Crimson Vows.

Selene didn't sleep easily that night.

She lay curled on her side, the moonlight bleeding through the high glass panes and casting pale lines across her bedspread.

Her eyes burned, dry and sleepless, yet she refused to cry again. Not for her father. Not for Ronan. And definitely not for Kaelen.

She rolled over and shut her eyes tight...and then she was no longer in her bed.

The world around her twisted. Her chambers dissolved, replaced by an endless forest cloaked in twilight. Shadows coiled around the trees, but there was no fear. Only silence. And the scent of something old… something like ash and lavender.

In the distance stood a woman, still as a statue, her back to Selene.

"Mama?" The word escaped her lips before she could stop it.

The woman didn't turn. She raised her hand slowly and pointed — not at Selene, but toward something behind her. A stone altar, half-consumed by moss, sat in a clearing bathed in moonlight.

Something glowed faintly atop it; a ruby...a bloodstone. Just like the one Kaelen gave to her, but unlike hers it wasn't glowing. There was no radiance, it was dead.

Her mother's voice echoed eerily through the forest

"Through blood so thick, awaken those that keep"

"What does that mean?" Selene shouted but there was no response, "mom?" she tried to move to reach her but her limbs felt so weak, "what does that mean mom?" she shouted even louder, but the woman began to dissolve into crows; black feathers bursting from her body like smoke and her silhouette slowly collapsed into ash.

"Mama!" Selene shouted as the forest shattered and she woke up.

She sat up quickly, drenched in sweat, the moonlight now gray and cold through the curtains.

Her hand instinctively went to her throat, her heart galloping behind her ribs.

She'd had similar dreams every night since Kaelen gave her the bloodstone but this...this was different. It felt ancient, familiar, it felt like a memory, and a prophecy.

Still shaking, she threw the covers off and went to her armoire.

She pulled open the velvet-lined drawer and retrieved the bloodstone pendant—her mother's pendant, that was somehow in Kaelen's mother's possession until Kaelen gave it to her. 'Why did he give it to me?' she thought

Selene clutched the stone, her mind spun with too many questions but one burned hottest- what secrets had her mother died with?

By morning, she was dressed and packed. Her chambers were empty; she took time to look around, she had never seen it this way since she was little. "It's this big?" she exclaimed lightly.

Ronan hadn't returned; she'd half-expected...no wanted him to barge in again so that she could tell him she didn't mean to hurt his feelings, and she wanted him...only him, and that she loves him and she'd make sure she comes back for him. But apparently, he didn't even want to see her.

The knock on the door came precisely at dawn.

She opened it to find Mara.

Selene's breath caught. "You're coming with me?"

Mara smiled gently. "Your father didn't approve… but Ronan made sure I'd be on the envoy list."

Selene exhaled, a knot loosening in her chest. "Thank the stars."

"I told you I'd always follow you," Mara said, brushing a stray hair behind Selene's ear. "Even into a den of fanged monsters."

Selene cracked a weak smile. "Let's hope we don't become part of them."

After saying the necessary goodbyes, they finally left.

The journey to the Dravara stronghold was longer than she'd expected—hours of silence broken only by the steady beat of hooves and the crunch of gravel beneath carriage wheels. The air grew colder the closer they drew to vampire territory, the clouds thickening like a warning.

Selene stared out the window, her thoughts circling Kaelen.

The scent of him lingered in her memory—cedarwood and shadow. She hated that she remembered it. Hated more that it comforted her.

When they passed the borders, an eerie shift settled in her bones. Even the horses grew restless.

"This land feels wrong," Mara whispered, eyes narrowing at the gray mist rolling across the path.

"No," Selene murmured. "It feels... watched."

The Dravara stronghold was a towering relic of another age—spires like jagged teeth, balconies that overlooked black cliffs, and windows like unblinking eyes. It looked like it had grown out of the mountain itself.

Selene descended the carriage steps slowly, her cloak sweeping behind her. She tried to steady her heartbeat, to quiet the screaming part of her that still wanted to turn back.

Kaelen stood waiting at the entrance.

Dark-cloaked. Regal. Infuriatingly composed.

Their eyes met.

He didn't smirk this time. Didn't gloat.

He bowed.

Not just a formal gesture, but something deeper. His eyes lingered on her face — not possessive, not arrogant.

Almost reverent.

"Lady Vireya," he said. "Welcome."

The part of her that wanted to spit in his face fell oddly silent.

"I'm only here because I was forced to be," she replied flatly and offered a reluctant courtesy.

He nodded once. "So was I."

That answer caught her off guard.

Before she could respond, another voice pierced the tension.

"Charming welcome, really," Ronan said, descending from the second envoy carriage. He approached with his usual hunter swagger and a blade at each hip. "But I thought vampires only bowed before death."

"Ronan?" Selene was shocked, she had looked for him that morning but she didn't find him anywhere.

Kaelen's eyes flicked to him, cold and unreadable. "I suppose you're going to put up a fight to try to impress Selene, a fight you know you can't win. You humans will always be pathetic species" he concluded with disdain.

"Says the prince of a species of fanged monsters who continue to war with a supposed weaker species...you are a weak prince of a weak people!" Ronan declared, involuntarily walking towards Kaelen the whole time.

Selene stepped between them, jaw clenched. "Not today."

Ronan looked down at her. "Don't trust him, Selene. He's a monster, he and his mind!"

Kaelen's voice was smooth but edged like steel. "And what will you do? Keep pretending you're her protector while holding her leash?"

Selene's voice cracked through them like thunder. "Enough! Both of you."

They fell silent.

She turned to Kaelen, "can someone show me to my chambers?" she asked with a blank expression

Kaelen simply motioned two guards to get her things and Mara's and to take them to the quarters.

Selene turned back to faced Ronan, the sadness that filled his eyes cut her heart. She ran back and threw her arms around him and they hugged tightly, they let out all their emotions in on long hug.

"I'm sorry I acted weird yesterday, it's just...too much pressure" she said amidst little sobs

"It's fine Selene...just promise me you'll come back to me" a tear almost escaped from his eyes, "I promise Ronan, I'll come back" she said and stood on her toes to clean the edge of his eyes before the tear drop flowed down

"That's not good for your masculine image, is it?" she said smiling. Ronan smiled and hugged her one last time. He gulped as he watched her walk into the mansion.

Kaelen cast an empty look at Ronan as he made his way into his carriage and left.

....

As the guards led Selene to her quarters , she examined the paintings that littered the walls of the hallway. Gothic, get beautiful; some of bats and blades, some told ancient stories,

and just one painting of a temple.

Selene exclaimed in her head, it was the exact temple she saw in her dream!