Chapter 9: The Secret in the Dark

The resolve that settled in my heart after the banquet was as cold and hard as the stone floor I had cried on. There were no more tears, only a clear, focused plan. Aidan’s sunstone felt like a promise in my palm—a promise of freedom, of a life among my own kind, away from the gilded lies and poisonous politics of the vampire court. I would leave tonight. The castle was quiet in the pre-dawn hours, wrapped in the slumber of the undead. The guards outside my door were lax, confident in their...