SOLD TO THE VAMPIRE EMPEROR

THE DAY I DIED

NYRA’S POV

"Monster!" a woman screamed. Her voice cracked on the last word.

"Cursed!" another spat. Then another, and another. Soon, the whole crowd was yelling.

I watched all of them, unfazed by their actions.

That was the strangest part. I thought I'd be bothered, at least, with fear, maybe, or grief. But I didn't feel anything.

I had spent most of my life being afraid. I'd carried so much grief that it had become part of me. Yet now, as I stood on the execution altar with my pack demanding my death, there was only silence inside me.

Maybe it was because I had already died. Seven days ago. In a room filled with the smell of pine resin and blood, while holding Aeron's lifeless body.

The memory always returned without warning.

I remembered his fingers slipping from my wrist. I remembered begging in my mind.

No... not yet. Please. Stay with me.

His eyes never closed. That was what shattered me. Not the blood soaking my dress or the silence where his heartbeat should have been. It was his eyes, still golden, still beyond doubt, his.

I had rested my forehead on his chest and whispered his name again and again until it no longer sounded real.

"Nyra Vaelstone stands accused." Elder Corthyn's voice dragged me back to the present.

He stood at the bottom of the stone steps, his grey robes brushing the ground. He was old enough to have served three Alpha Kings, and his face carried the weight of countless executions.

"She is charged with the murder of King Aeron Drakhar," he declared. "With treason against the crown, practicing forbidden blood magic, and bringing a curse upon this pack by remaining alive."

The crowd roared.

I lowered my eyes to my hands. Iron chains were bound on my wrists, enchanted to prevent a wolf from shifting. Not that I intended to run. There was nowhere left to go and nothing waiting for me.

“Do you deny these charges?"

I looked at Corthyn. He waited calmly, already knowing my answer.

I didn't respond.

"Answer!" someone shouted.

A child near the front started crying. I wondered what frightened the child more; the altar, the fire or the emptiness in my face.

"She isn't denying it," someone yelled. "Because she's guilty!"

"She murdered our Alpha!"

I hadn't killed Aeron. I truly hadn't. But no one believed me. After six days of trying to explain, I gave up. For six days, I watched the people who once bowed before me as their Luna slammed their doors in my face, avoided my eyes in the great hall, and spat at my feet.

I had loved this pack.

Some part of me still did. Not because I hoped they would forgive me. Only because I remembered what hope had once been like.

Elder Corthyn lifted both hands. The crowd fell silent.

"The council has reached its decision," he announced. "The sentence is the Rite of Erasure."

Uneasy whispers spread in the crowd. Not everyone looked pleased. Several wolves backed away. Even some who had been shouting moments ago had gone quiet.

The Rite of Erasure. The forbidden hybrid spell. It doesn't just end a person's life, it destroys the soul, tears one apart from the inside until nothing is left.

When it was over, no one would remember my face or my name. Even the mate bond between Aeron and me would disappear as though it had never existed.

That should have terrified me. When I first heard the sentence two days earlier, I thought it would.

Instead, I had simply accepted it. What was the point of keeping a name when the only person who spoke it with love was gone?

The Elders climbed onto the altar. There were four of them. Without speaking, they took their places at each corner of the stone and began chanting in the ancient tongue. The words were older than any language, the pack, and even the mountain itself.

Immediately, I felt magic. It started beneath my feet. The altar recognized me. Dark energy rose from my body like smoke... like ice... and countless needles piercing flesh and bone. It reached my chest and wrapped itself around my ribs.

Then symbols appeared on my skin. I watched as black markings burned across my forearms first. They twisted like living ink, forming patterns that looked less like writing and more like something meant to destroy.

They spread over my wrists…to my elbows…and still climbing.

The pain was unbearable. I clenched my teeth and forced myself to breathe through my nose as it reached places inside me that had no name.

My vision blurred. My knees buckled. I caught myself before I fell. I wouldn't collapse before them. Not now.

The crowd had grown quiet. Only a handful still shouted for my death. The rest simply watched.

The chanting became louder.

The markings crawled across my collarbone and up my neck. One burned into the space just below my eye. My hands were trembling. I couldn't stop them so I curled them into fists and fixed my gaze on the forest beyond the crowd.

Aeron used to meet me there long before he became Alpha. Before everything fell apart.

Instead of focusing on the pain, I held on to that memory. He would stand among the trees with his hands in his pockets, his head tilted slightly, smiling as though I was the only interesting person in the world. Even the way he said my name was different. Not Nyra, like everyone else. He stretched every syllable, making it last a little longer, as if he never wanted it to end.

The magic reached its peak. It surged into my head. My entire body arched and my teeth ground together.

Just then…the crowd gasped. They were gazing at me in horror. I looked down to see that the black symbols covering my skin were changing. Silver light flooded through them.

The chanting stopped and the four Elders staggered backward.

For the first time, Elder Corthyn sounded afraid. "Stop the rite! Stop it now!"

But it was too late. The silver glow had spread all over my body. The altar split under my feet. A single crack ran from one end of the stone to the other. The earth shook and one of the burning torches crashed to the ground. Wolves scattered in panic.

The Elders shouted over one another, fear clear in their voices.

The silver light grew brighter. It poured from my skin, swallowing the clearing, and rising higher than the flames. I felt it filling me too, replacing the emptiness, reaching every broken part Aeron had left behind.

“FOUND YOU,” The voice thundered.

It didn't come from the terrified crowd nor was it from anyon

e I knew. It echoed inside my soul… Straight into my mind.

Instantly, the world exploded in light.