Chapter 1

Silver dust from an enemy clan's attack burned in my veins, but I refused the vial from my aide, Heidi.

This was my thirty-third blood-bonding ceremony with Caius. My blood had to be pure for the ritual.

But I waited at the altar for three hours. He never came.

“My lady…” Heidi’s voice trembled. “Caius is still at the graveyard. The fledgling… Evangeline. She says she’s scared of the thunder and won’t let him leave.”

Thunder?

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky tonight.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and swallowed the coppery taste of blood rising in my throat.

I reached for him through our communing stone.

Once. Twice… On the tenth try, he picked up.

“Larissa, what is it now?” His voice crackled through the connection, laced with impatience, not a hint of apology. “Evangeline almost attacked a human! You know how fragile fledglings are. She’s my responsibility.”

“The ceremony starts in ten minutes.” My voice was terrifyingly calm, even as my hands began to spasm.

“I’m on my way! Now, bare your mind to me. I swear I won’t miss it this time.”

The line went dead.

He gave his word. I didn’t hesitate.

I fought through the searing pain, pulling all my power to the surface. I lowered my mental shields, leaving my very essence exposed before the altar.

It’s the most fragile a vampire can be, a moment reserved only for the partner they will spend eternity with.

Caius finally appeared, fashionably late.

But before I could even see his face, a violent wave of energy ripped from him, tearing through the entire church.

A tremor ripped through my exposed core. My vision blurred.

“Damn it! Evangeline’s sire-bond… it’s shattered!” Caius hadn’t even taken a step toward the altar.

He stood frozen at the door, staring in horror at the communing stone in his hand.

“Larissa, I have to go. She needs me! She’ll fall apart if I don’t go!”

“Caius!” I tried to scream his name, but the silver poison’s backlash had stolen my voice.

“We’ll reschedule! I promise!”

He dissolved into a black mist and vanished.

But there would be no next time.

The backlash of the failed ritual crashed into the silver poison already burning in my veins. The agony shattered my mind.

“Ngh—!”

I collapsed to my knees, a spray of blood staining my white wedding dress.

My illusions bled into reality, twisting into nightmares.

The empty church was suddenly crowded with writhing shadows.

I saw Evangeline. Thousands of her.

She was naked, wrapped around Caius. She was plunging a silver dagger into my heart. Her innocent face wore a vicious smile.

“Die, you old relic. I’m the only one he truly deserves.”

“Get away! Get away from me!” I flailed, lost in the madness.

“My lady! It’s just an illusion! Drink this, now!”

Ignoring the danger of my thrashing magic, Heidi forced a vial of purest-grade antidote into my mouth.

The cold liquid slid down my throat, and the monstrous visions finally faded.

I sat slumped on the floor, gasping for air.

Just then, the communing stone glowed again.

It was Caius.

“Darling, are you okay? I had to leave in a hurry.” His voice was back to that sickeningly sweet tone. “Don’t be angry. You know I sired her. She’s like a daughter to me.”

The same excuse.

I’d been hearing it for a century. I was done.

When I didn’t answer, he assumed I was sulking, like always.

“Alright, to make it up to you, I’ll find a ‘Crimson Heart’ for you, even if I have to scour the black market. For our next ceremony, I’ll put it on you myself.”

The air was dead silent for three seconds.

A wave of nausea, a hundred times worse than the silver poison, churned in my stomach.

A Crimson Heart?

That cheap, alchemized trinket that reeked of crude blood?

The glorified blood-pop used to soothe low-tier fledglings who couldn’t control their hunger?

In his eyes, was I on the same level as that weeping, grasping girl?

I remembered a time before Evangeline.

He spent ten years in the frozen north, searching for a single ‘Star-Tear’—a crystal formed from a tear dropped on the night of the twin stars—just to help me stabilize my illusions.

He had knelt before me then, holding the radiant gem, the love in his eyes purer than the starlight itself.

“Larissa, only the purest thing in this world is worthy of your soul.”

Now, he was trying to shut me up with a chew toy.

“Larissa? Are you listening? You’ll love it. The flavor is very rich,” he droned on.

“Don’t bother, Caius,” I cut him off, my voice barely a whisper.

I ended the call and used the altar to pull myself to my feet.

Moonlight streamed through the stained glass, illuminating the crystal chalice that had been in my family for five hundred years.

The bonding blood inside had turned black from waiting too long.

This ridiculous chalice had witnessed my foolishness thirty-three times.

“My lady?” Heidi watched me with worry.

I didn’t answer.

The hard crystal shattered in my hand. Blood dripped from my palm, staining the floor red.

I knew this century-long bond had to be shattered with it.

I drew out another artifact—an older, blood-sealed communing stone—and found the one contact I hadn’t touched in a century.

“The night after tomorrow. Come take me home.”