Chapter 4

Seven days had passed since Noah and my mother died.

I stayed quietly in the side hall beside the castle dungeons.

Today, I planned to bury my son's and my mother's ashes together in the sacred tomb behind the mountain.

But when I entered the cellar storeroom, the sight before me made something inside me snap.

Ella stood at my storage table with two low-ranking ghouls she had taken as pets.

She had poured the ashes from my black crystal urn into an iron basin.

The basin was filled with bloody chunks of raw pork.

"Come on, eat up. These are the High Priestess's family's ashes. Who knows, they might give your powers a boost."

The ghouls snorted and slobbered as they devoured it.

"Ella! I'll rip you limb from limb!"

Blood-red light erupted from my eyes. A shadow spear materialized in my palm and I hurled it straight at her heart.

"Arthur, save me!"

Ella screamed.

Before the spear could reach her, pain struck deep in my soul like a sledgehammer.

Arthur had invoked absolute control through our mate bond.

I crashed to the floor and coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

Arthur walked in from the doorway and planted his foot on my hand.

"Serena, you vicious monster! Ella was feeding her pets, and you tried to kill her?"

Cold sweat drenched me from the pain. I glared up at him.

"Those are my son's and my mother's ashes!"

Arthur glanced at the iron basin and scoffed dismissively.

"They're dead. It's ash. You would hurt Ella over that? You always turn everything into a crisis."

He waved over two armored guards.

"The High Priestess has become unstable. Take her to Silver Thorn Hall and make her kneel until dawn."

The guards dragged me away and slammed my knees onto tiles studded with razor-sharp silver thorns.

The stench of silver searing into flesh spread through the air.

I clenched my teeth and didn't make a sound.

At midnight, Ella approached with the half of the ashes she had not yet dumped out.

"Want the rest back?"

She smiled down at me.

"Tonight marks one month since my turning. Light the Sacred Flame Array for my celebration, and I'll return the ashes."

To reclaim the last remnants of my mother and my son, I forced myself to my feet despite the blood covering my body.

I walked to the center of the cellar and channeled my power into the array's core.

The instant the array lit, its gentle flames twisted into two pressurized jets of concentrated holy water.

Boom!

The holy water hit me square in the eyes.

Pure holy energy seared my eyes white.

A scream tore out of me.

The agony sent me crumpling to the floor.

My world vanished into endless black and red. I could no longer sense the magical patterns around me.

For a High Priestess, losing the ability to read magic was the same as being crippled.

Ella stood nearby, holding the empty bottle, giggling.

"Oh, dear. Can't even work a simple array anymore?"

At dawn, they tossed me back into the side hall like a rag.

Less than two hours later, chaos erupted outside the castle.

Ella burst into the council chamber wailing, her arm slashed to the bone by a silver dagger.

"It was her... she hired hunters from outside to kill me!"

Arthur refused to hear a word in my defense.

He had me chained to the punishment frame in the square.

"Whip her with silver soaked in wolfsbane."

The first lash split my skin.

By the tenth, bone gleamed beneath torn flesh.

All one hundred and nine lashes landed on my ruined back.

Every vampire in the square watched the disgraced lady of the castle suffer.

I never gave them a single scream.

As the one hundred and ninth lash landed, a faint crack sounded inside my mind.

Crack.

It was the sound of my soul-shackles breaking at last.

Thirty days. The Blood Bond Severance Pact had taken effect.

The power our mate bond had kept buried roared back through me.

My eyes remained sightless white, but my power surged tenfold.

I flexed my arms once.

The silver shackles exploded into shards.

The force hurled the guards nearly a hundred feet.

Arthur shot to his feet on the platform and shouted, "Serena! What do you think you're doing?"

I wiped the blood from the corner of my lips and raised my hand, expressionless.

"I'm taking back everything that belongs to me."

I clenched my fingers into claws and drove them into the air above the territory's core, then ripped them back.

The earth convulsed.

I ripped the Shadow Barrier free from the castle, crushed it into a sphere of darkness, and drew it into my palm.

Without the barrier's support, the castle's protective dome cracked open with countless gaping holes.

"My barrier! Serena, stop!"

Arthur's eyes blazed red as he lunged toward me.

The castle gates exploded inward beneath a wave of power from the frozen North.

The First King's carriage waited beyond them, drawn by eight nightmare stallions.

Bleeding from head to toe, I crossed the rubble and climbed into the carriage one step at a time.

I turned my blind, white eyes toward Arthur.

"Arthur, my revenge is coming."

The carriage lifted into the air and shot northward.