A Shade of Kiev 2(14)

I exited the castle and walked back through the woods until I reached the beach. As I was about to begin walking along the sand, I heard something that chilled me to the bone.

Someone calling my name.

“Kiev… Kiev.”

Matteo. No!

I had suspected that he might come to search for me. Furious, I whirled around toward his voice.

Beyond the boundary, Matteo stood in a boat along with Lorena and three other vampires, all looking around blindly, completely oblivious to the island right in front of them.

I dove into the water and swam as close as I could to them without crossing the boundary. If I crossed it, I would have no way of getting back in. I’d have to call the vampire again, and that might cause suspicion. I couldn’t risk that.

“Matteo, shut up!” I hissed.

He fell silent immediately and looked toward my voice. I feared that the old vampire could have already heard Matteo’s shouts.

“It’s me. Kiev. Go away. Leave this place. I’m safe. They don’t seem to know I’m affiliated with you. Just trust that I will do all in my power to bring a witch back with me before the end of three days…”

I stopped short, as a pain seared through my skull. I groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Matteo said, his voice quieter this time.

“Quiet!” I hissed, closing my eyes shut and biting my lower lip. The migraine had returned tenfold. It was a feat just to string a short sentence together. “Just g-go… Now! I will return to you with a witch. I… I promise you.”

My promise seemed to assure Matteo, and he nodded.

“Thank you, Kiev,” he whispered.

Without making another sound, he turned the boat around and sped off into the waves.

Struggling to keep myself afloat, I somehow managed to swim back to the beach where I crawled onto the sand, lying on my back and panting. But the minute I had climbed out of the water, my migraine disappeared just as suddenly as it had arrived.

What in the world…

I stood up and stared at the ground, frowning.

Can this really be a coincidence?





Chapter 8: Mona





I spent the night curled up in the tiny cupboard Mogda had given me to sleep in—just a few meters away from the royal siblings’ chambers—listening to Elsbeth sob herself to sleep.

I breathed out in relief when there was a knock at the door the next day. As soon as Mogda opened the door, I walked out of the room before she could step in.

“I need to speak with you,” I whispered.

She looked at me curiously.

“I can’t do this,” I said. “I can’t sit in there and watch the way that monster is treating his sister. I don’t know what he’s doing to her, but if I stay up here, I’m going to interfere. Do you know what is going on with him?”

She looked scared and shook her head. “You want me to give you a different job?”

I nodded. “Please.”

She scowled. “You were only just given this job.”

“Please.” I clutched her heavy arm and shook it.

She shrugged me off and sighed. “All right. I’ll find you something to do. Come with me.”

I followed her down several staircases and along dozens of dark corridors. We didn’t stop until we had arrived back in the same hall that contained the entrance to the dungeon I’d been thrown in when I first arrived on the island. But rather than descending back down into that dungeon, Mogda opened a door on the opposite side of the room. It led to a narrow set of stairs. We descended and reached yet another door at the bottom. She creaked the door open.

I gasped and clasped a hand to my mouth.

The brightly lit room contained rows and rows of human infants spread out on wide, long wooden tables. Each lay in its own straw cot and was wrapped up in a blanket—many of them crying, while others slept.

Ogres ran in and out through another door at the other end of the chamber, grabbing several baskets of babies at a time and running back out into the room next door.

“It’s almost breakfast time for the royals,” she grumbled. She breathed in deeply, her face twisting into a scowl. “The rest of us are stuck with animal meat.”

For the royals.

“No,” I gasped, stumbling out of the room and leaning against the wall in the staircase outside. “Give me something other than this. Anything other than this.”

She rolled her eyes again and stomped her foot. “Listen to me, little girl. If you’re going to live here, you’re going to have to get used to how we live. How do you expect to stay here if you are so squeamish about everything?”

“Just… just give me something else,” I stammered, placing a palm over my forehead, trying to ease the queasiness bubbling in my stomach.