جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Elena's POVThe banquet hall went still all over again.The girl walked in, step by careful step.My mother's eyes filled almost immediately."My child."She rushed forward and pulled the girl into her arms.In that single second, I went stone-still.Because from the beginning of all of it, my mother had not once looked back at me.The girl bit her lip softly and spoke in a small voice."I'm sorry.""I didn't mean to ruin my sister's engagement banquet."The tears spilled over while she was still talking.And the eyes around the room shifted, one by one."So she's the real heiress?""Then what does that make Elena?""A fake. That's all."The whispers were getting louder, sharper.I couldn't breathe right anymore, and without thinking, my hand tightened on Alexander's.Like he was the last thing keeping me from going under."Alexander."My eyes were already burning.You promised me. You said you'd marry me no matter what happened.You said you loved me.You said you'd never leave me.My

Elena's POVA familiar voice. I turned my head.Joey was standing in the doorway.He was a childhood friend of mine too, another vampire, like Alexander.I'd assumed he'd been too busy with work to come to our engagement banquet, which meant he wouldn't be turning up here either. I hadn't wanted him to see me like this.The second his eyes found me by the window, his face changed."Get away from the glass—"He was across the room in a second, putting himself between me and the window without thinking.I stared at him for a beat.And then, somehow, I almost wanted to laugh."You think I'm going to jump?"Joey didn't answer.But the tension in his face was answer enough.I looked at him standing there braced for the worst, and my voice came out quiet."Joey.""I'm not a noble anymore.""Are you going to look down on me too? Not be my friend anymore?"The room went still for a second.Joey frowned."What are you talking about?""What does any of that have to do with whether you're a noble

Elena's POVI stayed at Alexander's side. I became a blood slave, something low and worthless.The dull ache in my chest never let up, not even when I slept.I'd open my eyes and look at the narrow attic room, at the sloped ceiling, and feel like I was still inside a nightmare.The pain was past what I could carry, and still I refused to let go.Over and over I went back, only to be humiliated again. Over and over I turned Joey down when he asked me to leave with him.I wouldn't leave with him, because I knew. Even if Alexander didn't love me anymore, I still couldn't walk away from him.Maybe the reason he'd humiliated me that day was only because my parents had been there.The Ashbourne family had been merchants for generations, and by my parents' generation, the family was in decline.I had been their one piece of luck, a "fated bride" who could marry into the vampire line. They had spent twenty years raising me with care, with hope, eyes fixed on that future.And then they'd found

Elena's POVThe flames were almost at our feet.The smoke was choking me. I could barely breathe.I forced out the words."So just, you go first."That fire escape, after Vicky had been on it, was barely holding together.One look was enough to tell me it wouldn't hold two of us.And my leg was useless. I couldn't make the jump from the window to the staircase, not now.Alexander understood it too.The color left his face."No."He held me tighter."I'm taking you with me."His eyes were red. I couldn't tell if he meant it, or if it was just a flash of feeling that would dry up the way it always did, like every other time he'd swept his love back from me without warning.The thought just made me tired.I was done. I didn't want to keep going like this, lying to myself about a dream that wasn't real anymore.I lifted my hand and brushed his cheek. I smiled at him, softly."Alexander. You go out first.""There's a balcony below us."My voice was quiet."Go down. I'll come, and you catch

Alexander's POVAfter that day, I started dreaming about Elena. Often.No. I'm not sure they count as dreams anymore.Because I'm having trouble telling reality from hallucination.I keep thinking she's still here.That if I open the right door, I'll see her sitting there, quietly.She'll look up at me, the way she used to.And softly say my name."Alexander."But every time I open a door, the room is empty.*****I've stopped sleeping at night.The moment I close my eyes, Elena. In the fire.Hanging on to the windowsill with the last of her strength.Half her body almost lost in the flames.Smiling at me anyway.Then her lips moving."I don't owe you anything anymore."That sentence is a curse.It loops in my head, on and on.I've started remembering things I never paid attention to.Toward the end, Elena kept looking at me like she wanted to ask me something. Like she was on the verge of asking, and then stopping herself.Her eyes used to be red.She was clearly being pushed past her