Chapter Nine

***REMI***

Apparently, the Seventh Isle comes alive at night. A very unfortunate realization, considering my ass is hanging out of my nightgown.

Dozens of males, some females, fill the halls of the House of Twilight like wraiths. Everyone we pass bows to Keiran, some as low as the ground. The taste of their fear is heavy in the air, the tension palpable.

But no one is as fearful of me.

I’m a human girl in a court full of Vampires. A human in a court full of demons.

Kallias carries me behind Keiran like I’m his trophy. I can feel all their men watching me, tossed over their rulers Spymaster like a conquest.

Then after they’ve made a show of displaying me, Kallias throws me into a new room than before.

This one is on the main floor of the house, covered in maps and lined with shelves of books. Besides me, Kallias, and the King, only Xaden and Rhode occupy the room.

I feel Vienna’s absence more than I care to admit. Being the only female in a room full of males this powerful, half of them voting they want to kill me, is terrifying.

But I have to admit, I’m getting pretty sick and tired of being terrified.

Kallias sets me down on the couch closest to the fire. Xaden and Rhodes both watch me readjust my nightgown from opposite corners.

Not a single male offers me something to cover up with.

The air in the room is something of war. And I imagine even if an army entered from the North, these four men could kill them all without so much as lifting a finger.

The pure power, the legend, and myth make me press my thighs together. Keiran notices this one.

I have always been kept away from men like this by my mother and father. They would kill me if they knew I was here, imagining what it would be like for Kallias’s muscular arms to wrap around me and warm me further than this fire.

However, the males in the room do not mirror my sentiments.

Rhodes is sitting to my left on another couch, half-smiling. Arrogant jerk. He looks happy that I ran, happy that I was tortured by Xaden.

And Xaden, something is going on over there. Beneath the half-steel mask and black hood, his expression is unreadable, but his fists are tight at his side, his shoulders too. Cold terror washes against my throat as I realize for the first that he’s resisting drinking my blood.

Keiran snaps, and Rhodes rises from his chair and lights a cigarette. Then he stalks across the room and hands it to Keiran. His King.

Keiran takes a deep inhale, savoring the silky smoke. When he opens his eyes I look away, not wanting to be caught by him.
To my left, the snowstorm outside has transformed into a full-blown blizzard, and some of the cold from the storm, despite the fire, seeps in through the window.

“This is what we’re going to do now,” Keiran says. I can feel the texture of his gaze on me, and I shrink from it. I can’t help but feel like a schoolgirl being scolded. A bad little sacrifice.

“The witches are going to come in nine days. You are going to submit to them willingly for the sacrifice.”

“I won’t go with–”

“Silence.” The power of his words compels me to look at him, and when I finally do, my stomach flips. His eyes are aglow in the night, so pale blue they’re nearly white.

I shiver from more than the cold.

“There is an easy way to do this and a hard way. I don’t need your consent to hand you to the witches, and they don’t need consent to perform the ritual.” He sits forward. “But if you are good, everyone will get what they want much sooner.”

I bite my tongue from saying. Everyone but me.

King Keiran takes another hit from his vice and smoke curls around his face. They blend well with his lingering shadows, who seem to be whispering secrets to him. The sleeves of his shirt are rolled up, and my eyes rove over his tattoos. They start at his fingertips and end at his jawline, a matching pair to the twins.

Seventh Isle Warrior markings. Meaning Keiran was a warrior in his father’s armies before he was a king. Just the sight of them tells me a story–he is brave, courageous, rare. Maybe that honorable part of him still exists and he won’t send me off with the witches.

But there are other markings, too. One that tells darker stories. Rebel army honors a pirate crew mark on his left leg that matches Xadens and Vienna’s.

All together they make him who is. A male is more myth than a man. The Commander of an undefeated Legion, Midnight Reincarnate.

Every instinct in me tells me to stay away from him, to look at the snow, the mountains. But the more I try to avoid his gaze the more I find myself staring.

“Have I made myself clear, Offering?” he asks.

My blush could compete with the crackling fire. “Yes.”

“Good girl.” He stands. “You’ll have a bodyguard on you every night from now on.”

“A bodyguard?” I dare to speak. “W-what about Vienna?”

Xaden speaks. “Vienna is being punished for losing you.”

My heart drops to my stomach. Disgusting, merciless pigs. How dare they punish her for my choices.

“Put her back in her room,” Keiran orders.

The twins share a look.

“Now.”

Xaden whispers something to Kieran, and they’re off before any of us can protest.

“Let’s get this over with, sweetheart,” Kallias helps me stand as Rhodes begins to walk away. “I promise I’ll be nicer than my brother.”

That brother shoots him a death glare.

I’ve never missed Vienna more by the time we make it back to my bedroom. Rhodes chains me tightly, but I catch him watching my body.

Does he also desire my blood? Are they also vampires?

“You made it through your first day in the House of Twilight,” Kallias congratulated me from the door.

I rattle my chains. I’m so close to being done. “Don’t delude yourself into thinking this isn’t the Court of Demons.”
Kallias’s jaw flexes. He’s kinder than the others, but part of me thinks that’s just for show. I bet he wants to choke me just as bad as his brother.

“Shout if you need us,” Rhodes says.

"Oh, she's definitely a screamer," Kallias adds, and then they leave me in the burning embers of a fire, the door clicking locked behind them.