Chapter 1

1

SELENE

THREE MONTHS EARLIER

“ H is throne is made of bones.” The freckle-faced woman beside me peered over the ruins, scowling at the city that clogged the valley just below us. She turned to me, her crimson eyes sparking with hate and a breeze gusting her wavy ginger hair over her powerfully built shoulders.

“The bones of mortals, I’m guessing,” I said.

The woman was my mother and High Queen Theia of Troy, and she knew better than most of what cruelties Zeus was capable. She nodded, then glanced up, where my raven, Hector, soared through the sky. The first flush of morning threw streaks of pink across the blue. And despite the clouds that huddled over us, the rising sun cast a hazy light onto the sprawling white stone city of Olympia.

Just beyond it, the coastline curved like a snake, and a stretch of endless blue met the horizon. I’d never seen anything quite like it before. The depictions in my storybooks had been painted in vivid azures, but it somehow did not compare to the true thing. The southern sea was just so bold . I imagined it was even bolder in full sunlight.

“It is time,” she said, passing me a cloak. I shrugged it over my shoulders and tugged the hood over my head. Unlike most vampires, my mother and I didn’t need to hide our skin from sunlight. As the last remaining Titans, we didn’t burn the way the Olympians did. But we couldn’t risk anyone catching sight of us. The vampires in the Kingdom of Elis were fiercely loyal to Zeus and would report us to him, regardless of what kind of coin we tried to throw at them.

Despite the supposed peace between the thirteen kingdoms of Hellas, we were technically trespassing. And since we were Titans—not Olympians, like all the others—Zeus would take any excuse to retaliate against us.

After my mother donned her cloak, drowning her pale skin in shadow, she clutched my arm. A fierce whisper emerged from the darkness. “Listen to me. No matter what happens, you will do as I say. I need you to see what they do here, but this is extremely dangerous, and you must not get caught. Troy needs us to survive. You will run if I tell you to run. And if they catch you, don’t tell them what you saw. Do you understand me?”

I wet my lips. This wasn’t the first time she’d said this to me since leaving Troy. It almost felt like she was still trying to talk herself into the madness of this plan.

“I understand, but…” I rested my hand over hers. “Are you sure this is necessary? We can still turn back.”

“No, Selene. We cannot turn back. You must know what our enemies are capable of, and you will never truly understand it until you see it with your own eyes.”

So I nodded. There was nothing else I could do. When my mother got an idea into her head, there was no talking her out of it. And while my stomach twisted into nervous knots, there was something humming through me. A buzzing energy anticipating the day ahead.

Until now, I’d never left Troy, let alone visited another kingdom. My mother had guarded me fiercely all my life, hiding my existence from everyone outside our borders. And for good reason.

There were twelve other rulers scattered throughout the Hellas continent, and all of them were Olympians like Zeus. They would likely want me dead, if they knew about me. Vampire monarchs were notoriously—and proudly—ruthless. True enemies, the lot of them.

“Come. While we have sunlight on our side.” She rose from our hiding place behind the crumbling circular wall that had once been an amphitheatre—or something like it. These were ruins from centuries ago, from a time far before Titans and Olympians had walked this earth. No one knew what the world had been like before the primordial gods had created us. For a long time, the original Titans had believed they were the first to live in this place. But then they’d found these ruins, scattered all throughout Hellas. Someone had been here before us, but whoever they were, they were long gone.

We stole across the ruins and down the sloped hill toward the city. Mossy dirt squelched beneath our boots, and the wispy clouds did little to keep the heat off our backs. For most of the year, tremendous cloud cover blocked the sun and drowned the lands in rain and shadow. But every summer, there was one month where the sun’s rays baked the Hellas kingdoms, doing its damndest to dry out the mud.

It was never quite enough in the end. The wet refused to go, clinging to this world like a leech.

As we drew closer to the low wall, the truth of the city became a stark contrast to how pristine and glistening the white stone had looked from afar. Windows were boarded up; streets were empty and silent, save for a few stray cats stealing along the grimy paths, meowing pitifully. This city had two types of residents: vampires and mortals. And neither roamed the streets during daylight hours, not like back home in Troy.

We reached the low wall. It only came up to our waists. I didn’t see much of a point to it. This would do nothing against invaders.

My mother took my hand and tugged me low, leaning in close to whisper into my ear. “As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this wall isn’t here as a defensive measure. Any guess as to why Zeus had it built?”

A test. She did this a lot. Despite my mother’s immortality, she was convinced I’d one day take her place as the High Queen of Troy. And recently, she’d been teaching me everything she knew and sharpening my mind. That was part of why we were here. She needed me to understand our enemies, so that I might one day be prepared to face them. Alone.

But that would never happen. The Olympian vampires had weaknesses, but my mother didn’t. As a Titan, nothing could permanently harm her. Her death was an impossibility. Beyond that, there was the peace treaty. She was a member of the Thirteen Crowns, along with the twelve Olympian monarchs. And as such, we were—theoretically—allied with them.

Even so, I considered the wall. It wrapped around the entire city, starting at the shore, curving through the valley, and turning back around to the shore again. The only break in the wall was a section near the middle, where the white stone rose higher and curved into an archway. An entrance, of sorts. Two guards stood facing the city, clad in full plate steel—to keep their skin protected from the sun.

“It’s a barrier for the mortals,” I said. “If they run, the wall will slow them down.”

“A good guess.” My mother nodded. “But why not build it taller?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure. It doesn’t make much sense to me. If Zeus wants to trap them here, this won’t do much to stop them.”

