2. Montana

Irose from the deepest slumber of my life, leaving the presence of my sister behind. I’d seen her kneeling in the dirt, her hands clasped around a blade just like Nightmare, while a warrior of a man had knelt with her. I’d seen enough to learn who he was. Magnar Elioson. The same slayer who had left the crescent scar above Erik’s hip. His sworn enemy. And hell, I’d seen so much more than that too.

Somehow, Callie was still free, not here in New York, not a prisoner of General Wolfe. She was out there in the world somewhere safe, and despite the horror of our situation, I was overwhelmingly relieved about that sole truth.

I wasn’t sure how my mind had connected with Callie’s, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t the first time. The dreams I’d been having since we’d been parted had only grown more vivid, and the moment I’d learned of Dad’s death, there had been no denying the knowledge that passed between us. A suffocating, all-consuming despair had followed me into the deepest of sleeps, my mind lost between the here and there, unable to grasp onto anything more than the pain of his loss.

As the haze finally lifted, I was left with a lump of solid ice in my chest and grief weaved through my body like a hungry snake, devouring any light it found. This sorrow was made of purest darkness, twisted so deep within me that I was certain I’d never be free of it.

Although I could finally leave sleep behind if I wanted to, I kept my eyes clamped shut, sure that when I woke, I’d have to truly accept Dad was dead. Gone. This wasn’t just a dream or an unbearable nightmare. It was real. And the moment I opened my eyes, I’d have to face the world without him in it.

He was the person who had been a rock for me to cling onto through the stormy sea of my life. The man I loved dearer than any other. The one who had sung me lullabies, told me countless stories, had wiped my tears away, kissed my scraped knees when I fell down. He was the hand propping me up when I stumbled, and without him, I would be cast adrift.

“Callie,” I murmured, tears squeezing from my eyes.

For the first time since arriving in New York City, I truly missed our apartment in the Realm. I wanted to wake in our tiny bedroom and curl up in my sister’s bed. I wanted to go back to a time when Dad was alive and a life outside the Realm was nothing more than a petty hope. Where even on the grimmest of days, I’d still had the two of them to come home to.

A hand encircled mine, their touch ice against my skin, but I didn’t flinch away from it.

You have to get up. You can’t let this break you.

I took a breath and forced my eyes open, facing the hollow world that I didn’t want to endure without my father.

Erik sat on the edge of the bed, blocking the room from view, but I could tell I wasn’t in my usual bed in the castle. To my right was a wooden nightstand with a glass of water sitting there untouched. The scent of cypress carried from the vampire who was watching me, everything about him too still, too intense.

Dread weighed down my chest as I recalled speaking his name at the choosing ceremony, offering myself to him in return for my dad’s protection. But now…

My lungs felt clogged with cotton wool, my breaths impossible to take. His name had left my mouth for one reason only; to secure my father’s freedom. And it was all for nothing. Nothing.

“You’ve been out cold for an entire day,” Erik said, his voice softer than usual.

His brow was etched with lines and his ashen eyes flickered in a way that suggested he had many things to say on the matter but was biting his tongue. He was dressed in a simple white t-shirt and sweatpants, looking like a completely different person than the last time I’d seen him. After I’d chosen him, when my mind had connected to my twin’s and a flash of memories had taken hold of me, then…I’d fallen. Just a moment of memory came back; me stumbling down the steep stairs before darkness had washed over me.

I sat up, searching myself for injuries, but I couldn’t find any bruises. I was dressed in similar clothes to Erik and vaguely wondered who’d changed me, though it was difficult to focus on anything but the pain slicing into my heart.

“I fell,” I murmured, my voice raspy from a lack of moisture.

“I caught you.” Erik promptly handed me the glass of water and I took a long sip, the thirst driving deeper until I tipped up the glass and finished every drop.

I nodded once, dropping my eyes to the empty glass and feeling as empty as the space inside it.

“What happened?” Erik asked urgently, his hand curling tight around my arm. “I had a doctor try to wake you, but he couldn’t. He said you needed time, but humans don’t just go unconscious for an entire day for no reason.”

I said nothing, my thoughts still realigning, and I didn’t have an answer anyway. But then the weight of Dad’s death descended on me again so sharply, I wasn’t remotely prepared. I unravelled, dropping my face into my hands and sobbing, breaking apart and aching for the company of my twin.

Erik’s arms surrounded me, and he dragged me into his lap, gathering me against his chest without a word. It was exactly what I needed, and yet I shouldn’t have wanted any such thing from him. But I was too shattered by my pain to do anything but curl into his body and cry against his shoulder, heavy, wracking sobs shuddering through me.

“Tell me why you’re crying,” he insisted in a low voice.

