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PART ONE
“There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.”. ? Bram Stoker, Dracula.
1
The women of Distova lined the amphitheater, huddling together against the bitter wind whipping through the hills around them. The sun hovered on the edge of the horizon, slipping down further and further behind the trees and mist. Their fear grew more palpable with each degree of darkness that consumed them. Each one a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
From her perch, high in the branches to the left of the clearing, Mina watched them through her binoculars. A useful invention from Corrigan’s lab. The Tinkerer had made them so she might see at a distance through both eyes rather than just the one. They made hunting easier, and spying. Not that she’d been allowed to do either of those things of late.
Her father had kept her busy with other things in preparation for their trip to this northern town. She couldn’t even remember the name of it anymore; she'd been so wrapped up in the rituals, getting ready for the choosing ceremony.
She didn’t want to watch of course. The sight of her people so frightened by the shadows made her sick to her stomach, but she had to see it. She had to know the truth.
From the moment she could read and hold a sword her father had trained her to fight the creatures coming for them. Swift as the wind, skin as cold as ice, and fangs ready to tear out every throat within reach, these were the creatures of her nightmares.
The wordvampirehad haunted her for twenty-seven years, her entire life, but she’d never actually seen one. The Black Mist hadn’t descended from the mountains dividing their continent for the northern peninsula for at least fifty years.
The only signs that they were even still there were the occasional other monsters slipping over the border and the hunters that turned up dead too close to the veil, drained of blood.
“Princess!” Aria hissed below her.
Mina winched. “Shhh, if one of the guards—”
Aria made a shushing gesture and hoisted herself up onto another thick branch, wiggling around until she was less than a foot from Mina’s perch. “I’m sorry, but have you lost your mind, if your father finds us here, he’s going to murder me. And that’s only if he catches me before Maggie does. That witch will—”
“I get it,” Mina said through her teeth. “You don’t want to be here.”
“That’s an understatement,” the handmaiden muttered. She’d been protesting the idea since they’d slipped through the opening in the garden wall.
“I told you not to come,” she chuckled. “You were safe in the temple. You could’ve stayed tucked safely in bed.”
“And if something happened to you while you were out here alone, I’d never forgive myself. I’d like to at least have a chance at keeping you safe.”
“Well then, stay quiet and nothing will happen. We’ll both be safe.” Mina shrugged, flipping her long chocolate braid back over her shoulder. “I just want to see them, Ari. That’s all. I’ve heard about them for years and studied them, but I’ve never actually seen one. Have you?”
“Of course not,” her friend scoffed. “The vampires haven’t come into Distova for centuries. The mists keep them away from us.”
Mina’s instinct was to correct her, but she let it go. Being right didn’t feel as important as staying quiet and alive. The mists were constantly surging back and forth along the northern border. Like a living monster it often liked to stretch out its hand and consume the unlucky.
Shifting in the tree, she glanced at the black wall of mist. It sat only half a mile off. She knew her father’s soldiers weren’t far. Keeping back to avoid interfering with the ceremony, they would lurk in the forest until sunrise, keeping any unwelcome monsters from sneaking into the village proper.
At least that’s what they were supposed to do. Mina knew, in reality, they’d be closer to the houses. No matter where their commanders sent them, she was positive none would’ve ventured so close to the
mists. Everyone in Distova knew what lurked inside it. They knew no one that went in ever came back alive.
That of course didn’t mean they wouldn’t come looking for her if they discovered she’d left her rooms at the temple. She was positive her father or her stepmother would send a fleet of guards out looking for her sooner or later, Mina only hoped that she’d have just enough time to witness the ceremony before that happened.
“Why would you ever want to see them?” Aria asked, pulling her black cloak tighter around her thin body. They’d dressed in dark riding clothes to hide in the shadows, but the handmaid’s cloak hung off her frame like a tarp, and her blonde hair caught the light of the moon like a flame. “From what Harris said they’re vile creatures, deformed and—”
Her sentence was interrupted by the sound of a loud gong going off in the clearing below them. Mina adjusted her binoculars and scanned the horizon watching as the sun finally disappeared.
Fresh darkness swept over the ground, and a series of cries rang out from the frightened women who’d assembled as the mists began to ungulate in the trees, moving towards them.
Mina and Aria were the only two eligible women in their little territory not standing below, and that again made her sick. While she had no wish to be put on offer for the vampire king, she also hated that her birth kept her safe, when everyone else was still in danger. It wasn’t fair.
Torches began lighting in the trees below them, at the edge of the clearing closest to the trees at the foot of the mountain. One by one, and then they moved closer, inching toward the amphitheater. The wind cut through the branches around Mina, and her skin tingled.
Something deep in her gut drew her forward. She found herself leaning dangerously close to the edge of her branch, moving her gaze across the line of shadow, searching for some sign of what she wanted to see.
