The hall of judgment breathed blood.
Every stone was soaked with it — not literally, but the way the Court whispered and leaned forward on their seats made it clear: tonight, they were hungry for death. Mine. Liam's. Both.
The altar in the center was carved from onyx, veined with iron that caught the torchlight in wicked gleams. It rose like a tomb in the middle of the chamber. Above it, on the high dais, Marcus presided as if from a throne carved out of the night itself. His cloak draped over the steps, his gaze a spear through the hush.
I was dragged into the circle by Kaylan. The silver collar chafed my throat, its weight choking me, a leash I couldn't hide. She shoved me to my knees, the echo snapping like a whip across the chamber.
"Aria," Marcus said, his voice spreading easily, carried by no need for volume. It simply was, and so every vampire leaned closer to hear. "You've lived long enough in the shadows of my Court. Now you will live — or die — by its law."
He lifted one finger. Kaylan stepped forward with something in her hand. A dagger. Its blade was black, honed until the edge gleamed like obsidian in firelight. She shoved it into my palm, curling my fingers around the hilt until it cut cold.
"Tonight," Marcus continued, "you will prove allegiance not with words, not with shadows, but with blood."
The crowd shifted like one body.
"Bring him," Marcus commanded.
And they did.
Two guards dragged Liam into the circle. His wrists were shackled, his ankles bruised by chains. His lips split, blood dried in the corner of his mouth. But his eyes — his eyes burned steady, locked on mine the moment they found me.
I couldn't breathe. The dagger grew heavier.
"This boy aided you." Marcus's hand swept lazily. "This one left his kin. He kept your secret. Fed your rebellion. He sheltered you. Lied for you. Interfered with my justice."
The muttering of the Court rose, a tide of hissed disdain.
"And so…" Marcus's eyes pinned me, twin blades of red fire. "…you will cut him down."
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Kaylan's voice hissed in my ear, low enough the crowd couldn't hear: "Do it. Take his throat. End him. Or you prove nothing." Her hand pressed against mine, pushing the dagger closer, guiding my arm toward Liam as if I were a child learning to strike.
"No," I whispered.
Kaylan's grip tightened, nails biting through my skin. "What did you say?"
I raised my head, eyes meeting Marcus's. "No."
The chamber stirred like a nest of serpents. A ripple of shock, snarls of hunger, a hiss of outrage.
Marcus tilted his head. He didn't roar, didn't threaten — he simply looked at me as if I were an insect deciding whether to sting. "You refuse my command?"
The blade shook in my hand. Shadows twined around my ankles, restless, like they wanted to sink their teeth into the floor itself.
"I won't kill him," I said, louder now, so the Court could hear. My voice cracked but didn't break. "Not for you. Not like this."
Kaylan snarled and wrenched my hand higher, forcing the dagger's tip against Liam's chest. "Coward! If you won't, then I'll carve him open for all to see."
Liam's chest heaved, but he didn't flinch. He met my gaze, calm in the eye of the storm. "Don't give them what they want," he said, his voice hoarse but unbroken. "Not like this. Not with me."
"Silence," Kaylan snapped, slamming a boot into his shoulder. He crumpled but still stared upward, defiance simmering.
Marcus finally rose. The weight of the hall bent with him. "You think you can choose who lives beneath my law? That your shadows give you some immunity from the blood that binds us?"
He descended one step, then another. "Then tell me, Aria — why should he live?"
The Court hissed at his words, some laughing, others baying for Liam's throat. Lucian leaned forward from the dais steps, his golden eyes alive with anticipation. "Yes, Marcus — let her speak. Let us hear the excuses of a traitor. I will savor her failure."
Selene tilted her veiled head, voice like wind in hollow places. "The thread trembles. If she cuts, it frays. If she refuses, it knots. Danger in both."
Kaylan spat, shoving me again. "This is pathetic! She is no weapon, no heir. Just a trembling child clutching shadows."
Her words burned. But I lifted my head. My voice found steel.
"Because he chose me," I said, loud enough to carry. "When your Court would have broken me, when you would have left me in chains to rot, he gave me hope. He gave me strength."
The mutters grew louder.
"Loyalty is not slaughter on command," I went on. My throat shook, but I forced each word. "Allegiance is sacrifice. Allegiance is standing even when it costs you everything. Liam did that for me. And if you kill him, you kill proof of what it truly means."
A murmur swept the Court. Not approval, but unease. They had expected blood, not words sharpened like blades.
Kaylan's face twisted with rage. "You dare lecture the Court? You dare—"
"Enough," Marcus said. The word snapped the air like a whip, and silence crashed down.
He studied me. Slowly. Carefully. Shadows coiled at his fingers as though mirroring his thoughts.
"You would defy me to protect him," Marcus said, soft but heavy. "You believe loyalty can be chosen… not commanded."
My chest heaved. "Yes."
He stepped closer, until he loomed before me, close enough that the heat of his presence smothered. He reached out, one hand cupping my chin, forcing my face up toward his. His eyes were fathomless pits.
"You think this compassion makes you strong," Marcus murmured. "Perhaps it does. Perhaps it makes you weak. I wonder which I will carve out of you."
He held me there, his grip cold as iron. Then he released me and stepped back.
"Very well," he said at last. "Tonight, the boy lives."
The Court erupted in outrage, voices crashing like thunder.
Marcus raised one hand, and silence fell as though the air had been cut. "But understand this, Aria: mercy is a blade with two edges. If you wield it poorly, it will gut you."
His eyes glinted as he turned, cloak sweeping behind him. "Trial by blood is done."
The guards yanked Liam back, dragging him toward the shadows at the chamber's edge. Relief surged through me so hard my knees almost gave. He was alive. He was—
But then I caught Lucian's smile. Too sharp. Too knowing. His golden eyes lingered on me, on Liam, as though cataloguing a secret he would use later.
Selene's whisper followed, soft and mournful. "Mercy given. Debt owed. The weave tightens. Blood will yet be paid."
And Kaylan? She gripped my shoulder so hard I thought she would crush bone. Her whisper was venom. "You should have killed him. Next time, I'll make you wish you had."
I stood trembling in the circle, dagger still slick in my palm, the Court's eyes burning into me like a thousand brands.
I had defied Marcus and lived. I had saved Liam — for now.
But I felt the trap tightening.
Every mercy in this Court was a wound. And tonight, I had bled one open.