I circled my arms around his neck and released my grief, letting it flow and flow until it finally died away enough for me to speak.

“I can’t,” I croaked.

I couldn’t make myself say the words. Speaking them would make them so utterly true, I could never take them back.

“You must,” he growled.

As the grip of my anguish released me a little and I found it easier to breathe, clarity came back to me. Of who I was seeking comfort from, whose arms I was so tightly wound up in. I stiffened in Erik’s hold, pulling back, but he kept me there with obvious ease.

My throat was thick as I looked up at him, my sadness like two flints striking together and igniting a flame of fury in the centre of my chest. He was responsible for this. For Dad, for everything.

“You knew Callie was free,” I accused in a gasp, shoving his shoulders to try and escape him, but he didn’t release me. “Did you know about Dad too? Did you command Wolfe to do that?!” My voice tore from my chest, flying free as a scream, but what I really wanted was to hurt him in a way he would feel as deeply as I felt this torment.

“Do what?” he asked in confusion, and I didn’t know if he was a damn good liar or if he really didn’t know what I was talking about.

An ache was growing in my chest, expanding more and more until the words bubbled up and burst from my mouth. “My dad is dead. When I passed out, my mind connected with my sister’s. And I don’t care how crazy that sounds, because it’s true. I saw her with Dad. His neck was torn open. He had so many bite marks and there was so much blood-” I choked, shaking my head and trying to push my way out of his arms again. He let me go at last, and I got to my feet, pacing the room, wanting to tear it all apart, but I was sure nothing would ever get rid of this desperate energy.

I gazed around the expansive bedroom we were in, taking in the wooden walls rising high either side of me, the rustic furniture dotted around the space, and a long table laden with food. Everything was cream and brown and earthy. A glass door led out onto a balcony and a glimpse of the night sky was visible beyond it, the stars glinting like little diamonds set into black velvet.

“I don’t know how our thoughts connected or why. But I know what I saw is true. I know it like they were my own memories,” I said.

Tears spilled over again, and I wiped them hastily away on the back of my hand, turning to glare at Erik, holding onto my rage like a weapon in my fist.

“It was Wolfe,” I forced out, my hands shaking, pain weaving a web inside me, every strand spun from grief.

I held so much hatred in my heart for the general. I wanted to storm from this place and find him. End him with Nightmare. Cut out his heart and turn him to dust.

Erik moved toward me in a blur of motion, seizing my shoulders to hold me still, his eyes two pits of fury. “Wolfe killed your father?”

I nodded, unable to say it again. “He’s dead because of the vampire you sent to free him. The monster you trusted to bring him here.” I tried to get away from him, but he didn’t let me go.

“I didn’t know,” Erik hissed, his tone deadly. “I will deal with him, I swear it.”

“No.” I bared my teeth. “I want to deal with him. It was my father he killed. Bring him here and put a dagger in my hand.”

“Take a breath,” he demanded, and I did, my chest rising and falling as I dragged in some air. “I know you want revenge, but we have to be careful. No one can know what you are.”

I released a dry laugh. “Tell that to Miles. He already figured out I’m a slayer, and I’m sure he’s telling the rest of your siblings right now.”

Erik’s eyes turned to stone. “He knows?!” he bellowed, and a shudder ran through me, but I didn’t back down.

“Yes,” I breathed. “He tried to blackmail me into picking him at the ceremony.” I scrubbed at my cheeks again as more tears fell. “I’m sick of playing your family’s games.”

“I’m not playing games with you. Not anymore,” Erik muttered, harnessing his tone. He stepped toward me and I lifted my chin, assessing what he might do. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

I blinked firmly to stop any more tears from coming. “Because I thought you might kill me.”

His jaw flexed and he shifted closer to me, head lowering.

“You must trust me,” he said, his tone even and demanding. “I have made it quite clear that I-”

“I trusted you to free my father and you sent a monster to kill him instead! Why would I ever trust you?”

“I didn’t know he would do that, Montana. Wolfe may be a cold man, but he is supposed to be a loyal one. I didn’t suspect for a moment that he would go against my orders.”

Heat simmered in my veins. “But you must have known my father was being tortured. You claim ignorance to the Realms, but you know about the blood banks. You know what happens to humans inside their walls. I think you know everything that goes on and you believe I’m ignorant enough to be lied to.”

“I gave you my word and I intended to keep it,” he snapped, moving toward me, but I backed up.

“But you didn’t! And now my father is dead because of you.”

He reached for me, and I slapped his hand away.

