I didn't sleep.
How could I? Tomorrow I'd start playing the most dangerous game of my life, and I needed to be ready.
Everyone thought I was desperate. Thought I'd accepted Lucian's proposal because hanging seemed worse. Thought I was some scared girl who'd stumbled into magic and didn't know what to do with it.
Perfect. Let them think that. They were right to an extent though I mean who wants to die .
I sat at the desk by the window, the stolen parchment spread out in front of me. The one I'd grabbed from the magistrate's office while Lucian was busy putting the guards to sleep. He'd been so focused on our escape, so convinced he was saving me, that he hadn't noticed my hand dart out and snatch the document from the desk.
Hadn't noticed me scan it in those few seconds before shoving it down my dress.
Hadn't noticed a lot of things, actually.
The parchment was a trade agreement. King Aldric's signature at the bottom, sealed with the royal crest. The Order of the Silver Dawn's emblem stamped across the top in silver ink that seemed to shimmer in the firelight.
My kingdom was selling magic users. I found it difficult to comprehend.
Every witch. Every seer. Every person born with even a spark of power. Handed over to the Order like livestock. Five hundred gold pieces per "acquisition." The Order paid well for test subjects. Paid even better for Lightbringers.
One thousand gold pieces for a Lightbringer. Dead or alive.
My hands shook as I read the list of names. People who'd disappeared over the past year. People I'd known. Old Margaret who could predict rain. Thomas the blacksmith's son who could make fire dance. Sarah from two villages over who could heal animals with a touch.
All gone. All sold.
All probably dead by now.
The merchant who'd grabbed me in the marketplace? His name was on the document. Agent of the Order. He'd sensed my power somehow, and he'd been about to drag me in for collection when my magic exploded out of me.
I'd killed him in self-defense.
But nobody would believe that. Nobody would care.
So when Lucian showed up offering marriage and escape, I'd taken it. Let him think he was rescuing me. Let him play the hero while I played the grateful victim.
But I wasn't here to be saved.
I was here because a vampire king was the only person powerful enough to help me destroy the Order. And if I had to marry him to get that power, fine. I'd walked into worse bargains.
I folded the parchment carefully and hid it in the desk drawer, then pulled out the second thing I'd stolen. A small vial of liquid I'd grabbed from the apothecary's shop three days before the marketplace incident.
Nightshade extract. Concentrated. Deadly to humans in the right dose.
Completely harmless to vampires.
But the Order didn't know that. And if I could make them think I had a weapon that worked on vampires, if I could make them believe I was more dangerous than I actually was, maybe I could buy myself time. Buy myself leverage.
Buy myself a throne.
Because that's what this was really about. Lucian thought I needed him. Thought I'd be grateful and obedient and easy to control.
He was wrong.
I needed his resources. His army. His political power. But I didn't need him to be in charge.
In three days, I'd marry him. And then I'd start my real work. Not as his rescued bride. As his equal. As someone who'd walked into his castle with a plan and the will to see it through.
The Order thought magic users were weak. Thought Lightbringers were just tools to be used and discarded.
I'd show them exactly how wrong they were.
A knock at the door startled me. I shoved the vial back in the drawer and stood up. "Come in."
The door opened and Seraphina walked in without waiting for permission.
She looked different without the crowd of vampires around her. Less performed. More dangerous. She wore a simple black dress now, her hair loose around her shoulders. She moved like water. Like something that could slip through any crack and drown you before you realized you were in trouble.
"Did I say you could enter?" I kept my voice steady.
"No." She smiled. "I don't ask permission for anything. You should remember that."
"I'll add it to the list of things trying to kill me here."
"Smart girl." She circled the room slowly, examining everything. My clothes hanging in the wardrobe. The fire burning low. The desk where I'd been sitting. "Can't sleep?"
"Would you? In a castle full of vampires who hate me?"
"Probably not." She picked up a hairbrush from the vanity, studied it, put it down. "But I wouldn't show it. Fear is blood in the water here, Cassia. The moment they smell it, they'll circle."
"Is that a threat or advice?"
"Both." She turned to face me. "I'm going to be honest with you. I don't like this situation. I don't like humans in our castle. I especially don't like Lightbringers who could kill us all if they sneeze wrong."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because Lucian wants you alive, and I've been keeping Lucian alive for eight hundred years." She crossed her arms. "So whether I like it or not, keeping you breathing is now my job."
I blinked. "You're here to protect me?"
"I'm here to make sure you don't get yourself killed before the wedding." She moved closer. "There are people in this castle who will try. Dorian, for one. He thinks you're a liability. Others think you're a spy sent by the Order. A few just think killing you would be entertaining."
"And you?"
"I think you're hiding something." Her eyes locked on mine. "I think you're smarter than you're pretending to be. I think you took Lucian's offer because you saw an opportunity, not because you were desperate."
My heart began to beat twice as fast. "You're wrong." He has to be.
"Am I?" She tilted her head. "You killed a man with magic you supposedly didn't know you had. You didn't panic. Didn't run. You waited in that cell like you knew someone was coming. And when Lucian offered you an escape, you took his hand without hesitation. No questions. No negotiation. Just... acceptance."
"I was about to hang. What was I supposed to do?"
"Most people beg. Most people cry. Most people try to bargain." She leaned in close enough that I could see the flecks of red in her dark eyes. "You did none of those things. You just... took what he offered. Like you'd been waiting for exactly that opportunity."
I forced myself not to step back. "Maybe I'm just practical."
"Maybe." She smiled slowly. "Or maybe you're playing a game you think you can win."
Silence stretched between us. My palms were sweating. If she figured out I had a plan, if she told Lucian, everything would fall apart before it even started.
"I'm not playing anything," I said. "I'm trying to survive."
"Everyone in this castle is trying to survive. The question is what you're willing to do for it." She moved toward the door, then paused. "A word of advice, little Lightbringer. If you are planning something, be very careful. Lucian might seem gentle. Might seem reasonable. But he's survived a thousand years by being smarter and more ruthless than everyone else. If you betray him, he won't kill you quickly."
"I'm not going to betray him."
"Good." She opened the door. "Because I'd hate to have to help him hunt you down. I'm actually starting to like you."
She left as silently as she'd arrived.
I stood there, barely breathing, mind racing.
Seraphina suspected something. Not everything, but enough to be dangerous. I'd have to be more careful. Smarter. Better at pretending to be the helpless human everyone expected.
I went back to the desk and pulled out the parchment again. Stared at the names of the dead. At the proof that my kingdom was rotten to its core.
Three days until the wedding.
Three days to perfect my act.
Three days until I became a queen and started tearing down the people who thought magic users were disposable.
I thought about my sister Mara back in the village. Probably awake right now, wondering if I was dead. Probably crying into her pillow because she thought she'd never see me again.
She wouldn't. Not for a long time.
But maybe, if I played this right, if I survived long enough to build real power, I could make sure no one else's sister got sold to the Order. No one else's brother disappeared in the night. No one else's family got torn apart because they were born with magic in their blood.
A sound from outside made me freeze.
Screaming.
Distant. Muffled. Coming from somewhere deep in the castle.
The lower levels. Mira's warning echoed in my head. Don't go down there. Don't ask what's down there.
The screaming stopped as suddenly as it started.
I stood at the window, looking out at the dark forest, at the bridge spanning nothing but void, at the castle that might be my home or my grave.
Somewhere in this place were things that even vampires feared. Somewhere in these walls were secrets that people died to keep. And somewhere in the next three days, I'd have to figure out how to use all of it to my advantage.
Because I wasn't here to be saved.
I was here to win.
And I'd burn this entire castle down if that's what it took.