Blood Bound Read online

  Azalea fell to the floor and pulled the papers into a stack with shaking hands. Tears streaked down her cheeks, smudging the pencil marks on the pages she held. She clutched them to her chest and looked around their ruined apartment.

  She’d only been out of the district for a few hours. What had happened in her absence? How had Zephyr been taken in for murder and her apartment been utterly trashed in such a short period of time? Her gaze drifted up to the insult on the wall. Miria couldn’t have written that, could she? She was angry with her, but Miria wouldn’t be that cruel.

  The only person that bitter, that cruel, was Aeidan. But why would he do this now? She hadn’t seen or heard from him since his fight with Miria.

  None of it made any sense.

  The sound of footsteps rushing up the stairs startled Azalea to her feet. With everything in her apartment upended, there was nowhere to hide, so she backed herself against the wall next to the doorway, heart beating fast. She grabbed a ruined lamp with a shattered leyline crystal and gripped it tight. Pressed against the wall, she readied herself to attack with it.

  The footsteps turned down her hallway and toward her at a fast pace, then stopped in front of her entryway. Azalea turned her head to the side, though from her angle, she was unable to see the person standing on the other side of the doorway.

  As soon as a body came into view, she swung with all her strength and slammed the lamp into the arm of the person who entered. Miria recoiled from the blow, tense and ready to fight back, until her eyes widened with recognition.

  “Oh, gods,” Azalea said, dropping the lamp. “I’m so sorry. I just found the apartment like this and thought—”

  “It’s okay.” Miria rubbed her arm as she looked over the apartment. She breathed out a soft curse. “Who did this?”

  “Forget about the apartment. What’s going on with Zephyr? I heard someone say…”

  Miria spun around. Her dirty cheeks were streaked with dried tears, and though her mouth moved, no words came out.

  Azalea wrapped her arms around Miria, holding her close. “What happened?”

  Miria choked out a sob into Azalea’s shoulder. “They have Zephyr, and it’s my fault. I have to save him.”

  “They’re saying he’s going to be executed for murdering a vampire,” Azalea said.

  “It wasn’t him.”

  “Then we have to let them know they’ve made a mistake.”

  Miria pulled away, her expression haunted. Her eyes seemed distant, unable to focus on anything in particular. “It was me.”

  Azalea frowned. “You? How? I remember that night. You were home with me.”

  “I waited until you were asleep. Then I left, and I killed the vampire. I killed them both.”

  Azalea’s heart sank. “Why?”

  “I wanted his sword. So we could escape, all three of us. But then you…” Miria looked up, and her chest heaved in another sob.

  And then I ruined it by feeding Nero.

  “That would have never worked,” Azalea said.

  “It doesn’t matter anymore,” Miria snapped. “They took the sword. And they took Zephyr. I have to find a way to save him.”

  “Was Aeidan the one who did this?” Azalea gestured to their apartment. “And turned in Zephyr?”

  Miria nodded.

  “Then we’ll just tell them Aeidan was the one who planted the sword in Zephyr’s apartment. Maybe I can talk to Nero, and—”

  “Fuck Nero.” Miria scowled. “I can’t say anything about the sword. They didn’t tell me about it, so if I mention it, they’ll know I knew about it.”

  “We’ll think of something—”

  The deep ringing of a bell interrupted them, too loud and too early to be the bell that marked the hours passing. As soon as the sound of the first ring faded, another took its place.

  The ringing continued without pause, carrying a sense of dreadful urgency as it summoned the city’s residents.

  The execution bell.

  Azalea’s worries from earlier about Nero’s request and the possibility of abandoning Miria to live with him were now a world away. Her only concern now had to be to keep her friend safe from whatever awaited them outside.

  16

  Miria sprinted down the stairs with Azalea following behind, moving more slowly thanks to the fancy dress and shoes Azalea wore. Her clothes must have come from the First District, but Miria didn’t care about that right now. Azalea fucking and feeding Nero Cineris was the last thing on her mind.

