Betrayal in the Dark
The Vampire King’s summons came without warning. Misery arrived in his grand hall, her usual confidence tempered by the weight of what she carried. The relic’s power had been seared into her mind since she first saw it, and now it had become a tool in her hands—or so she thought.
The King’s crimson eyes regarded her with cold interest as she approached. “You have news,” he said, his voice a low rumble.
“I do,” Misery replied, bowing slightly. “There’s something you need to know. About Eryon.”
She revealed the existence of the relic, carefully omitting the details of her own involvement in finding it. She framed it as a discovery made by chance, one that could either protect the King or destroy him if it fell into the wrong hands.
The King listened in silence, his expression unreadable. But when she finished, his eyes gleamed with something dark and dangerous. “If what you say is true, then this relic is a threat to my throne—and to the balance of this realm.”
Misery hesitated. “It could be. But if we act carefully, we can neutralize it.”
The King’s lips curled into a faint smile, one that sent a chill through Misery. “We don’t neutralize threats, Misery. We eradicate them.”
He turned to his knights, who stood silently at the edges of the room. “Retrieve the relic. Kill anyone who stands in your way.”
Misery’s stomach twisted, but she kept her expression neutral. “As you command.”
As she left the throne room, her mind raced. She had meant to protect Eryon by shifting the King’s focus, but she had underestimated the King’s ruthlessness. Now, her betrayal might cost Eryon everything.
The corridors of Nightshade Academy’s deepest vaults seemed to press in on Lyra, Eryon, and Adrian as they ventured farther from the surface. Each step took them deeper into a world untouched by time, where jagged stone walls pulsed faintly with ancient runes. The air was cold and sharp, filled with the hum of residual magic that whispered secrets they couldn’t decipher.
Eryon’s heightened senses prickled uncomfortably. The vibrations in the air were faint but ominous, as though the stone itself was alive and watching. “Something’s wrong,” he muttered under his breath, his amber eyes darting toward the shifting shadows.
