Aiden gave me a deep look of concern as if he was afraid of what Ingrid could say to me. I realized then that he was trying to protect me from getting hurt by her words. For the first time, I found myself appreciating what it felt like to have a father looking after me. I thought it sad that he could make me feel that way only after a decade. I missed him so much, but it felt like any affection he showed me came too late. At this point, I really just detested how he was butting into my life. Still, I truly hoped that he had my best interest in heart—now and in the past.

“I was never able to control Camilla,” Aiden revealed wistfully. “She had a mind of her own and she was given to a lot of erratic mood swings when we were together. I guess I won’t be able to control you either, will I?”

“You can try, but I think that question is rhetorical.”

“Very well then… I’ll take you to your mother.”

Suddenly I remembered all that I had gone through at The Oasis. Borys’s claws sinking into my thighs, his teeth biting my neck, his hands groping my body… All the while my mother sat back, doing nothing, I swallowed hard. Suddenly, any sense of anticipation I felt about meeting Ingrid faded away and was replaced with pure dread. What exactly am I getting myself into?

CHAPTER 11: DEREK

The Great Dome was the center of all our governmental, judicial and military gatherings. It never failed to remind me of my twin sister, Vivienne, to whom I gave the task of modernizing the dome. She did a brilliant job at it; thus, the place never failed to remind me of her.

At that moment, however, the wave of nostalgia and grief that came with my sister’s passing away at the hands of the hunters wasn’t the only reason I was hesitant to go to the dome. I knew the Elite Council was already waiting there—as I instructed them to. I instinctively knew what I was going to face on arrival: opposition. Truth be told, I was used to that. They weren’t what I was afraid of. Instead, I was afraid of myself, of what I could possibly be capable of doing in case I lost control of my temper.

Neither Sofia nor Vivienne were there to reel me in. Neither of them would be there to remind me that I was capable of goodness. Still, I knew that the council meeting that I had called wasn’t something I could escape from, so when Ashley and Sam, two of Sofia’s closest friends at The Shade, showed up at my penthouse to let me know that Liana instructed them to escort me to the dome, I had no choice but to go.

Thus, I found myself walking along the torch-lit corridors of the Crimson Fortress, climbing up the west tower, standing as high as one hundred and fifty feet. Roofed with pointed cross-arches, the tower was one of the first installments built in the fortress and had already witnessed many battles in defense of the island. The Crimson Fortress, on the other hand, lined the entire island with thick walls and fortified towers.

“What happened, Derek? Where’s Sofia?” Ashley was the youngest vampire at The Shade. She was one of the human teenagers brought for my harem—a sick tradition that somehow developed at The Shade during my four-hundred-year sleep. It involved the abduction of teenagers outside the island to be brought to the Elite as slaves. Among the girls who were brought with Ashley were Sofia and Rosa. Ashley was the only one who willingly chose to be turned into one of us. Still, despite the fact that she was one of my subjects, her sense of familiarity with me never quite left. She never acknowledged me as royalty, but always spoke to me as she would a friend—something I liked about her.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” I answered as I caught sight of the entrance to the dome right ahead of us. I gave Ashley a look before diverting my attention to Sam. “What’s been going on here?”

The two exchanged glances and I could immediately conclude that they were no longer just friends. At least there’s still some good news here. I was aware of Ashley’s affections toward Sam after she blurted out the whole thing to me back at Sofia’s quarters at The Catacombs.

I grinned at both of them as I gave them a knowing nod. Whatever joy I felt for my friends was quickly swept away, however, as I stepped in front of the giant double oak doors of the dome.

A commotion had obviously been happening right before my arrival, but the moment I stepped in, a chilly silence filled the hall. I sped my way toward my seat at the front of the hall.

Eli Lazaroff, usually the presider of all of our council meetings, took his place at the stand, in the middle of the dome. He cleared his throat as he faced me. “Your highness…” He bowed his head in reverence and uncomfortably shuffled on his feet. I could tell that he was unsure how to bring up all the issues that had been brewing at The Shade since I had left to rescue Sofia.

“Oh, for crying out loud…” Felix stood to his feet and began walking toward the stand. “May I please take the stand?”

I inwardly groaned as I gave him a go signal with one nod toward Eli, who promptly left the stand to give Felix the platform he was demanding.

