Page 5 of Their Blood Queen

“Do you know what that means?” my brother asks. His words are slimy and sickly sweet, as if he’s coating them with poison just for me. “If we don’t reach the Immortality Sector this year, it’ll be too late. Don’t be a whiny bitch, Scarlett. You’ll become a Duchess of a family much more powerful than ours. You have nothing to complain about.”

I flick my gaze to my father to see if he’ll correct my brother’s crude words, but he doesn’t.

Because I know he feels that he can’t. He loves his wife even more than he loves me.

And we both know I was adopted for a reason. She wanted a daughter, but her illness made her barren after my brother, so my father took me in when I was just a little girl.

I was a present for her, and even if he grew to love me, his wife has always come first.

We don’t speak of my origins, but my bright red hair is a reminder for those who know the truth.

I’m not from here. No amount of voice training lessons or etiquette classes can change where I was born.

I’m from the other side.

I was always meant to be a sacrifice.

“She won’t forgive you,” I tell my father. My words are barely a whisper, but I can’t hide the hurt that drips from them with my unshed tears.

Even if this works. Even if this saves her life and my family achieves immortality, my mother will never forgive him for this.

Or maybe he thinks that eventually she will. Eternity is a long time to try to earn back her trust.

The darkness in his eyes flickers, those chocolate browns in his gaze briefly coming out as my adoptive father peeks through.

The one who loves me. The one who loves his family and wants nothing more than to dote on us and give us everything.

But he believes he’s been cornered. He believes there’s no choice.

There’s always a choice.

“At least she’ll be alive to hate me,” he says as his dark mask slips back over his face.

I know it’s going to stay there this time.

For now, my father is gone.

And Duke Nightingale is all that remains.

I find myself looking at Cain’s portrait. I’ve never prayed to him, but the absurd desire to overcomes me and I find myself whispering the words so quietly that it feels as if only my lips move.

“Watch over me, Cain.”

I pause as a strange chill runs up my spine after uttering those words. I stare at the portrait, and it seems to expectantly stare back, so I continue.

“If I do this, I’m going to do it for my mother. I don’t want her to die. But please, please make it worth it. Watch over me and protect me.”

The air seems to ripple around the portrait, and shadows unfurl behind the mirrors, making my eyes go wide.

When I blink, the strange textures are gone.

I try to breathe again but struggle. I decide my corset is just too tight, and I’m starting to see black spots, so I continue my prayer before I pass out.

“I’m going to need all the help I can get… if I’m going to be Earl Rinhold’s bride.”

When I glance back at my brother and father, I feel like I’m outnumbered. A rumble passes through the room, making me peek at the walls to search for a storm that must be building overhead.

But there aren’t any windows here, only portraits to make anyone under the Duke’s gaze feel small and trapped and watched.