A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,75

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, Father,” Valaine replied.

We left them in the throne room and headed straight for the study chamber where Amal and Amane were waiting. Valaine and I had already discussed running another round of blood tests to verify the Darklings’ claim against her, just in case the Faulty twins had missed something the first time. It was highly improbable, but better to be safe than sorry, I’d thought.

“Derek and Sofia are with the twins,” I told Valaine as we walked through the palace hallways, passing the occasional gold guard. Security had tightened after the Darkling attacks, but the presence of soldiers didn’t exactly take the edge off my tension—especially after I’d seen the Darklings wielding death magic. The regular Aeternae were now well prepared for this. Valaine and I had taken a few scythes from the Darklings we’d captured, and the rest had been secured in locked boxes and carried back to the prison.

I planned to take all the weapons back and have them delivered to Death or Seeley—the only Reaper we knew well enough to try and reach out to—if needed. I couldn’t help but wonder whether he or his colleagues were already here, trying to discover the Darklings’ plans and the source of their resources.

“Good. Your friends can bear witness in case something comes up to incriminate me as the source of the Black Fever,” Valaine replied, her voice low and tinged with worry.

“That won’t happen,” I said. “Let’s not expect the worst. It usually invites the universe to screw us over.”

She laughed lightly as we walked into the study room. Derek and Sofia lit up at the sight of us. Within seconds, they’d crossed the room and were hugging us tightly enough to cut off my air supply.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you two again!” Sofia exclaimed, pulling back with a warm smile. “We were worried about you.”

“Have you spoken to Esme recently?” Derek asked, his brow slightly furrowed.

I nodded, though I couldn’t bring myself to smile just yet. “I did, about an hour ago.”

“She was with Kalon at his house. They took Ansel there,” Valaine said. “They’re hoping to get some kind of clemency for him in return for his cooperation.”

My stomach nagged me, knotted with stress, but we had too much left to do for me to pay it any mind. Amal and Amane joined us, carrying a blood test tray complete with needles, slim catheters, glass vials, and white fiber pads dipped in disinfectant.

“Are you ready?” Amal asked.

Valaine sighed. “I doubt I’ll ever be ready to learn I’m the root of a global problem that has claimed millions of Aeternae lives.”

“Hey, pessimism… Not a good start,” I replied.

“You’re right,” Valaine said, extending her arm. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

While Amal took several blood samples from Valaine, Amane explained their findings in full detail, including their suspicion that the Black Fever wasn’t a disease at all, but rather the disease-like manifestation of a mazir curse. My stomach hurt even more upon hearing their theory. It somehow made it even more possible that Valaine could be connected to it, though I wasn’t sure how.

Technically speaking, the link existed because Valaine knew mazir. It was a long shot, but it was the only thing that made any sense. Upon second thought, I groaned with frustration. It didn’t make that much sense after all. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more confused I got.

“It’s not a virus,” Valaine murmured, unable to focus. She took a seat, and I couldn’t pull myself away from her. Sofia sat next to her, gently squeezing her shoulder.

“We’ll figure out what it is,” she said. “We’ve come this far, haven’t we?”

“How could we miss this?” Valaine replied. “It’s insane…”

Amal sighed. “You couldn’t have found it. Not without our microscopes. The problem is that we’ve also just found a few common points between mazir and death magic, based solely on the blood samples of Black Fever patients.”

That was news to me. “Wait, death magic? So not a mazir curse after all?”

Amane shook her head. “It’s why we want to test Valaine’s blood. To verify if she is, indeed, connected to this, but also to see if we can establish a clear link between death magic and mazir. Our blood studies show similarities between the magic crafts, though we have no explanation for any of this.”

“We’ll test your blood again now,” Amane said. “We know what we’re looking for this time, and hopefully there won’t be any of it