Page 63 of The Vampire's Lament
My sister.
My sister.
My sister.
Her name escaped me. A stranger Past Me gesticulated wildly at, while she looked as if she might throw me off the cliff at any moment.
“Stop being so blind!” she bellowed. “I saw him drag it out of you.”
An animated muffled response followed.
“Why would I lie to you?” she countered furiously. “You’re obsessed with him.”
My sister. My sister. My sister.
Whatever I replied, it made her scarlet eyes shine with fury.
She tapped on the side of her head, baring her fangs. “Aidan has rotted your reason. See sense, Silvanus. Before it’s too late. Ask him what he took from you. Demand it. He has no right to hide it.”
A blaze of brilliant golden light swallowed everything. Painful heat skimmed across my skin, my eyes unable to endure its intensity.
Aidan…
He took something from me?
The memory shifted to the throne room with me on my knees as the power of the Heart of All transferred into me. Millions of voices in my head, millions of broken lives now mine to bear.
The king was dead, crimson bone dust on the onyx throne at the center of this circular onyx-and-ruby room, with one enormous golden chandelier casting its light everywhere.
Clarence Palace, my home, a monolithic structure built from vampiric engineering. The seat of power in Selene Haven.
I missed it tremendously. Was it still standing? Did Selene Haven itself still exist?
Past Me wept, gathering the bone dust from the throne.
“Lucius,” I whispered, bloody tears running down my face.
The dust sifted through my fingers, every grain pure sorrow.
“Aidan did this,” the voice of Caer came from behind me. She’d found me there, bringing me into the deity plot to kill Aidan.
A failed plot because of my mercy.
The memory collapsed, as did the forest of elves and roses, returning me to the house on Hawthorn Island.
I blinked, getting to my feet.
Paris, slumped on the stairs, groaning. “Damn it.” He smacked his lips, rubbing at his throat.
I went to him. “Are you alright?”
Holding the banister for support, he pulled himself upright. “Sweetcream. You?”
A heavy sigh escaped my mouth. “Confused.”
He came down the steps, moving closer to me. “I’m sorry this is getting more complicated.”
I folded my arms. “Apparently, I have a sister. Or had one.”
