All Chapters of REGRET THE HUNGRY GOD : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The blood wasn't mine. That was the only good thing I could say about tonight. I scrubbed the pink stain on my apron with a wet paper towel in the bathroom of Mickey's Diner. The fluorescent light buzzed like a dying fly. It was two in the morning. My hands smelled like bleach and bacon grease. The stain was from a drunk trucker who'd cut his hand on a broken ketchup bottle. He'd waved the bleeding palm in my face and called me a "creepy bitch" when I didn't flinch. I didn't flinch because I'd stopped feeling surprise three years ago. People always got uncomfortable around me. Dogs barked. Babies cried. Baristas forgot my order while staring directly at my face. I was a glitch in the wallpaper of the world. I didn't know why. I just knew I was tired. Mickey fired me ten minutes later. "You make the customers nervous, Sera." He handed me a crumpled envelope with my last three shifts in cash. "I don't know what it is. You're a nice girl. But you're bad for business." I took the mo

The kitchen was a cathedral of copper and marble.I sat at a long wooden table that could have seated twenty people. A plate of food appeared in front of me without anyone visibly putting it there. Eggs. Toast. Sliced fruit arranged like a fan. I stared at it like it might bite me."It's not poisoned."Kael sat across from me, holding a cup of black coffee. He didn't drink it. He just held it. Maybe he liked the warmth. Maybe he liked pretending to be human."I'm not hungry," I said."Eat anyway.""Why? So you can keep your pet Null alive long enough to use me at your vampire prom?"His jaw tightened. It was a small movement. Barely there. But I caught it."The Conclave of Thorns is not a prom. It is a ceasefire dressed in silk and champagne. Every bloodline attends. Witches. Shifters. The Fae Courts. The Old Families. And my kind." He set the cup down. "We smile. We negotiate. We pretend we are civilized. And then we go home and sharpen our knives for the next century of quiet war."

I didn't sleep.The guest room was beautiful. Four-poster bed. Velvet drapes. A fireplace that lit itself when I walked in. The kind of room that belonged in a period drama about people with too much money and too little sense.I lay on top of the covers in my damp hoodie and stared at the ceiling.The woman's voice didn't whisper. Margot didn't appear. But I felt them. All of them. Not as sounds. As pressure. Like standing in a crowded room with your eyes closed. You can't see anyone, but you know they're there. Breathing. Watching. Waiting for you to open your eyes so they can start talking.I didn't open my eyes.At some point, the gray morning light turned gold. Then white. The fire crackled. The estate settled around me like a living thing. Old houses do that. They breathe. They shift. They remember.This house remembered too much.A knock at the door."Come in."Kael entered. He'd changed clothes. Black slacks. A charcoal sweater that made him look almost human. Almost approacha

I didn't sleep again.But this time it wasn't fear keeping me awake. It was questions. They buzzed in my skull like trapped flies. Why could I hear the Echoes speak when Kael never could? What made my Null blood a "stage" instead of a "cup"? And why did Margot feel like she was growing stronger every time I learned something new?I sat at the window seat in the guest room, watching the dead garden drown in moonlight. The blackened roses looked almost beautiful in the silver glow. Almost alive. I wondered if Margot was standing among them, her eyeless face turned up toward my window.Probably.A knock at the door. Soft. Hesitant. Not Kael's usual firm rap."Come in."The door opened and a woman entered. She was old. Older than anyone I'd ever seen. Her back was curved like a question mark. Her skin was thin as parchment, mapped with veins. She wore a simple gray dress and carried a tray with a steaming teapot and two cups."Master Valerius sent me," she said. Her voice was cracked but

I dreamed of the Salt Coast.I'd never seen it before. I didn't even know where it was. But in the dream, I stood on a cliff of white stone, staring down at a sea the color of bruises. The waves crashed against the rocks below, but there was no sound. Just silence. Heavy and watching.A woman stood at the edge of the cliff.Her back was to me. Long silver hair whipped in a wind I couldn't feel. She wore a dress made of something that looked like seaweed and starlight. It clung to her thin frame, wet and glistening."Elowen?" I called.She turned.Her face was mine.Not similar. Identical. Every line. Every shadow. But her eyes were different. They were silver. Molten. Ancient. And when she opened her mouth to speak, no sound came out. Just bubbles of salt water that burst against her lips.Find the ruins, a voice whispered. Not Elowen's. Margot's. Find what he buried. It's the key to everything.I woke with salt on my tongue.---Morning light bled through the velvet curtains. I sat u