Chapter 6

Page Six.

Face the unknown with every inch of courage you have in your bones, in your blood and soul. The dragons can smell courage, and it is your best defence.

"I'm sorry to bring you here, my dear Story."

I tug my eyes from the looming castle in front of me, from the sheer, tall grey stone walls and the asymmetric crenellations that line the roof, and the six towers that look like they touch the clouds. As I smile softly at Aleksander, my words come out in puffs of fog. "It's only one day."

He's kind enough to know bringing me here, even for one day, is a risk. The royal vampyres…I've heard whispers my entire life about their cruelty. They are immortal, the only vampyres that have that gift, and their immortality makes them bored. They kill for fun, and the castle? It's their hunting grounds. The professor has always tried to hide me from, well, everything that could possibly hurt me, and this place was top on the list until today. I pull my cloak tighter around me, strips of red in my black hair flashing in the beams of sunlight that escape the clouds. I keep my head low, just like he's told me to do anytime we are outside.

It's a celebration day for the vampyres…and a day of horror for the fae. They call it the hunt, a tradition they made up, and every vampyre is free to hunt any lessborn fae across the cities. I forgot about this day until Aleksander came rushing into my room this morning and asked me to come with him. "It won't be safe to leave you alone," he told me, and I believe him. The breeders never had to worry about the hunt, but news of it was always talked about. "I'm nervous," I whisper to him. "What if they check me and see I don't have any bite marks?"

"They won't. No one would dare, because that would be doubting me," he explains, his tone as soft as a cat's meow. "Except for the royals, but they won't be here this time of year. They'll be down in their castle in the south, where it's much warmer." I glance up at the cloudy skies, thick grey clouds threatening to throw snow down on us at any moment. Summer's long since passed here, and the air has been cold ever since, the smell of winter hanging in the breeze.

It was my seventeenth birth year only days ago. Aleksander brought me a white chocolate cake because he knew it was my favourite, showed me the new star maps he had learnt about, and he gave me a letter from my mother. It's a letter I treasure and read over and over again at any chance I get. Aleksander goes to the breeders for me, at significant risk to himself, to pass a letter from me to her and to get one back every year. She misses me as much as I miss her, and if I smell her letter long enough, I can almost imagine she is hugging me. I only get this gift once a year, and the letter has to be burnt, like the others, so it's not proof of Aleksander breaking the laws. It's risky, and I appreciate that he does it for me at all. He looks after me even when he has no obligation to do so. I'm always happy to give him my blood every week in a glass, even if it took a while to get used to watching him drink the blood. I threw up the first time I saw him drink. "Hurry your feet and stay close."

Aleksander already has slowed down for me, and I make sure to walk fast, even though we both know he could move much faster than my fae feet will allow. I tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear as I follow him up the steps at the back entrance of the castle and into the servant quarters. Fae are running around and none of them stop. They're all wearing thin red gowns, their upper shoulders, neck, and arms all on show, and every single one of them has many, many bite marks marking them. There's not a trace of brown clothing in here to mark worker fae, which lets me know that they're free to be fed on whenever the royals and nobles choose. Several cast their eyes my way when we walk in, but they see Aleksander and avert their gaze.

Aleksander leads me through the kitchens, up through a passage, into a small room with a chair and desk that has seen better days. There is a massive window that occupies one wall, with a stone window seat to look out through the glass. I sit down and shiver, knowing it's going to be cold in here. Aleksander wouldn't realise that since he doesn't feel the cold, and I barely notice as he pulls out a new book from inside his cloak. It's going to be another book about weaponry, how to build something sharp, but I don't care. It's a new book! I smile at him, unable to hide my happiness. "Thank you so much, professor!"

He proudly hands me the book. The binding is black; the title is in the language of the old times, but my mother secretly taught me how to read it, just like she was taught as a child by her mother in secret. Some languages shouldn't be forgotten, she used to tell me, just because the speakers are long lost. "This one details how to make the handle of the blade and how to add certain gems into it."

"We can discuss it when you're back," I answer. He leans over, kissing me on top of the head. At some point, Aleksander has become like a father to me, a father that I never had growing up. He certainly treats me like a daughter. He's protective like one, too.

"It will be the highlight of a long day." He opens the door, looking back at me. "Stay in here. Don't talk to anyone. I'll get a fae I trust to bring you food around midday." I nod and he seems pleased with that. "I'll be back before nightfall. Have fun reading."

