*Ainslee*Lying back on the soft grass, I stare up at the sky, watching the stars beginning to glitter overhead as the sun drops below the tree line. I have one hand on my full stomach, the other under my head.“Your belly aching?” Nelson asks, sitting next to me.I don’t even look up to answer him, knowing he’s talking to me. “A little.”“I told you guys not to eat so much. That was all a hoax, you know. They pretend to be nice to you, pretend to care, and then rip your throat out.”I hear Annamarie whimper and sit up, despite my aching stomach. “Stop it, Nelson. You’re scaring her. They won’t rip your throat out, Annamarie.”She pulls her legs up to her chest and wraps an arm around them. It won’t be long now until we have to get ready to run, and I am not prepared. Neither is she, but for different reasons. I can tell fear is pulsing through her, the sort of fear that makes a person paralyzed, not persistent.“So you think they fed us to slow us down?” Travis asks, picking at his t
*Ainslee*Prince Rafe.How the fuck did I not know? It all makes perfect sense now. I’ve been so angry for so long, I haven’t been thinking clearly. When I thought of the royals, my mind went to King Axel’s daughters—Sophia and Riley. They are the only true royals besides the king. But Rafe was made a prince long ago so that he could become next in line to be king. Then there are some dukes and lords and other such titles that the king has around him. They were mostly given those titles because they served the king at one point or something. I’m not sure. Obviously, this is not my area of expertise.Prince Rafe is making his way to the center of the meadow. Not to address us as we all initially thought and stood up for. At least, that’s not what he’s doing at the moment. Instead, he’s speaking to Kris about something, a few guards standing around them, and he doesn’t look happy. I am up now, and I don’t want to hurt my full belly by sinking back down, so I look around and see the moon
*Rafe*“Do you want me to explain the rules?” Kris is asking, standing next to me in front of the crowd of young people who have been brought here to represent their villages in the culling.I want to tell him yes, that I would rather let him stand up here and tell these people the list of elaborate rules we’ve put in place to keep them from ever regaining their freedom again, but I find myself shaking my head. I’ll do it. I’m the soon-to-be king. It’s my responsibility.Just as I start to speak, I feel the weight of an intense gaze on my face and turn toward Ainslee. I’ve been trying to avoid her. It’s easier to pretend she’s at home with her family where she belongs if she’s not directly in my line of sight.But there she is, staring at me with those ocean eyes. I expect to see fear there, but that’s not what I see at all. Confusion. Irritation. Maybe even a little bit of rage. Could it be she’s just so use to always feeling angry at everyone all the time that she can’t help but loo
*Ainslee*Prince Rafe commands my attention while he speaks, but as he fades away into the shadows, and my thoughts return to what is about to transpire, I will myself not to think about him anymore. I have to concentrate on getting through the woods and out the other side.Three hours.We have an extra hour. When Nelson and Travis hear those words, they actually chuckle with glee. “We can do this,” Nelson whispers, and I nod. I know the boys won’t wait for me because it’s too much of a risk. I’ll be slower. My legs are shorter, and I’m just not as strong. But they’ll leave me footprints I can follow to the church, so I am confident I can find my way there.Although, I might not stop. I might just keep right on running for freedom. I know that Prince Rafe said that the vampires will be pouring in from all sides, a rule he says he couldn’t alter for whatever reason, but I have a stronger advantage when it comes to smell than most of these wolves seem to have. I always know when a vampi
*Ainslee*I’m in front of Lucia, and she slams into the back of me when I stop. “Ouch.”“Sorry,” I mutter, not even feeling the pang from her head contacting my shoulder blade. My eyes are fixed on the shrouded form in the distance.Travis wasn’t kidding. This building looks like the place where nightmares are born. A small structure, it juts out of the ground, none of the walls forming what could be considered expected angles. The roof is caved in on one side, and the spire seems to be reaching up like a hand begging for mercy.A single beam of light reflects off that spire, giving the entire building an eerie gray cast to it. Vines cling to the siding, covering the broken out window frames as the forest attempts to reclaim its territory. On the right, one leafless tree protrudes from the ground, its branches crooked and fingerlike as it attempts to warn people off from entering.“This is it?” Lucia asks, the terror in her voice making it shake.“Yup.”“Goddess. I might rather spend
*Ainslee*Every hair on my body stands on end, a sheen of sweat forming on my otherwise freezing skin. My head swivels in the direction the voice has come from, but I can’t see anything at all, only darkness.Did I imagine it? Perhaps my fear of being caught by one of the vampires is messing with my mind.No, I definitely hadn’t imagined the voice that had greeted me as I’d slid into this confined space. “Who’s there?” I whisper into the void my mind has me convinced must be empty. The idea that we are in a small carved out space beneath the church where just about anything could be hiding, including all sorts of creatures, even the dreaded faepires, has me recoiling, trying to put some distance between myself and the inky blackness where what might even be a disembodied voice originated.My fingers tremble at my side as I consider reaching over to feel through the darkness, but I don’t dare move. I can’t, even if I want to. That panicked paralysis that had held us all at the starting
*Ainslee*Above us, at the far end of the structure, I hear the door open. It’s not quietly nudged the way I had pushed it out of the way when I came in. No, this is a sudden fling that has what’s left of the door creaking on its hinges before it slams into the wall. I gasp, sucking in air, holding it tight. I have no idea where the crypt is, though I imagine it’s closer to this part of the church. Our temples back home, ones no one really frequents anymore since the Moon Goddess clearly quit listening, are situated at the front of the church and down a little stairwell. Maybe that’s where my friends are hiding.In my head, I hear Nelson’s voice. He’s trying to sound calm, but he’s on the edge of panic. “No one freak out. They’re probably just going to do a sweep and then leave.”My breath is shallow but it seems so loud that every exhale must be like a siren going off in the vampire’s mind.If it’s only one. What if it’s an entire clan of them?Next to me, I feel a slight movement be
*Rafe*Reports come in from all over the forest. I keep my eyes closed and listen to the telepathic voices in my head, collecting all of the data, all of the numbers.But the number of captured wolf shifters are not just random digits written down on a piece of paper. For every person that we round up, a family is torn apart.“One of them got out before we even fucking released the guards,” Kris told me about two hours ago when the shifters’ time was up. “He ran straight east.”I’d snickered. I knew that wolf shifters always said that was a bad strategy, but it had worked for this guy.As the night wears on, more of the wolf shifters slip out of the forest than have ever done so before, but it’s still not enough. Many, many more are captured. I can hear their screams in the distance and know that they’re not injured; they are devastated. They’re picturing their mothers and fathers, maybe their mates. Some of these people are old enough to have children. None of the villages have rules