BRAN “Does she do that a lot?” “It’s not the first time.” “So she does that to avoid being held accountable for her actions.” “She’s not doing it on purpose,” Bran snapped without really meaning to, then cursed and threw the shot of blood into the back of his throat. Swivelling on his feet, he turned around and faced an equally pissed Corey. Ignoring the confused look the man threw at him, he went on. “She fell ill recently and she’s been blinking out a lot. She’s still not fully healed yet, and all through the journey, she didn’t eat anything. I assume that’s why she passed out.” Corey still watched me with that confused line between his brows, eyes narrowed. “How long was the journey?” “Three days,” Bran stalked over to one of the chairs and dropped down on it, draping his hands on the armrest and steeping his fingers in, fighting the urge to check on the sorceress just to make sure that she was okay. He didn’t have to. The house had countless maids and one of them had been p

MARIA The maid stood frozen with the bed linens in her hands, staring at Maria as though she had spoken a language that Maria didn’t quite understand. With how wide and round her eyes were, one would think that Maria had asked her to behead a man and bring the head to her.When the woman just continued to stand there without saying anything, Maria repeated the question. “Is there any other entrance apart from the one out front?”The woman snapped out of her trance and stood straight, fixing Maria with a susceptive gaze. “Why do you ask?”Maria shrugged nonchalantly. “Just wondering.”To say that the woman didn’t believe her would be an understatement, but she wisely refused from questioning Maria further. “No, the house does not have any other entrance.”The woman’s eyes darted away for a split second when she’d uttered the words and that was enough for Maria to know that the woman was lying to her. She probably thought that Maria was asking so that she would escape and if that was wh

BRAN“They remind me of when we used to train back at your castle.”Bran’s eyes found Corey’s who was standing beside him, but the man wasn’t looking at him. He leaned forward to rest on the picket fence as he watched the children training with their swords in the training grounds.“I believe we started earlier than they did, didn’t we?” Without waiting for Bran to reply, Corey turned to him with a curious line in his brows. “Do you still keep in touch with Lancaster?”Bran frowned at the mention of the name, his mind struggling to put a face to it and when he did, he frowned. Lancaster was another kid in their little circle back when they used to train at the palace and they’d all been tight until they weren’t anymore.Everyone had gone about doing their own thing while Lancaster had grown into an insufferable prick. He’d thought himself above everyone else—even Bran who had been the crown prince—and him and Bran had gotten into several fights. Eventually, they’d cut ties.Bran shrugg

MARIA"What the fuck?"More accurate words could not have been uttered in that moment, because seriously, what the fuck?Maria wasn't sure what just happened. One moment she'd been running out of the house, her escape plan going surprisingly well without any interruptions, when suddenly, she'd felt arms around her and before she could even process what was happening or found the strength to struggle, she'd found herself being dropped unceremoniously on the floor in the living room. Had one of the guards seen her after all?She'd looked through the window, searched very well before finally making up her mind to make a run for it when she'd found the grounds empty, without a single guard. She hadn't focused on the fact that it was odd that there were no guards; she'd simply taken her chance. Well, if she was going to dwell on odd things, then she would ponder on why Corey had left the house last night, hadn't returned, then only for the vampire to leave the house too, but no, she wasn

BRANImmediately he stepped into the house, he knew that there was something wrong.It wasn’t just the fact that the gate was missing, that the walls supporting the gates weren’t there anymore, or the fact that three dead bodies awaited them in the yard. No, it was the fact that when he’d stepped into the main house, he’d heard nothing.Nothing at all.The sounds that usually came from the cook when she was busy in the kitchen, the children training at the back of the house, Corey’s cousin watching TV upstairs, none of it.There was just nothing.He supported Corey over to a couch and walked away, telling him that he’d be back shortly as he ran up the stairs, going straight to Maria’s room. His heart caught in his throat when he pushed the door open and saw that her room was empty. He stalked into her closet and checked, praying that she was miraculously hiding in there because she didn’t want to see him, but she wasn’t in there too.Her bed, clothes, everything was in there. But she w