  The ringing of the execution bells was far more important. They had Zephyr. She had to fix it. She couldn’t lose him now.

  Miria ran, her legs carrying her faster than she’d ever moved before, faster even than when the tunnel had collapsed around her. And still, it wasn’t fast enough. She rushed toward the Second District, where the alarm continued ringing from the clock tower.

  “Miria, wait!”

  She didn’t turn around. She didn’t have time for Azalea to tag along behind her. She had to find Zephyr. She had to save him.

  She couldn’t let him take the fall for her mistakes.

  A hand closed around hers, and Miria turned to see Azalea right behind her.

  “I’m with you,” Azalea said.

  Miria let go of Azalea’s hand and shoved her way into the crowd. There was no time for her right now.

  Hundreds of elves poured out from the apartment buildings into the streets. Hurried whispers of gossip spread through the growing crowd like wildfire.

  Her eyes searched the crowd and the cliffside for some answer, some way to stop it.

  But there was nothing she could do. Absolutely nothing. She was weak. Helpless. Powerless to stop any of them.

  And Zephyr was going to pay the price for her weakness.

  She should have turned herself in when she had the chance, when the only person she had to save was Marvin. Now, she could only hope it wasn’t too late to set things right. She would be killed, but the alternative was living with Zephyr dead for her crime and Azalea lost to the vampires. Without them, she had nothing.

  Elves pushed in on Miria from all sides. Someone shoved her forward, knocking her to the ground. Her hand squished into mud as she caught her fall and pushed herself up.

  A boot connected with the side of her face, knocking her back down into the dirt. She pushed herself upright and jumped to her feet. She didn’t have time for any of this. She had to get back to the watchtower.

  My fault. My fault. My fault.

  The words repeated in her mind, a mantra of self-loathing.

  Why had she been so foolish?

  Why had she let her thirst for vengeance endanger one of the only two people in the world she cared about?

  Miria pushed forward through the crowd alone, weaving between the other elves of the Third District who were gathered at the base of the cliff to the Second. A wall of vampires guarded the base of the stairs, waving back the elves who pushed in too close. Their hands hovered just above the hilts of their swords, prepared to stop any possible uprising with force if necessary. She followed their gaze up the narrow steps to the wooden structure in front of the watchtower. The rope fastened to the end of the structure was looped at the end in a noose.

  The blood in Miria’s veins chilled as the reality of Zephyr’s fate sank in. A public execution—an example for all the elves to witness, a reminder of what would happen to them if they attacked a vampire.

  She’d seen plenty of executions before. She’d watched them all, let them all fuel her hatred of the vampires. But none of them had been personal before.

  None of them had been someone she cared for so deeply.

  “Miria, wait!” Azalea called out to her between heavy breaths. She grabbed Miria’s hand again, this time with a firmer grip so Miria couldn’t pull away from her. “What are you doin
g?”

  “I have to stop this. Leave me alone,” Miria pleaded. “I don’t have much time.”

  “There’s nothing you can do,” Azalea said breathlessly, struggling to keep pace with Miria.

  “I have to tell them the truth.”

  “They’ll kill you!” Azalea said, her voice a harsh whisper that was barely audible over the gossiping crowd.

  Miria glanced up again at the noose that stood waiting for its victim. “I know.”

  “You can’t do that. Please don’t,” Azalea said.

  Miria paused for a moment and turned back around to give her friend a hug. She blinked back tears as she whispered, “I’m sorry. Take care of yourself.”

  She let go and sprinted into the crowd, leaving Azalea alone in the mass of bodies, then turned down a narrow alleyway.

  “Get back here!” A furious scream came from behind Miria.

  Miria looked over her shoulder as she ran. A street lamp silhouetted Aeidan’s thick form in the entrance to the alleyway. His body shook with rage, and his shadowed face was contorted in fury.

