on it than I remembered but almost six centuries of lying in the same spot would do that – especially in the middle of the Old Lands. I yanked the door open and my breath left me in a rush. Sure, it was toppled over on its side and the benches were broken, but the red velvety curtains still hung from the windows. Memories I hadn’t realized I’d forgotten rushed back.
“This was ours,” I whispered to Malachi who was standing silently behind me. My voice hitched and I had to clear my throat. Seeing this hurt my heart because it reminded me of my father, but it filled me with a strange bit of happiness. This was my past, proof of the life I’d once had. It helped to merge those old memories with the modern ones. “Dad made us take this old wooden one so we wouldn’t look like royals. I remember him saying that to Mum.”
“Chloe, look.”
Something in the sharpness of his voice sent chills down my spine. I spun and found him crouched down by the front of the carriage. His brow furrowed deep and his gold eyes narrowed. A dark, hot energy poured out of him.
“What is it?”
He growled like a lion and his top lip snarled back. Then he held his hand up and sitting on his palm were three black arrow heads. Black ink dripped from them, running over his skin and into the soil, which glittered and hissed when it touched it. “That day you came out, your mother told me your driver was already dead when she got out of the carriage. After it crashed. And the horses were nowhere in sight.”
My stomach tightened. “What are those?”
“Lilith,” he snarled. Then he stood and shoved the arrows in his pocket. “I fucking knew it. You didn’t get lost. She sent you here.”
My eyes widened. Lilith sent us to the Old Lands? Lilith. Rage like I’d never known surged inside of me. She’d robbed us. She’d stolen my life with my father from me. From us. If not for her, we would have made it to the safe house and he would have come to us. Mum wouldn’t have lost everyone and everything she’d ever known. If only I had known the truth about the time travel situation, I would have helped my mother adjust. She rarely even left the estate.
Because of Lilith, my mother never found happiness.
Because of Lilith, Malachi lost his brother, even though he lived.
Because of Lilith, Malachi spent the last six centuries alone.
Because of Lilith, I never got to really know my father.
Because of Lilith, an entire bloodline lost their magic for six centuries.
Because of Lilith, I was going to get myself turned into a vampire so that I could spend the rest of eternity making her life miserable.
In that moment the truth and weight of everything from the last twenty-four hours really set in. My heart pounded against my chest. My blood boiled with anger. I balled my fists and my magic surged like a volcano inside of me. I glared at the carriage where her arrowheads pierced the wood. Red smoke coiled around my hands. I screamed and thrust my hands forward, letting every ounce of my magic soar out of me.
The red smoke shot like a rocket, slamming into the wooden carriage in the blink of an eye. The whole thing exploded right in front of me. I cursed and spun just as chunks of wood and glass erupted all around us.
Malachi threw his hand up and everything froze. He arched one eyebrow at me then nodded. “We will have our vengeance against her. But we have to get that off first.”
That. The soul sucking locket of Lilith’s my father had accidentally got stuck on me. I took a deep breath —
A loud, sharp scream ripped through the forest.
My heart stopped.
Memories flashed by like I was watching a movie on fast forward. I knew that sound. And I hated the fear that had me lunging for Malachi’s back to hide behind. Damsel in distress was never a title I associated with myself, but in the last twenty-four hours it’d become my middle name. I would change that. As a vampire I would have strength and power. For now, I clung to the back of his shirt.
The trees swayed in front of us and then a large dark object leapt out of the branches and landed on the path in front of us. This creature was not something