Vanquished Gods (Hallowed Games #2)

Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

I sat in an upholstered chair at the window, mutely watching the waves crash against the shore. The noise pounded through the glass, raising the hair on the back of my neck. In the castle, the buzz of conversation floated in the air. A disturbing stillness settled in my chest…

Outside, a woman dressed in white marched along the shoreline, a line of soldiers following behind her. She looked like a ghost leading an army…

Was I seeing things?

My thoughts roiled wildly.

And then the screaming started.

It was faint at first, a nagging at the edges of my thoughts. But then it rose, ragged and wild, drowning out the sound of the sea, a keening cry in my skull.

It wasn’t just sound, though, was it? It was hunger, like a scream in my thoughts. Raw, brutal hunger that clawed at my chest, raking at the dead place where my heart once beat.

I never wanted this.

I pressed my hands to my head, trying to block it out.

The hunger claimed my thoughts.

“Elowen.” A deep voice broke through the chaos.

I whirled to see Sion standing by the doorway, his golden eyes catching the light, bright as stars. They pierced the mess of my thoughts.

“I’m hungry.” My voice belonged to someone else.

“I know. I brought you something to drink. Are you ready?”

The sweet, coppery scent of blood filled my nostrils. I needed that in my mouth, filling my body.

He stepped into the room, moving closer, holding the cup in one hand and a carafe in the other, its dark liquid swirling like night in a glass.

I rose from my seat, taking a step toward him, and my thoughts drifted, pulling me back to sun-drenched days with my father, with Lydia and Anselm at the manor. I could still taste the spiced apple cake they’d made for my eleventh birthday. The sweetness of it haunted my thoughts. We had eaten it outside under the pear trees, and the sun had streamed through the branches. I’d thought that was how life would always be.

We’d always be together.

Anselm and I would marry. We’d have three or four children, our lives wrapped in warm contentment, reading together by the fireplace at night.

I’d never imagined that I’d start killing people with my touch. I’d never thought dead-hearted monsters would come, that they’d tear out my father’s throat.

I’d never imagined I’d become one of them.

The thought twisted inside me, sharp as thorns.

I wanted the blood desperately—but the moment I drank it, I’d never go back.

“Maelor was almost killed. What happened to him?” I asked hollowly.

I was stalling. We both knew it.

“He’s fine now. We killed the Luminari, you and I together. But we didn’t kill the archers. They managed to shoot you, even through the shadows. Just blind luck for them.”

Sion closed the distance between us, and the scent of blood carved me open with hunger.

I touched my chest, feeling hollow. “But am I dead? Are we dead?”

“It’s another sort of life,” he said quietly. “A different one.”

I looked down at my hands, my fingers trembling. They didn’t feel like mine anymore, as if they belonged to someone else. Perhaps they belonged to that madwoman who screamed in the castle.

Was I her all along? Was she my hunger?

Sion lifted my chin gently with his finger. “You will feel better when you drink,” he murmured, his gaze searching mine. “I promise. You will complete the transition, and you’ll feel better.”

My body went cold. Once I took a sip, there was no going back to my sun-drenched life, to the girl I had been under the pear trees.

But I hadn’t been her in a long time, had I? That girl was already dead. Father was long gone. Lydia had married Anselm, not me.

Even if I hadn’t turned into a vampire, nothing stayed the same. We couldn’t stay together forever, no matter how much I’d wanted it.

Sion’s eyes were locked on mine, and he reached out, handing me the cup.

I looked down and stared at the blood, and it was as if it called to me. It smelled like life.

My stomach tightened, but I couldn’t stop myself from snatching the glass. Hunger clawed at my throat.

With shaking hands, I pressed the cup to my lips, and I drank. My thoughts quieted, the blood a balm for my hurt, an analgesic. This ambrosia soothed my hunger—a cold, sweet bliss that slid down my throat.

I felt my body pulse to life again.

But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough.

“Sion.” I gripped his arm hard, my fingers tightening on him. “More.”

His golden eyes flickered as I snatched the carafe from him. Ravenous, I drank it down, my body flooding with strength, with a surety in my limbs.

As I finished it, I looked up at him. For the first time, it was as if I were truly seeing him. His dark eyelashes were stark against the molten gold of his irises. Moonlight and shadows carved the curves of his cheekbones, his sharp jawline. A small, almost imperceptible scar marred his chin—a mark that must have been from his boyhood. Vampires didn’t scar.

I thought of the soldiers who had thrown his mother into the river, who had called him rotten.

I wanted to rip their heads from their bodies.

My breath quickened. “Do I still have my magic?”

A line formed between his eyebrows. “Most witches retain their power after they’re turned. Try it.”

I lifted my hand and pressed it against his cheek, feeling the coolness of his skin under my palm. “Anything?”

His lips curled. “Just you. Not the death magic.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I could feel it still living inside me, coiled tightly. It took some coaxing, but it rose up, and I let it out, a surge of power flowing from my hand into him.

Sion closed his eyes, a breathy sound escaping his lips, his eyelids fluttering. He sighed. “There it is.”

I pulled my hand from his face, and exhaustion sank down into my bones.

Sion caught me around my waist and scooped me into his arms. He smelled divine, like musk sweetened with exotic flowers. He carried me over to the bed.

“When will I need to drink blood again?” I asked hollowly.

“I’ll stay here with you. In a few hours, you’ll drink more.”

I licked my lips. “Can I survive just drinking it from glasses?”

He shrugged. “Yes, but I promise you it’s not as good.”

My tongue flicked over my fangs, and my thoughts drifted to Leo. My little boy…

I had wanted so badly to keep him away from vampires.

“What happens next?” I asked, sounding like a scared child.

He brushed my hair off my face. “I’d love to give you time to adjust to your new life, to stay in here, looked after. But our most recent intelligence told us that we have only two weeks before the Order arrives.”

I brushed my fingertips over his cheekbones, letting a little bit of my magic charge into him. “And you need me to kill them all.”