Once, when her father had passed away and her mother was long gone, she’d thought she was all alone. Then Wolf came and reminded her there was another path, another choice laid out for her to take. Before that, there’d been a time she’d wished for solitude. A way to escape from the world. Had she ever truly grasped what that could be?
This place was fear. Infinite. Solitude beyond what any creature should have to know.
“This isn’t real,” she whispered. “I’m in a cavern. Below House Wrath.”
Camilla squeezed her eyes shut, knowing it had to be an illusion.
Some powerful magic or glamour. Closing her eyes or keeping them open made no difference, everything remained the same, unchanged, endless dark.
“This isn’t real,” she whispered again, hating the tremble in her voice.
“What is reality? If it feels real, looks real, is it not so?”
Abyssus suddenly was there, holding a ball of glowing light in his palm. She squinted at the blazing light, eyes stinging. Once she adjusted to the glow, she could see the being in all his glory. He certainly didn’t look like a monster. His skin was golden, his hair the same luminous shade as his skin. He wore a white toga, showing a powerful, sculpted body.
Abyssus looked like a sun god, bound to the Underworld. Wholly out of place.
Except for his eyes. They were fully black, fathomless, and hungry.
Camilla’s gaze darted around, searching for Envy.
He was nowhere to be seen.
“Do you not feel the darkness?” Abyssus asked. “Is it not real? The same as sky and earth and blood are real?”
Camilla began to shake her head, then stopped. She could feel the darkness. A feat that should not be possible, even with magic. It was many things—soft, cold, warm, terror and protection. Each essence flickered over her wildly, until she could scarcely draw breath.
“This isn’t real,” she repeated.
Fragments of emotions mixed with physical and mental truths. Breaking and shattering and melding together until she couldn’t breathe.
“Make it stop,” she gritted out.
Abyssus smiled faintly, amusement flickering in his dark eyes.
Just as quickly as the world had been stripped away, it was back. Envy was barking orders, like only a moment had passed for him. It felt like hours for Camilla.
“Don’t look him in the eye, Miss Antonius.”
Abyssus flicked his attention to Camilla again, a secret smile curving his lips.
She was immediately ensnared by those ancient, terrible eyes. They held her prisoner, drew her in, made her forget life and happiness and light. It was different from the first darkness he’d shown her; this suffocated, corrupted the soul. Made her wish for death.
Darkness. Cold, endless darkness swept in, chilling her.
There had never been any light, never anything except this endless dark. This— “Enough.”
A voice shattered the hold over Camilla.
Abyssus lurched forward, and Envy shoved her back toward the lagoon.
“Run!”
Camilla didn’t hesitate. She turned, darted two steps, then halted.
A shadow peeled away from the cavern wall, chuckling darkly. At first, she thought Abyssus had managed to get past Envy; then the shadow spoke.
“Hello, Camilla, darling. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Crimson eyes glowed like dying embers in a fire as the vampire fully stepped out from where he’d been hiding. She could not believe it. Maybe he had made a deal with the devil. He certainly seemed to cheat death as much as he’d cheated half of Waverly Green’s elite.
“Vexley. How?”
His head canted to the side, more animal than human in movement.
“Foolish woman. You had no idea how much venom was running through my veins.”
He flashed his teeth. The incisors were gleaming, sharp instruments of death.
“It hurt like hell. The change. Took a while for me to come to. I wanted to find you, thank you personally. Repay the honor.”
Horror filled Camilla. She’d turned Vexley into an even worse demon.
He took a step closer, attention fixed to her neck.
“We were interrupted before, Camilla. Procreating might be… difficult. But we can certainly try. I still need an heir. Why not make an immortal legacy? Let me turn you.”
Envy was suddenly there, eyes glittering and dangerous. Camilla glanced around, feeling the walls closing in. She wanted to ask what had happened to Abyssus but kept silent. Envy must have a plan. He always had a plan.
Vexley drifted closer, gaze darkening with thirst. He hadn’t noticed the demon yet.
“Don’t.” Envy’s dagger glowed softly. “She’s mine.”
“Lord Synton.” Vexley laughed, shaking free from his thirst. “I’ve heard many interesting tales about you. Too bad we’re both playing the game. I might have liked you, Your Highness.”
Camilla felt trapped between mountain and stone, between supernatural predators. And the deadly lagoon. The tunnel was much too narrow for all of them. If they couldn’t get past Vexley, they’d need to retreat toward Abyssus. Worse and worse.
Envy stalked closer. Fear in a handsome, male form. Camilla could suddenly breathe again.
“My brother gets a little touchy when creatures cross his wards.”
Envy pressed the queen’s vial into her palm, nudging her back in the other direction. She clutched it to her chest, taking a step back.
“How did you cross them?”
She suddenly understood what he was doing—he was distracting Vexley, catering to his vanity.
Vexley all but preened at Envy’s appeal to his ego. The idiot.
“Connections. Perhaps you don’t know the right creatures.”
Envy smiled faintly.
Between one breath and the next, Vexley attacked. His fangs scraped across her throat, liquid heat dripping down her neck. But his move had been sloppy, wild, a feral animal too mad to be strategic. Immediately he was tossed across the tunnel, the demon’s rage nearly ripping his arms off. Vexley crumpled, and Envy turned back toward Camilla.
Envy didn’t see him coming, didn’t think he’d get up. The demon was focused on Camilla, his gaze locked onto her blood.
She screamed, but nothing came out. Vexley leapt, his hands transforming into talons, his fangs lengthening. He was no longer a simple vampire; he looked like a werewolf. A beast. Some demonic being that could only be spawned in the Underworld.
He opened his fanged mouth, a roar bouncing off the tunnel walls, and he ripped Envy’s head clean from his shoulders in one brutal swipe of his teeth.
She dropped to her knees, retching. Over and over.
Vexley had killed Envy.
She couldn’t.…
She heaved, emptying the contents of her stomach, tears streaming down her face.
“CAMILLA.”
A voice bellowed behind her. She couldn’t focus. All she could do was stare at the headless body of the prince, heaving. Vexley was gone. Like he’d never been there.
It was so shocking, so unexpected, it wrenched her from her tears.
Camilla glanced around, confused. Why would he kill Envy and not take her?
She crawled to Envy’s lifeless body, shaking him.
“Get up!” she screamed. “Please. Get up.”
“CAMILLA!”
Her name was a command, issued by one she could not ignore.
She turned.
And the world flipped upside down once more.
Envy was standing there, shouting her name, over and over. His expression furious, terrified.
Camilla glanced back. There was no headless body. No vampire.