The ground tilted beneath me as I staggered forward, Liam's arms trembling as he tried to hold me up. His warmth bled into me, but it wasn't enough. My ribs screamed with every breath. Blood dripped in hot trails from my lips to the dirt.
And still… the shadows lingered.
They curled at my fingertips, clinging to my skin like smoke reluctant to fade. I tried to will them back, but they pulsed faintly, feeding on my heartbeat.
The circle of hunters had fallen silent. Even their bloodlust had quieted, replaced with unease.
Eryx knelt in the dirt, his massive frame bowed in submission. Black ichor dripped from his wounds where my claws had torn through him. The sight should have filled me with triumph. Instead, I felt… hollow.
Because Marcus's eyes were on me.
Cold. Unblinking. Calculating.
"Well," he said at last, voice a smooth purr that made my skin crawl, "our little stray bares fangs after all."
Liam bristled. "She isn't yours—"
The crack of silvered chains cut him off. Hunters surged, seizing him, dragging him back before he could finish. His shout tore at me, but Marcus's lifted hand silenced all resistance.
"She isn't yours either," Marcus murmured.
His gaze fell back to me. "Take her."
Kaylan moved before anyone else.
Her boots struck the dirt with sharp precision as she approached, her presence like a blade drawn slowly across skin. Where Lucian carried obsession and Marcus radiated control, Kaylan exuded something more brutal—command.
Her armor was dark, fitted to her lean frame, and her pale hair was bound back in a severe braid. Her eyes were a storm, gray and cutting. She did not look at me with Marcus's fascination or Lucian's hunger. She looked at me like I was raw material—something to be beaten into shape or destroyed.
Cold iron clamped around my wrists. Pain seared instantly—silver. I hissed, shadows flaring instinctively, but Kaylan's boot pinned me to the ground before I could move.
"Stay," she ordered, voice sharp as a whip. "Your leash is forged now."
Liam roared, fighting against his captors, but Marcus only smiled faintly, amused by the display.
Kaylan leaned close to me, her grip tightening on the chains until the burning made me tremble. Her lips brushed my ear, voice low enough that only I could hear.
"You humiliated Eryx. I'll break you twice as hard."
She jerked the chains, dragging me upright as though I weighed nothing. I staggered after her, shadows twitching but too unstable to protect me.
The hunters followed in grim silence. Liam's voice echoed, hoarse with fury, until the night swallowed it.
We didn't return to Marcus's throne hall. Instead, Kaylan dragged me into a different chamber—vast, cold, lined with crimson banners that dripped down the walls like frozen rivers of blood.
At the center stood a blackened table carved with ancient runes. Around it gathered others.
Not just hunters.
Vampires.
Their presence hit me like a wall. They were not Marcus's faceless soldiers, nor his brutish toys like Eryx. These were something more dangerous. Sharper.
"Aria," Marcus's voice flowed behind me. He stepped into the chamber with effortless grace, his cloak trailing shadows that seemed to obey him. "Meet the Crimson Court."
Kaylan shoved me to my knees.
The Court studied me like a pack of wolves regarding prey.
Lucian lounged lazily against the table, lips twisted in a smirk. His golden eyes lingered on the blood still drying against my throat, hunger unmasked.
Across from him sat Dorian—dark-haired, sharp-featured, with scrolls and tomes stacked by his chair. His expression was not hunger, but something worse: interest. The kind a scientist had for a specimen under glass.
Beside him stood Selene—tall, ethereal, her skin pale as moonlight. A veil covered her eyes, yet I felt her gaze pierce straight through me. Symbols were etched across her bare arms, glowing faintly as though alive.
And then Kaylan herself, still gripping my chains, stood proudly, her posture stiff, military.
These were Marcus's lieutenants. His true inner circle.
The Crimson Court.
"Is this the creature that dared defy you?" Dorian asked smoothly, flipping open a scroll. His voice was silken, but his words were knives. "A fledgling with shadow-tainted blood?"
Selene tilted her head, lips parting in the faintest sigh. "The threads around her… they writhe. I cannot see their end."
Lucian chuckled. "That only makes her more fascinating."
Kaylan's hand jerked the chains, dragging me closer. "Fascinating or not, she is undisciplined. She should have been broken after her sire's death."
"She was." Lucian's smile widened, teeth flashing. "But she survived. That's what makes her mine."
"She's not yours," Kaylan snapped, her voice cracking like a whip.
"Enough."
Marcus's voice cut through the chamber like a blade. Instantly, silence fell.
He circled me slowly, hands clasped behind his back, his gaze studying every detail of me like an artist contemplating clay.
"She humiliated Eryx. She drew upon a skill unseen in centuries." He paused, shadows curling around his feet. "Tell me, Kaylan—does that sound like weakness?"
Kaylan's jaw tightened. "It sounds like a fledgling too reckless to know the leash will strangle her."
Marcus smiled faintly, turning back to the Court. "And that is why she will be tested. Not destroyed."
His gaze cut to me, burning. "You belong to me now, Aria. The shadows you wield? They are mine to sharpen. You will learn obedience—or Kaylan will teach it."
The chains tightened, silver burning deeper into my wrists until smoke hissed from my skin. I gritted my teeth, refusing to cry out.
Marcus leaned close, voice velvet and venom. "Do not mistake survival for freedom."
He straightened, turning to his lieutenants. "Tomorrow, the fledgling faces Kaylan's trial. We will see if she bleeds loyalty."
The Court stirred. Lucian's smirk deepened. Dorian scribbled furiously, muttering about old decrees. Selene only whispered something I couldn't hear, her veiled eyes tilting toward me.
Kaylan's grip on the chains was iron.
She leaned down once more, her storm-gray eyes blazing into mine.
"Tomorrow," she murmured, "I will break you in front of them all."
The chains jerked, dragging me into the dark.
And though my ribs ached, though silver burned my flesh raw, I forced my head up.
Because I would not kneel.
Not for her. Not for Marcus. Not for anyone.
The shadows whispered at my back, restless, eager.
Tomorrow would come.
And I would face it.