I barely get to whisper before the door shuts. "I will." He leaves quickly, shutting the door behind him, and I hear the click of a lock moments later. I curl up in the small chair after pulling it by the window for some light. Occasionally I lift my head to look out at the castle, across the massive city, and imagine the horror down there, how terrified the people must be. Will it always be like this for the fae? Will it ever stop? For hours I read the book, needing the escape, until it's finished, and I wish there was more. I've always been far too much of a fast reader for my own good. A six-hundred-page book is nothing, not even a proper task. I could read that in a day, even one as boring as this. I put it down on the desk before pulling myself onto the stone window seat for a better view across the city.

From here, I can see the dark trees of the forest on the other side of the city, the beautiful sea right behind it glistening in the midday sun. The mountains behind the castle cast a shadow over here, and there is nothing but trees below the hill of the castle. I scream as a man's face instantaneously appears at the window, and I fall backwards, straight off the ledge onto the floor, slamming my elbow on the ground. I wince in pain as I roll over, looking up at the man standing on the other side of the window, the wind blowing his silver locks of hair out of the braid at his neck. He is very handsome and very much a vampyre. His skin is almost silver, drained of all light, but his eyes are vividly blue. He looks no more than about twenty, well dressed in a silver shirt tucked into tight trousers.

He knocks the glass with his knuckle, and he points at the lock. I know I should run, but my door is locked, and I have nowhere to go. I'm certain this vampyre would chase me for the fun of it, and he could break the glass if he wanted. Shakily, I climb to my feet, rubbing my elbow as I walk over and unhook the metal lock. He steps to the side to pull the window open before he climbs in, sitting on the ledge of the window seat, the window swinging shut in the wind behind him. "Why are you hiding in a storage room, strange girl?"

"Why are you climbing a castle?" I ask right back, my heart thumping. He must hear it; he must know I'm scared. Some vampyres love fear, feed off it, drown in it.

He grins before he laughs, running his hand through his hair. "Touché. I'm Valerian, a noble visiting and very bored. Who are you?" He looks me up and down. "You smell incredible, and I have never seen you before."

I take several steps back, looking for anything to hide behind. He holds his hands up. "I won't hurt you today. I vow it to the deities."

The professor isn't a bad person, so maybe this stranger isn't all that bad too? Vampyres fear the gods just like we do, and I don't think he would risk their wrath just to hurt me. "My name is Story Dehana, and I'm waiting for my owner to come back. He wanted me somewhere safe."

"And out of sight. Smart vampyre," Valerian murmurs. "Name?"

I frown. Should I lie? Is there any point if he is a noble? He could find out easily enough. "I'm Professor Aleksander Wollke's blood slave. He brought me in because the city's not exactly safe today."

He leans back on the wall. "Oh, Aleksander never mentioned to us about his blood slave being as beautiful as you are." My cheeks burn as he looks me over. He's handsome, very handsome, and it's hard to look away from him. This man is perfect in every sense. He reminds me of a prince from a fairy tale. He watches me with a smile that shows his red fangs tipped with silver. Aleksander told me his fangs were dyed red as a symbol of nobility, but the silver Valerian has is new to me. It must mean something, and I will ask the professor about it if I get out of here alive. "Why don't I show you around the castle? I think you'd like it."

"I was told not to leave here, and breaking my owner's commands is punishable by death," I retort.

"Unless he directly told you not to leave from the window, you won't be breaking any laws." He pushes the window open. The icy wind blows right in, and I shiver. "I regularly walk around the edge of the castle, and I know the way to somewhere special."

"Why not just walk around inside the castle?" I question.

He shrugs a shoulder, his eyes flickering to my neck, and he gulps once. "It's a way of getting around with no one seeing you."

Clearing my throat, I tug my hood closer around my neck. "I don't like heights."

"I won't let you fall." He offers me his hand. "Come on, do something fun with a stranger who means you no harm on this tragic day. We only live once." A funny saying for a vampyre who will live a lot longer than any fae. I look at his waiting hand, at his beautiful, handsome face, hearing both the professor and my mother's voice screaming in my head not to do it. You only live once. I take his hand, which is ice cold, and he helps me out through the window onto a ledge that's only two feet wide. My heart is in my throat as I look down at the harrowing hill below us that the castle is perched on. How easy it would be just to fall for those trees down below, for them to impale me before I even hit the ground.

Valerian takes my hand, and he links my fingers like we are lost lovers escaping a villain's castle. No one's ever held my hand like this. I can't help but blush at this absolutely gorgeous vampyre who wants to hold my hand at all. I should run away. My mother would tell me that this is the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life. She would probably be right. But I want to spend more time with him, with this stranger who told me he wouldn't hurt me.

Valerian helps me walk around the entire left side of the castle before we get to a courtyard garden on the same floor, enclosed by thick walls, and I don't see a door anywhere. When we get to the edge, he jumps down first before reaching back for me, his hands wrapping around my waist as he lifts me and puts me down right in front of him. I lift my head to look up at him as he lowers my hood.