  “I don’t have time for this right now, Aeidan. Walk away.” Every muscle in Miria’s body tensed even as she stilled. He was the reason they were here right now, the reason she needed to save Zephyr. She wouldn’t let him walk away from that.

  There’s no time to deal with him, a voice in her head urged her. Keep moving.

  “I want my money back. You cheated tonight.”

  “Bullshit. I didn’t need to cheat to win every coin you put on the table. Fuck off.” Miria started down the alley again in a sprint. Her fingers twitched in her clenched fists with the desire to turn around and pay Aeidan back for turning Zephyr in, but there was no time for that. Not if she wanted to make it to the base of the cliff in time to stop what they were about to do to him.

  Footsteps pounded behind her as Aeidan followed her down the alley. She turned a corner into the main street of the market, where another crowd was gathering to watch the execution.

  Aeidan pushed people out of the way as he tore right through the group, leaving a trail of angry elves on the ground in his wake. “Get back here!” he snarled.

  She turned again, picking up speed as she let her legs carry her into another alleyway.

  Miria realized her mistake far too late as Aeidan closed the distance between them. A stone wall closed off the alley in a dead-end, surrounding her with three walls and an opening blocked by Aeidan.

  Over the wall, Miria could see the entrance to the Second District, where three figures had emerged from the watchtower.

  She jumped up to grab a window ledge and pulled her weight upward.

  As she lifted her leg to climb higher, Aeidan gripped her by the ankle and pulled her down to the hard ground.

  Miria groaned at the pain that shot through her back. She rolled to avoid Aeidan’s foot as it slammed into the space her head had just occupied. She grabbed his leg and rolled over again, pulling him to the ground with her, then punched his still-healing nose.

  Aeidan screamed and covered his face, garbling out some word that sounded similar to “bitch.” Or at least, Miria assumed so—he wasn’t very creative in his insults. Bitch and whore seemed to be the only ones he could come up with.

  Miria rolled away from him and jumped to her feet. She sprinted back over to the building and started climbing again. She pulled herself up the window ledge and onto a balcony. From her vantage point, she could now clearly see Zephyr. His hands were shackled behind his back as the vampires escorted him out.

  A third vampire stepped out from the gate to the Second District. Nero Cineris paused at the top of the cliff to adjust his jacket before addressing the crowd. “You have all been gathered here for an important reminder, a reminder that treason will not be tolerated in Terra Nocturne.” His voice boomed through the cavern, enhanced by a cone-shaped metal device he held up to his mouth. “This elf committed treason. He is guilty of murder.”

  One of the guards who escorted Zephyr out kicked the back of his legs, sending him stumbling to the ground. Zephyr’s face slammed into the hard rock. Blood trickled down from a wound on his forehead as he lifted himself back up into a kneeling position.

  Miria gritted her teeth as her grip around the iron bar tightened. She had to stop this. She dropped down the opposite side of the building and ran toward the base of the cliff.

  “Stop!” she yelled as loud as she could, but her desperate plea was lost in a sea of elves.

  Zephyr’s head moved from side to side, searching the crowd until he found her. He shook his head.

  Don’t be stupid.

  She could hear the words in her head as clearly as if he’d placed them there himself. But she had no intention of listening to him. Her legs carried her down the street in a run. She didn’t know how to stop them—she knew only that she had to.

  “You elves are free to live your lives as you like here in Terra Nocturne. That is a gift we give you,” the vampire king continued. “As long as you follow the laws we set forth. We offer you food and shelter in exchange for your blood. This arrangement is more than fair for the good life you can attain within the walls of this cavern. But treasonous acts like this will never be tolerated, and any individual who is found to be conspiring against our great city or plotting an escape will face the direst consequences.”

  Nero stood over Zephyr, addressing him with the cone still amplifying his voice for the crowd to hear as well. “I will offer you one chance to save your own life. A lifetime of imprisonment rather than execution.”

