Page 6 of A Whisper in the Dark

The entire room holds its breath.

After another hushed, endless moment, the ancient king moves. My heart is a canon, lurching as it booms. I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the inevitable burst of pain.

Instead… a gust of air whispers over my skin.

I open my eyes to see that he’s turned away. His movements are tightly controlled as he crosses the room in long-legged strides. The crown still rests on the bed, but now it’s been broken in half. The golden pieces shimmer like tears.

“Get it out of my fucking sight,” he says to the guards.

It.The word makes my vision tilt. In a twisted moment of déjà vu—was it only a few hours ago my mother walked away from me?—the king leaves. That’s what I am to him now. Human. No, worse, ahalfling. Even the word is dirty.

Father reaches the threshold and waits for his security team to give the all-clear. I know that once he leaves, I will never see him again, and my fate will harden to concrete.

“Father, please,” I cry.

Gasps sound throughout the room—never has a Lavender laid eyes upon the king, much less addressed him directly.

Father doesn’t turn around. Now, like my mother, he can’t even bear to look at me. “You’re lucky I’m not putting you on the wall,” he murmurs.

Horror trickles through my veins like ice.

The wall. It encircles the entirety of New Ve, and in certain parts, where income is low and crime more rampant, its surface is adorned with corpses. Slaves who displeased their masters, criminals who were put to death, and the Lavenders. It’s not even considered an offense to kill one.

This time, when the Vampire King walks away, I remain silent. Once he’s truly gone, the rest of the room empties quickly. As everyone leaves, my eyes land on Gabriela standing near the door, her gaze cast downward. My composure cracks and I fight the urge to run into her arms.

“Good luck,” someone says. Startled, my gaze snaps to Valerie’s hard, lovely face.

We’ve never been close, but I admire her. She doesn’t take part in the inevitable drama or vicious gossip, choosing instead to study war strategy and spend hours at the royal shooting gallery. She also treats her feeders kindly.

I’m so surprised by her kindness now that by the time I think to respond, she’s already through the door and gone.I’m never going to see her again.

As a wave of grief crashes over me, two humans from the security team come in. Raphael and Mei Lien. I’ve known them both for years. Last month, I brought Mei Lien a cake for her birthday, made from scratch.

Neither of them say a word, but they don’t need to—we all know they’re here to remove me from the mansion grounds. My eyes flit over their faces, hard and devoid of emotion. They’ve learned to remain expressionless, though they usually break this rule around me, offering winks or smiles when no one is looking.

But now? I may as well be just another monster, for how they’re avoiding my gaze.

“Am I allowed to take anything?” I ask, my voice hollow. I don’t know who I’m asking, exactly. It’s strange to be asking humans permission for anything.

It feels like the air freezes inside my lungs when I remember that I’m part human, too. Thank the blood I was never cruel to them. I once witnessed Henry removing a slave’s limbs like he was pulling off the wings of a butterfly. To my everlasting shame, I was too terrified to intervene.

Which is why other slaves may take revenge on me, anyway. I’m a vulnerable target. An easy way to strike out at the vampires who’ve hurt them for decades. No, longer, because humans were our prey long before 1992, when subspecies came out of the shadows and announced themselves to the human population.

After another moment of stilted silence, Gabriela is the one to respond. She nods once, her full lips pursed. “Quickly. Keep it out of sight,mija.”

A strange panic seizes me. I snatch up the box Alexei gave me, shoving it into my stretchy waistband. Not for the letter within, I tell myself, but for the human hands that made it. I also have enough sense to take my phone.

Just as I move toward Gabriela again, I realize I’m still in the silk pajamas. I’m never coming back here—I’ll need real clothes. Taking advantage of the humans’ uncertainty, I hurry to the closet and grab everything in a rush. Jeans, socks, a long-sleeved shirt, and a sweater over this that reads NEW VE UNIVERSITY across the chest. Cain’s, of course, as Father only encourages education after the Awakening—and now that I’m a Lavender, I’ll never be able to attend. I’m in such a hurry that I just yank the clothes on over my pajamas.

Once again, I hesitate. My mind races in a thousand directions, one of which is the day ahead. There are so many unknowns. Where will I stay? How will I survive? Panic flutters in my throat, threatening to bring up all the blood I drank at the club.

Just as Gabriela opens her mouth, likely to urge me away, I rush back to the table. I half-expect my purse to be gone. But there it is, resting on the marble surface, still sticky from the blood cocktail Cain spilled all over us both. I have no idea how much is actually in it, but I’ve always treated money like used tissue or crumpled receipts—disposable. Now, I wish I’d been more cautious. I rummage through it, snatching up any coins I find. The Vampire King’s hard face gleams on the silvery surface of a dollar just before I shove it deep into my pocket.

Then, trying to hide how my mouth is trembling, I return to Gabriela’s side. A wordless communication passes between the three humans before, one by one, we file out of what used to be my bedroom. None of us says a word, and a moment later, we’re in the shadowed hallway, where everything emanates menace—even the furniture. My entire body is shaking now. Is this what going into shock feels like? There’s a loud ringing—

A cold hand clamps around my wrist and yanks me back. I don’t have a chance to react before the vampire moves in a blur and another hand covers my mouth. The scream dies in my throat when I recognize the scent permeating this end of the hall, a smell I’ve always imagined as crushed flowers.Mother.

Once I go still, she releases her hold, and I face her. I have so many questions that the weight of them crushes my tongue. But when her shadowed face stares down into mine, I can’t find the courage to ask them. Even now, after how far Cassandra Travesty has fallen, she still makes me feel small.

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