Chapter 3

Tonight was Lilith’s birthday banquet. The entire Nocturne clan was gathered, their pale faces illuminated by the flickering candlelight.

And I, the Second Consort, the mother of Draven's children, was reduced to a servant.

I stood in the center of the grand dining hall, holding a heavy crystal decanter filled with the freshest human blood.

The silver-laced wounds on my back screamed with every breath I took, but I kept my hands steady.

"More, Liora," Lilith commanded. She sat beside Draven at the head table, draped in dark velvet.

I stepped forward, forcing my numb legs to move. I tilted the decanter. The thick crimson liquid poured out.

Draven sat right next to her. He didn’t even look at me. His crimson eyes were fixed entirely on Lilith, his hand resting casually over hers.

I placed the decanter down and took a step back into the shadows.

Then, the air shifted.

A sudden, sharp scent of ozone and iron cut through the heavy smell of blood-wine. It happened in a fraction of a second.

A servant—a man who had been silently clearing plates near the head table—suddenly lunged forward. His docile expression vanished, replaced by a mask of pure, murderous hatred. He wasn't a servant. The faint glow of a holy sigil briefly illuminated his neck.

A Vampire Hunter.

From his sleeve, he drew a dagger. It wasn't ordinary steel. Even in the dim light, the blade gleamed with a deadly, pale luminescence. Coated in pure silver.

"For humanity!" the hunter roared, vaulting over the table.

His target wasn't Draven. It was Lilith.

She screamed, freezing in her seat. The dagger was aimed straight at her heart.

Draven reacted with the terrifying speed of a Pureblood Prince. His hand shot out and clamped onto my shoulder.

With brutal, terrifying force, Draven yanked me forward and shoved me directly in front of Lilith.

He didn't hesitate. There was no internal struggle, no flicker of conflict in his eyes.

Thrust.

The sound of the blade tearing through my flesh was sickeningly loud.

The silver dagger plunged deep into my right shoulder, inches from my collarbone.

Then, the silver reacted with my Holy Blood.

It was like having liquid fire injected straight into my veins. My Holy Blood, the very thing that made me a living treasure to these monsters, violently rejected the blessed silver.

I collapsed to my knees, a voiceless scream tearing at my throat. The pain was so absolute it blinded me.

Above me, chaos erupted. The clan guards swarmed the hunter, pinning him to the stone floor and snapping his limbs in seconds.

I lay on the cold marble, gasping for air, clutching my burning shoulder. My blood pooled beneath me, glowing with a faint, golden hue before turning dark.

I looked up, my vision blurring with tears of agony. I looked for Draven. I looked for my husband.

He was kneeling on the floor, but not beside me.

He had his arms wrapped tightly around Lilith. He was checking her face, her neck, his hands trembling slightly.

"Are you hurt?" Draven’s voice was frantic, laced with a panic I had never heard in the nine years I had known him. "Lilith, look at me. Did he touch you?"

"I... I'm fine, Draven," Lilith gasped, burying her face in his chest. "You saved me."

He let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Only then did he turn his head to look at me. I was bleeding out on the floor, the silver poison spreading through my chest, my breathing shallow and ragged.

"Get the hunters out of my sight and execute him," Draven snapped at the guards. Then, he cast a dismissive glance at a nearby maid. "Pull the knife out of the Second Consort. Bandage her up."

He picked Lilith up in his arms and carried her out of the room.

He left me there.

The maid roughly yanked the dagger from my flesh. I nearly blacked out from the pain. I pushed her hands away, refusing her bandages.

I didn't want their pity. I didn't want their help.

Biting down on my lip until it bled, I forced myself to stand. I dragged myself out of the banquet hall, leaving a trail of golden-red blood on the floor.

The dark, damp corridors of the castle felt endless.

As I stumbled past the corridor leading to Draven’s private study, a sliver of light caught my eye. The heavy oak door was slightly ajar.

I heard voices.

I should have kept walking. But the sound of my own name made my feet stop. I leaned heavily against the cold stone wall, holding my breath.

"You took a risk tonight, Draven," Lilith’s voice drifted out. "Pushing Liora into the blade. What if the silver had pierced her heart? If the Holy Blood dies, our supply ends."

"She won't die easily. Her blood heals itself," Draven replied. The clinking of glasses echoed in the room. He was pouring her a drink. "Besides, my priority was you. I would sacrifice a thousand blood bags before I let a single scratch fall on you."

"A blood bag," Lilith chuckled, a cruel, satisfied sound. "Is that really all she is to you? Sometimes I wonder, Draven. She gave you three pureblood children. Are you sure you haven't developed feelings for your little human wife?"

There was a long silence. Then, Draven laughed. It was a dark, mocking sound.

"Feelings? For a human?" Draven’s voice dripped with absolute contempt. "Lilith, you know exactly why I married her. The Nocturne clan’s purity was fading. We needed the Holy Blood to breed stronger heirs. That’s it."

"But she still thinks you love her," Lilith sneered. "She still thinks I drugged you both nine years ago to force the marriage."

"Let her think that," Draven said coldly. "It makes her easier to control. If she knew the truth, she would have killed herself long ago."

My heart stopped beating.

"It was a brilliant plan," Lilith murmured. "Wiping out her entire aristocratic family, leaving her with absolutely nothing. No home, no backing, no money. She could only rely on us to survive."

The world tilted. The stone floor beneath my feet seemed to vanish.

"I hired the best rogue hunters for that massacre," Draven stated, his tone as casual as discussing the weather. "I made sure they burned her estate to the ground. She had to be isolated. A Holy Blood vessel with family ties is a liability. I needed her entirely dependent on me."

Outside in the dark corridor, I forgot how to breathe.

My parents. My older brother. The fire that consumed my childhood home. The rogue hunters I had hated all my life.

It wasn't an accident. It wasn't fate.

It was him.

The man I had loved for nine years. The man I had birthed three children for. The man I had endured whips, chains, and the humiliation of the Master-Servant pact for.

He was the monster who murdered my family.