Be My Queen: Rule with Me

I screamed.

The sound ripped out of my throat before I could stop it, raw and terrified. The ghost flickered, her hollow eyes fixed on me, her mouth still moving in that silent scream.

"He killed me. And you're next."

The door burst open. Raven rushed in first, followed immediately by Caspian. Both of them looked around the room, hands raised like they were ready to fight.

"What happened?" Raven demanded. His amber eyes were wild, scanning for threats.

I pointed at the corner with a shaking hand. "There. The girl. The ghost. Don't you see her?"

They both looked where I was pointing. Looked at each other. Then back at me.

"Sera, there's nothing there," Raven said gently. Too gently. Like he was talking to someone who'd lost their mind.

"She's right there!" My voice cracked. "In the corner. She just told me—she said he killed her and I'm next."

Caspian moved toward the corner slowly, his gold eyes narrowed. He reached out, his hand passing through the space where the ghost stood. She flickered but didn't disappear.

"The Truthsight," Caspian said quietly. "You're seeing something we can't."

The ghost's mouth moved again. This time I heard the whisper clearly: "Save them. Save us all. Before he does to them what he did to me."

"Who?" I whispered back. "Who killed you?"

But the ghost was already fading, dissolving back into the black rot spreading across the wall. Within seconds, she was gone completely.

I pressed my hands against my mouth, trying to keep the sob trapped inside. My whole body was shaking so hard the bed frame rattled.

Raven sat down beside me, careful not to touch me. "Hey. Hey, it's okay. You're okay."

"I'm not okay," I choked out. My chest felt too tight. I couldn't get enough air. "Nothing about this is okay. I'm seeing dead people. I'm seeing everyone dying. And apparently I'm supposed to just accept that I'm here to be sacrificed like some medieval virgin."

"Nobody's sacrificing you," Raven said firmly. His jaw was set in that stubborn way, the scar through his eyebrow pulling tight. "I won't let that happen."

"You can't stop it." Caspian's voice was cold. He stood by the window now, arms crossed, looking out at the perpetual twilight. "If the prophecy requires her sacrifice to break the curse, then that's what will happen."

"Like hell it will." Raven stood, turning to face Caspian. "You really are willing to kill her, aren't you? An innocent girl who's done nothing wrong except be born into the wrong family."

"I'm willing to do what's necessary to save thousands of lives." Caspian turned, and his gold eyes were hard as stone. "That's what leadership means, Thorne. Making the choices no one else will make."

"Leadership?" Raven's laugh was bitter. "You mean playing god. Deciding who lives and who dies based on some ancient prophecy that might not even be real."

"The curse is real." Caspian's voice dropped lower, more dangerous. "You saw her. She can see it. It's killing us all. And yes, if one life can save thousands, then that's the choice I'll make."

"Stop!" I shouted. Both of them turned to look at me. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here. Like I'm just... just a problem you need to solve."

I stood up, ignoring how my legs trembled. Ignoring how my shoulders burned where Elena's claws had torn through. Ignoring everything except the fury building in my chest.

"I'm a person," I said. Each word came out sharp and hard. "I have a name. I have a life. I have a family—a little sister who's twelve years old and probably terrified right now because her sister got dragged away in the middle of the night. I'm not your tool, Caspian. And I'm not your project, Raven."

Raven opened his mouth like he wanted to protest, but I cut him off.

"No. You both get something from me. Caspian gets his convenient sacrifice. Raven gets to play white knight and feel like he's different from the other vampires." My voice was shaking now, but I kept going. "But neither of you actually see me. You see what I can do for you."

Silence filled the room. Heavy and suffocating.

Caspian's expression didn't change, but something flickered in his gold eyes. Something that might have been guilt if he was capable of feeling it.

"You're right," he said finally. "I brought you here for what you could do. But that doesn't mean I want you to die, Seraphina."

"Don't call me that." I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold. "Only my mom calls me that."

"Sera, then." Caspian took a step closer. "I didn't want this. Any of this. I was seven years old when I learned about the curse. Seventy years old when I took my father's place on the council and realized how bad it had gotten. I've spent decades searching for another way."

"And found nothing," I said. It wasn't a question.

"And found nothing," he confirmed. "Until your grandmother's records surfaced. The Ashford line. Truthsight. The prophecy. It was the first real lead we'd had in a century."

"So you bought me." The words tasted bitter.

"So I bought your debt." He ran a hand through his hair, and for once, he looked tired. Actually tired. "I thought if you could see the curse, maybe you could find a weakness. A flaw. Something we'd missed because we couldn't see it."

"Or I could just die and solve all your problems."

"That's not what I want." His voice was soft now. Almost vulnerable. "Believe me or don't, but I'm telling you the truth. If there's another way, I'll find it."

I looked at him—really looked. His perfect aristocratic face that rarely showed emotion. The gold eyes that usually looked through people rather than at them. The way he held himself like he was carrying a weight no one else could see.

