I woke up to someone screaming.
For a second, I thought it was me. Then I realized the sound was coming from outside my door. High-pitched. Terrified. Cut off suddenly like someone had slapped a hand over the person's mouth.
I bolted upright,my heart pounding.
Silence.
Then footsteps. Running. Getting quieter as whoever it was fled down the corridor.
I threw off the covers and ran to the door, yanking it open.
The hallway was empty. But there was blood on the floor. A trail of it, leading toward the stairs. Fresh enough that it was still wet.
"Close the door."
I spun around. Lucian stood at the end of the hallway, looking like he'd just walked out of a nightmare. His shirt was torn. Blood splattered across his chest and face. Not his blood, I realized. His eyes were wrong. Too bright. Too silver. Like something else was looking out through them.
"What happened?" I whispered.
"Nothing that concerns you." His voice was cold. Distant. "Get back inside." Of course I'm more or less his slave. Oh God this place was more or less like hell
"There's blood in the hallway."
"Yes." He moved closer and I saw it then. Saw what he really was under all that careful control. A predator. Ancient and deadly and barely holding himself back. "There's always blood in this castle, Cassia. You'd better get used to it."
"Whose blood is it?"
"A servant who forgot the rules." He stopped a few feet away, and I could smell it on him. Copper and death. "She went to the lower levels. Came back... changed. We had to put her down."
Put her down. Like she was an animal.
"What do you mean, changed?"
"It doesn't matter." He looked at me, and for a second something flickered in his eyes. Something almost human. "Go back to bed. Your training starts in three hours."
"I can't just..l"
"Yes, you can." He turned away. "And you will. Because the alternative is asking questions that have answers you're not ready for."
He walked away, leaving bloody footprints on the stone floor.
I stood there, shaking, staring at the blood trail leading down into the darkness.He was truly a monster wasn't he?
A servant went to the lower levels. Came back changed.
Changed into what?
I went back into my room and locked the door. Not that a lock would stop anything in this castle, but it made me feel slightly less like prey.
I didn't sleep. Just sat on the bed, watching the door, waiting for dawn.
When Mira came to wake me three hours later, she looked exhausted. Her eyes were red like she'd been crying.
"Did you know her?" I asked quietly. "The servant who died?"
Mira's hands shook as she helped me into a dress. "Her name was Clara. She was sixteen. She'd only been here two months."
"What happened to her?"
"She heard her sister calling from the lower levels." Mira's voice broke. "She knew it was a trick. Everyone knows the things down there can mimic voices. But it was her sister's voice, and she couldn't... she couldn't just ignore it."
"What did she find down there?"
"I don't know. But when she came back up, she wasn't Clara anymore. Her eyes were black. All black. No white at all. And she was smiling." Mira wiped her eyes. "She grabbed another servant. Started draining him. Like a vampire, but worse. Faster. When the guards pulled her off, there was nothing left of him but a husk."
I felt sick. "And Lucian killed her?"
"The king gave her mercy." Mira met my eyes. "He could have let her suffer. Could have locked her up to study what she'd become. But he ended it quickly. That's more than most would do."
She finished braiding my hair in silence.
"The king is waiting for you in the training yard," she said finally. "He asked me to tell you to wear something you can move in."
"Why?"
"Because today you learn to fight."
---
The training yard was outside the castle walls, on a stretch of bare ground overlooking the forest. The sun was barely up, painting everything in cold gray light. The vampires would be inside now, sleeping through the day. But Lucian stood in the center of the yard, waiting.
He'd changed clothes. No more blood. Just black leather and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looked normal. Human, almost. Except for the eyes that tracked me like I was something to be hunted.
"You're late," he said.
"I'm traumatized. There's a difference."
His mouth twitched. Almost a smile. "Fair enough."
"Why am I here, Lucian?"
"Because in two days, you'll be my queen. And queens in this world don't get to hide behind walls and pretend they're safe." He gestured to a table covered in weapons. Swords. Daggers. Things I didn't have names for. "They learn to defend themselves."
"I have magic."
"Magic you can't control. Magic that might kill you as easily as it kills your enemies." He picked up two wooden practice swords, tossed one to me. I barely caught it. "So until you learn control, you learn this."
"I don't know how to fight."
"I know. That's why I'm teaching you." He moved into a fighting stance, sword raised. "Try to hit me."
"What?"
"Swing the sword. Try to hit me. Don't worry about form or technique. Just attack."
This was insane. But I'd already committed to insane when I'd agreed to marry a vampire, so I swung the wooden sword at him.
He moved so fast I couldn't hardly see him, Like he wasn't even there. My sword hit nothing but air.
