their friend.

The Fae. They will continue to be enslaved, and those who resist will be killed until there are no free Fae remaining.

And the magic on this world will die.

Do the vampires even know what they're doing? What they're condemning themselves and everyone around them to? I tried to explain, but they accused me of lying to save my own skin.

It's not my skin I'm trying to save.

Well, not just my skin.

But it doesn't matter now.

All I can do is wait.

Wait for death. Wait for the end.

Maybe this world is better off without the magic of the Fae. Maybe it is better off without me.

Minutes pass. Hours. Days. Time loses meaning in this dank, damp pit of despair. I have no idea how long I have to live. It is an odd thing, to know you're about to die, and to be powerless to choose how you will spend your last moments. There are so many things I have left undone in my life. So many words left unsaid to those I love. And now it is forever too late.

A commotion outside my cell alerts me to the guards changing shifts. They always have one or two watching over me. It started with two, but lately they've reduced the watch to one. Maybe they figure I have nothing left to fight for. Maybe the war rages on with the Fae and they need more soldiers than guards. I tried asking once, but no one would speak to me. So I just watch and think. But today, I am surprised to see a familiar face.

"Marco?"

His dark eyes flick to me, and he frowns, but doesn't answer. He stands in the spot of the guard, just out of reach of my cell, but close enough to see me, his broad shoulders filling the space and blocking out the little light from the orb.

I scramble to the bars, clutching them in my hands. "Marco! Did Fen or Asher send you? Are you here to help me?" There's a desperate pleading in my voice that makes me cringe, but I don't care. This is the first hope I've had since my fate was decided. But then Marco turns away, and my hope plummets.

"Marco? Why won't you talk to me? Please let me out. We must save Fen. We must get out of here. You were my personal guard. You swore to protect me!" I'm nearly frantic now, tears clogging my throat as I speak too loudly in the cavernous space.

He turns to me finally, his eyes cold. "The Fae killed my family when they attacked Stonehill in this last battle," he says quietly. "My parents, who were farmers. My little brother, who loved horseback riding and wanted to be a soldier when he grew up. My little sister, who wanted to be a guard when she grew older. Just like me." He shakes his head, a lock of brown hair falling into his eye and making him look boyish in his sadness. "I can't let you out, Princess. I'm sorry."