"Do you like gardens? Your hair is as beautiful as some of the flowers here." He runs his fingers through my hair, his eyes darkening into a sea blue instead, reminding me that he is still a vampyre. He steps back, offering me his hand again. "Come, let me show you the exact flowers I mean." We walk through the gardens, which feel like they go on for miles, all hidden inside this courtyard. He shows me every kind of flower, picking various ones for me of all colours before we get to the flower he meant. "These are black lotus flowers, and these are special ones that somehow turned red in the centre. I've seen lotus flowers all around the world but never ones of these colours."

"They look like my hair," I admit. "How strange."

"Or a sign from the deities that we were meant to meet." He steps closer, cupping my cheek. Suddenly his lips are on mine, cold and gentle, a perfect first kiss. My first kiss was with a vampyre. I blink a few times as he pulls back, smiling brightly at me. "I hope that was okay."

"It was," I breathe out. My entire body feels like it's burning as hot as my cheeks, and I clench my hands around the flowers in my hands. Valerian lets me go, heading to the flowers. He rips the entire bunch out by the stem, and my mouth parts as he adds them to the bunch in my hands. He just destroyed those beautiful flowers. I don't say anything as Valerian leads me back to the wall, out of the courtyard and across the ledge until we are back in the room. He sits on the edge, looking in at me, holding the flower bunch I gave back to him. I can't keep them, and he knows it.

"How will I ever see you again?" he asks.

"You won't. This can just be a tale you tell your friends about," I whisper.

He shakes his head. "I don't have friends, but I want to see you again. We have a connection."

"I know we do, but I am a blood slave for someone else and happy," I truthfully tell him. As happy as a slave will ever get to be. "Forget me, please."

"Never." He smiles at me. "We will see each other again, Story." My heart leaps as he jumps out the window and disappears into the thick of the trees below, the flowers falling with the snow now dropping from the sky. I didn't know it then, but meeting Valerian was about to change my entire life—for the worse.

I cough as I wake up, tasting cold, stale water in my mouth that is as bitter as my haunting dreams of the past. I don't want to remember my past any more than I want to do the Decidere. Waves wash over my legs and threaten to pull me back with every lap. I look down at the pebbled beach as I pull myself up, wincing at the pain of leaning on the pebbles until I'm sitting. Dragon roars shake the walls as I cough out the water in my lungs and try to breathe. The corner beach is filled up with dozens of red pebbles that almost look like crystals under me, millions of them that glitter in the moonlight as it dances around from above. I glance up and realise that I must have fallen into some kind of lake, and I shouldn't be alive. Not the first time I've survived something I shouldn't have. Ziven's man tried to kill me and likely hoped there were rocks down here.

"Fucking assholes, the both of them," I whisper. I rise to my feet, my clothes sticking uncomfortably to me, and come face to face with rows and rows of pillars. They look the same as the ones above, but there's so many more down here. Thousands of them stretching far into the thick darkness, so far that I can't even see most of them from here, just outlines. Light shines from above, reflecting off the water, but it's still so much darker than above. Touch a pillar. Daegan's warning comes back to me. I can't just leave here, and at least if I find a pillar, it's one step closer to getting out of here. I need to touch one of the pillars and take the trial.

I can't stop shivering from the cold as I walk to the first row of pillars, wondering how I'm meant to feel a calling to one of them. The best way is to move. I can't just stand here, waiting for a dragon to come down and eat me. I look at the pillars just as I swear I see a red light shining in the far distance. My feet are moving before my brain has even caught up with the idea of following the light. Rushing through the space between the pillars, I'm very careful not to touch a single one, feeling in my bones that it would be a terrible mistake. The dragon roars echo below, above, and around me so loudly that I'm not even sure where they came from or how close they are.

My hands shake as I continue to walk until I get to where the glow is coming from. Deep within the lines of pillars is one pillar taller than the others, and on it is a glowing red dragon symbol. The dragon is curled round what looks like a gem, a ruby maybe, and the ruby is half of a sun and half of a crescent moon put together. All of the dragon is red, a long spiralling tail that's wrapped so many times to make a circle, and it's glowing a beautiful, vibrant red. My heart is racing like a drum as I lift my hand, and the second I touch the red stone, everything fades. I'm suddenly not standing in the pillars, and the floor under my feet seems to morph into red mist until I'm in a small grey cavern room.

