Chapter 1

ORDELL

I ’ve lived longer than I care to. Long enough to have seen many awful things and to have experienced every emotion, but the dull bone-aching sensation spreading through my blood as the dark-haired woman faces Ezekiel is something new.

Her familiar wide gray eyes flare, and her mouth parts slightly in awe. Ezekiel stares right back at her. They remain locked like this for several seconds, and my heart sinks, dread pooling in my belly, because how can this be?

How can we have been so wrong?

This is her.

Our potential savior.

Not Orina.

What have we done?

“Master?” Matthew breaks the strange tension. “Should I return the veins to the House of Spirit, or should I house them?”

A silent battle rages across Ezekiel’s features, understated and almost imperceptible unless you know what to look for. The flick of a brow, the tightening of his mouth, and the rapid pulse at his throat betray his emotions.

What must he be feeling now?

He knows that this woman is connected to his curse, and he probably thought he’d already killed her in the massacre. He thought he was free of the dance that always plays out. Free to step into a new dance with Orina.

What will he do?

His expression smooths out, still as a frozen lake. “Free the men and kill the woman.”

The woman cries out in shock while Ezekiel relaxes into his seat, picking up his goblet and drinking deeply as if making the decision has freed him once more.

“Please!” She takes another step toward him. “Your Majesty, what have I done to deserve such a sentence?”

“Matthew…” Ezekiel looks over her head at the shocked Renfield.

Matthew hurries forward to grab the woman’s arm, and she stares at him in horror.

“Take her away. Now,” Ezekiel says.

His tone is cool and even, but his white-knuckled grip on the table gives him away.

“I thought you were going to stop killing innocents?” Hemlock challenges.

“Oh, she is no innocent.”

“What?” The woman’s head whips from side to side, her gaze wild with terror, flying everywhere but settling nowhere. “What have I done?”

“Nothing. Yet,” Ezekiel says. “And it will stay that way. Don’t worry; your death will be quick and painless. The sleeping poison will do, Matthew.”

“Yes, Your Grace.” Matthew looks relieved.

But the woman is far from consoled. She thrashes and sobs as Matthew drags her toward the door, as the two men who’ve just been set free look on with mixed emotions.

“No! Please! Let me go!”

I can’t allow this to happen. We need her. I shove back my chair, ready to intervene.

“Let her go!” Orina stands in the doorway, clutching the frame for support. She’s pale and weak. Dark smudges beneath her eyes. “Ezekiel…please let her go.”

A look of pure devastation passes across my brother’s face. “Orina.” He blurs toward her and catches her before she can fall. “What are you doing? You should be resting.”

She frowns up at him. “Why? So you can murder more innocent people?” Her eyes well, and she blinks to quell her tears. “I thought…I thought you were changing. I thought you understood…” Her eyes flutter closed.

He curses, scooping her up into his arms.

“Your Majesty?” Matthew is still holding on to the woman, waiting for a possible change in instruction, and the conflict racing over my brother’s face tells me that he’s wise to do so.

“Put her in the guest dungeons,” Ezekiel growls before striding from the room with Orina cradled against his chest like the most precious prize.

Matthew releases the woman. She sinks to the ground with a sob, wrapping her arms around herself as if to hold her fracturing frame together. “I don’t understand. I don’t…”

“It’s all right.” Hemlock crosses the room to pick her up off the floor. “You’re going to be all right.” He smiles, but it barely reaches his eyes.

Because we’ve done this before. So many times before. And we thought we’d done it with Orina, and now…Now we have to start again.

But this time there’s one huge complication.

Our brother is already attached to another.

Ingrid places a pot of tea on the table along with a plate of biscuits just as Hemlock enters the kitchen.

“How is she?” she asks him.

“Calmer now,” Hemlock says. “The guest dungeons are comfortable. She’ll be fine until we can figure out what to do.”

I kick out a chair for him. “How could we get it so wrong?”

He sits heavily. “I don’t know. Orina is…She has a presence, and the way she attacked Ezekiel that night…”

“I suppose we can be forgiven for our mistake, but…I thought I felt it.”

“Me too. But our true hope is here now. Her name this time is Ariella.”

“Are you sure it’s her?” Ingrid asks.

“If you see her, then you’ll know.” I pour tea into my cup and add milk. “We shouldn’t have disregarded how different Orina looked from our previous saviors.”

“I thought…” Ingrid shakes her head. “I felt connected to her.”

“So did I. But now I wonder whether we made ourselves feel that way because of who we thought she was.”

“Are you saying you had no connection to her before?” Ingrid asks me.

“I can’t say that. And my beast wants her too. It’s never wanted a past savior before.”

“But have you ever gotten close to a past savior? You’ve never been her watcher, never spent such time with her. It’s always been Ezekiel.”

“What are you saying?” Hemlock asks.

“I’m saying…let’s not be hasty. Maybe…maybe this Ariella woman isn’t the one…” But she doesn’t sound too convinced.

“There’s only one way to know for sure,” Hemlock says. “We need to allow her time with Ezekiel without him being distracted.”

Distracted by Orina. “You want to remove Orina from the equation, don’t you?”

“Yes. She needs to leave the castle.”

“She’s his watcher,” Ingrid reminds us. “She’s vowed to protect him.”

Hemlock adds sugar to his tea. “Yes, but Ezekiel was just saying how he owed her a debt and wanted to make her life easier. I think he’ll be laying low.”

Ingrid purses her lips. “Well…if you’re going to do this, then Orina should be told the truth. The whole truth. That poor girl. No more lies. No more secrets. If you want her to put distance between herself and the master, then you need to give her reason to do so.”

She’s right. It’s time to tell Orina everything.