Nailed to the Wall, Reborn for Vengeance

At the Bloodline Rite of the Nightborn, Count Louis Ashford knelt on one knee and asked the Council of Elders to approve our eternal blood pact. In my last life, I was so overwhelmed that I slit my wrist, ready to seal the pact, when Louis's attendant, Owen Mercer, suddenly burst in. He accused me of stealing the Sacred Blood Crystal offered to the First Ancestor, of plotting to betray the clan. They found shards of the crystal in my room, along with a forbidden curse hidden inside my amulet that veiled my scent. The whole clan denounced me as a traitor and called for a wooden stake through my heart. At the last moment, Louis risked everything to beg the Council to spare me, then forced me into a master-servant blood pact and made me his blood slave. To repay him for sparing me, I poured every drop of my ancestral power into helping him ascend to Prince. But on the day he donned the Prince's crown, he ordered me nailed to a cross on the city wall and left to burn beneath the sun. While I screamed myself raw, he was kissing the witch apprentice Ellie Marlowe. "Ellie, I had the Sacred Blood Crystal planted in her room." "If I hadn't ruined her name first, how else would she ever have let me devour that pure ancestral power of hers?" The flames consumed me alive until nothing remained but ash. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the Bloodline Rite. This time, the moment Owen brought out the crystal shards, I smiled and bowed to the Council of Elders. "But first, Grand Elder, I have a pact of my own. I ask the whole clan to bear witness." Chapter 1 On the altar, thirteen blood-moon lamps burned, their scarlet flames lighting every pale face. Count Louis Ashford knelt before me, silver-white hair falling over his shoulders, a black rose crest pinned to the collar of his formal robes. He raised his hand and held up a silver ring carved with ancient runes. "Isela Vane, I swear by my blood, my soul, and the endless night. I ask the Council of Elders to approve our eternal blood pact." Prayers of blessing rose all around. In my last life, it was in those prayers that I lost my head, believing I had finally won Louis's heart. My family carried the First Ancestor's bloodline, but we had fallen into decline in the Night War a century ago. Louis, meanwhile, was young and powerful, with three Nightborn cities under his rule. I once believed he wanted to marry me because he loved me. Only later did I understand that it was never me he wanted. He wanted the power passed down through the Vane bloodline: the power to awaken the Sacred Blood Crystal and mend the Night Veil. I looked up at the Council of Elders on the high platform. As a child, I had once drawn on the Vane bloodline without meaning to and summoned the fading shadows of my dead forebears. Grand Elder Cyrus Blackwood had warned me sternly then: never use the Blood Echo unless it was a matter of life and death. And today was exactly the time to use it. "Isela?" When I did not move, impatience flickered in Louis's eyes, though his smile never slipped. I was about to raise my hand when hurried footsteps sounded from beyond the altar. "Grand Elder! Something's happened!" One of Louis's attendants, Owen Mercer, rushed into the hall with a wooden box in his arms. As Owen dropped to his knees, the box struck the stone steps with a crack. Grand Elder Blackwood frowned. "Who gave you leave to barge into the sanctum during the Bloodline Rite?" Owen trembled violently, his voice pitched high. "I was ordered to take inventory of the Sacred Blood Vault, and one of the Sacred Blood Crystals offered to the First Ancestor is missing." "I traced the lingering scent, and I found these in Lady Isela's chambers!" He threw open the box. Inside lay several crystal shards. A layer of blackened ash clung to their edges. Their power had been stripped away by forbidden arts. The hall went silent. The Sacred Blood Crystals were relics offered to the First Ancestor, kept in the deepest part of the Sacred Blood Vault. Only the Elders and the vault keeper could go near them. Stealing one was worse than secretly drinking a clanmate's blood. It was enough to mark someone as a traitor. Owen pressed his forehead to the floor. "I also found a forbidden curse hidden in Lady Isela's amulet, one that veils blood scent." "If she hadn't hidden her scent on purpose, the crystal could never have left the vault!" Murmurs rose at once. "Isn't Isela a descendant of the First Ancestor? How could she do such a thing?" "She might have stolen the crystal to strengthen her bloodline..." Ellie Marlowe sat among the witches, clutching her gloves, her eyes rimmed red. She looked up at me as though the sight of me broke her heart. "Isela, the First Ancestor has watched over the Nightborn for thousands of years." "If you were afraid your bloodline was failing, you could have asked the Council for help. Why go this far?" Louis rose slowly. He looked first at the shards in the box, then at me. Shock and disappointment flickered in the eyes that had once made my heart race. "Isela, tell me it isn't true." In my last life, that one sentence had thrown me into a panic. I rushed to explain, to prove myself, to grab the way out he was offering. But this time, I only looked at him and slowly smiled. The moment I came back, I had already sent word to Cassian Helmer, Commander of the Enforcers. Now I wanted to see what kind of spectacle they had planned for me! I lifted my skirt and curtsied to Grand Elder Blackwood. "Grand Elder, since Owen says this was found in my room, I