Page 53 of Blood So Brutal

Jessiah clicked his tongue. “That’s what you might think,” he said, “but you are the heir to the blood throne. You have very powerful blood in those veins of yours, Huntyr. Not to mention what happened in the woods with the hungry ones. You might as well start trying to access your own magic.”

I took another bite of my dried meat. The ability to fly would definitely come in handy, but was he kidding? I could barely use basic blood magic in Moira without burning the entire school down. What happened in the woods with the hungry ones was a fluke, an accident. There was no way I could naturally summon my wings out of thin air.

“I know it seems impossible.” Jessiah’s voice softened behind me, all jokes missing from his tone. “But you have to try sometime. Let me help you. I swear, I’m a better teacher than Wolf.”

That pulled a smile from my lips. Wolf actually wasn’t a bad teacher at all, but now was clearly not the time to bring that up. “That, I don’t doubt.”

“Good.” He held his hand out, motioning toward the doorway. “Then follow me. Some fresh air is exactly what we need for your first lesson on flying.”

I scarfed down the rest of my food as I made my way through the door of our suite in the tower. Instead of heading down the stairs, though, Jessiah led us further up the hallway, where a small, broken window led to the roof.

“The roof?” I questioned. “Is this safe up here?”

Jessiah scoffed, pulling his white angel wings tight behind his shoulders so he could maneuver through the window. “What?” he teased. “Never been on a roof before?”

I bit my cheek to keep from smiling. Of course, I had been onmanyroofs before. Rummy and I practically built our entire relationship lounging on roofs, staring at the stars and pretending we were literally anywhere else in the world.

“All I’m saying is that if I fall and die, you’re the one who has to answer to your father.”

Jessiah scoffed. “Please. I’ll blame Wolf, and Asmodeus will believe me in a heartbeat.”

I faked a gasp, putting a dramatic hand over my chest. “Jessiah, maybe you are the evil one.”

We both laughed as I slid through the window, straightening myself on the other side and taking a deep breath of fresh air. “Wow,” I said. “Even in ruins, this place is much more beautiful than The Golden City. Maybe this is where we should all be fighting to get into.”

Jessiah put his hands on his hips as we both looked out at the land surrounding the tower. “Aren’t we, though?”

My stomach dropped. He was right. We were fighting over these lands, and this was just the beginning. If I agreed to become Asmodeus’s pawn in this game, we should be unstoppable.

But what would that mean for this place? Standing on the roof of the tower, I could see the entire kingdom—what was left of it, anyway. Massive hills surrounded us on three sides, leaving just one side to enter and exit through the forest without the steepness of the land. It was tragically beautiful, with vines overtaking the crumbling stone walls and covering the old ruins in lush greenery.

A bird chirped in the distance, the start of a beautiful, peaceful song.

“It doesn’t look like anyone lives here,” I noted. Aside from a few barely cleared out paths amongst the overgrown forest and crumbling ruins, there was nothing. No rebuilt homes. No clearings in the kingdom. Just…nothing.

Jessiah took a few seconds to himself before responding. “You would be surprised at how well people can hide when their life is on the line.”

I glanced at him. “Wouldn’t it be our lives on the line?”

Something like anger flashed over his features. “The fae were the ones who killed the vampyres, Huntyr, not the angels. The fae were the ones who brought war to this kingdom, who created the massive rift between the people. Vampyres are the ones everyone fears, yes, but they fear the wrong species. We should be fearing the people in power, not the vampyres.”

I shook my head. Lord told me about this, about the war and how the people outside The Golden City were forced to protect themselves. “Faehadto wipe them out. It was the only way to get the vampyres to stop killing everyone.”

He turned to face me. “Do you really believe that, Huntyr? The hungry ones are dangerous, yes, but what about all the other vampyres living in this kingdom? Ones just like you? Just like Wolf? Do you really think they’re capable of uncontrollably ripping apart entire kingdoms just to get to fresh blood?”

An eerie feeling crawled over my skin, clawing up my neck.

“Why would the fae kill the vampyres here if they weren’t causing any problems?”

His lips tightened into a thin line. “Fear. Fear will make even the sanest creature do insane things, especially for survival.”

A soft breeze blew through the air, caressing my skin and sending one of my black curls loose across my face. There had to be thousands of vampyres living in this kingdom at one point, everyone going about their lives every day in peace, doing their part to keep this city thriving.

It was hard to imagine the fae taking over, killing them all, slaughtering an entire species with nothing to stop them, the angels jumping in line to help.

“I didn’t realize the fae were that powerful,” I said. “It looks like the vampyres didn’t even have a chance.”

Jessiah craned his neck downward, looking toward the bottom of the building. “Fae are powerful, yes, but it’s the archangels who hold the most power. Magic and blood, that’s what really matters around here, Huntyr.”

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