Silver Eyes

Brixhes

I pulled my hood lower and walked, my heart hammering so loud I was sure every vampire in the street could hear it.

I was looking for one face. One pair of molten red eyes.

I kept my head down, my eyes hidden, trying to follow the pull in my chest. It was getting stronger, warmer, pulling me deeper into the city, towards the massive black palace on the hill that glowed with red light. The palace of King Sandro.

Then I heard them.

Three girls near a blood-wine stall. A fairy with glittering wings, a phoenix girl with hair like living embers, and a vampire girl in a tight corset.

"Did you hear? The King finally chose!" the fairy squealed, her voice full of envy. "He is introducing his mate next week at the Blood Moon Ball! An official proclamation!"

My feet stopped moving on their own.

"He has been hiding her in the palace for weeks already," the vampire girl said, sipping her wine. "A witch, they say. Very powerful. No wonder he never looked at us. I heard she is already living in the Queen's chambers."

"A witch?" the phoenix girl sighed. "I thought King Sandro hated witches after what they did to his mother."

"Well, love makes even Kings stupid," the first girl laughed. "Imagine... Queen of Brixhes. Sharing King Sandro's bed every night... Goddess, the things he must do to her..."

Their giggling faded into a dull, roaring buzz in my ears.

A witch. Living in his palace. In the Queen's chambers. In his bed.

My hand flew to my chest where the bond was pulling. The warm pull suddenly turned into a knife, twisting, ripping.

He has another woman.

My mate. My King. The man who bled for me, who kissed me like I was air after centuries of drowning... has another woman. He saved me and then went home to her.

The crimson veins on my back, hidden under my dress, flared with hot, jealous, heartbroken fire.

My eyes, hidden under my black hood, began to burn. Not with power. With tears I refused to let fall.

And far away, high up in the black palace on the hill, in a tower room where no light entered...

A man who had not slept since last night, a King who had been staring at his own bleeding palm for hours, trying to understand why the Moon Goddess would curse him with a werewolf mate...

King Sandro's head snapped up. His molten red eyes blew wide.

Because for the first time in his three hundred years of life, he felt someone else's heartbreak inside his own chest. Sharp, devastating, and unmistakably hers.

His mate was here. In Brixhes. And she was crying for him.

He stood up so fast his throne cracked in half.

"Find her," he growled, his voice shaking the entire palace, making every vampire in the city kneel from pure, raw power. "Find her NOW."

The entire city of Brixhes knelt.

I didn't understand what was happening at first. One second the night market was loud with cold laughter and music, the next, a wave of pure, raw power rolled down from the black palace on the hill.

It wasn't sound. It was pressure. Like the air itself became heavy, like gravity doubled. Every vampire in the street, from the elegant nobles in silk to the blood-wine vendors, dropped to one knee, their heads bowed.

Even the fairy and the phoenix girl who had been gossiping.

"King's rage," the vampire girl whispered, trembling. "Someone made the King angry..."

My knees buckled too, but not from his power. From the pull.

That wave of power had come from him. And when it hit me, the hollow, aching pull in my chest that had been twisting with heartbreak suddenly snapped taut and burned white-hot.

He felt me.

The thought was crystal clear, terrifying and thrilling at the same time. Zenilda was right. Royal blood is possessive. He felt my heartbreak. My jealousy. My tears.

And now he was looking for me.

"Find her! Find her NOW!"

His voice didn't carry through the air. It vibrated through the stones under my feet, through my bones, through the blood he had left inside me. A King's command, amplified by three hundred years of power. It was furious. It was desperate.

He was coming.

I should have stayed. A part of me, the stupid, romantic, eighteen-year-old part of me that had been kissed for the first time last night, wanted to throw off my hood, let my white hair shine, let my silver eyes glow and scream, "I'm here!"

But the other part, the future Luna, the Alpha's daughter who had just heard that her mate keeps a witch in his Queen's chambers, did the only smart thing I have done since I met him.

