Before I could gather myself to say anything, she’d vanished from the spot.

Leaning back against the closed door, I slid down to the floor, staring blankly at the opposite wall.

Adelle Ardene. She was my type if I’d ever had one. Everything about that woman—from her luscious red hair and slender long-legged figure, to her charm and intelligence—had had me yearning for her for years.

Now here she was standing before me, practically professing her love for me… too late.

Damn.

Why can life never just be simple?

Chapter 42: Derek

After Sofia and I had finished meeting with the dragons, we parted ways. She headed off to check on the humans and then begin preparations for the memorial ceremony we were to hold for those brave warriors we’d lost, while I took some time out to be alone. I headed to the beach near the Port, which had borne the brunt of the flames. Walking close to the waves through the piles of ash, I cast my gaze out toward the horizon. Dawn had now broken beyond the island’s boundary—the sun a brilliant ball of fire rising in the sky.

As I watched it, the promise I’d made Sofia replayed in my mind. She was right that survival had been our only way of living for the longest time. Ever since leading the first vampires to The Shade all those centuries ago, all I’d done was worry about securing ourselves against outside forces.

But after the victory against the black witches, and with the pending arrival of at least a hundred dragons, it couldn’t be denied that tides had turned.

Yes, there were still many uncertainties hanging over us.

What would the black witches’ next move be? Would they remain a direct threat to us, or would they move on to new shores?

How had our daughter suddenly developed her powers? And why would they come now, after all these years of lying dormant?

What was becoming of our son? His sheer strength combined with his lust for blood and lack of control reminded me all too much of the shadow of a man I’d been before I met Sofia.

What would become of the human world as we knew it, now that a supernatural’s existence had been broadcast on mainstream media for the first time in history? It was still too early to predict what the repercussions would be, but I feared that Ben’s breaking this ancient code of secrecy was the beginning of an avalanche of unforeseen consequences.

All these doubts and more crowded my mind.

But as I stood on that beach watching the sun’s ascent, a sense of calm formed within me, rising above the chaos.

Whatever we were up against now, this was a new dawn breaking over The Shade.

No longer one of weakness, or clinging to survival.

No.

This was a dawn of strength.

Chapter 43: Rhys

I hated myself for it. But I did it. I saved Mona from that burning tree.

After all she’d done to betray me and my people, I should have just left her to the flames. Yet as the fire closed in on the forest, something within me just… couldn’t let her go.

But that was the last piece of mercy she would experience from me if we ever crossed paths again. Julisse had waited toward the end of the battle to inform me of our younger sister’s demise. She hadn’t wanted the grief to distract me from our mission. But as we arrived back on our frozen island—most of us injured and all of us fatigued from the battle—she showed me Arielle’s corpse that she’d managed to salvage.

I gazed over her body as it lay on the floor of the entrance to the castle. Crouching down, I brushed my palm against Arielle’s bloodied forehead, planting kisses over her closed eyelids.

Careful to contain my emotions, I stood up and walked over to the window. I placed my palms flat against the glass panes and gazed out at the snowy peaks surrounding us.

We had come so close to taking hold of The Shade. As we’d neared those mountains, I’d already been mentally preparing for the first ritual we would perform that night. To have it all taken away so quickly had been a shock to all of us.

Yet I didn’t even allow the thought to enter my head that we’d failed. I couldn’t. Lilith was hanging on to life by a thread. Allowing her to slip away before the blood rites were complete would be worse than committing suicide—we’d not only be condemning ourselves to a life of fruitless effort, but our kind’s future generations would continue to degenerate under The Sanctuary’s complacent and inept leadership. I could already imagine a time not far away from now when witches would become slaves to more powerful races. Our magic—a sacred gift to be revered, and the only thing that gave us our identity—would dilute to such a state that it would be merely used for mundane chores, or perhaps for entertainment.

Feeling the heat rise in my body, I turned to face Julisse, who was still gazing down upon Arielle’s face.

“We might be suffering now,” I said, stepping round the corpse and gripping Julisse’s arm. “But never forget. The sacrifices we make now will benefit generations to come. Arielle, Celice, and all those we’ve lost will be honored as martyrs in time.”

“I know they will be, brother,” she replied, her voice hoarse.

“There will be time for mourning our sister later. Now, we need to change course. Any witch with palms intact has exactly one hour to rest. After that, we all head to the nearest, most densely populated human shore.”

Julisse’s eyes widened. “What are you thinking?” she whispered.

“What we now lack in the variation of blood found in The Shade, we must make up for in quantity of human blood. And quickly.”