The guard salutes her and marches off. The Queen follows.
Raul hesitates, looking at me and Phillip. “I should go with her,” he says. “But Eleira, we need to talk—”
“Don’t worry about me,” I say. “We’ll have time for that later. Go! Do your duty.”
He nods. “Okay.”
Just before he runs off, he pulls me in and places a chaste kiss on my lips.
I’m blushing despite myself when I turn to Phillip. He has a coy smile on his face.
“What?” I challenge.
“Oh… nothing,” he says, both his eyes sparkling.
“Tell me.”
“I’m just glad that someone’s found love in the midst of all… this.”
My eyes go wide and I suddenly feel short on breath. Love? No, I wouldn’t call it that…
But my body’s reaction tells a tale of the opposite.
“I want to see April,” I say, shifting the conversation away from myself. “I haven’t said more than two words to her since getting back. Do you know where she is?”
Phillip nods. “At the infirmary. I’ll take you.”
***
We arrive to find April lying in bed, a white sheet pulled up to her neck. She’s sound asleep.
“I don’t think we should wake her,” I tell Phillip. He seems more anxious than me to speak to the girl.
But at the sound of my voice she stirs. Her eyes open and she sits up.
“Eleira!” she says. She smiles at me. Then she notices Phillip, and her eyes become withdrawn. “What’s he doing here?”
Phillip flinches a fraction of an inch.
“He wanted to see you,” I explain. “As did I. How do you feel?”
“Good,” she says. She pushes herself up in bed. I can see the effort it takes her. With my new vampire senses, I can tell how truly weakened she is. Her heart is barely beating beneath her ribs.
Suddenly her head twists to one side. “Did you hear that?”
Phillip and I look at each other. We shake our heads. “There was nothing.”
“I swear, I thought somebody spoke…”
“It wasn’t either of us,” I tell her.
She shivers. “Weird.”
The connection flares in my mind. April’s still human. Morgan confirmed the voice the humans heard was real.
Before I can speak my mind April turns to me. “You came back.” She sounds almost angry. “After all we did to help you escape.”
“It’s not like I had a choice coming back!” I protest. I hate the judgement in her eyes.
“You were set free, and you returned to become a vampire,” she accuses. The resentment is clear in her voice. “Well done.”
I exchange a look with Phillip.
“Maybe we should come back later,” I suggest.
“No, I’m sorry. I’m… testy. I’ve been having nightmares.”
Phillip instantly takes a step toward her. “What sort of nightmares?”
A look of shame takes her. She draws in on herself. “They’re nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“April, if it has to do with what I did to you—”
“No!” she snaps, going all on the offensive. “It’s nothing you or your kind could ever understand.”
She shoots both me and Phillip a scathing, hateful look.
“April, we’re your friends,” I begin. “I know you’ve been through a lot, but we’re here for you now—”
“You know? You? You, the vampire heiress? You, the girl brought into The Haven and instantly elevated above everybody? You, who’s been given such great power and done nothing to deserve it?”
“April—” Phillip tries.
“Don’t!” she snarls. “Don’t defend her, Phillip. You’re just as guilty of bringing her here as anybody else. You think I’d still be your friend, Eleira, after all that they put me through? After all I suffered for you, only to have you spit in my face by returning as you are now?” April’s voice takes on a maniacal inflection. Her words get louder and louder, until she’s almost screaming at us.
“But the time of Soren rule in The Haven is nearly over. You think your peace will last? You think your false equilibrium will be maintained? Oh, no. No, no. Soon, the humans will rise up. The humans will rise up and band together and they will take what is theirs. With The Convicted on our side and the rightful leader in His place—”
Suddenly she starts to cough. My eyes go wide when she coughs up blood.
Phillip is at her side in a flash, holding her while the fit passes. When it’s done, April looks at us with stunned, dazed eyes.
“I—I’m sorry,” she says in a small voice. “That… that wasn’t me speaking. I don’t know what took hold of me. I would never…”