will of course cooperate with a full investigation." I paused, then drew a shard of black blood crystal from my sleeve. "But first, Grand Elder, I have a pact of my own. I ask the whole clan to bear witness." Chapter 2 The black blood crystal in my palm looked unremarkable, its edges lined with cracks. It was a fragment I had carried back out of the fire. When I first came back, I'd had no time to examine it closely. A moment ago, while no one was watching, I had reached into it with my mind and sensed the pact sealed inside. I had not produced it right away because I refused to give Louis, the real thief, the chance to accuse me first. Now that he had framed me, there was no reason left to hold back. When Louis saw it, his pupils contracted sharply. It was the thing that had fallen from my amulet in my last life, while I hung nailed to the city wall. The flames had burned away my flesh and bone, but they never destroyed it. When I woke on the day of the Bloodline Rite, it lay in my palm, holding a trace of the blood pact from my last life. Grand Elder Blackwood lifted a hand. "Bring it forward." A temple guard took the crystal and set it in the moonsilver dish at the center of the altar. The black crystal trembled. A moment later, a line of blood-red script hung in the air. [Any use of a Sacred Blood Crystal requires two blood seals of approval: the Grand Elder's and the vault keeper's.] A sharp intake of breath ran through the hall. This was not a pact that proved my innocence. It was one of the original safeguards governing the Sacred Blood Vault. It made one thing clear to everyone: no one could simply take a Sacred Blood Crystal at will. I raised my eyes to Owen. "You say these shards were found in my room. Then tell me, how did you determine that they came from a Sacred Blood Crystal?" Owen froze, then spoke in a rush. "The First Ancestor's blood scent still clings to them. I would know it anywhere." "Really?" I walked to the box. I didn't touch the shards, only bent down for a closer look. Even shattered, a genuine Sacred Blood Crystal should give off the cool fragrance of night. But the edges of the shards in the box were dusted with a golden powder. It was the ash left behind by burned sungrass. Sungrass grows only in the Daylight Church's lands. The Nightborn will not go near it. If an ordinary vampire touches even a trace, their skin begins to burn. I spoke softly. "Grand Elder, when a true Sacred Blood Crystal shatters, its shards drink in the blood scent around them." "But these shards are edged with sungrass ash, and the ash is fresh. They never came out of the Sacred Blood Vault." The Grand Elder's face darkened. He ordered a bone needle brought for a test. The moment the needle touched a shard, a wisp of golden smoke curled off its tip. The hall erupted. Owen went white and stumbled through an explanation. "Perhaps Lady Isela tainted the crystal with sungrass ash herself, to cover her scent..." "How thoughtful of you to have my explanation ready." I straightened, my gaze landing on his stiff face. "But sungrass ash damages a vampire's veins." "If I truly meant to steal the Sacred Blood Crystal, why would I destroy its power first? Would I rob a treasury just to walk away with a pile of slag?" Someone laughed, then quickly went quiet. Louis finally spoke. "Isela has a point. But the shards were found in her room, and there was a forbidden curse in her amulet. This can't simply be waved away." He went on, gentle and persuasive. "Let the Grand Elder examine her bloodline first, then trace where she's been these past days. If it truly is a misunderstanding, I will apologize to everyone on her behalf." How very considerate of him. But I remembered my last life. That was exactly the tone he had used, step by step, to push me toward the master-servant blood pact. I looked at him and spoke evenly. "Count Ashford is right. If we're going to investigate, let's be thorough." I reached up, unclasped the amulet at my throat, and laid it on the moonsilver dish. "Look closely, all of you. Is this curse veiling my scent, or the scent of someone who had no right to enter Nighthaven?" Chapter 3 The instant the amulet touched the moonsilver dish, Ellie's expression shifted. Louis had given me that amulet at my coming-of-age ceremony. He had fastened it around my neck himself and told me with a smile that the Vane bloodline made me a target, but the amulet would spare me trouble. In my last life, I treasured it. Only as I was dying did I learn that it was the weapon meant to kill me. After coming back, I had no time to destroy it. In the rush, I had no choice but to wear it to the altar and think on my feet. The Grand Elder immersed the amulet in spring water. A dark red curse mark rose from the bone chain. The mark was shaped like a closed eye: the veiling curse, forbidden among the Nightborn. A sharp challenge rang out from the Elders' bench. "Isela, what do you have to say now?" Still prostrate on the floor, Owen finally found his nerve. "I saw it with my own eyes. Lady Isela wore this into the old tower several times over the past few days." "The vault keeper reported it too. A strange blood scent masked by a forbidden curse had appeared near the Sacred Blood Vault!" The witch maid at Ellie's side dropped to her knees and began to cry. "I saw it too." "Three nights ago, Lady Isela went alone to the sacred tombs, and she looked awful when she came out." "I thought she was praying for the Bloodline Rite. I never imagined..." She let the sentence hang, all the more damning for it. Every gaze in the hall settled on