Vanquished Gods (Hallowed Games #2)

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

A silent, auburn-haired female vampire led me up a stone path toward the looming castle, where the portcullis gate had been raised but towering wooden doors stood closed. My gaze flicked up to the pale blue spires and the narrow, sharply peaked windows that stared out at the sea. The glass looked back at us, reflecting the sea, the sky, and the sun. It was a strange sort of glass, maybe a kind that filtered out the sun rays. From their perches, gargoyles leered down at us. The wind rushed over us as the dark wooden doors groaned open at our approach. This castle had no gatehouse, no outer walls. But vampires on a forgotten island might not need much protecting.

The vampire led me into a towering hall, its pale walls adorned with tapestries depicting men biting women, and nude women in sensual poses, exposing their necks. When I passed a tapestry of a man I recognized, my mouth went dry. Woven with silky threads, the image of Bran Velenus glared down at me. I could have sworn the tapestried eyes seemed to follow me accusingly. Suddenly, his butterfly pendant in my pocket felt as if it were taking up a ridiculous amount of space, an incriminating metal bulge tucked into the wool of my cloak that would get me executed at any minute.

“Any idea what that scream was about fifteen minutes ago?” In the silence of this place, my voice came out surprisingly loud, and it echoed off the vaulted ceilings.

The auburn-haired vampire glanced at me, her face an expressionless mask. “No.”

At the end of the hall, a second set of iron-studded doors swung open into an atrium, where swords hung from the walls. A woman stood leaning against the doorway, a wine glass in her hand. On either side of the atrium, towering windows let in filtered blue light that washed over her rosy skin. “There you are, Underworld Queen. There really has been so much talk about you. I’m Adeline.”

She was dressed so differently from anyone I’d ever seen in Merthyn, in a dress of sheer white with a belt tied loosely around her waist, strategically layered in some places. The front of her skirt stopped above her knees, while it trailed long in the back. Her long red hair flowed in waves over her shoulders, which she wore threaded with flowers. Strings of silver beads draped over her chest and glittered on her wrists. It was such a beautiful look that for a moment, I assumed she was a vampire—until I noticed the red silk scarf tired around her neck. A thrall, then.

From above, a raven swept down and perched on her shoulder. She hardly noticed.

She smiled sweetly at me. “Ah. They didn’t tell me you’d be so beautiful.”

I cleared my throat. Was she joking? I’d never looked worse.

She glanced pointedly at my gloves, then back up to my eyes. Smiling, a blush warmed her cheeks. “The Underworld Queen…I’m so happy to welcome you here. I’m the head of the thralls here. They thought you might like to be greeted by a human.”

“Nice to meet you.” My gaze roamed over the vicious-looking swords that hung on the hallway walls. “What are all these?”

She gestured to the swords. “Our great king and other vampires fought with these very swords centuries ago. Lirion was the last place to fall to the Tyrenian Empire all those years past. The Tyrenians got as far as Gwethel. That meant people on this island could still worship the old gods if they wished. We’ve never been conquered by the Order.”

I followed her into an enormous throne room—where Sion sat on a dais at the far end, looking relaxed on his throne. His golden eyes landed on me, and I saw that blood streaked the front of his white shirt.

Although Sion looked completely at ease, a dead man lay at the foot of the dais. The man’s throat had been ripped out, and crimson blood stained the flagstones. My stomach plummeted as I felt the terror thickening in the air. A queue of human thralls lined either side of the great stone hall, some of them visibly shaking.

Sion swiped the back of his hand across his mouth, and he sat up straighter. “What an inopportune time for our new guest to arrive. I promise you, it’s not all death here in Gwethel. Vampires live for pleasure. Of course, for us, death and pleasure can be one and the same.”

There was that famous vampire charm.

He cocked his head at the corpse on the floor. “Though that certainly wasn’t my friend Aelthwin’s experience a few moments ago, was it, Aelthwin?”

Here was Sion as I knew him. He’d managed to spend just a few minutes acting normal, but here was the real Sion.

Sion rose from his chair, towering over the hall. “But that is what happens to traitors here. Aelthwin was discovered trying to contact the Order using one of the witches’ messenger crows. He wanted to tell the Pater all about Gwethel, along with instructions on how to attack our little haven here, in exchange for titles and land.” He flashed a smile that would have been devastatingly charming if he weren’t standing over a corpse. “The good news is his message will not make it to the Pater. The bad news is he wasn’t working alone, and that means we’re not done here. Aelthwin could neither read nor write, and someone else wrote the letter for him. In fact, another man’s scent was all over the paper.”

He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes.

After a moment, his eyes snapped open again, the gold darkening to black. His body went eerily still—the preternatural calm of a ruthless hunter. Shadows stained the air around him. Around the hall, fires flickered in torches.

The silence felt heavy, sharp with tension. Everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath.

Gods, I wanted to get away from this place and back to the nice little witch village with the colored windows and pies and normal?—

Before I could finish the thought, Sion whipped into a blur of motion, a streak of shadow across the stone hall. A sharp crack echoed off the vaulted ceiling…and one of the thralls fell to the floor, his neck bent at a disturbing angle, eyes staring lifelessly. Sion stood over the man’s dead body. He frowned down at the man by his feet.

“Yes. This was the scent. Waste of a death, really, but I wasn’t very hungry.” He raised his gold eyes to me. “Elowen. Let’s go somewhere more pleasant, shall we?”

Adeline sidled up by my side, coming from who knew where, and smiled coyly at him. “I can show the Underworld Queen to her room. She needs new clothes. Elegant clothes befitting of Donn Hall.”

I was still staring at the dead blond at Sion’s feet. Elegance wasn’t my overall impression of this castle so far.

Adeline clapped her hands. “Servants! Bring our Underworld Queen some refreshments.”

“No need. I’ll show her to her chamber and make sure she has what she needs,” said Sion.

“Surely you needn’t trouble yourself, Your Majesty,” Adeline cooed. “I can take her.”

“Ah, but I can’t deprive her of my company.” He turned, and with the faintest curl of his lips, he winked at me. “Elowen simply adores every moment with me.”

And as he turned to lead me deeper into the castle’s shadowed corridors, a cold knot of dread tightened in my chest.

There was no turning back now.