I ran.

I pulled my black hood so low it covered my entire face and I ran against the crowd of kneeling vampires, towards the river, towards home. My bare feet slapped against the cold cobblestones. The potion was still working, I still smelled like dust, like nothing, but I could feel his power sweeping the city like a searchlight, looking for a spark of silver.

I reached the Styx and didn't hesitate. I plunged into the freezing black water, gasping as it soaked my stolen dress. The black water closed around my ankles, my knees.

Behind me, I heard shouts. Torches being lit on the palace walls. The city gates starting to close with a deep, grinding groan.

I swam. I have never swum in my life. Wolves hate still water. But fear is a powerful teacher. I kicked and pulled until my lungs burned, until my arms screamed, until the black water of Brixhes became the muddy bank of Aigupta.

I collapsed on our side of the river, on my territory, on my hands and knees, vomiting black water, shaking so hard my teeth clattered.

The pull in my chest dulled immediately, as if a thick wall had fallen between us. The river. The river is warded. Old magic. It blocks even a King's sense.

I was safe.

I lay there in the mud, in my ruined black dress, my fake black hair now coming out in strands, revealing white underneath as the potion started to wear off, and I cried.

I cried for the mate who had another woman. I cried for the lie I was living. I cried because even after hearing he had a witch in his bed, all I wanted was to run back across that river and find out if it was a lie.

I don't know how long I stayed there. Long enough for the moon to finally appear, a thin sliver, mocking me.

"Veronica?"

My mother's voice, soft and worried, came from behind me.

I scrambled up, wiping my face frantically. Luna Selene stood at the edge of the trees, in her simple white nightgown, her long silver hair loose. She shouldn't be here. The border is dangerous at night.

"Luna! What... what are you doing here?"

"I felt you," she said, walking closer, her ruby eyes scanning me. "Through the pack link. You were... you were in so much pain. I felt your heartbreak all the way in the Pack House. I thought you were hurt again."

She reached me and pulled me into a hug. She smelled like lavender and home. I almost broke again.

"I went for a walk," I whispered into her shoulder. My fourth lie today. I was getting good at it. "I needed air. I fell in the river."

She pulled back and looked at me, at my ruined dress, at my hair that was half black, half white, at my eyes that I knew were still swollen.

"Veronica Althea," she said, using my full name the way mothers do when they know you are lying. "Is there something you are not telling me?"

"Am I ugly, Luna?"

The question burst out of me before I could stop it. It was the same question I had asked her in your original draft, but now it meant something completely different.

She blinked, surprised.

"What? Who told you that? My daughter is the most beautiful wolf in all of Aigupta. Any male would be blessed to have you. If anyone said you were ugly, I will personally tear their tongue out."

I almost laughed through my tears. That is my mother.

"Then why... why would someone choose someone else? If I am... if I am not hard to look at?"

Understanding dawned in her ruby eyes. She thought I was talking about a wolf boy. About Kael, maybe. Or some other young warrior who had rejected me.

"Oh, my sweet girl," she whispered, caressing my wet, half-black hair. "Have you found your mate? Is that why you have been so strange? Is he... not accepting you?"

I wanted to tell her. Goddess, how I wanted to tell her that yes, I found my mate, and he is beautiful and terrifying and he kissed me like I was the only air he had ever breathed, and I think I am falling for him even though he is supposed to be our enemy.

But I couldn't. Because if I told her his name, she would look at me with horror. Not love.

"No," I lied, my voice flat. "Not yet. I was just... thinking."

Luna stared at me for a long moment. She is Luna for a reason. She knows when someone is lying. But she also knows when to push and when to wait.

"Okay," she said softly. "Secret, then. But Veronica... whatever is hurting your heart, you can tell me. Mate or not, you are my daughter first."

She wrapped her shawl around my shoulders and led me back through the forest, back towards the warm lights of the Pack House. I left my black dress hidden under a rock by the river.

I didn't sleep that night either.