Page 47 of To Vanquish Darkness

“I won’t harm you. I can’t, actually.”

Rachel frowned. “What do you mean, you can’t?”

Florent took a step closer. “It wasn’t our fault, Rachel. So many of us were fooled, victims of vampires who believed they were above the agreements with those of guardian blood.”

“Were you a victim?” Rachel asked.

Florent’s expression hardened. “Yes. A vampire, Helena, who I thought was a friend, gave me up for a chance at power.”

“What do you mean, ‘gave you up’?” Rachel groaned and leaned against the wall. “I’m trying to understand, Florent, but you speak of this world as if it’s part of my own. My family is supposedly of this guardian blood, and yet I know nothing of these stories. I only know that vampires are our enemies. That they abused their power and we had to flee.”

“Shh, Rachel.” Florent closed the final space between them and placed his hands on her waist. “Your ancestors were victims, yes. But we were not your enemy.”

20

1836 NORTHERN NORMANDY, FRANCE

Amalie’s hands shook as she heaved again over the wall. Her stomach was empty, but she couldn’t settle it. A hand rubbed in slow circles over her back, and another held her hair away from her face.

“You’ve never seen that, then, have you?” A male voice chuckled. Ren.

No. She had not seen that, but it wasn’t the visual of the sword slicing through Theo’s flesh. It wasn’t even the feel of it. The blade hitting bone, then giving until it hit the stone beneath. The crunch of his spine, the ting of the metal.

It was the flash of an image through her head. Theo wrapping his hands over hers. Showing her how to hold a broad sword, how to position her feet to keep her balance.

The scene was so real, she could smell him. Feel his stubble on her cheek. Hear the smile in his voice.

Amalie heaved again, her stomach clenching so hard, she clutched her middle to keep from bruising a rib.It wasn’t real.Theo’s clothes had been strange and they were in a clearing she’d never set eyes on. Her mind was playing tricks on her.

“Ah, shhh.” Ren moved his hand to her shoulders, and his fingers grazed the tie around her neck. “It’s not as bad as all that. He’s already half repaired if you want to?—”

“I’m not looking.” Amalie swiped the tears from her cheeks as she flinched away from his touch. She didn’t like that he was close. That he’d been the one to swoop to her side the second she’d dropped the sword and bolted for the wall.

Ren considered her, then pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. He held it out between them, and Amalie finally took it. She wiped her nose and lips and focused on the branches of the tree in front of her to keep the images of pooling blood and raw bone at bay. She could barely remember why she’d done it in the first place.

Amalie looked over the wall at the encroaching sea. She felt the cloth between her fingertips. She was here with Theo’s coven. She’d come to find a way to vanquish vampires, to kill Theo Vallon and avenge her mother’s death. To take that knowledge back to the Pourfendeurs so they could finally protect their villages.

Her breathing finally slowed, and she turned to face the wreckage.It hadn’t worked.She’d severed his head from his body, and Theo was still alive. She wanted to weep.

Ren sighed, leaning back against the sun-bleached stone. “I have to say, Etienne was right. I spent the last two weeks in Paris, and this was far more entertaining.” Despite her best efforts to keep it, Ren took the soiled handkerchief and shoved it in his pocket. “I’m not afraid of a little bodily fluid.” He grinned, and Amalie clenched her jaw, willing her stomach to stop roiling.

She had to get off this island. Peering over Ren’s shoulder, she inspected the ground below. Water still lapped at the rocks, but it was lower than it had been when they’d come out onto the roof.

“It will be low tide in an hour or so. If you wish to run,” Ren taunted. “I’d like to see that, actually. Theo having to chase after someone for once.”

Panic surged through her as the depth of her situation settled like a thick blanket. What could a sword do that a platinum blade couldn’t?And how was she going to find it in the first place?

“Are you satisfied?”

Amalie’s head snapped back at the sound of Theo’s voice. He stood next to Ren, his ashen skin marked with a new deep purple line around his neck.

Tears pricked her eyes a second time. Theo had held her with such tenderness. He’d helped her, he’d?—

No.That imagination wasn’t real. A Theo like that had never existed.

Amalie turned to Ren. “I’ve seen enough.”

Theo nodded once, then stalked across the stone courtyard to the door leading to the staircase they’d climbed earlier. “Clean this up,” he barked to the onloookers, motioning to the pile of weapons and his own blood that still stained the stone.

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