Chapter 281

“Can I ask you something?” I ask Zael after half an hour of complete silence.

“You are the queen.”

“I’m not your queen though, am I?”

I can’t see his face, but I can almost imagine the vampire’s smile. “You are while we're at war.”

“Why are you helping us?”

The vampire drops his head to look at me, sighs, and rapidly descends. He lowers me to the ground and takes a seat under the nearest tree, leaning with his back against the trunk. “I need to rest,” he says. “The sun saps my vitality, and the last few days I haven’t slept at all.”

“Do you ever sleep at night?”

“No. I physically can’t.”

“And you have to force yourself to stay awake during the day?”

He nods in answer. The vampire does look tired. It’s more than just the usual daylight exhaustion that shows on his face. He looks older somehow. Deep cracks had formed around his eyes, and silver strands I’ve never seen before shimmer in his black hair. “Maybe you need to take a few days to rest up. Can you die from fatigue?”

“No,” he gru