The gray death omen pulsing above his head.

"You're dying too," I said quietly. "The curse is killing you. Why do you care about saving everyone else when you're already doomed?"

Something cracked in his expression. Just for a second. Then it was gone, replaced by that cold mask. "Because that's what a prince does. What a leader does. We die last."

Raven made a disgusted sound. "Noble words from someone planning to throw a girl to the wolves."

"Enough." Caspian's voice sharpened. "You can hate me all you want, Thorne. But we have bigger problems right now." He looked at me. "The ghost you saw. Did she say anything else? Give you any details about who killed her?"

I tried to remember through the panic and fear. "No. Just... that he killed her. And that I need to save everyone before the same thing happens to them."

"A warning," Caspian murmured. "Or a plea for help."

"Both, probably." I sank back down onto the bed, suddenly exhausted. "Can I ask you something? And will you actually tell me the truth?"

"I'll try."

"The West Tower. Why did you put me there? Raven said no other servant has survived there. What does that mean?"

Caspian and Raven exchanged a look. Some unspoken conversation passed between them.

"The West Tower is where the curse started," Caspian finally said. "Three hundred years ago, during the massacre. The hunter betrayal happened there. The blood magic that created the curse was performed in those rooms."

My stomach dropped. "You put me in the origin point of the curse?"

"I put you where the curse is strongest," Caspian corrected. "Because if your Truthsight was real, that's where it would manifest. Where you could see the most."

"And if it killed me in the process?"

He didn't answer. He didn't need to.

"You really are a bastard," I breathed.

"Yes," he agreed simply. "But I'm a bastard trying to save lives. Even yours, if I can manage it."

Before I could respond, the door opened again. A girl walked in—the same ice-blonde I'd seen at the auction. Lady Vane. She wore an emerald dress that probably cost more than my mom made in a year, and her green eyes swept over the room with cold assessment.

"Caspian," she said. Her voice was crisp, refined. "The council is requesting your presence. Apparently there's been another death. A student collapsed during Blood Theory."

Caspian's face went pale. "Another one?"

"The third this week." Lady Vane's emerald eyes flicked to me, then away, like I wasn't worth her attention. "They want answers. And they want to know what you're planning to do about your... pet project."

"She has a name," Raven said sharply.

Lady Vane's lip curled. "I'm sure she does, half-breed. Though I doubt it matters much, considering her purpose here."

The casual cruelty in her voice made my hands curl into fists. But before I could say anything, Caspian stepped between us.

"Elysia," he said quietly. "Leave."

"Elysia?" I repeated. "As in... Elysia Vane? Your arranged bride?"

Elysia's green eyes finally focused on me properly. She smiled, and it was like watching a knife being drawn. "Oh, he told you about that? How sweet. Yes, I'm his fiancée. The woman he's actually supposed to marry, not the little blood servant he's using for spare parts."

My face burned. I stood up, ignoring how my legs still shook. "At least I'm here because I have something to offer. What's your excuse? Being born with the right last name?"

Elysia's smile vanished. Her eyes flashed with something dangerous. "Careful, little servant. You might be useful now, but usefulness runs out. And when it does, girls like you disappear."

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a promise." Elysia turned back to Caspian. "The council. Now."

She left in a sweep of emerald silk and cold fury.

Caspian looked at me. "Stay here. Rest. And Sera?" He paused at the door. "Be careful. Elysia's not just cruel. She's desperate. Her younger brother is dying from the curse. She'll do anything to save him."

"Even kill me?"

"Especially kill you. If she thinks your death will break the curse faster, she won't hesitate."

He left before I could process that. Before I could process that I now had multiple people who might want me dead.

Raven sat down heavily in the chair beside my bed. "This is insane. All of it."

"Yeah." I pressed my palms against my eyes. "Welcome to my life."

"For what it's worth," Raven said quietly, "I meant what I said. I won't let anyone sacrifice you. Not Caspian. Not the council. Not prophecy or fate or whatever else they throw at us."

"Why?" I dropped my hands and looked at him. At his amber eyes and silver-streaked black hair and that scar through his eyebrow. "Why do you care? You barely know me."

His jaw tightened. He looked away, like the answer was too complicated to say out loud. "Because someone should. And because..." He trailed off, then shook his head. "It doesn't matter why. Just trust that I do."

Before I could push him on it, my vision blurred. The colors came back—the auras, the death omens, all of it flooding in at once.

And above Raven's head, where there hadn't been one before, a faint gray shadow appeared.

"No," I whispered. "No, not you too."

Raven's face went tense. "What? What do you see?"

"You have one now. A death omen. It wasn't there before, but now—" My voice broke. "The curse is spreading. It's getting faster. You're all running out of time."

And somewhere in the walls around us, I heard it again. That desperate whisper.

"Ninety days. That's all you have. Ninety days until the Blood Moon. Until he comes for you, just like he came for me."