"Open the lock," Ren commanded, her voice sharp with resolve. Thousands of questions were strolling in her mind, but she had to concentrate on the critical ones.
There had to be a reason this girl had betrayed her own kind. No one turned without cause, especially not after being saved by those soldiers. Perhaps the vampires had tempted her with sothing only their kind could offer. Power, maybe, immortality or influence and absolution.
Coran moved without hesitation, the key clicking as the lock gave way. The door groaned and moved.
The girl kept her head bowed, sha clinging to her like a second skin. She couldn’t bring herself to et the eyes of the woman who had risked everything to save her, who had walked into the devil’s throat for an antidote. Nor could she face the Fae who had given her life a second chance.
Kai leaned back in his chair out of the cell, eyes fixed on Ren. He said nothing, simply watching, fascinated. Calisa had told them the Goblin confessed everything without the need for torture. Now, they needed this girl’s testimony to confirm every thread the creature had unraveled. He was curious to see her thod.
Ren pulled a chair beside the bed and sat down, her tone gentle but firm. "What’s your na?"
The girl hesitated, biting her lower lip. Her voice trembled, barely audible. "Daniella."
She looked crushed beneath the weight of recent horrors. It wasn’t that she refused to speak, she simply couldn’t yet find the strength to.
Ren nodded slowly, adjusting her posture to appear less intimidating. "Alright, Daniella. Tell , how are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Any pain in your body?"
Daniella shook her head, almost imperceptibly. Tears clung to her lashes, but she was present. She wasn’t speaking much, but she wasn’t lost to shock either. That alone was a victory.
"Can you talk to now?" Ren asked, her voice softer this ti.
"Yes." The word was breathy, fragile, like it might shatter if spoken any louder.
"Good," Ren said, her gaze steady but kind. "Listen, Daniella. I’m truly sorry for what happened to your village. No one should go through what you’ve endured. But if you stay silent now... more villages will burn. More girls will be lured by the vampires’ charm, and they’ll carry the sa sorrow you do now. Help stop that from happening."
Kai nearly choked on his own breath. This was supposed to be an interrogation?
It was nothing like the brutal thods they’d used before, no calculated intimidation, no cold silence broken by screams. Typically, they’d summon a trained torntor to pry out every last truth with precision and pain. But this... this was sothing else entirely.
Very soft and disarming! Humans didn’t do that! And oddly enough, it was working.
The girl was lucky, Kai thought. She’d been saved by the Luna of the Vine royal pack herself. Her life now teetered in Ren’s hands, and that alone kept Kai from stepping in. Still, he found himself frozen, watching. Intrigued by her charm.
"I didn’t know what he was at first," Daniella whispered, her voice cracked with strain. "He used to co help around the village... he’d talk to when I worked in my father’s bar..."
Her throat clenched mid-sentence. Her voice quivered. She didn’t need to say more, the sha and confusion in her eyes told the rest of the story.
She had fallen for him. The Lord Vampire. And all the while, he had been using her.
"He told what he was later, when.it was too late for my heart..." Daniella whispered, guilt knotting her voice. "But I was so blind... I didn’t care. He said he was a nobleman from Sokalia."
Ren’s eyes darkened at the ntion of that na.
Sokalia—a southern realm with sprawling borders that brushed the ocean and bled into Alvonia from the south. A land soaked in gold and treachery. It had taken The King of Alvonia fifteen long years to cleanse that court of rot. Before that, three kings had their throats slit in their sleep, each sacrificed for the next puppet the courtiers preferred. Beneath the grandeur of Sokalia’s silk-draped halls and opulent feasts, ambition festered like maggots beneath a jewel-studded crown. And this person was no different.
"You were transporting beer barrels and food to the soldiers’ camps?" Ren asked, her tone still gentle, but sharper now, like a blade beneath the velvet.
Daniella nodded. "Yes... he brought them to us. Said humans refused to accept them, so they had to fight to survive. He asked to help them. And I thought they were sincere and wanted the war to end..."
Ren’s eyes narrowed, but she waited. The silence stretched, coaxing more.
"I used to ask where he lived..." Daniella’s gaze drifted, lost in mory. "Then one day, he took behind the Ice Wall. Do you... do you know where the Forbidden Land is?"
Ren blinked. "No," she replied, then turned to Kaisun. "Do you?"
Kai’s expression didn’t falter. "Please continue," he said calmly, giving away nothing. He didn’t trust this girl.
Ren’s lips parted, then pressed into a line. He knows, she thought. He just won’t say.
"I don’t know the way," Daniella admitted. "He covered my eyes and carried there like a swift wind. But I rember the Ice Walls... and the castles, huge, towering things, draped in snow and silence. Everything was frozen. Even the air. He said that land once belonged to the Fae before being cursed and exposed."
Ren nodded slowly, "Tell everything you rember. Every detail matters."
The girl obeyed, recounting what little she could, but she never ntioned Luther. Only two Lords had crossed her path: the monster who had ensnared her heart, and the other, an elusive figure Kai had been hunting.
The Fae Lord Vampire.
Kai turned sharply to Coran. "Bring the drawing."
Without delay, Coran sprinted out of the cell. Monts later, he returned with a parchnt in hand and passed it to his Alpha.
Kai unfolded the sketch, holding it up for Daniella to see. "Is this him?"
The image was rough, Org and Coran had commissioned a painter using only fragnts of mory. Half the Lord’s face had been hidden beneath a hood, leaving much to speculation. Still, this version would give Agara sothing concrete to take back to his father’s realm.
Daniella leaned in, her gaze sharpening. "His eyes," she murmured, "they were different colors. One was cherry red, the other... sky blue. That was the first thing I noticed. Bold and unnatural."
She swallowed, her voice trembling. "His nose was straight and long. Hair, raven black. And he was tall, so tall it made everyone else feel small."
Kai glanced at Gloria and Rail, giving the subtlest shake of his head. Not yet. Don’t speak. They obeyed, watching in silence.
"Then," Ren said softly, "on the night of your wedding... he revealed his true face, didn’t he?"
Daniella nodded. This was a serious remorse. To be tricked and cause so many deaths. Even a ’fool’ couldn’t describe that.
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