“Ah, you’re right. It won’t. This wall is a test. It looks easy to cross, yes? It’s just…a line in the sand, if you will. Cross it, and you will be taken to the Bull, if you’re caught.” She shuddered. “Zeus makes it so easy for them to try. He likes it when they try to flee.”

The horror in her eyes sent a tremor down my spine. I didn’t want to know what could cause the High Queen of Troy to look that way, but the Bull must be one of the reasons we were here—one of the many reasons.

“Are you going to tell me what it is?” I asked.

She patted my shoulder. “You will see, I’m afraid. The remnants of it, at least.”

The remnants . The way she said those two simple words turned my stomach. Suddenly, I wished I hadn’t feasted on blood before we’d ventured from our ship. My mother had suggested I take my fill of our human companion. For added strength, in case we needed to run. But for once, the blood felt sickly sitting in my gut. I didn’t know exactly what I’d see in this city, but I had a fairly good idea it would involve a lot of suffering.

I’d heard rumors, of course. My mother hadn’t been able to shield me from the stories that burned through court, especially not when I’d reached adulthood. It had been years since the servants had stopped being so careful around me. They whispered amongst themselves, sharing lurid tales of the world beyond our gates.

In Troy, vampires and mortals lived in harmony. We fed on them, but never enough to drain their life. A steady supply of blood was their tax to the crown, while our vampire residents paid their taxes in coin. And it worked. It had been well over a decade since the last murder.

To my mother, the mortal citizens were just as important as the vampires. She saw them as her people , precious lives she’d sworn she’d protect.

The Olympians did not hold such views. But Zeus was the worst of them all.

He saw them as nothing more than cattle.

“These houses.” I pointed at the white stone buildings of the nearest street. The windows and doors were hidden behind sagging, rotted wood. “Does anyone live in them?”

“This part of the city is abandoned. That’s why we’re going in this way.” Her gaze hardened. “These were once mortal homes, centuries ago. Back before the Olympians revolted against us. Now come, my love. We must hurry.”

My mother leapt over the wall with an ease that suggested she’d done this a time or two. As silently as possible, I palmed the stone and hauled myself over to the other side, falling into a crouch when my boots hit the mud. Without another word, she darted from the wall to the nearest building and flattened her back against the stone. She motioned for me to follow. Nodding, I joined her at the building, my hurried footsteps flicking mud onto the bottom of my cloak.

And so it continued, the two of us carving a path through the abandoned buildings. Soon enough that section of the city was behind us, and signs of life crawled through the streets. Freshly painted shutters engulfed windows, blocking out the light. A flower pot sat on a stoop, filled with marigolds. Muddy boots were lined up outside a front door, shielded by a painted wooden overhang. The muddy paths vanished behind us, giving way to cobbles.

Here, the buildings were taller, wider, vines spilling over roofs. Carts and horses were dotted everywhere. At night, this would be a bustling, lively place when shutters were flung wide and vampires emerged from within.

My mother pressed a finger to her lips and quickened her steps, practically running now. It took all my effort to keep pace. At three hundred years old, her strength and speed were unrivalled, and she often forgot I was only thirty.

Still, I followed her cloaked form through the twisting streets, further and further toward the shore—until the stench of rot and blood billowed toward us on the brisk wind. I heaved to a stop, my instincts warring with each other. The rot made me gag, even while hunger shot an ache through my canines. A haze of red crept into the corners of my vision, and the world before me sharpened.

And for just one moment, all I could think about—all I could smell—was the blood. There was so much of it. Everywhere. My heart throbbed painfully in my chest, as if anticipating a fresh delivery of that precious, precious thing. I yearned to feel its iron sweetness on my tongue. I needed the fresh burst of power it delivered to my veins. A roaring echoed in my head.

The bloodlust nearly drove me to my knees.

And then it was as if something inside me snapped . The rotting scent carved a murderous path through the bloodlust, and the red haze cleared.

My mother stood in front of me, her lips pressed tightly together. Her eyes were hollow. And as I realized how close I’d come to losing control, I looked at the ground. She’d brought me here after all these years of training, trusting I could handle it. And I’d let her down.

But then she spoke, her voice gentle. “Good. Your control is better than I thought it would be. The first time I brought Orpheus here, he got his teeth into a mortal’s neck before he realized what he was doing. Whatever you’ve done to remain yourself, keep doing it. The worst of it is just around that bend.”

Orpheus. My mother’s oldest and closest advisor, who she’d sired herself. I hadn’t known she’d brought him here, too, though I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised. They shared everything with each other. In fact, I was certain he knew her far better than I did.

We crept down the dirt path, the stately homes now long gone. Abandoned buildings shuddered on either side of us, near collapse. With every step we took, the stench grew stronger. A few more steps, and we were passing the bend and there—

Nausea burned my throat, my eyes watering. An enormous square had been cut into the western edge of the city, buildings long since burned to ash. In their place, hundreds of dirt-caked humans were trapped inside a circular fence made of some kind of metallic wire with sharp edges pointed inward. Some huddled together in groups, sobbing. Others paced, bare feet slapping mud, a wild look in their eyes. And others were covered in blood. Their blood, judging by the raw, infected punctures in their neck.

I pressed a shaking hand to my mouth when a child ran through the crowd.

A child. It was all I could do not to weep.

This was far, far worse than I’d anything ever expected. Zeus was a monster. And there was nothing we could do to stop him.