me, mingling doubt, suspicion, and disgust. Louis stepped slowly to my side and lowered his voice. "Isela, if there's something you can't say out loud, tell me now, while there's still time." I tilted my head toward him. "And after I tell you?" His expression stiffened. I gave a quiet smile. "You'll plead for me. You'll say you believe me. You'll beg the Council to show mercy." "And then, with the whole clan's gratitude, you'll bind me to a master-servant blood pact that puts you in command and leaves me unable to defy you for the rest of my life. Isn't that right?" Silence fell all around. Displeasure crossed Louis's face. "Why would you think that of me?" "Because you're in too much of a hurry." I raised my eyes to the Council of Elders. "From the moment Owen entered, Count Ashford never asked how the Sacred Blood Vault was breached. Never asked whether the vault keeper had done his duty. Never asked why the shards were dusted with sungrass ash." "The very first thing he said was, 'Tell me it isn't true.'" Ellie shot to her feet, her voice shrill. "Isela, Count Ashford is only worried about you! How can you turn around and blame him for not protecting you?" "Has he protected me?" I looked at her. "Or has he been waiting for the whole clan to find me guilty, so he could become my master with everyone's blessing?" Ellie's eyes reddened as though she were the one who had been wronged. Grand Elder Blackwood raised a hand and cut the argument short. "The Vane bloodline is unusual. To test her blood, we would have to open the First Ancestor's blood mirror." "Once opened, the mirror will weaken the bloodline at best and damage its legacy at worst. Isela, are you willing?" Before I could answer, Louis spoke first. "Grand Elder, the blood mirror is too dangerous. Even if Isela has done wrong, she shouldn't pay that price." "Let me seal a master-servant blood pact with her instead. I will stake my own bloodline on her causing no more trouble, and we can decide her case once the truth is known." He sounded utterly sincere. In my last life, I had believed every word and wept with gratitude. This time, I only felt cold to the bone. Once a master-servant blood pact is sealed, the master can draw on the slave's power at will, and peer into her memories through the pact mark. That isn't protection. It's the harsh restraint reserved for the worst of criminals. In the clan's thousands of years of history, marriages had always been sealed with equal, eternal blood pacts. No one had ever entered a predatory master-servant pact like this one. Grand Elder Blackwood frowned. Clearly he found it improper too. I pressed my hand over the amulet, my voice carrying through the whole sanctum. "You have all seen the forbidden curse. But not one of you has asked whose scent this curse is actually hiding." Chapter 4 I pressed my palm to the amulet and let the bone chain cut into my flesh. Blood ran down the pendant, and the veiling curse lit up. Power ripped backward through the dark red runes and tore them apart. When the black mist cleared, a thread of golden scent drifted out of the amulet. It was not my blood scent, nor the scent of anyone among the Nightborn. It carried the repellent taint of daylight. The blood-moon lamps on both sides of the altar guttered. Several vampires clutched their wrists as red welts rose on their skin. "A daywalker's scent..." The Grand Elder's expression turned grim. Nighthaven was warded by the barrier. Without the Council's leave, no one from the Daylight Church could set a single foot inside. Yet this amulet held the lingering scent of a daywalker. Owen spoke up quickly. "Lady Isela may have colluded with daywalkers and planted this scent as a diversion!" "You make a fair point." I didn't argue. I took out the black blood crystal and set it on the blood-soaked amulet. "So let me show you all one more thing." The black crystal hummed, tugging at the blood of everyone in the hall. A moment later, a sheet of parchment woven from blood mist spread open above the altar. At its head was a sun pierced through by a long spear. It was the secret emblem of the Dawn Society, an order within the Daylight Church. And beneath the emblem floated lines of blood-red script. [Use a pureblood descendant of House Vane as the key. Deliver the First Ancestor's barrier plans and the Sacred Blood Crystal's core. In return, the Dawn Society radicals will help you break the Night Veil and grant you daywalking rights and eligibility for elevation to Prince.] The hall went dead silent. Grand Elder Blackwood roared, "You fool! The Dawn Society radicals have no intention of living in peace with vampires! They pretend to forge you a Crown of Day that can withstand sunlight, but their real plan is to use you to break the barrier and slaughter every low-born vampire! Then they'll dispose of you and reap it all!" Louis's face was no longer gentle. Ellie knocked over her cup. Blood wine spilled across her skirt, but she never noticed; her eyes remained locked on me. I turned to face Louis. "Count Ashford, this Dawn bargain names no one. Not me. Not you." "But a blood pact does not lie. Open the Oath Mirror, and the true signer's blood seal will show itself." Louis's fingers curled tighter, little by little. Still fighting for composure, he let out a derisive laugh. "Isela, to clear yourself, you'd forge a Daylight Church pact and frame me?" "Forged or not, one look will tell." I bowed to Grand Elder Blackwood, my voice steady. "Grand Elder, open the Oath Mirror." "Let the whole clan see exactly who sold Nighthaven and House Vane to the dawn."