A Shade of Kiev 2(46)

With that, he took Mona’s hand and walked with her out of the room.

Once the door had slammed behind them, Helina gripped my arm and tugged at me to stand up.

“Erik, follow us,” she said.

“What?” he said.

“Just follow us.”

She led us both out of the castle and through the courtyard. She stopped once we reached the lily pond, out of earshot from everyone.

“What?” I asked.

“Tell me that you didn’t have anything to do with this.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

“Why on earth would Kiev have anything to do with this?” Erik asked, bewildered.

Helina glared at me. “He was asking me about the humans the other day.”

Erik looked at me, frowning.

“We talked about lots of things the other day,” I said coolly. “Humans just happened to be one of them.”

“You were asking me some very specific questions. Logistics.”

“So? What is your point exactly? You know how much I despise the taste of animal blood. Why the hell would I want all our humans to escape?”

Helina bit her lip, her suspicious eyes lingering on me.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know…”

“You’re being paranoid, Helina,” Erik said, squeezing her shoulder. “After all we’ve told him about these witches, Kiev wouldn’t do something as foolish as this.”

My sister paused, still staring at me.

“I really hope he wouldn’t.”





Chapter 31: Mona





“I need to go back and bring over some more humans from our dungeon,” Rhys said. “I imagine it will take less than an hour. It’ll be much quicker than trying to track down those humans in the ocean.”

Rhys bent down to kiss my forehead and left the room. I walked out onto the balcony. Isolde, Efren and a few other witches stood in the courtyard. When Rhys joined them, they all vanished at once into thin air.

Sighing, I walked back into the room. I changed into my dressing gown and lay back on the bed. I was still in shock over what had happened to the humans. I couldn’t imagine what possible reason anyone on this island could have had for wanting the humans to escape. The more logical explanation was that some drunk vampire had been careless and left the keys too near the cells during the night, allowing the humans to let themselves out.

I sat up suddenly as a thud came from the balcony.

What in the world…

“Kiev!” I gasped, as the vampire appeared through the curtains. He must have jumped from the floor above. “Have you lost your mind?”

“It’s a question I’ve been asking myself recently,” he said, staring at me.

“You can’t be here!” I hissed. “Get out!”

I gripped his shirt and attempted to push him back out onto the balcony. He didn’t budge an inch.

“Rhys is gone,” he said calmly, gripping my hands and lowering them from his chest.

“He’ll be back in less than an hour! He could reappear in this very room in the next minute for all I know. It won’t take long to—”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

“What? He just said—”

“Rhys will be gone for at least a day, according to Helina.”

“H-how do you—”

He reached a finger to my mouth and pushed me down into a sitting position on the bed.

“He’ll find his dungeon empty. He’ll have to go hunting for more humans.”

“You… you did all this?”

Kiev nodded, his eyes never leaving mine.

“How? How did you—”

“I suggest that we don’t waste time with detailed explanations,” he said, cutting through me. “We only have a day.”

I clutched a hand to my forehead and moved closer to the open balcony doors, trying to breathe deeply and calm my racing heart.

Think. Think, Mona.

Don’t do something you’ll regret.

“You have your magic back now. Can you make us vanish?” he asked.

“Vanish? Yes, but—”

He stood up and took my hands, intertwining my fingers with his.

“But what?”

I thought for a moment. What am I objecting to? Kiev has assured me that we have a day before Rhys returns. Is it that I don’t trust him?

No, I trust him.

I trust him more than I trust myself sometimes.

“But… where should we vanish to?” I asked softly.

“Take us to the old island.”

“Matteo’s island?”

“Where else?”

Kiev’s lips curled slightly in a smile.

I rushed to the bathroom and changed back into my dress. When I returned to the room I found Kiev staring out through the balcony doors.