Chapter 160: How Many?

Layla

The carriage bounced against the rocks as the coachman urged the horses faster.

I winced every time I heard the swish of his whip. Varynth didn’t seem to mind, his body swaying side to side as he read the book he had resting against his thigh.

Maelis sat beside me, her head lowered, her hood covering her face.

She hadn’t spoken to me since I asked for her help. I wondered if I had urged her too quickly. But she wouldn’t rat me out to Varynth, would she?

There were a number of carriages following after us, some filled with humans that Varynth wanted to take to his manor, others with soldiers and guards ready to protect what he liked to call “liquid gold”.

My teeth gnashed together. I had no words to describe the rage that filled my body. To think he believed himself righteous. As if he were doing me a favor by giving me a purpose aligned with my human capabilities.

A purpose that took me away from my family, from Kai.

His sigh brought me out of my thoughts. “There is no reason for your anger, princess.”

I tensed, lifting my eyes to his as Maelis shifted closer to me.

Varynth set his book down on the seat beside him. “I promise you will be very happy in my home. Or, I should say, our home.”

My skin splintered into goosebumps, my breath turning heavy. “I promise you, I won’t.”

He smiled, devilish eyes swinging toward Maelis. “Happiness is not a requirement to serve me, but I suggest you find it because I intend to keep you for a very long time.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You can’t be that arrogant.’

He raised an eyebrow.

“You’re taking me to your home? You think my dad does not know it was you who took me?”

I smirk lifted the corner of his lips, and amusement lit up his eyes. It was as if slick oil spilled down my spine. It was unsettling, deeply horrifying.

“Oh, I’m counting on that, little princess.”

What? My heart slammed in my chest as I turned to Maelis. She was looking at me then, her hood not covering the way her eyes widened slightly. She was warning me, a silent plea to stay quiet, but I couldn’t

Varynth’s smile had only grown wider by the time I turned my gaze back toward him.

“Did you want me because of my blood or to draw him toward you?”

He shrugged, leaning back. “Two things can be true at once.”

I shook my head, suddenly sick at the thought of anyone getting hurt while trying to save me. “You’re lying.”

A sharp laugh echoed in the carriage. “You think this ends with you hidden away in some dark room? You think I went through the trouble of kidnapping you without expecting your father’s backlash?”

I turned toward Maelis, looking for some sort of help, some sort of clarification. But she was looking out the window, twisting her hands together. “You plan on facing my dad, the king? Not to mention my brother and my mate. They’ll kill you. They’ll tear your entire place apart.”

This time, a quiet laugh escaped his lips. “Your father has already let my entire world fall apart.”

I blinked at him, scoffing. “What is wrong with you? How could you possibly think we should go back to the way things were?”

With a shake of his head, he leaned forward, grabbing Maelis’s arm and pulling her out of her seat so that he could take her place. By the time he sat beside me, he already had my chin between his fingers, lifting my face up to his.

“I will not accommodate creatures meant to serve me. To serve vampires. There is a natural order to things, little human.”

I shook beneath his cold touch. “Humans are not beneath you.”

“They are weaker,” he corrected smoothly. “Short-lived and very fragile.”

His eyes lowered down my neck, no doubt noticing just how hard my heart pulsed.

“Food. And yet your father bends his rule for them as if they are equals.”

Maelis shifted from in front of us. I felt her, but refused to look away from Varynth. “We are equals. Maybe not in strength, but we are worth something. Maybe the natural order has outgrown you.”

He scoffed at that, digging his nail into my chin. I gasped when he pierced my skin, feeling my blood well. “No, princess. I have outgrown the stagnation your father has maintained.”

He leaned forward slightly, eyes locking onto mine. “While he sat on his throne pretending this new order of things was strength, I built something real, something new.”

My pulse stuttered, my brows meeting in a frown. His eyes lit up at the sight of my confusion, and it was enough to urge him on.

“Do you know where my manor is, princess?”

I shook my head, grateful that I had never been made to visit.

“The edge of the continent is a very useful place,” he continued, voice almost conversational now.

He leaned closer, licking the blood from my chin. Disgust splattered through me in a sharp tug, and I pushed at his shoulders. Thankfully, he obliged, leaning back.

“It’s far from prying eyes. Far from a king too busy managing alliances to notice what slips through his fingers on his own land.”

I wiped at my chin, scooting as far away from him as I could, even as the air turned thinner, making it hard for me to breathe. “What are you saying?”

His smile sharpened. “I am saying, that your father is not the only one capable of gathering loyalty.”

Just how many vampires share his sentiment? Dad could only change so much with his policies, but none of it would really matter if people themselves weren’t willing to change.

“Your father is not the only one with an army.”

“How many?” I asked, my voice quieter now.

He watched me carefully, like he was deciding how much I deserved to know “Enough to remind this world what we were meant to be. How we are meant to live.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. “You’re planning to overthrow him.”

“Oh,” Varynth said gently. “I’m going to replace him. And you will be right by my side.”

I went still. As if my own heartbeat seized. There was no fear in me. Somehow, I understood that Varynth would not win. He couldn’t.

Not with the prophecy in place, not with everything dad had accomplished with mom at his side.

I was calmed, overtaken by the slow growth of understanding. This is why Kai was prophesied, why we were mated.

People would not change.

So the magic had to change.

Not to mention that Varynth wanted to use me as a symbol to the humans that we were meant to be beneath is boot.

My stomach turned.

If he kept me at his side, it wouldn’t just be a coup. It would look legitimate.

My pulse slowly creeped back in my head, it pounded in my temples, but I forced my breathing to slow.

I glanced toward Maelis, and her eyes flicked to mine.

For the first time, I saw in her the fire I felt in my soul. She watched me with stern eyes, and I knew in that moment that she would help me.

That she would help her sister. Varynth’s world was not one she wanted to live in.

His hand crawled up my arm, fingers curling around the back of my neck. I tore my eyes away from Maelis just as the fire vanished from her pupils. That was a secret between us.

I held onto that as Varynth tilted my head, exposing my throat.

“Don’t worry,” he murmured. “This will soon become… natural for you.”

His grip tightened, then his mouth was at my neck.

Pain exploded through me, from my neck, down my spine to the tips of my toes.

I didn’t want to scream, especially as it stole the breath from my lungs, but it came anyway. My fingers clenched against the seat, nails digging into the fabric as I cried through it.

Black swam through my vision, his fangs pulling more blood than I knew I had.

“You will kill her, my lord,” Maelis whispered.

Varynth responded with a grunt, forcing himself away from me, but the haze had already begun to take over. My body slumped over the seat, Maelis catching me before I fell to the ground.