Chapter 0127
“You’re too young for that story,” she reasons. “Emory will be upset with me.”
“I’m not that young!” I counter. “I’ll be a teenager before you know it. I’m not a baby.”
Miss Willow contemplates telling me the story, looking into my eyes before giving in. “All right, but I’m not giving you all the details.”
“That’s fine.”
Her eyes stare off into space, like she’s remembering something. “Once upon a time…”
I give her a judging look. “That’s the cheesiest way to start a story.”
“This is how I want to tell my story. Do you want to listen or not?”
I mime zipping my mouth and throwing away the key.
“Once upon a time, back when this land was ruled by a different king, King Michael, he started hunting witches,” she continues. “You see, at that time witches existed. They lived amongst the humans and had a tenuous relationship with the wolf shifters. But the vampires? They hunted the witches.”
“Why?”
“King Michael thought the magic the witches wielded was dangerous. He wanted to control the witches by preventing them from using their magic. When he started capturing them, he realized our blood itself was magical.”
I lean forward wanting to hear more of the story.
“He discovered that if a vampire were to drink witch blood that they would be given an extra burst of energy–temporarily,” Miss Willow explains. “Aside from that, witch blood is addictive to vampires. They like it more than human or shifter blood. Maybe it’s the magic or just… the taste.” She shivers as if she is thinking about a bad memory.
“And then what happened?”
“There was a young witch named Willow. She was from a small village to the south of here. Her father owed a debt to King Michael, so he sold off his only child to be a feeder at Castle Graystone.”
My eyes widen in shock, and I ask, “Why would he do that?”
“He was desperate. Maybe he didn’t care about her enough. She knew he was scared. If he didn’t pay off his debt, he would have been killed along with their entire village.”
“But you were his daughter!” I retort, hot emotion making my face feel like it is burning. “He should have fought for you!”
Miss Willow’s cold hands grab mine in hers, and she tells me calmly, “It’s all right. He’s been dead a long time. This all happened long before you were born.”
J feel tears making my eyes watery, but I don’t want to cry. “He shouldn’t have done that to you.”
“I know,” she agrees with understanding. “Just like I know that your father shouldn’t have done that to you.”
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0127
I go still in shock. “You know about what my dad did?” I feel ashamed. It doesn’t feel good that other people know how cruel my father is. It’s one thing when people in the pack know, but the vampires knowing it too makes me feel small. It’s not easy to know that my father doesn’t love me and never will.
If my dad loved me, he wouldn’t have tried to sell me off to King Kane. He would have protected me. He would have fought for me. He did none of that.
Miss Willow nods. Her face looks solemn. “I know the story about how your sister ended up in the castle. The servants like to talk amongst each other. Some of them witnessed the bargain in the throne room.”
“Emory saved me,” I tell her, “I was going to be a feeder, but she stopped it. She’s the only one that’s ever loved me.”
Emory fought for me. She stood up to our father and to the vampire king and told them they couldn’t take me. Everyone else had kept quiet because they didn’t mind losing me.
“And you’re lucky you have a sister that loves you so dearly she was willing to sacrifice herself for you. Not many people have that privilege.”
“I know.”
I have always known that Emory loves me. Even when the rest of our family ignored me or said unkind things, I had Emory. When she was taken from me, I had to live with the Kincaids who were nice, but they couldn’t replace my sister. I didn’t think I would ever have to be away from her, but when it happened, it made me realize just how much I love her.
