11. Bella

Ispent hours exploring room after room, each with outdated furniture and knickknacks. The dust layers made it clear no one had lived in some of these spaces for a very long time. I wandered aimlessly, searching for any clue about the curse, but finding nothing but heaps of dirty furniture forgotten to time.

It was tragic.

More than ever, I realized I needed to learn more about this curse. The longer I explored and the longer I stayed here, the curiouser it all became. I felt an odd compulsion to continue. My gaze seemed drawn to the ceiling, where the beautiful scene was depicted. It was a visual representation of the love of the sun goddess. There was no doubt about it. It was mesmerizing.

I searched my memory of the palace I”d grown up in at the Vampire Court. No motifs or paintings were dedicated reverently and with so much love as this one to the moon goddess. No, instead, they barely spoke her name; if they did, it was in hushed tones of fear or obedience. In this castle, so far locked in the past, they had obviously loved her. Yet, it hadn”t saved them from their fate.

As I stood there, I became lost in the past. The nights I”d sneak off from my room right under the nose of my nursemaid, Ola, whom I’d affectionately called Nan. Long after I was meant to be in bed, I’d peeked my head around curtains and corners in the ballroom of my uncle”s court, where beautiful ladies in extravagant dresses had danced the night away with handsome men. I”d watched them dance and had practiced their movements in the shadows, then I’d perform for my father later, who had clapped and pretended to be amused.

I could hear the music as if I were there now. As if caught by the magic of the past, I lifted my arms and began the movements of the dance I hadn”t danced in years. I twirled and sidestepped, keeping to the music in my head. My feet remembered even though I had long forgotten the precise movements. At the end, I curtsied as if I were dancing with someone, and as I stood, I giggled, a smile stretching across my face and my gaze going back up to that ceiling motif. As if I had been dancing for her, the sun goddess.

The sound of clapping, slow and mocking, made my smile vanish and blood run cold. I stilled in place, breathing heavily from the dancing as my heart pounded.

”Are you lost?” an annoyed and deep voice asked as I jumped, embarrassment hitting me quickly as I felt the warmth spread through me.

It turned quickly to anger as I realized who had interrupted my thoughts: Lore. I glared at him.

”I must say, you dance beautifully. Almost as if you were courtly trained.” He stepped forward, his eyes trailing up my body as if examining me in a new, more thorough light.

I said nothing.

Lore held out his hand to me. I raised an eyebrow but didn”t budge. ”Come. Indulge me. What else do we have to do with our time here?” He stared expectantly at me, waiting.

I sighed and took his hand with my good one. He turned to face me. I swore I heard the music again to the exact movements he made as he began to dance. He moved toward me, then turned as our hands almost met but not quite as we twirled away from one another. This dance was meant to tease. A push and pull of intimacy that was never quite enough.

The melody swelled from somewhere, no longer in my head, and Lore pulled me into the graceful steps of the dance. Irritation warred with unwilling admiration as we glided across the marble floor—he was an excellent dancer.

”I suppose royals must endure years of dance lessons,” I commented. ”Though I imagine you stepped on your fair share of toes before mastering this.”

Lore shot me a wry look. ”I was taught by the finest tutors. My footwork has always been flawless.”

”Ah, so all those centuries alone just left you desperately starved for a partner then?” I asked with mock sympathy.

His eyes glinted at the challenge. His voice deepened to a timbre that warmed me from the inside as if it were melted chocolate and seduction. ”I suppose you consider your own skills comparable after your rustic village upbringing?”

I raised a brow. ”Please. I”ve been dancing since I was four years old. I could dance circles around you.”

”Is that so?” Lore”s eye widened in surprise before he quickly hid it and grinned. ”Why don”t you prove it?”

He spun me into a dizzying sequence of steps, but I matched him flawlessly. We moved together as though we had danced this very routine a hundred times before, anticipating each other”s movements. Our banter faded as we became lost in the dance, bound by invisible threads.

His hand lingered on my arm as I felt the heat of his touch through the fabric, and my pulse sped up. Each time he spun me, his gaze found mine. When he pulled me in close, our bodies touched more than needed. As his hands gripped my waist to spin me, he took his time releasing me as if he didn”t want to let me go. The warmth of his hands nearly burned me as my pulse quickened and my mouth ran dry. I felt my tongue dart out to wet my lips, and he watched it as if he were more interested in my tongue than the dance.

As the last notes faded, our eyes locked once again. The air between us shimmered with unspoken possibilities. In that suspended moment, I saw past Lore”s stubborn arrogance to the man within, as bright and heartbreaking as a star flickering in darkness. A man I was now realizing had so many complex layers. Layers that were dangerous to me in ways I wasn”t ready to admit.

Lore pulled me close, our breaths mingling. His stormy gaze searched my face, lingering on my lips. Need flashed in his eyes, and his desire lay bare.

My heart stuttered as his hand rose, fingers trailing along my jaw. His rough thumb brushed my bottom lip, drawing a gasp. My lips parted, and I swayed into him. A man who one minute said mean and cruel things and in the next saved my life.

The way he held my gaze, there was a longing fueled by bitter loneliness that matched my own dark and lonely soul. I stepped back, not wanting to feel any sort of connection to him, but his eyes held mine as if I couldn”t dare look away.

As we stood breathless and staring at one another, Lore”s face took on an odd look. He reached up to caress my cheek, his rough hands gently tracing my jaw. Heat passed over his gaze, and his eyes turned hooded and intense. He leaned in as if he were going to kiss me.