  The crowd gasped. The elven people were captive audience to what promised to be a gruesome show. That they could so gleefully watch the murder of one of their own sickened Miria.

  “One elf alone could not have accomplished what you did—the murder of a vampire guard and his elven mistress in the streets of your marketplace. Name those who offered you assistance, and we will let you live.”

  Zephyr found Miria in the crowd again, but he remained silent.

  Please, she thought. Just give them my name. Save yourself.

  The second vampire guard grabbed Zephyr by his long hair and pulled his head back, forcing him to look up at Nero.

  The same soft, blond hair she’d run her fingers through just that morning.

  “Who helped you?” Nero asked again.

  The crowd silenced in an attempt to hear Zephyr speak, but without Nero’s device, his voice didn’t carry through the district.

  “He claims he acted alone to steal the guard’s sword and kill the couple.” Nero nodded to the vampire guards. “The penalty for this betrayal is death.”

  “No!” Miria’s scream was lost in the uproar of the crowd around her.

  One of the guards pushed Zephyr up the wooden stairs. He grabbed the rope and looped it around Zephyr’s neck, then pulled the knot tight.

  Miria ran faster. If she could just make it there in time, she could tell them the truth—

  Strong arms closed around her, pulling her backward.

  “No!” Miria cried. She kicked her legs and flailed her arms behind her head, reaching for her attacker.

  Aeidan gripped her tighter and dragged her back out of the crowd, back toward the alleyway.

  The vampire on the cliff pushed Zephyr forward onto the wooden beam.

  None of the elves in the crowd paid any attention as Aeidan dragged Miria back into an alleyway.

  He turned around to give her a full view of the cliffside, holding her tight even as she struggled against his grip. “Don’t look away. You’re going to watch every second of this.”

  Zephyr stood at the edge of the beam, hands bound, rope tied around his neck. One more step and he would fall to his death. He searched the crowd again, but this time, she could tell he couldn’t locate her.

  She couldn’t save Zephyr.
/>   And he couldn’t help her now.

  Above, Nero Cineris nodded to the guard again. The guard kicked Zephyr in the back, sending him falling down. His body jerked as the rope stretched to its full length and swung to the side. The rope swayed back and forth until finally it stilled, and Zephyr’s form hung limp at the end of it.

  17

  “How did it feel to watch your boyfriend die?” Aeidan’s voice lilted in her ear like the whispered endearments of a lover.

  How did it feel? The question was a strange one. A wave of emotions plowed through Miria, so numerous and vast that she couldn’t name them all.

  How did it feel? It felt like emptiness, like she was now a hollow shell watching someone else’s life unfold.

  It felt like a piece of her had been torn from her chest and left to hang on a cliffside, and now she wasn’t sure what parts of her remained.

  When she didn’t respond to his taunt, he continued. “You know I was the one who turned him in. It pisses you off that there’s nothing you can do, doesn’t it? I was going to turn you in, too, but I wanted you to see this happen. I wanted you to feel this.”

  “I’m going to kill you.” She swore it to him with a calm candor that was detached from the pain that flowed through her. The words belonged to someone else—someone whose fire still burned inside. Not her. The will to fight had abandoned her in the aftermath of Zephyr’s execution, but somewhere buried beneath her despair, her hate for Aeidan longed to claw its way to the surface.

  If he killed her here and now, she would deserve it. She would deserve far worse.

  But before she could die, she needed to avenge Zephyr.

  Aeidan chuckled. “And you know, when I told them it was him, I had no idea that he actually did it. I had no idea he was capable of it.”

  “He wasn’t. I was the one who killed that fucking vampire and his blood whore,” Miria snarled, as her grief turned to fury. “And I’m going to kill you, too.”

  Aeidan slammed her forward into the wall. Her cheeks scraped against the rough corners of the bricks as he pinned her against it. Blood mixed with dirt trickled down her cheeks and into her mouth, caressing her tongue with a sickly, metallic tang.