Page 121 of Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince

She collapsed. Alex rushed to her side.

“We need a medic. Get Dante up here.”

The door crashed open. As fae guards began rushing in, Lara shot them one last venomous look.

“This isn’t over, Alexander.”

Lunging for her father’s motionless form, she ghosted them from the room.

EPILOGUE

“CAN I LOOK NOW?” Dani peeked through her fingers as Sera poked another bobby pin into her tiara. “Ouch. I’m not going to have any hair left at this rate.”

“Just one more,” Sera mumbled through a mouthful of pins. “Trust me. Crowns are heavy and the last thing you want is for your tiara to go crashing to the floor in a spray of rubies and diamonds when Alex spins you across the dance floor.”

“Please don’t give me anything else to worry about.” Dani groaned. “I already feel like I’m going to be sick.”

“You should eat something.” Ava rustled over in her dress with a sleeve of crackers and the ginger ale she’d been sipping all morning.

Dani’s hand came to rest over her still-flat stomach. In all the chaos following Alex’s abduction, it had been easy to mistake the nausea and dizziness that had plagued her for weeks as a holdover from her traumatic transition to vampirism. Sera had eventually recognized the need for a pregnancy test. Her working theory was that drinking Alex’s blood in order to heal her wounds after the bombing at the distribution center caused the hormone injection she took at the auction house to burn off too soon.

When the test had come back positive, she and Alex had been overjoyed… and a little terrified as well. Everything in Sector Four was so uncertain at the moment between the protests and the calls for Sera’s arrest. But life rarely asked if you were ready. You just had to be strong enough to face whatever came.

“Just don’t get crumbs on your skirt,” Ava said.

Her bridesmaid dress was a soft champagne satin with an off-the-shoulder neckline. It was one of the many fancy gowns from Sera’s closet that she’d generously allowed her little sister to choose from.

Cinder mewed, brushing past her legs. Dani bent to scoop her up.

They were all living in apartments in the castle now. Safe. Together. Ava was getting the ice-skating lessons she’d long hoped for from Alex and Henri. They’d all been out to watch her first few lessons, seeing her tentatively learn to circle the ice behind the palace, her cheeks flushed with excitement. Cinder had her own royal cat bed and insisted on being pampered every morning with boiled chicken. She was such a princess.

“No more rats for you,” Dani murmured, nuzzling her ears. It had only been a month and already, she was getting downright plump.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure she still sneaks out and hunts the occasional mouse.” Evan smirked. “You can take the cat out of the meatpacking district, and all that.”

Laughing, Dani set Cinder down and smoothed the red silk of her mother’s old dress, the same one she’d worn to the auction house. Alex had offered to have a new gown made for her by one of the finest shops in town. It was their wedding day after all, and she would be crowned his queen.

But this was the dress that had changed both their fates, saved them both in countless ways, and it only felt fitting to wear it on the day they were wed.

“Okay, my work here is done.” Smiling, Sera took a step back so she could see her reflection in the mirror. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you when Alex starts crying the moment you appear at the end of the aisle.”

Evan reached over to steal one of her crackers. “For a vampire, he does have a gooey chocolate center where you’re concerned.” She crunched a mouthful of cracker crumbs and waved. “Earth to Dani. Don’t you like it?”

But Dani could only stare back at her own reflection, tears shimmering in her eyes.

Her blonde hair had been braided into an intricate style of swirls and twists that were held in place by more pins than she could count. The ruby and diamond tiara was one that had belonged to Alex’s mother, Charlotte. When Dani had asked Sera if she wouldn’t rather keep it, she’d smiled sadly.

“I think we both know this sector will never accept me at court now. Our mother would have loved you, and I will love getting to see you wear something so exquisite of hers on your wedding day to my brother.”

Now, Sera frowned at her phone.

“Excuse me.” She hurried from the room.

“Is she okay?” Evan shook out the skirts of her dark blue sleeveless gown. “She’s been quiet all morning.”

“I think this is hard for her. Not the idea that Alex and I are marrying. I know she’s happy for us. Just… everything else.”

Perhaps she had naively believed that their sector, having suffered under three decades of oppression at the hands of Judas Visconti, would rejoice at the idea of being rid of him. It turned out she’d vastly underestimated Lara’s power to manipulate the free press.