“You used him to get what you wanted from me, just like you use every human in this world. You think we’re less than you, disposable-”

“You are not disposable to me,” he said fiercely, his eyes igniting with all the fire of the sun. He stepped closer and my heart tripled its pace. I held up a hand to keep him back, but he kept coming, trapping me in his wild gaze. “You have awoken something in me I thought long dead, and I will not let you go because of it. No matter how much you torment or inconvenience me. I have laid claim to you, and I will not relinquish that claim now that you have chosen me in kind.”

“I chose you so that my father would be freed. That makes my choice void,” I snarled.

“It is far too late for that,” he said quietly. “But I will not have you think me responsible for what has happened. It is Wolfe who will answer for this crime. I will see it done myself.”

His fangs glinted at me, and he was nothing more than a vicious creature as he bore down on me, stalking ever closer while I retreated.

I turned my back on him and buckled forward, a racking sob tearing from my throat. It was too much, all of this. I couldn’t do it alone anymore. I wanted Callie here. I wanted to crack through the glass doors before me and escape into the obsidian sky.

Erik fell quiet, his hand pressing to my back. After an endless amount of silence, he spoke in a low voice. “I…”

“What?” I sniped, something telling me he might actually be about to apologise.

He cleared his throat, his hand falling from me. “I found the blade.”

Nightmare. Fuck.

My heart screamed and I whipped around to face him, unsure what he was about to do.

“No one else saw it,” he said. “I’ve hidden it for now, but I acted without thought when I found it.” He turned his hand over and I spotted the same runes from Nightmare’s hilt branded into his left palm. “It didn’t break the skin, so it will heal eventually. Let us hope no one notices the mark in the meantime.”

I kept my lips firmly shut, saying nothing about where I’d gotten it or why I’d been carrying it with me.

“Were you planning on using that blade on me?” he asked, his voice hard and his eyes unblinking.

Still, I said nothing, and his jaw ticked in frustration.

“Speak,” he urged, but my silence was my only defence now.

He sighed, lifting a hand and making me wince as I half expected a punishment for what I’d done. His hand grazed against my cheek and slid into my hair, his fingers winding between the strands.

“I cannot fathom the depths of the pain you are experiencing,” he said, his brows pulling together. “I think I may have forgotten what it is to feel things so sharply. But your suffering riles me. So I will deal with Wolfe and bring horrors untold down upon him for what he has done.”

“I want him dead,” I said, my tongue tainted with poison.

“I will offer him endless pain before his death,” he said darkly, and despite how angry I was at him, how much I blamed him, I wasn’t going to get in the way of him going after Wolfe. “He will not get off lightly.”

He stepped away, heading for the door.

“I want to be there,” I called, determined that he wouldn’t deny me this.

Surprising me, he nodded.

“Really?” I gasped.

“You’re not just a courtier anymore, rebel. You are my fiancée. And if you want to be there, you will be. I will come for you when it is time for his interrogation.”

Fiancée?

A breath staggered past my lips as I absorbed that word. It made it terrifyingly real that I was meant to wed this vampire. It was the last thing on my mind among every other horror I was facing, but the word jarred me now, reminding me of the predicament I was in.

Erik stepped through the door and glanced back. “This house is yours. Go wherever you please. You are no longer a prisoner.” He nodded to the spread of food laid out on the ornate table. “And eat. I swear you will never go hungry again.”

He shut the door and I stared after him in shock.

A single thought filled my mind: if I was going to be there when Wolfe was interrogated, I wanted Nightmare back. But Erik wouldn’t have been fool enough to leave it anywhere I could easily access it.

I forced down a few bites of fruit and bread, needing to keep my strength up for this day. When I was finished, I headed to the balcony and slid the door aside. For a second, I’d wondered if it would be locked, but Erik was true to his word. I was no longer a prisoner here. Or at least, I had less chains securing me. I doubted I’d really be able to go anywhere alone, but at least I wasn’t caged within the castle anymore.

As I stepped onto the balcony, I took in the beautiful view stretching into the distance. New York City stood on the horizon under the silver light of a full moon. I guessed I was several miles outside of its borders. The house I was in sat at the peak of a grassy hill, and beyond the large front yard was a vast stretch of land which had small shrubs growing on it in perfect lines.

I drank in the fresh air and found an inch of hope to hold onto between the wind and the birdsong. Callie was out there somewhere. And even though we couldn’t be together through this pain, it was better this way. She had the freedom we’d always dreamed about, and I prayed she held onto it.

I clutched the railing as grief threatened to overwhelm me again. But I had to be strong. I had to be ready to face Wolfe. Because when I did, he wouldn’t see me cry. He wouldn’t see the pain he’d caused. I’d only let him see the strength in me. The strength that had always lived in my family. And no one, least of all a disgusting monster like Wolfe, was going to take that from us.