Chapter 17 The Price of Forever 2
I finished the last symbol. Stepped back. "Ready?"
"No. But we are out of time." Kael moved to the center of the circle. "How do we create the darkness?"
"With this." I pulled a dagger from the supplies. "Shadowborn magic responds to blood and intent. If I pour enough of both into the circle, it should create artificial night."
"ShouldMy mother have been entirely sure—she never tested it. I cut my palm, letting blood drip onto the symbols. So we are about to find out together.erPower responded immediately: the symbols lit up with black light. Shadows poured from them like smoke, like living things, and filled the tent until I could barely see Kael standing three feet away.
"It is working," I exhaled.
"Then let us finish this before something goes wrong." He nibbled on his own wrist. "I am ready when you are."
I moved into the circle. Into his arms. His wrist came up to my mouth.
"Drink," he said. "Do not stop until my heart stops. No matter what happens. No matter what I say. Understand?"
"Yes."
I bit down. His blood flooded my mouth. Cold. Powerful. Tasting like winter and death and something achingly alive underneath.
The bond flared. Screaming. It knew what we were doing. It knew one of us might not survive.
I drank. Felt his heartbeat slowing. Felt his body getting colder. Felt him dying in my arms.
His knees buckled. I held him up. Kept drinking. His heart was barely beating now. Faint. Fading.
Stop. I should stop. This was too much.
But the ritual demanded it. Demanded I take him to the edge of death and beyond.
His heart stopped.
I released his wrist and screamed. The bond was tearing itself apart. Breaking. Dying.
"Now you," he gasped. Still conscious somehow. Still fighting. "Drink from me while I drink from you. Complete the circle."
He bit into my throat. His fangs felt like ice. Like dying.
I bit into his throat. Tasted his blood mixing with mine. Felt power explode between us.
The shadows went wild. They poured into me. Into him. Weaving us together with threads of darkness and magic older than kingdoms.
Pain. Agony. Burning. Freezing. My heart stopped. Started. Stopped again.
I was dying. Transforming. Becoming something else.
Something not human.
My vision went black. Then red. Then something beyond color. I saw everything. The threads connecting all living things. The magic in the air. The blood in every creature in the forest.
I saw Theron's army at the border. Saw Rowan rallying defenders. Saw the future splitting into a thousand possibilities.
Saw Kael's heart start beating again. Stronger. Whole. The curse shattering like glass.
Then I saw nothing.
Darkness. Complete. Total.
I opened eyes that felt different. The world looked wrong. Too sharp. Too clear.
I was lying on the ground. Kael is beside me. Both of us were covered in blood.
Both of us are breathing.
"Did it work?" My voice was different. Deeper. Colder.
"Yes." Kael sat up. Touched his chest. "The curse is gone. I can feel it. It is gone."
He looked at me. His eyes widened.
"What? What is wrong?"
"Your eyes. They are not violet anymore." His hand touched my face. "They are red. Pure red. Like mine."
I was a vampire now. Fully. Completely. No going back.
The tent flap tore open. A vampire rushed in. One of Theron's soldiers.
"They are both alive!" he shouted back toward the camp. "And she is—she is different—"
He never finished.
because my hand moved more quickly than I had anticipated. took hold of his throat. He was surrounded and pressed by shadows.
He died without a sound.
I dropped the body. Stared at my hands. At what I had just done without thinking.
Without hesitating.
"Sera?"
Kael spoke in a cautious tone. "Are you alright?"
"I do not know." I gave him a look. "I just killed someone and felt nothing.
Is that normal?"
"For vampires? Yes." He stood. Pulled me up. "Your humanity is gone. You will feel things differently now. Think differently."
"Will I still love you?"
"I do not know. Do you?"
I searched inside myself. Found the bond. Still there. Still strong. And beyond it, something that was not the bond. Something that was just me.
Loving him.
"Yes," I said. "I still love you. Even without my humanity. Even as a monster."
"Then we will be monsters together." He gave me a kiss. "But first we have to survive."
Horns blared outside.
War horns.
Theron's army was attacking.
And we had to face them. Two against two hundred.
But I was no longer the scared servant girl.
I was Shadowborn. Vampire. Queen.
And I was done running. And all hell broke loose.
We stepped out of the tent into chaos.
Theron's army was already breaching the camp. Two hundred vampires tearing through rebels like they were nothing. Blood sprayed. Bodies fell. The forest burned.
Rowan was fighting three soldiers at once. Losing.
"Get the humans out!" he shouted. "Fall back to the—"
A sword took him through the shoulder. He went down hard.
Kael moved. Not the careful controlled movements from before. This was different. Faster. Stronger. The curse had been holding him back for decades. Now he was unleashed.
He tore through five vampires before they registered he was there. His blade found hearts with surgical precision. No wasted movement. No mercy.
This was the Blood King at full power. The monster who built an empire on corpses.
And he was terrifying.
But I was worse.
Shadows poured from my hands without conscious thought. They wrapped around enemy vampires and crushed them. Ripped them apart. Drained them until they were husks.
I felt nothing. No guilt. No horror. Just cold satisfaction.
My humanity was gone. What remained was pure vampire instinct. Hunt. Kill. Protect what is mine.
And everything here was mine now.
"Sera!" A vampire came at me from behind.
I spun. Caught his throat with one hand. My strength was impossible. I lifted him off the ground like he weighed nothing.
"Wrong choice," I said.
Shadows poured into his mouth. His eyes. His ears. He screamed. Then stopped. Then crumbled to ash.
I dropped the remains and kept moving.
Kael was beside me suddenly. "Stay close. They are trying to separate us."
"Let them try."
His hand found mine for just a second. A brief touch. Then he was gone again. Cutting through enemies. Protecting my back without me asking.
We moved through the battle like a storm. Unstoppable. Devastating. The rebels rallied behind us. Found courage in our violence.
Then Theron appeared.
He looked at Kael. At me. At what we had become.
"You completed the ritual," he said. Quiet. Sad. "You really did it."
"Did you think I would not?" Kael's voice was ice. "For her? I would burn the world."
"And that is why I have to stop you." Theron raised his sword. "Because you have become what you swore to destroy. A king who puts one person above his entire kingdom."
"She IS my kingdom. Everything else is just territory."