“Just don’t let it out of this room; we can’t let it live.”
“I had no intention of that.”
Ruvan turns my way. He’s about to say something when a soft, humming noise comes from the creature. This is unlike the screams, guttural noises, or clicks that the other monsters have made. This sounds…almost like singing.
“What is it doing?” I ask, looking between the monster and Ruvan. The latter has gone perfectly still. Ruvan’s eyes have glazed over; he sways slightly in time with the Lost’s humming. Color is draining from his face. He’s turning gaunt, ashy, cursed right before my eyes. I sprint over and grab his left arm. “Ruvan?”
His right arm flies up with the speed of a viper. He hooks my chin between his pointer finger and his thumb. Spinning, he slams me into the wall. My head snaps against the stone. It should hurt more. If I were still completely human the force of the movement might have knocked me out. Thanks to the elixir and our bloodsworn magic, it doesn’t.
Our bloodsworn… He shouldn’t be able to hurt me, not even if he tried. Whatever this beast is doing to him is turning Ruvan into something else. He’s closer to a Lost than he is the man I knew.
“Ruvan,” I wheeze.
The Lost hums its tormented and eerie song even louder. I can almost feel the creature in my own mind, scraping against my skull with those claws, trying to find entry. Maybe it can’t because I’m not a vampir. That’s right, Ruvan had said the Lost could hypnotize with sound.
I stare into Ruvan’s eyes, looking for the man I knew, the man who claimed to be falling in love with me. His grip tightens around my throat. I fight to breathe.
“P-Please,” I gasp.
He doesn’t release. He doesn’t relent. There is nothing in his eyes to make me believe that the Ruvan I shared a bed with mere hours ago, is still in there. All I see is hatred and the curse, running rampant.
I tighten my grip on the dagger.
If you’re ever face-to-face with a vampire, fight!Drew shouts from the recesses of my memories. Fight with everything you have. Fight like your life depends on it.
I draw the dagger across my leg. Red light flares, illuminating Ruvan’s emotionless expression. It makes his usually ethereal face all the more sinister.
Don’t throw your life away. Mother now.
I can see the Lost moving in my periphery. It’s approaching both of us. It’s going to have Ruvan fully fall to the curse, kill me, and then they both will feast on me at their monstrous leisure. At all costs, we were to kill the Lost.
The dagger shakes in my hand. I can’t let Ruvan succumb to the Lost and the curse. I won’t let him turn into one of these monsters. If I have to kill him then so be it.
This is the destiny I stole from Drew that night—to kill the vampire lord. The destiny I thought I’d escaped coming back to haunt me in a way I never expected.
Forge your own destiny, Ruvan’s voice, louder than the rest, echoes.
I pull back the dagger. I press my eyes closed. To my surprise, my hand moves. This is unlike before; there are no invisible hands holding me back. No barrier stopping me. Ruvan is no longer the man that I am bloodsworn to. I could stab him. But I stop short.
He’s still in there.
My dagger clatters to the ground. My hands go limp at my sides. I can’t do it. I can’t hurt him. Not because of the bloodsworn… but because I can’t. I stare at Ruvan through tunnel vision that grows thicker by the second.
“You’re still in there,” I rasp. “I know you are.”
His grip tightens further. I continue to stare. I don’t fight.
“Ruvan, come back to me.” If Drew could break through the hold the Raven Man had on him, then Ruvan can beat this. The creature is drawing close. I lift a hand and gently rest it on Ruvan’s cheek. Even this simple motion is hard, my muscles are screaming for air. “You swore—you swore to me that you would never hurt me. Not just because of our bloodsworn. But because you never would want to.”
Words are harder by the second. His hand around my throat begins to quiver. I can’t tell if it’s from the strain of slowly choking me, or if it’s a result of my words actually getting through to him.
It’s then that I notice tears streaming down his cheeks. Even though his eyes have no emotion, even though he’s still very far away. He’s fighting.
“I’m…sorry,” I rasp. I wasn’t enough. Whatever we were, or were becoming, wasn’t enough to break him free. I press my eyes closed. The pain is leaving my body. Cold is setting in. “The truth is I—I love—”
His hand tightens further. I choke as no more air can make it through. Everything tilts. I can only see his eyes now, fading, farther and farther away from me.
A distant roar accompanies the edge of reality speeding back. There’s a blur behind us that isn’t from the Lost. A flash of silver in a wide arc; Ventos’s broadsword lodges into the monster’s chest. The humming stops.
