CHAPTER 49

**SOPHIA**

I keep walking down the castle corridor, holding the prince’s cloak tightly against my body. Its weight brings a strange comfort, as if it could protect me from everything that happened.

My hand is clenched around the dagger Adam gave me, and I feel the stiffness of the handle against my fingers.

I’m alert.

The continuous sound of the bell echoes through the corridors, each ring resonating in my mind as a reminder that something has happened.

My senses are heightened, and my ears pick up the sound of footsteps in the distance.

As I descend the stairs, I see the vampire guards moving through the castle.

They are capturing all the humans who invaded.

The battle is over.

The humans lost, and the vampires are regaining control.

I observe the patrols as I walk among the guards, my frantic gaze searching for Adam.

I search every face of everybody that passes by, but he is nowhere to be found.

The bell keeps tolling, the echoes mixing with the screams I still hear in my mind.

The king is dead.

My heart races as I quicken my pace.

I run through the corridors, my feet pounding against the stone floor, the sound muffled by the surrounding chaos.

I pass more guards, each of them capturing the humans who invaded the castle.

I know what their fate will be.

They will be judged and condemned to death.

There is no escape for those who dare to rise against the vampires.

Blinking doesn’t help erase the surrounding scenes.

The vampires are taking the humans, and this time no one tries anything against me.

The fear of being touched by one of them fades for a moment.

I keep running, determined to find Adam or some answer to all of this.

I turn down another corridor and hear a different sound.

Something is being broken—a loud and deafening noise.

There’s an open door ahead, and I walk toward it with hesitant steps.

My heart feels like it’s pounding in my throat.

I enter slowly, the dagger still clenched in my hand, but I don’t see Adam.

I realize where I am.

I’m near the king’s royal chamber.

My breath quickens, and for a moment, everything seems to stop.

I approach the door and stand before it, feeling my heart pounding hard against my chest.

I grip the dagger tighter and push the door slowly, its creaking sound is almost inaudible to me amidst the confusion in my thoughts.

My eyes widen when I see the king’s body on the floor.

There’s a sword driven through his heart, blood staining the stone floor around him.

I feel my body start to tremble.

What I’m seeing seems impossible.

The king, one of the most powerful vampires, is dead.

Blinking doesn’t change anything; the sight of his lifeless body remains unchanged.

There’s blood everywhere.

I take a deep breath, trying to control the panic that threatens to consume me.

Inside the chamber, near the body, I see the prince.

He is standing with his back to me, frozen, before his dead father.

His shoulders seem tense, and even from a distance, I can tell he is immersed in a pain I’ve never seen him show.

He doesn’t move and doesn’t speak.

He just remains there, frozen in front of the king’s death.

Something inside me tells me he’s crying, though I’ve never seen him do that before.

Seeing this confuses me even more.

How did the humans manage to kill the king?

Without the special dagger I carry, this should have been impossible.

I step closer, pushing the door more firmly.

That’s when I noticed another body beside the king.

The queen.

She’s dead, too.

The entire royal family... except the prince.

A chill runs down my spine as I realize what this means.

The prince is alone now.

The only heir.

I enter the room slowly, my eyes scanning the surrounding space.

Each step feels heavier than the last, and the dagger in my hand seems useless in the face of what’s happening.

When I stop, my eyes are fixed on the prince.

He remains with his back to me, motionless.

“Your Highness...”, I whisper, my voice barely coming out.

I don’t know why I spoke, but the sound seemed to break the heavy silence in the room.

His body grows more rigid at the sound of my voice, and I see his shoulders tense even more.

“What are you doing here, Sophia? I told you not to leave the tower!”

His voice comes out filled with anger.

He doesn’t turn to look at me, but each word carries a contained fury that makes me tremble.

I feel a lump in my throat and blink, trying to find something to say.

But when I look again at the king’s body on the floor, the words escape me.

“I... I...”, I try to start, but I can’t finish the sentence.

He finally turns his head to look at me.

His face is different.

The cold look he gives me makes my heart skip with fear.

There’s an intense coldness in his red eyes, a gleam that reminds me he’s dangerous.

Deadly.

The anger he’s feeling seems ready to explode, and for a moment, I fear he might attack.

I tremble, but I can’t move away.

Something holds me to the ground and prevents me from fleeing, as if my body won’t obey.

I look at him, waiting for anything he might do or say.

The room feels suffocating, and the smell of blood is everywhere.

I’m surrounded by death, and the prince, though alive, seems to be consumed by something I’ve never seen before.

It’s as if he’s dying inside, too, slowly.

“You shouldn’t be here, Sophia. I warned you.”, he repeats, his voice more controlled this time, but still filled with an intensity that makes my heart race again.

“I... I heard screams...”, my voice is low and weak.

The dagger is still in my hand, but I feel vulnerable and powerless.

I don’t know how to explain why I left the tower.

I don’t know what brought me here.

And now, I’m standing before him, before the bodies of his parents, and everything seems to be crumbling around me.

He stares at me for a few more seconds, the silence filled only by the distant ringing of the bell.

An overwhelming silence falls between us, and I feel like I’m on the edge of something terrible.

I blink, feeling his red eyes on me.

I still don’t know what I should do, but now everything seems to change with the royal family dead.

I should have done this; killing them was my mission, but I see the humans did it first, and now there’s only one left.

The prince.