Chapter 4
"No. I stole nothing. I am being framed!" The words tore from my throat at last, raw and useless.
Two towering vampire guards seized my arms, their grips like iron manacles, rendering struggle meaningless.
"Remove her," Evelyn commanded, her voice thick with triumph.
They dragged me from the council hall like discarded refuse. My eyes remained fixed on the merciless figure seated upon the throne, desperate for some flicker of mercy.
He did not trouble himself to look my way again.
The guards hauled me into a grim courtyard hidden behind the castle walls. At its center yawned a well that seemed to descend into the bowels of the earth.
Bleached bones littered the flagstones. An icy wind keened through the enclosure. From the depths of that pit rose blood-chilling howls and the endless scrape of claws against stone.
"Release me. Please, let me go!" I thrashed against my captors, achieving nothing.
One guard clamped his hand around my jaw and forced a foul, reeking liquid down my throat.
'That is blood bait!' The system's voice rose to a frantic pitch. 'They have turned you into a living lure. Every thrall in that pit will hunt you down.'
They hoisted me over the black mouth of the well.
I felt myself tilt into nothingness. In the last sliver of light before the darkness swallowed me, I caught sight of a shadowed figure standing at the highest window of the castle, watching with frozen detachment.
The fall seemed to stretch into eternity. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the claws, the teeth, the tearing of flesh.
The butchery I had braced for never came.
I landed on something soft and cold, a vast, silken web that cradled my fall and lowered me gently to the floor of the pit.
The bottom of the well was not the charnel heap I had imagined. It was eerily clean, with only a few desiccated skeletons crumpled against the walls.
The scent of the blood bait seeped from my skin, and the creatures in the shadows stirred to life.
In the darkness, pairs of blood-red eyes kindled like embers. Low, guttural growls reverberated through the chamber as they crept closer.
I curled into myself, my heart hammering against my ribs.
A shriveled claw reached toward me, and then recoiled as though scorched.
A wave of unseen power surged outward from somewhere deep within my core.
The thralls scrambling toward me shrieked and flung themselves backward, pressing their bodies to the ground in abject terror. They trembled like leaves in a gale.
I could only stare, stupefied. What was happening?
'Host, y-you bear the aura of a vampire prince.] The system's voice wavered with disbelief. [It is staggeringly potent.]
The aura of a vampire prince. The memory struck me like a thunderclap. For three months, I had drunk Nyx's blood every single day.
The system had assured me it was nothing more than common thrall blood. Now the truth lay bare before me. I had been consuming the blood of a pureblood progenitor all along.
His essence had fused with my very being, reshaping me from the inside out.
These wretched thralls cowered before the sheer dominance of his bloodline flowing through my veins.
He had not thrown me into this pit to die. Or rather, he had known all along that I would survive.
This entire "Trial of Blood" was a snare he had laid for me from the beginning.
But to what end? Was it merely to remind me of my place, to grind my pride into dust? Or did some darker purpose lurk beneath his actions?
I passed the long night at the bottom of the well, the thralls huddled at the farthest edges of the chamber, unwilling to venture within arm's reach of me.
At first light, the clank of chains echoed from above, and a shaft of pale dawn pierced the gloom. Evelyn and several council elders appeared at the rim of the well.
When their eyes found me, alive, unharmed, without a single scratch, their faces contorted with shock.
"H-how is this possible?" Evelyn's voice pitched high with disbelief. "She is nothing but a human! How could she endure the Well of Withered Bones?"
The silver-haired elder's brow furrowed deeply as he studied me with a newfound intensity, searching for some secret hidden beneath my skin.
"It would seem this young woman enjoys the favor of powers beyond our understanding." The voice drifted from behind the gathered crowd, smooth and layered with unspoken meaning.
Nyx emerged from the shadows, his tall frame silhouetted against the pale morning light. His crimson eyes gleamed with an unfathomable smile.
"According to our laws, one who survives the trial stands absolved of all charges." His cool gaze swept over Evelyn Ravenshade, whose expression curdled. "Duchess Ravenshade, do you wish to raise an objection?"
Evelyn's face cycled through shades of white and red, but in the end, she could only bow her head in bitter submission. "I do not."
The guards hauled me up from the pit.
As I stood there, I lifted my gaze to Nyx. My heart churned with emotions too tangled to name.
He was my savior. And he was the one who had condemned me to that darkness in the first place.