“With all due respect, Derek, I need to be straight with you,” he began. “You may be savior of The Shade—none of us can take that away from you. We owe you this kingdom and its establishment. We bled with you and fought alongside you, but how can we continue to serve under your rule when we are uncertain of your loyalties toward not only this kingdom, but to all vampires in general?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re questioning my loyalty to The Shade and to our kind? Do you not remember the prophecy and how I am to bring our kind true sanctuary? How could I turn my back on vampires when my life’s purpose is to save us?”

“It’s hard for us to believe that you will remain true to this prophecy. Not after you were instrumental in the ruin of The Oasis and the Maslens. Not after you stepped into hunter territory and came out unscathed—just walked away from them without as much as a scratch. Did you or did you not work with the hunters to destroy The Oasis in order to rescue the woman you love?”

It felt like I was being tried for a crime I did not commit—by a subordinate of mine at that. I straightened in my seat, swallowing back my rising temper, shutting my eyes for a moment in order to remember who I was when I was with Sofia. My hands were gripping my seat’s armrests even as I struggled to push away the darkness overtaking me.

“I did not work with the hunters to take down The Oasis. At the time of their attack, I was being held prisoner by Borys Maslen. I was in chains, being tortured. If it weren’t for Sofia, I never would’ve made it out of there.” I deliberately kept out the fact that my very own brother, Lucas, was also there inflicting pain on me. He died during the hunter attack on The Oasis, and despite his hatred toward me, part of me grieved his loss. “Use your common sense please. Why on earth would the hunters ever trust me enough to work with me?”

“Why else would they treat you as a guest in their territory and let you prance out of there alive?” Felix shrugged. “Isn’t it because your beloved Sofia is the daughter of one of the head hunters? She’s the daughter of the notorious leader of the hunters, Reuben, is she not?”

I wet my lips as I grasped for a proper response. “How exactly do you even know of all of this, Felix?”

A tense hush filled the dome when the doors swung open and a prominent figure at The Shade stepped inside.

I’d always known my father as having a flair for the dramatic, but I never could’ve predicted that he’d be back in The Shade before me, and from the reactions of my allies, it seemed they weren’t aware either. Gregor Novak entered the dome, cued by my question, to take his place beside Felix at the stand. “I told him everything, son. It’s your word against mine now.”

“You know that I never worked with the hunters.”

My father shook his head. “I’m not so sure about that. In fact, I haven’t been very sure of your actions as of late. None of us are. You’ve elevated the standing of every human of The Shade. You left the island to save one human girl from the Maslens. You stayed with the hunters for weeks. I think we deserve answers.”

Just like that, reality sank in—not only to me, but to everyone present there. The king of The Shade was now on trial.

CHAPTER 12: SOFIA

Upon my request, Aiden agreed to have Ingrid brought to my suite rather than to have me brought to wherever they were keeping her. I felt safer in my own turf than in hers, and it seemed Aiden felt better with that arrangement too.

“You summoned me?”

Wanting to end the conversation as soon as I possibly could, I got straight to the point. “Why am I immune? What does being ‘the immune’ mean for me?”

She sighed and smiled at me, her eyes looking at me with what almost seemed like affection. She then shrugged her right shoulder. “I don’t know, Sofia. You should be a Maslen, a beautiful nine-year-old vampire, but you’re not and I will never understand why. All I know was that the moment he tasted your blood, Borys has been absolutely obsessed with you.”

“Why? What’s in my blood?”

“I’m curious myself,” she admitted before looking hungrily at my neck. “Perhaps you should let me have a taste so that I could find out for myself?…I’m sorry. Bad joke.” A moment of silence then ensued as she eyed me with what almost looked like longing. “You must have so many questions. How have you been, Sofia? I’ve been overhearing whispers about Derek disappearing…”

A lump formed in my throat at the mention of Derek. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to Ingrid—or anyone else for that matter—about him. I ached with longing at the very mention of his name.

“You miss him, don’t you?” Ingrid continued, perhaps realizing that she hit a note with what she had just said. “I understand how you feel.”

“Why?” I asked, unable to hide the resentment in my voice. “Because it’s the same way you feel about your beloved Borys right now?”

The question sparked anger in her eyes, but she quickly recovered and shook her head. “No. It’s what I felt about your father during my first years at The Oasis. It felt like I was missing a part of me.”