on the stone just inches in front of him. “Wear that, Valek,” she instructed. “The sun will be up soon. They will kill you. You have to put that on.” She helped Charlotte to stand. “We have to get you back to your room, Charlotte. If anyone discovers we are down here, we will be in more trouble than we are now.”
The two of them hurried back through the long dungeon hallway. Charlotte could not control her sobs as Sarah tried to hush her.
“Y-you don’t understand.” Charlotte ferociously wiped at her face. “He will die and I–I won’t even get to say goodbye.”
Sarah frowned as well as more tears swelled in her own eyes. She quietly opened the door before looking one last time down the dark corridor in Valek’s direction. She willed his consciousness to return, begged him to rise from the ashes just one more time, and closed the door behind her.
Once they found themselves back in Charlotte’s bedroom, the girl was inconsolable. She buried her face deep within her pillow, lost, her arms wrapped around her middle in an effort to hold herself together. Sarah sat on the edge of the bed, running her hand along Charlotte’s spine.
“Charlotte, you have to calm down,” Sarah said. “Valek will find a way to come through. He always does.”
“How can he?” Charlotte turned her face to one side. “They’ll kill him. And I will be getting married to that ugly coward.” She continued in broken sobs.
“Oh, Charlotte.” She sighed. “Where is your God?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Charlotte, who had finally cried herself into a deep sleep, jumped at the sound of a hard rapping at the door. This woke Sarah as well. The two of them sat up, staring eagerly at the door.
“Charlotte,” Sarah whispered. “Whatever happens, we are with you.”
Charlotte swallowed as the door swung open to reveal Meredith Price and the other wives of the Regime Order. They were positively beaming with excitement.
Meredith clasped her hands in front of her face. “Oh good! You are already awake.” The lot of them stepped farther into the room. Meredith regarded Sarah on the bed. “Thank you, wench. You may leave.”
Sarah and Charlotte looked at each other in absolute horror.
“Now!” Meredith screeched.
Sarah got up from the bed, and with one last look to Charlotte, slowly and silently, made her way out of the room.
Meredith turned to Charlotte. “Good. Now then, my dear, sunrise is only a little while away. Let’s get you into your wedding dress!”
Several stories below, the onslaught of the coming morning was beginning to plague the enslaved coven and the rest of the Regime prisoners. Valek, since last night, had gotten some of his strength back after reaching for the small, enchanted whistle. He was now lingering against the cell bars, waiting. He bit down on his lower lip, tasting the cold, previously ingested blood. Despite the massive overbearing noise of moaning and hissing, he heard Francis and Lusian stir in the cell next to his.
The rest of the coven mentally answered him back in faint mental sentences.
As the guards in the palace above began to rally together to begin their dissention into the dungeon, Valek mentally laid out a simple, but potentially effective plan. They probably would not survive with the coming of the day, but if they fought right, Francis would be able to take out Vladislov, distracting the Regime guards while Valek disappeared in an effort to find Aiden and destroy him before his wedding. They would all surely perish, but Charlotte would be safe with Sarah, and the Regime would finally be overthrown. It was the last and only way Valek could save her. All of the Vampires in the rotting jail fervently agreed.
Upstairs, Aiden sat on the edge of his bed, turning the small, gold wedding band over and over in his fingers. He had not gone to bed that night. Instead, he contemplated if what he had done was entirely wrong. Charlotte’s teary, fearful face flashed in the dim glint of the gold ring.
Aiden had never wanted to turn into this — into Vladislov. He believed if he ruled over the mortal world with a mortal wife, there would be freedom. It would be what the empire had wanted for decades. But instead, he fell victim to his lust and his greed for her. The thoughts of having her next to him for his entire reign ruled over every other form of rationalization. He gripped the ring tight in his fist and leaned his forehead against it.
Even with his mother’s spells, Charlotte did not love him. He’d made the mistake of letting who he truly was show itself to her. It was absolutely uncontrollable. He recalled the last careless day they had spent together before everything had fallen to hell. The natural sun shone so brightly over the pond water, and she’d looked so happy and beautiful as he watched her float there. There was no care in the world that day. But then the clouds rolled in.
He opened his eyes and looked around his empty bedchamber once more, at his traditional wedding suit hanging on the bedpost. He would make it up to Charlotte. He would be the best partner to her he could possibly be. He had made up his mind and stood from the bed to go and wash up.
Meredith and the others had scrubbed Charlotte down so her skin glowed just as brightly as theirs did. But Charlotte knew, even though she was miserable, she could not let on that Meredith’s spell had worn off. She must pretend she remembered nothing still as she sat in the parlor chair, letting the Elven women curl her hair and shine her up.
Meredith beamed. “You will look beautiful, my dear. We are all so happy for you! Glinda, get the perfume!”
“I know I will be,” Charlotte responded, without much color at all. She could not shake the image of Valek from her mind. “How much longer until the wedding?”
Meredith chuckled to her counterparts. “Look how excited my new daughter is to wed.” She turned to Charlotte. “Very, very soon, darling. Don’t you worry.”
The guards began down the stairs in two-by-two formation. Their grim complexions highlighted only by the small flames at the end of their fingertips as they marched through the doors into the dismal dungeon crypt.
“All right, leeches. It’s time to die,” the head officer grumbled.
The patrol attacked the cell doors, tearing them open to capture their prey. But when they expected to be met with the defeated pre-corpses of the doomed, the various Vampires and others slammed into them in pure riot. Balls of flames were flying as fast as fangs were.
Valek leapt out, slamming one of the guard’s faces deep into the bricks, flattening the skull. “Remember!” he called out. “Don’t be afraid to drain them! You are to die, anyway! Their magic can’t hurt you now!” He ran past the various battles about the dungeon. Francis and Lusian were close next to him as the three began to climb the stairs to the upper parts of the palace.
“Francis, you must find the main quarters now, before Vlaidslov leaves to attend the wedding,” Valek said grimly as they ran.
Palace guards that stood on the upper floors began to chase after them, hurling whatever elements they could in an effort to stop them. Electricity, wind, ice, but the three were determined and successful at dodging each of the attacks.
“I know. I can smell the vile stench of him from her,” Francis said. “Valek, before I leave,” he started, as his
