Chapter 214: Chapter 214 

~ ROWAN

I shook the image of Marlene bleeding out on the floor while Evelyn stood over her, screaming for someone to do something from my mind.

She was a lycan, she should have begun healing, but for whatever reason, her skin would not knit. The wounds remained open, blood pouring onto their cream carpet, staining it a deep shade of red.

Of everything that happened in the past five minutes, that was the most concerning.

“Your Majesty!” Jeremiah exclaimed once I arrived at the border.

His expression was carefully impassive but there was something behind his eyes—an unease that made my skin crawl.

“What is it?” I asked but he merely shook his head.

“You need to see it for yourself.”

With a sigh, I followed behind him towards the border. The guards stood in a perimeter across the strip of land that separated our pack from the rest of the world. As soon as they saw me, they parted ways, revealing a woman, with long black hair that flowed all the way to the ground she sat on in loose curls.

Her head was angled towards the ground, hiding her face from view, and she sat cross legged on the floor in a pale grey dress, her hands folded neatly in her lap. She sat there unmoving, her chest barely rising with breaths. It was like looking at a statue.

“What the fuck is this?” I asked.

Her head snapped up at the sound of my voice. Her eyes were a light shade of brown, but the white around it was bloodshot. Dirt marred her cheeks, and there was a long scar that went past her collarbone, only to disappear behind her dress. She did not look as young as I initially thought, but it could also be due to the haunted look in her eyes.

Her head cocked to the side, her eyes scanning me—assessing. “You are the king.”

Her voice was hoarse and it cracked on a couple words as if she had not used it in a while.

I took a slow step towards her and nodded slow. “Who are you?”

She was silent for a moment. “I do not remember.”

“You do not remember who you are?”

She nodded. “I had a name once before, but I don’t know it anymore. I do not think it is mine.”

She spoke as if she were thinking of a faraway land and not of herself.

She did not rise from the ground, she just stared at me.

“Why are you here?” I asked. “Why are you demanding to see me at my border?”

“I have a message for you… from my king.”

I knew what she meant instantly. Jeremiah locked eyes with me, a silent question in his eyes and I nodded.

“Clear out,” I ordered the guards. “I want to speak with her alone.”

They stared at me as if I had grown a second head. I sensed their displeasure and confusion, but they did as I asked, silently filing out until it was just Jeremiah, me and the girl whose name I still did not know.

“What does your king want?” I asked. “Why will you not stand?”

“If |I stand, I will die,” she said it matter of factly. “He says you have something of his, and he wants it back.”

I frowned. “There is nothing of his in my pack.”

“You have two of his children. That is against the treaty. He can wage war for them.”

I laughed coldly, as a heavy weight descended on my shoulders. “My mate does belong to him. He is more than welcome to try taking her. Perhaps he will experience that war you speak of.”

Her expression did not shift. “What about the other child? The girl.”

Evelyn.

I could not imagine that she would want to return to the man she barely knew after everything she had heard of him.

“She is a member of my child.”

The girl frowned. “She is his child.”

“If he wishes to speak to me, then he is more than welcome to make the journey. I will not speak to a girl about matters of politics.”

She was silent for a long minute, her eyes staring unblinking. “Very well. Then my work here is done.”

She blinked twice, and the hazy look cleared from her eyes. She looked up at me—finally looked at me. I saw sadness and hurt and resignation in her eyes. Her body shook as she began rising slowly.

“The girl, what is her name?” she asked.

“Why?”

“I requested that they name her Eve. That was my name… before everything.”

I saw it then—the resemblance. She had the same curved nose and fair cheeks that Evelyn did. The vampire king had to be a cruel bastard to send her here.

“Her name is Evelyn.”

Her eyes welled with tears as she stood finally. “That is a good name.”

Before I could say another word, she reached for her throat, hands shaking violently as her fingers wrapping around it.

“What are you doing?” I asked, taking a step towards her but she shook her head.

“You can’t stop it. He compelled me to do this once I was done speaking to you so you would not question me anymore. I suppose it is a better ending than the one the others before me have gotten.”

I stepped towards her but her head shook once more.

“I will do it, whether here or in there. Unless you plan to keep me chained forever but I do not think that is anyway to live. I have lived in chains and I would rather die on my feet.”

A lone tear slipped from her cheeks as her shaky hands held her throat firmly. She seemed to be fighting it, or at least trying to, but I could see the resignation in her eyes and I knew it was a losing battle.

“Don’t let him take her. Don’t let him take—”

She didn’t get to finish because she ripped her own throat out and crumpled to the floor in a heap.

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