Chapter 13 ALARIC'S PAST
CHAPTER 013: ALARIC’S PAST
“You can't guarantee that yet." I reply. “Let's wait for the duel."
“Then I'll gladly wait." She smirked.
At night I couldn’t sleep, not after the day I had. My body felt tired, even my mind feels troubled. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see Morgana’s smirk.
I could hear the whisper of the duel sigil burning into the air.
It's in three days. Three days to either win or be someone’s puppet.
I walked through the halls, hugging myself against the cold draft. The corridors were dark except for the silver glow from the moon spilling through the tall windows. My steps echoed softly.
Then I heard a sound.
A low, soft piano note drifting from the far end of the hall. It's Slow and the melody sounds like an heartbreak song.
It was heavy with guilt and pain, It pressed into my chest like a thumb on a bruise.
Only one person played the piano like that.
I followed the sound and pushed the door open.
Alaric sat at the old piano, his pale fingers moving lightly over the keys. The moonlight caught his silver eyes. He looked like a ghost playing music for the dead.
He didn’t look up. “You walk like you’re carrying stones in your pockets.” He said.
I blinked. “Is that your fancy way of saying I’m stressed?”
His lips curved slightly. “It means you’re drowning in something you don’t want to name.”
I leaned against the door frame. “And you? You play like the world ended and you’re the only one left sweeping the ashes.”
A small laugh breathed out of his lips, quiet but real. Then he finally looked at me. His expression softened the way it sometimes did when he forgot to be cold.
“Come here.” He said.
I walked toward him and sat on the bench beside him. The piano creaked under the shift of weight.
As I was close enough, his scent hit me with cold and something sweet underneath. It always made me shiver a little.
“You should be sleeping.” He said.
“I could say the same to you.”
“Vampires don’t sleep much.”
“I noticed.”
He played another soft key. “You’re afraid.”
“No!” I said too fast.
He tilted his head. “Your pulse says yes. The way your hands shake says yes. Even your breathing is breaking.”
I stared at my hands. They were shaking.
“Fine.” I muttered. “Maybe I am.”
He pressed another key. The sound lingered between us.
“Morgana shouldn’t have challenged you.” He said. “She did it to embarrass you. To provoke the rest of us.”
“Then why can’t any of you stop her?”
His jaw tightened. “Because rules matter here, even to monsters.”
Something about the way he said monsters made me look at him. His shoulders were tense. Like he was fighting with something inside himself.
“Alaric.” I said softly. “What’s wrong with you tonight?”
His fingers froze over the keys.
For a moment he stopped.
Then he said. “You remind me of someone.”
I sat still. “Someone from… when? Before you became what you are?”
His eyes lowered to the piano. “Long before. A lifetime I try not to touch.”
A quiet note escaped the piano when his finger slipped on the key. His voice went lower.
“I wasn’t born like this. I wasn’t always cold.”
I turned toward him. “Will you tell me?”
“Only if you don’t run.”
There was no joke in his tone. No smirk. Nothing playful. He looked almost… scared.
“I won’t run.” I said.
He exhaled and closed his eyes.
And for the first time since I met Alaric, he looked truly human.
“When I was human.” He said. “I was seventeen. I lived in a small town far from here. The world was quieter back then. I was a musician. I played for anyone who would listen. People said I smiled too much. That I loved too easily.”
I tried to picture him smiling. It felt wrong because Alaric always carried hunger behind his eyes.
“There was a girl.” He continued. “Her name… doesn’t matter now but she was warm. Too warm for someone like me and she was sick and dying slowly.”
The way he said dying made my stomach twist.
“I loved her.” He said. “I was stupid with it. I thought love could glue her to the world.”
“What happened?” I whispered.
“I begged a vampire to turn her.”
I swallowed. “You begged?”
He nodded. “I didn’t know what it truly meant. I thought it would save her. I thought she’d open her eyes again and I’d have my whole life back.”
His fingers curled into fists on the piano.
“The vampire agreed but to turn someone, they must die first. Their heart must stop so the blood can change.”
A tremor cut through his voice.
“She died in my arms. I waited for her to wake. I waited for hours, days but she never opened her eyes again.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
My breath caught. Alaric, the calm one, the cold one, the unreadable one was shaking.
“I became a vampire the same night.” He said. “The creature who turned her offered me a choice. Die with her or follow him.”
My eyes widened. “And you chose to live?”
“I chose to suffer.” He said with a bitter curve of his mouth. “And I’ve suffered for one hundred and fifty years.”
Then he turned to me.
“When I first saw you in the courtyard.” He said, “I thought I was losing my mind. You looked like her but it wasn’t just your face. It was… something inside you. A warmth I haven’t felt in more than a century.”
My throat tightened. “Alaric…”
“No.” He said quietly. “Don’t pity me. I don’t want pity.”
“I’m not pitying you.”
He looked unsure. Like he didn’t believe me.
Then he leaned a little closer, his voice low. “You think I don’t feel anything but you bring something back. Something I buried.”
My heart skipped. “What do you mean?”
He stared at me, his eyes glowing faintly.
“When you walk into a room, the air changes. When you look at me, it feels like a reminder that I was human once and that scares me more than anything.”
His hand brushed mine. Cold skin against warm. The touch made me flinch, but not because I wanted to pull away. It startled me how gentle he was.
“Why tell me this now?” I asked.
“Because you’re walking into a duel that could kill you.” He said. “And I can’t interfere. So all I can do is give you something honest. Something real.”
His fingers slid fully over mine. His grip was cold but steady.
“I don’t want to lose you.” He whispered.
My chest tightened so hard I had to breathe slowly.
“Alaric…”
He looked down at our hands. “But you don’t belong to me. I know that.”
“Belong?” I echoed.
“You belong to yourself.” He corrected softly. “But you move the blood in my dead body, Thalira and I hate that. I hate it because I don’t want to feel this way again. I don’t want to bury another girl who looks like the sun.”
His voice broke.
Before I could answer, footsteps echoed down the hall. It was fast and coming our way.
Alaric turned toward the door, eyes glowing brighter.
“Someone’s coming.” He murmured.
The steps stopped outside the music room. A faint whisper slipped under the door.
“Thalira.” A voice hissed. “Open the door.”
My body went cold.
It was Morgana.
Alaric tensed, his anger rising.
“She shouldn’t be roaming at this hour.” He said. “This feels wrong.”
The knocking came again and harder.
“Thalira.” Morgana said. “I know you’re in there.”
Alaric stood, placing himself between me and the door.
He looked back at me.
“Stay close. Her aura is dark and feels too charged.”
The doorknob twisted on its own like a hand was forcing it.
Alaric’s eyes flashed bright silver.
“Step back.” He said.
The door slammed open.
Morgana stood there, her hair wild like she had been walking through a storm. Her eyes glowed an unnatural shade, too bright.
Something was moving under her skin.
She smiled at me, slow and stretched.
“I came to give you a message.” She said.
Alaric growled under his breath, a sound so low the piano strings vibrated.
“What message?” I asked, heart pounding.
Morgana tilted her head.
“You’re not the only one who came back from the dead.”
Alaric’s hand shot out to grab me.
But before he could touch meMorgana vanished.
Alaric looked at the spot where she had stood. His face was pale even for a vampire.
“That.” He whispered, “Was not Morgana.”
My blood turned ice cold.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He met my eyes, fear flickering there for the first time since I met him.
“Something else is wearing her skin.”
My breath caught.
The piano behind us gave a soft, ghostly note on its own.
Like something unseen had touched it.
And Alaric whispered. “She’s coming for you, Thalira. It's means you're their main target.”