Page 111 of Vow of the Undead
Lithe legs slipped out of the darkness as a vampire with chestnut hair piled on her head like a messy crown stepped forward. She tugged another figure along with her.
My heart dropped to my stomach. I did not blink.
Astrid, too, had survived the stabbing from my silver pendant, but it wasn’t her and the scarred flesh at her neck that captivated me.
The woman in her grasp met my eyes. As if looking into a mirror, I saw the same umber and auburn hair, the same striking wide eyes full of fear, though they were dark brown, not spilled black like the cursed ink in mine. Her hands were bound behind her back like a criminal.
She looked the same when the Grimward dragged her out of our room twenty years ago.
“Silver,” I breathed.
Red thread stretched from between her chin and her mouth to her upper lip, sealing her mouth shut. White scars dotted each spot where they’d sewn into her lips. My sister’s nostrils flared because she could not gasp or breathe deeply since she couldn’t open her mouth.
My soul hollowed. How long had my sister’s mouth been sewn shut? What had they done to her?
Astrid marched toward us, yanking Silver alongside her just as she had with me back in the forest outside Skaldir. Except her fingernails didn’t dig into my sister’s skin. Silver didn’t exactly move with her, but she didn’t fight back either.
The twisted lines of Astrid’s perpetual frown stained my memory. Her cold steel eyes drilled into me. The closer she drew to me, the clearer it became. Who else would have killed Embla in cold blood? She must have known I would blame it on Drak and come here after him. Astrid and Sten had wanted to capture me from the beginning and this lured me right to them.
Sten scrambled to his feet as if ready to salute Astrid, but Dante paid her no attention as he slammed into the king again.
This time, the king was ready for him. He reacted faster, and, sliding a small dagger from beneath his cloak, he ripped it through Dante’s neck. In one smooth move, Dante’s head slid from his shoulders and his body dropped to the floor. Blood spilled from where his throat was severed, pooling over the black stone and triggering a rush of bile forcing its way up into my mouth.
I snapped my eyes away from the headless body and locked onto Silver. She was staring at me, her nostrils still flaring.
I took in her clear dark eyes, the dotted scars only I would notice after she’d caught a fever and a pockmarked rash riddled her neck. She’d scratched at the rash so hard it left permanent marks. Her hair had grown darker with age, but she still kept it short just like when we were children. She wore it pinned back around her face with dozens of shiny bronze pins.
With her bulging eyes and simple dress, her pink cheeks and a string of beads hanging from her fist, she reflected the child she’d once been. I knew that toy. It was the same beaded doll she had carried with her everywhere as a young girl, even when the Grimward grabbed her, she didn’t let go of it.
That moment was etched into my memory forever. Her little fist holding the doll. The executioner lifting her off the ground by her hair.
The blade at her throat.
They hadn’t killed her, but my father insisted she was dead. That they’d beheaded her when they dragged her away. I didn’t know what to believe, but I chose to forget her. It was supposed to be the safest choice.
Twenty years ago, the executioners came for me, but they took her. King Roderic had called for the capture and execution of a young witch with dark eyes, more powerful than the others.
I was weak, selfish,evil, and I sentenced her to a lifetime ofthis.
Sourness bubbled in my throat. Black dots spotted my vision but I blinked and refused to succumb to the swaying in my head. I would not let my knees buckle. I would not be weak again.
Astrid clucked her tongue as she stared down at Dante. “What a waste of time,” she said. “If you boys had just listened to me, he wouldn’t have to spend the next few months healing.”
“If I don’t burn him,” King Drakkar growled.
Astrid only rolled her eyes. “Whatever. A waste is a waste.”
“Astrid,” Sten said. “We had to act before the rest of the council returned.”
She shook her head, her look deadpan. “I love you Sten, but you’re a fucking idiot. I told you both to wait for me to retrieve her first.”
“You were taking too long,” he spoke through his teeth.
“I arrived precisely on time.” She tipped her head to the side, shifting her gaze to Drak. “Isn’t that right,my king?”
“I know what you’re doing Astrid,” Drak said. His fists flexed and released, flexed and released. It was taking every ounce of his control not to attack. And why didn’t he? Because they were part of the council and she was not coming after him like Dante had?
Astrid’s messy hair stayed in place as she dropped herhead back and laughed. Silver winced and tried to pull away from her but Astrid tugged her back and then shoved her forward. Stumbling into Drak, Silver could not catch herself with her hands roped behind her back.