Just as I was ready to accept it and leaned my head back and my eyes fluttered closed, I felt him pull back as he paused at the last second. Leaving me confused and wanting a kiss from a man I knew nothing about. I let out a disappointed exhale.

I shouldn”t have been disappointed; I shouldn”t have wanted his touch, yet the idea of his hands on my body sent thrills through me. That all changed with his following words.

His voice lowered and changed to steel. ”You know,” he began as he came close again. ”I”ve danced this only once before, which I”m assuming is your namesake, Queen Isabella.”

My eyes widened, but I quickly clamped down my expression, using a strategic glare to hide my surprise. Queen Isabella had been my father”s mother. She had ruled the Vampire Court for more than a millennia before an uprising had led to her death more than five hundred years prior. My father was the youngest of her children, and he”d honored her by naming me after her, which had angered his brother, the king.

It was considered unbecoming and an insult to name a weak half-human child after the greatest vampire queen to ever live. I”d never known the queen I”d been named after, but I bet her feelings were mutual, especially since it had been my fault the Vampire Court had crumbled.

There were many who honored the old queen, from peasants to humans and even secret little half-breed princesses. A similar name didn”t tie me to her; only my blood did.

”My father thought if he named me after her, it would help them accept me,” I said through my teeth.

”Did it?”

I moved my head from side to side as my lips pressed tightly together. A deafening silence pressed in on me as we stood so close yet so far apart.

”Of course, when I knew her, she was just Princess Isabella,” he admitted as we brushed up close.

I pulled my hands from his and stared at him, abruptly stopping the dance. That had been a very long time ago.

”How long have you been here?” I asked the same question that had been evaded once again.

He ignored me again. ”So you don’t know much about her? Most royalty in the Vampire Court erases the history of the last reigning royal to begin their reign anew. Unless…” He studied me.

In my mind, I finished for him: unless you were a part of the family. Yet, I pressed my lips tightly together.

His gaze moved around my face. ”I hadn”t noticed before the similarities between you two. I only noticed that you have the same name. But I see it now.”

”See what?” I breathed, afraid of the answer. I knew from experience that admitting this to him gave him more power than I was willing to give.

Lore stilled, his body changing in an instant as if something lethal overcame him. A darkness clouded his features as something old and primal looked out. An entity looked out through his eyes, something that craved death, something carved from suffering and pain. Something that looked at me with the kind of unfiltered hatred that made me shrink back. With just one look, it promised sweet vengeance.

Lore”s expression darkened, his eyes flashing with unchecked fury. ”Your Queen Isabella took everything from me. She ripped my sister, Lara, from my life when she was just becoming a young woman.”

I took an involuntary step back, shaken by the venom in his voice. ”What are you talking about?”

He advanced on me with his hands clenched. ”Queen Isabella pretended to be my friend. Invited us to the Vampire Court under the illusion that we would create alliances. My kingdom sent me, and my sister came with me despite my arguments. While we were dining, her forces invaded my kingdom. She’d slaughtered my people and captured my sister, releasing me to carry the news of my failure home. She started the war between our people when she returned my sister broken. It wasn”t long after that, Lara took her own life.” Raw pain cracked in his voice as his lips curled, flashing me his teeth as if he wanted to tear me to pieces with them.

My mind reeled. I wanted to defend my family”s honor, but the rage and grief etched on Lore”s face gave me pause. I had never cared for or had any real loyalty to my vampire family, but it felt wrong to tarnish her name.

”She was just protecting her people,” I said, but the excuse felt hollow.

Lore laughed bitterly. ”Protecting vampires by destroying dragons? Your people were murderers.”

”And yours were saints?” I shot back. ”I know the stories—your dragons razed villages to the ground!”

”Only after the vampires drew first blood.” Lore towered over me. ”Face it, your beloved queen was a monster.”

”We are all monsters,” I whispered, and Lore shot forward, crushing my body to his as he took those very teeth and trailed them along my neck in a way that should have frightened me. Only, it had the opposite effect. A shiver of pleasure arched my back into him, and a noise that sounded like a moan escaped my lips.

His breath cascaded across my neck until he reached my ears, and then he whispered low and sensual, which was so at odds with his words, ”You are the monster—a vampire, and a wanton one at that.”

I trembled with barely contained fury, blinking back tears I refused to shed. The air between us became charged with heat, our faces inches apart. A reckless desire to grab and shake him clashed with an equally intense longing to crush my lips to his. I dug my nails into my palms, overwhelmed and confused. Why did I feel this way? One moment, I had intense emotions to murder him, then the next, it was as if they made me a mad woman bound on a path of destruction.

With a growled curse, Lore spun away, separating us. ”This conversation is pointless,” he hissed. ”We are enemies, and we always will be.”

I watched the rigid set of his shoulders as he strode away, willing my heart to harden against this complicating attraction. ”Good riddance,” I muttered. Despite my bravado, a small, traitorous part of me mourned the loss of what we could have shared. I pushed it down ruthlessly, clinging to old hatreds...and trying in vain to ignore new desires. With a last scorching glance, I whirled away.

This was my first real dance with a man who would always be my enemy. It was my dumb luck to be trapped in a cursed castle with him, and I feared it would be an eternity before I could escape. That just wouldn”t do.

After Lore stormed off, I stood, deep breaths heaving from my chest, my mind spinning. I needed answers about my grandmother”s actions, but I also couldn”t shake my conviction that Lore must die to break this curse.