On the floor at my feet is a giant puzzle that reminds me of a game I played with the professor years ago. Deep grooves like snakes twist around the stone, and there are five giant holes at my feet. I glance down at one of them to see there's nothing but empty darkness below. At the edge of the room are spheres. Each one is a crystal sphere, all beautiful shades of red, orange, black, silver and gold. In the game I played with the professor, I had to choose a ball to start with and get to the prize in the middle before the other players. It was a race, but this seems pointless as I'm playing alone and I don't see a prize. The professor always used chocolate drops as the prize. I quickly notice there's as many spheres as there are holes in the middle, all spread around me. Could it be as easy as that?

The ground shakes, nearly knocking me over, and the walls crack before my eyes, hundreds of slim fractures on every wall of the cavern. From the cracks, silver lava begins to spit out, burning and sizzling as it drips down onto the ground. It's going to burn me alive. I have to play the game and get all the spheres to the holes before being burnt.

I run to the nearest sphere, getting behind it, and begin to push. It's huge, nearly as big as me, and so heavy. I follow the track all the way around the bends, the twists, and it feels like forever before I manage to get it towards a hole and push it in. It simply falls into the darkness below, and there's no sound, no bang as it hits anywhere, just nothing. I glance at the next one and run to it, knowing I can't waste time. They must be the key to getting out of here.

Lava spits at me as I get to the sphere, struggling to slide behind it. A tiny drop of embers lashes at my ankle, and I wince, knowing that's going to burn. I know it's adrenaline or something like it pumping through me that's making me not feel the pain right away. Pain is something I've gotten used to over the years, and I know I can absolutely push through it to survive. I've done it before, and I can definitely do it again. With a grunt, I push behind the sphere, this one black, and I keep pushing it until it eventually goes down the hole.

By the time I look back this time, breathless and sweaty, the lava has started to spread on the floor around the spheres, getting into some of the holes. Deities help me! It's harder this time to get to the next one, and the one after that. But I keep going until sweat is covering me from head to toe, both from the heat of the lava and from the sheer exhaustion of doing this. My bones are aching, every inch of me is aching, until I get to the final one. I feel I can't breathe as I realise that the steam, the lava, is burning everything around the final sphere. I will have to step into it to get behind the sphere.

I can't do that. I can't do this. I just can't. I fall to my knees, sobbing as I cover my face. "Get up!" I tell myself, but it doesn't work. I can't move, I can't breathe. I hear my best friend's voice, like he's shouting in my ear that he didn't die for nothing and I need to stand. I need to get up off the ground, because dying here would just mean that the Moon king, the asshole, was right, and he gets what he wants. He tried to kill me, and he didn't deserve to get his wish. This isn't another trap that is going to end with me dying. No. Just no.

I stand up and run over, stepping right into the lava as I jump behind the sphere. A scream echoes out of my throat from the pain, and it completely takes my breath away as I try to rise. Silver lava spreads closer, not waiting for me to manage to stand through the dizziness, and I scream as it burns into my thigh just before I quickly stand on my good foot. Now the room is nearly full of lava, and there are only certain spots I can manage to put my good foot into as I push the final, much lighter sphere towards the remaining hole. When it finally falls through, I stand in the middle, looking around, feeling relieved only for that relief to drop into dread as I realise that nothing has happened. All of that was for nothing! It didn't work.

The lava doesn't stop. If anything, it's gushing out faster and travelling towards some of the holes, blistering hot lava pouring through them into the unknown. There's only one left that the lava hasn't touched. The lava's inching towards it, and I know there is one way out I haven't considered. My choice is simple—stay here and burn or jump to fall into the unknown and a chance of living. I don't want to burn, and falling is my worst fear. Blowing out a breath, my stomach is turning. I don't want to fall either, because I hate heights. Fresh tears fall down my cheeks and disappear before they touch the ground in the heat.

"I can do this. I've got to do this," I repeat as I climb on my knees, crawl over to the hole, and push my legs on the edge. The wave of lava comes close to me, like a promise of death if I don't jump. I look up and I pray to the deities to save me before I jump through the hole. I scream as I fall into nothing, a place so dark I can't see anything else. I rapidly fall through the air, right before I slam straight into a pool of water. I gasp in the water, coughing on it as I swim up to the top and the silver light. When I open my eyes, I recognise I'm in the pool again, in front of the pillars.

Lifting my hand up into the moonlight, I see there's a dragon mark right on the back of my left hand. A beautiful dragon. The black dragon mark is moving slowly on its own, spinning round, almost like it's happy. I did it. I survived the Decidere. The first night, that is. I glance up to see shadows of people coming out of the pillars above. I'm not the only one. The moonlight shines down, illuminating everything, including steps in the cave wall that lead all the way up to the top, back to the bridge above. Dragon's roar around me as I swim straight for the steps.

Straight towards my freedom and the Moon king, who I fucking hate.