“Captain Lewin?” I guessed.
Shildreth turned her head, her eyes in shadow. “Yes. It was him. But it was long ago. Things are so different now between us.”
I shook my head. “There’s love there, and a great deal of it. I’ve been here for all of a few hours and I would bet my life on the love between the two of you.”
Shildreth sighed. “I wish it could be like it was back then. But the day in the forest, when he couldn’t get to me in time, changed us both. Some things, once done, can never be undone. Even if they were mistakes. Even if it’s only a little thing, something tiny.”
Her voice quieted as she went on. “As I waited for Faren, a vampire soldier stumbled upon me and captured me. He took me to the Bloodkeep, to his mistress. When Desmerada found out I came from one of the oldest vampire clans loyal to Priam, she threw a grand celebration. She invited all her nobles and soldiers to witness my downfall. I can see it even now, a great sea of crimson full of leering faces. How they spat and laughed. Desmerada mocked me, paraded me around like an animal. She had me for a month. A month of torture, of beatings, of…” Her voice shook so badly that it jarred her to silence.
She smoothed her hands over her stomach, almost lovingly. “One day, after the soldiers had their fun with me, they left me broken in the guard tower near their barracks. I still lived, but barely.”
Even in the fading light, tears shone on Shildreth’s face, like gossamer orbs on a dark rose petal.
I moved to the edge of Shildreth’s bed and took her hand in my own. “You don’t have to go on.”
“I do. I need you to know why we need Paris. Why he is our salvation.” She squeezed my hand. “I pulled myself to a window and flung myself from the tower of the keep. I landed in a tangle of Spinis, thorns with powerful poison in each tip. My legs took the brunt of the fall, saving my life. But the thorns ripped the flesh from my bones.” She shuddered.
“I lay there for three days and three nights before one of my own found me. They heard the alarm bells at the keep and knew Desmerada’s soldiers were looking for me. In a stroke of fate, my people found me first. They brought me back home, but by then, the poison had ruined my flesh. I froze into my immortality shortly after, such that what was lost could never be regained.” Shildreth hitched up her dress. I drew in a deep breath. There was only bone, covered with wasted muscle, gleaming white even in the darkness. Her flesh had been ripped away, ruined.
“Gods, no.” I couldn’t fathom the pain, the agony she must have gone through.
“But that wasn’t the worst.” Shildreth’s tears came in a torrent now, falling down her face and wetting her pillow. “Desmerada took—”
The anguish in her eyes caused my own to mist.
“I was with child, you see, when I was captured. I carried Faren’s son.” Shildreth ran a shaking hand down her face. “Desmerada took him. Took him out of me. He was so tiny, so small. She slit his throat.” Her voice had grown weak, thin. “I had to watch. She made me watch the whole time. I remember his faint little cry before the sound was cut off.”
Shildreth ended her tale with a sob that felt like a knife in my breast. The horror of what I’d just heard sank into me, like the poison that had destroyed Shildreth’s flesh. My hands shook as rage bubbled up within me and an ethereal wind whipped around us.
“Do you see now? Why we need him to take his place on the throne? Why we need your help? My men told me of your magic. The two of you are our only hope. Please help us. I beg of you, my lady.”
The wind died down, and I looked into Shildreth’s eyes. “I swear, on my honor as a warrior of the gods, I will end Desmerada’s reign.”
Shildreth nodded and settled back on her pillow. She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Thank you, my lady. You don’t know what that means to me—to us.”
I could never swim the depths of grief that lived in Shildreth’s heart, but I would make the cause of the wellspring pay. With blood.
Chapter Sixteen
Paris
I hesitated outside Shildreth’s door, the dark wooden panel rough-hewn and worn. I raised my knuckles, dropped them, raised them again, and then turned my back on the door entirely before crossing my arms over my chest.
I cursed under my breath.
Then I worked up my nerve. I’d never had trouble wooing women before. Not even Helen. We were so destined that we’d fallen in love easily, our souls already familiar with each other.