Chapter 4

Two weeks after he destroyed my greenhouse, news of Odette's pregnancy spread through the castle.

The steward knocked excitedly on my lab door. "Miss Linnea, congratulations! Her Ladyship is with child!"

The test tube in my hand nearly slipped.

"The Lord has ordered you to cease all other work. You are to dedicate yourself to preparing her Ladyship's Exquisite Blood Brews."

The Exquisite Blood Brew required the purest synthetic base, infused with seventeen rare herbs, and slow-brewed for eight hours. I could only make three vials a day.

Odette required five.

"Understood," I nodded. "I'll begin at once."

For the next two weeks, my life was a cycle of brewing. I started at three in the morning and wouldn't finish the last batch until five in the afternoon.

"Linnea! Where is my brew? I've been waiting for ten minutes!"

Odette's impatient shriek came through the communication crystal. It was her tenth summons today.

I dragged my exhausted body to her chambers, carrying the freshly prepared brew.

My foot slipped.

CRASH!

The precious brew splattered across the floor, a pool of crimson.

Odette leaped back with a scream, as if I had splashed her with acid.

"What are you doing?! Evander—Evander, come quickly!"

She threw herself into his arms as he walked through the door, her voice choked with tears.

"Is Linnea upset that I need so much of her brew?" she sobbed into his chest. "Is this her way of protesting against us?" She clutched his shirt, a perfect tear rolling down her cheek. "My baby is so fragile..."

Evander's icy gaze fell on me.

"Linnea." His voice was dangerously soft. "Have you forgotten what you were when I found you? A penniless orphan in a world that didn't want you. I gave you purpose. I gave you a home."

He walked toward me, his presence suffocating.

"If you behave, I might even grant you the gift of eternity. And this is how you repay me? By disrespecting my mate and my heir?"

I knelt in the puddle of broken glass and spilled brew, my palm sliced open and bleeding.

I gritted my teeth against the pain, lowered my head, and forced myself into a submissive posture.

"My apologies, my Lord. My legs just gave out. I will return to the lab and prepare a new batch immediately."

When I returned with a fresh brew, wearing a clean lab coat, Evander was gone.

Odette was alone, lounging on a chaise.

She saw me, stretched, and made sure I could see the bond mark on her neck.

"Linnea."

She beckoned me over.

I approached and placed the tray on the small table in front of her.

She picked up the goblet but didn't drink.

She just looked at me.

Her face held a raw, naked malice I had never seen on her before.

"I suggest you learn your place. Even if Evander did turn you, you'd just be the most pathetic fledgling in the entire Coven. Don't even dream of competing with me."

With that, she stood up and walked right in front of me.

She didn't just pour it.

She dumped the entire goblet of crimson liquid over my head.

The sticky, cold brew streamed through my hair, dripped down my face, and soaked the collar of my white coat. The metallic scent was suffocating.

"Ugh," she feigned a gag, placing a protective hand on her stomach. "You must have brewed it wrong. The smell is making me nauseous. Oh, the baby feels it too."

I closed my eyes, letting the cold liquid drip from my hair, staining my white coat red. I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.

Half a month. Just half a month until the writ takes effect.

I heard my own voice, as still and dead as a stagnant pool. "I will go and prepare another batch."

...

Half a month later, the night of Evander and Odette's blood-bonding ceremony arrived.

The castle was draped in decorations, filled with noble guests. I was assigned the lowest possible duty: serving blood wine.

To make the humiliation complete, Odette had ordered me to wear a blood thrall's uniform. It was a coarse, black tunic with an iron chain stitched into the collar. In vampire society, it was a mark of the lowest, most pitiful status.

I put it on and looked at the stranger in the mirror.

Whatever. After tonight, it would all be over.

The ballroom was magnificent. Evander sat on his throne on the high dais, Odette on his arm, beaming.

I moved through the crowd with my tray, invisible. Every vampire who passed me shot me a look of disdain.

"Isn't that the Cavendish family's alchemist?"

"How did she fall so far as to become a thrall?"

I kept my face blank and continued serving.

"Linnea." Evander's voice stopped me.

I walked to the throne and bowed respectfully.

"Is there any reward you desire tonight?" he asked, swirling his wine. His tone was casual. "Your performance has been adequate lately."

Odette tightened her grip on his arm, staking her claim.

"Your satisfaction is my only reward, my Lord," I answered quietly.

Evander frowned, as if something was off. But Odette quickly pulled him onto the dance floor with a tinkling laugh.

I watched them dance, surrounded by cheers and blessings.

I once dreamed of dancing with him just like that. How laughable it all seemed now.

The midnight bells began to chime.

The vampires descended into a frenzy of celebration, their cheers turning to howls.

I used the chaos to slip out of the ballroom.

Back in my room, I pulled out the suitcase I'd already packed. It held a few changes of clothes and some important papers. And the most precious thing of all.

A single seed.

One seed from the mystical orchid, which had survived Evander's rampage in the greenhouse. The miracle seed that could cure human cancer.

It was my dream. The last spark of it.

I clutched it to my chest.

I walked out of my room for the last time.

My footsteps echoed in the vast, empty hallway, a lonely rhythm against the distant roar of their celebration.

I was a ghost in my own home. No one saw me. No one cared.

At the main gate, I took one last look at the castle that had consumed my previous life.

Then I turned my back on it and walked into the night.

I was leaving the vampire world for good. And I would never look back.