"Again," he said.
I swung again. Missed again.
"Again."
I attacked him for ten minutes straight. Never came close to touching him.
By the time he called a break, I was gasping for air, my arms screaming, sweat pouring down my face.
"You're weak," he said, not unkindly. "Human-weak. A vampire could tear you apart in seconds."
"Thanks. Really boosting my confidence here."
"I'm not here to boost your confidence. I'm here to keep you alive." He moved closer. "You want to survive this castle? You need to be faster. Stronger. Smarter. And most importantly, you need to stop hesitating."
"I'm not hesitating."
"You are. Every time you swing, there's a pause. A moment where you second-guess yourself. In a real fight, that moment gets you killed."
"Maybe I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Then you'll die." He said it simply. "This world doesn't care about your morals, Cassia. It doesn't care that you're a healer. It only cares about power. And right now, you don't have any."
"I have magic."
"Magic you used twice by accident." He set down his sword. "Show me. Right now. Use your power. On purpose."
I stared at him. "I don't know how."
"Then figure it out. Because if you can't, you're useless to me."
Anger flared in my chest. Hot and bright. "Useless?"
"As a weapon, yes. As a queen, yes. As anything other than a pretty face to parade around court." His eyes were cold. "I didn't rescue you because I felt sorry for you. I rescued you because you're a Lightbringer. But if you can't access that power, you're just another human who'll die the first time someone decides to test me."
The anger grew. Spread. My hands started to tingle. That familiar heat building under my skin.
"You want me to use my power?" My voice shook. "Fine."
I shoved my hands forward and light exploded out of me.
Golden. Blinding. It hit Lucian square in the chest and sent him flying backward. He hit the ground hard, rolling, and came up in a crouch.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Then he started laughing.
"There it is," he said, standing up. "There's the Lightbringer."
I stared at my hands. They were glowing. Actually glowing, like I'd dipped them in liquid gold. "I... I didn't mean to..."
"Yes, you did. You got angry and your power responded." He walked back toward me, completely unbothered by the fact that I'd just blasted him across the yard. "That's the key. Emotion. Your power feeds on what you feel."
"But I killed someone with this." My hands were shaking. "I killed that merchant because I was angry and I didn't mean to and.."
"And now you know how to trigger it." He caught my hands in his. The glow faded where his skin touched mine. "That's the first step. Understanding what makes it wake up. Next, we teach you control."
His hands were cold. Dead-cold. But his grip was gentle.
"I'm scared," I whispered. "I'm scared of what I can do."
"Good. Fear is healthy." His thumb brushed across my knuckles. "But don't let it control you. Your power isn't a curse, Cassia. It's a weapon. And in two days, when you become my queen, you're going to need every weapon you can get."
"Why?" I looked up at him. "What's coming?"
His expression darkened. "Everything. The Order knows you're here by now. They'll come for you. My court will test you. There are things in this castle that would love to tear you apart just to see if they can." He squeezed my hands once, then let go. "So we have two days to turn you from a frightened girl into something they'll fear."
"I don't want to be feared."
"Then you want to be dead." He picked up the practice swords again. "Now. Again. And this time, don't hesitate."
We trained for hours. Until my arms felt like lead. Until I was covered in bruises. Until I could barely stand.
But I landed a hit. Just one. A glancing blow to his shoulder that made him smile.
"Better," he said. "We'll make a fighter out of you yet."
As the sun climbed higher, we finally stopped. I collapsed on the ground, gasping.
Lucian sat down beside me. Not touching. Just... there.
"Why are you really doing this?" I asked. "Teaching me. Marrying me. What do you actually want?" I just need answers the whole thing was becoming more than I could handle.
He was quiet for a long time. Then he said, "Three hundred years ago, I lost someone. Someone I loved. The Order took her from me."
I looked at him. "Who?"
"My wife." His voice was barely a whisper. "My human wife. They burned her alive because she was carrying my child. Because they couldn't stand the thought of a half-vampire existing in their perfect world."
My chest ached. "Lucian.."
"I couldn't save her. I tried. I killed every member of the Order I could find. Burned their churches. Destroyed their strongholds. But it didn't bring her back." He finally looked at me. "So yes, I need your power to fight them. But more than that, I need to make sure what happened to her never happens to anyone else."
"You want revenge."
"I want justice." His eyes burned silver. "And if you help me get it, I'll give you everything you want in return. Power. Protection. A throne. Anything."
"What if what I want is to go home?"
He smiled sadly. "Then you're in the wrong castle."
We sat there in silence, watching the sun climb higher.
And I realized something terrifying.
I didn't want to go home.
Not anymore