Moonlight Prince (Vampire Girl #4)

But how is this possible? Did Lucian capture Stonehill?

"Ari…" Kayla looks up, her voice weak and thin. "Ari," she says again, this time stronger, hugging me tightly. "I'm sorry," she says. "I couldn't stop him. I couldn't stop…" And then she notices him over my shoulder. "I couldn't stop Lucian," she says, rage filling her voice. She dashes forward, hands out like claws. Out for blood.

But then water shoots up around her, curls around her arms like shackles, and pulls her back down to the ground.

"Where is he?" Kayla hisses. "Where is Riku?"

Riku? The Spirit?

"Do not worry, girl," says Lucian, pulling a silver stone from his pocket. "Riku is right here. Safe. So is Zyra." He pulls out another stone. A white one.

Tears well in Kayla's eyes. "What have you done to them?"

"Spirits can take on many forms. They often turn into physical objects when they lack power," says Lucian.

He's right. I remember when Yami turned into a necklace on earth.

Lucian continues, " I simply forced Riku and Zyra into a state they cannot leave on their own. A simple trick really, if one knows the way. Now, I believe it's time I did the same for Yami." He draws a black stone from his pocket and holds it to the cage, whispering words under his breath.

Yami starts to howl.

"You bastard!" I roar. I try to lunge forward, but the water grabs me, holds me down like it does Kayla.

Lucian continues to whisper. And as he does Yami begins to dematerialize. His limbs fade. His voice quiets. In time, he becomes a cloud of black smoke, and the smoke pours into the stone. Until there is no Yami left. The stone has changed, I notice. It is no longer simply dark. It glitters like stars and midnight.

"What are you doing?" I ask. "If you've hurt him I will kill you." My threats are empty, hollow, as tears choke my throat. I thought I couldn't feel Yami before, but now I realize that wasn't entirely true. He'd been there, at the edges of my senses, and now I feel his pain, his terror. He's trapped and I can do nothing to free him. I must think. I must figure out how to fix this.

He said he has Zyra… but also Riku? I look up, into his evil eyes, as the pieces of the puzzle scatter before me. "How is Riku here?"

Lucian frowns. "Don't you know? Kayla here is the new Fire Druid. She is Riku's Keeper. And, like you yourself surmised, I need the Spirits. I need the Druids too. For the Spirits to be at full strength both Keeper and Spirit must be close. Capturing Varis was… simple. Especially when he thought I was his lover."

I grimace. "What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"He used illusion," says Kayla, her eyes burning with hate.

Lucian smiles. "Indeed. For near two months I've impersonated Asher. And all the while no one noticed. How tragic."

Metsi groans. "Stop wasting time on the half-bloods," she tells Lucian. "Are they almost here?"

"Yes," says the vampire king. "I have spied them on the road. They are near. I couldn't tell Fen our location; he would have assumed it a trap. But I mentioned Grey Mountain and planted the seed."

Metsi's eyes flicker to the ruins, to the shadows where someone may hide. They flicker to the door. The door where Darkness lives. "Are you sure about this? Oren did not approve. He—"

"Oren is no longer here," yells Lucian. "If we had done the ritual earlier, perhaps he still would be."

Metsi drops her gaze. She fumbles with her fingers. I have never seen her like this. Nervous. "But what if we can't control it?"

"I have spent millennia preparing the for the ritual. It will happen as we plan."

Metsi nods, though still she trembles.

My mind is racing, trying to decipher what they're saying. "The ritual?" I ask. "You wish to summon the Darkness. But what of the Ancient Fae? You said yourself the Darkness could not be controlled."

He swings his hand through the air. Smashes it across my cheek.

I fall back, my face burning.

Lucian looms over me. His words seep with rage, as if I offended him personally. The cold calculations are gone. It is his curse, I think. The curse of wrath.

"I said they could not control it," he yells. "Because they were fools. They missed something so simple. Only one ever tamed the Darkness. And he had the Spirits in his power."

"The Primal One," I whisper.

He nods, smiling. "The Primal One. I shall do as he did. But instead of locking the Darkness away, I will bend it to my will. There is no good or bad in the world. No right or wrong. Not truly. There is dark. There is light. And both are needed. Both are required for life. Locking the Darkness away was a mistake. A mistake I intend to rectify."

His eyes flick up then. And his grin widens, as if he knows a secret none else is privy to. "Ah," he says. "They are here."

And then I hear it.

A howl on the wind.





Chapter 10


GREY MOUNTAIN


Fenris Vane


"You are a dog. And you will know your place at your master's heel."

—King Lucian



Something is wrong. Instincts honed over centuries tell me to retreat. To flee. We are not in control here. Someone has set a trap. But I cannot run. I cannot leave Arianna.

"What's wrong?" asks Dean, grabbing my shoulder. We sit behind a broken pillar, hiding from view, our swords at the ready. Baron lies at my heel.

"It's nothing," I say, refusing to worry my comrades as well.

"We should not be at this place," whispers Tavian. "There is a power here. A power best left undisturbed."

Marasphyr rolls her eyes. "You and your superstations, Tavian."

He glares at her, unsaid words hanging between them.

"This is where we saw the patrols," I say, remembering what we noticed upon arriving at the mountain. "This is where we will find another. Capture him. Force him to take us to Arianna."

"Should not be here," Tavian says again.

I pretend to shrug off his warning, but in truth I agree. There is something about this ruin. A feeling. A presence. I study the grey stones and the Fae statues. They seem to look at me. They seem to be alive.

"There," whispers Tavian. "A patrol."

I glance over the pillar. That is no patrol That is…

Arianna!

I jump to my feet. My heart pounding in my chest. My body ready for battle.

Dean pulls me back. "Patience brother," he hisses under his breath. "Do you not see who she is with?"

I look again, clenching my jaw. "Lucian."

"We cannot beat him, brother," says Dean.

"There are four of us."

"You know it doesn't matter."

Marasphyr fidgets with a ring on her finger. "I'm afraid he's right. I do not wish to face the vampire king."

I sigh, falling back against the stone, cursing the day. Metsi I was prepared for, but Lucian… He is the man who killed the last Midnight Star. The man who slaughtered an entire family of High Fae.

I wasn't there when it happened, but the tales still bring dread. Still, they could be exaggerated, could they not? I know better than most how a story could grow into ridiculous fantasy. My time at Grey Mountain taught me that.