Chapter 1

"There is no cure. You have one, maybe two years left."

The Royal Enchanter’s grim voice still rang in my ears as my mother and I stepped out of the hidden clinic. Late-stage Blood Corruption. A death sentence for any vampire, let alone a Half-Vampire like her.

Before we could even process the weight of those words, the communication crystal in my mother's hand flared to life.

It was a recorded message from my father.

"You delayed my schedule again, Lokui. I’m heading to the Northern Estate. I’ll go first." His voice was cold, clipped, entirely devoid of the warmth he used to reserve only for her.

I stared at the dimming crystal, my chest tightening. I remembered the past when things were different. When my Fragile Bloodline Syndrome flared up during my childhood, my father would drop every single clan dispute just to accompany me. He would hold my mother and me for days, promising he would burn the world down to keep us safe.

That man was dead.

He died three years ago, right around the time he started sleeping with Vera, a low-level Blood Servant.

My mother didn't cry. She just turned round to face the Royal Enchanter, who had followed us to the door.

"Promise me," she whispered, her voice surprisingly steady. "Seal my medical records. Sinhel must absolutely never know about the Blood Corruption."

The Enchanter frowned deeply but slowly nodded.

We didn't speak on the carriage ride back to Covenant Castle. The moment we crossed the threshold, my mother stumbled. She threw a hand over her mouth and sprinted down the corridor toward the underground chamber.

I chased after her, pushing the heavy oak door open just as she collapsed against the stone altar.

A violent, guttural cough tore through her throat. Thick, pitch-black blood spilled from her lips, splattering across the pristine floor. The cursed blood hissed, eating away at the ancient masonry like acid.

I panicked. I grabbed my own emergency crystal and sent a high-priority distress signal directly to my father's private frequency.

To my shock, he actually came.

Ten minutes later, the chamber doors blasted open. Sinhel rushed in, his royal cape tearing through the air. For a split second, I saw the father I used to know. Panic flashed in his crimson eyes. He dropped to his knees, and scooped my mother up entirely into his arms.

"Lokui!" His hands trembled as he touched her pale face. "What is this? I’m calling the High Council's grand healers right now. Just hold on."

"Sinhel, wait—" my mother choked out weakly.

"My Lord! Stop!"

The shrill voice shattered the moment completely.

Vera marched into the underground chamber. Without missing a beat, she slammed a glowing enchanted parchment directly onto the stone altar.

"Don't let her play you," Vera sneered, her eyes darting between my father and the black blood on the floor. "Look at this health rune, my Lord. I pulled it from the central registry ten minutes ago."

My father paused. He reached out and snatched the parchment.

The rune glowed a vibrant, healthy green. It indicated perfect magical stability and robust condition

"She is feigning illness, Sinhel," Vera said, stepping closer and resting a delicate hand on his shoulder. "She knew we were leaving for the Northern Estate today. She just wanted to ruin our weekend out of spite. She's so desperate for your attention she even made little Alice push the panic signal!"

I stepped forward, my hands clenching into fists. "That's a lie! Look at the blood on the floor! Are you blind?"

My father didn't look at the floor. He kept his eyes locked on the glowing green parchment in his hands. The lingering panic in his eyes vanished, replaced perfectly by a furious, icy disgust.

He unceremoniously dropped my mother back onto the cold stone.

"Sinhel..." my mother whispered, coughing weakly.

"Save your breath, Lokui," he snapped. He stood up, towering over her. "I knew you were jealous, but I didn't think you’d stoop this low. Faking a terminal curse just to keep me in the castle? You are pathetic."

"Father, she is dying!" I screamed.

"Shut up, Alice!" He pointed a harsh finger at me. "Your mother is poisoning your mind. I won't have it."

He turned his back on us and wrapped an arm around Vera’s waist. The Blood Servant threw a triumphant, mocking smirk over his shoulder.

"Clean up that disgusting ink you spilled on the floor," my father threw his final words over his shoulder without looking back. "Don't contact me again this week."

The heavy doors slammed shut, plunging the chamber into dead silence.

I fell to my knees beside my mother, tears streaming down my face. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called him. I thought he would care."

I expected her to be devastated

Instead, she slowly sat up. She wiped the black blood from her chin. The weak, sickly posture vanished entirely.

"Don't apologize, Alice," she said. Her voice was sharp, cold, and dangerously calm. "You did perfectly. He reacted exactly the way I needed him to."

I froze. "What?"

"That forged health rune Vera brought in?" My mother tossed the bloodied handkerchief into the fire pit. "I had the Royal Enchanter plant that in the central registry this morning. I made sure Vera's spies 'accidentally' found it."

My mind spun. "You gave Vera the weapon to use against you? Why?"

"To strip him of any excuse," she said flatly, looking at the door where he had just exited. "I needed him to actively choose to ignore my suffering. Every time he humiliates me, every time he shames me in front of Vera, he builds a debt."

“Moreover, once your father realizes that her health rune are false, he will no longer trust any of health rune she presents in the future.”

I don’t understand. All I know is that my mother is dying, which makes my crying even more intense.

She turned to look at me, her eyes suddenly softening.

Your father wasn't always this heartless, Alice," she murmured, a distant look in her eyes. "Centuries ago, I was nothing but a kept blood-concubine to a brutal Clan Warlord, and Sinhel was an exiled, destitute Pure-Blood, bowing and scraping just to beg for military backing. We locked eyes at a decadent blood banquet, and caught off guard, a rose bloomed in that rotting soil."

"I used my position. I coaxed and sweet-talked that Warlord into handing Sinhel a massive army and endless magical resources. Years later, when that Warlord was executed by the High Council, Sinhel had already clawed his way up to become the supreme ruler of our kind."

"By then, I had been traded away, passed around among lesser lords like a discarded toy. But amidst the sneers and mockery of the entire vampire nobility, he found me. There were no unnecessary words. He married me immediately, forging the most sacred Soul Pact. For centuries after that, he pampered me, treating me like the most cherished, radiant girl in the world."

Her voice dropped to a whisper. "When he was fighting for the throne, he was hit with a lethal Blood Corruption curse. I knew he wouldn't accept my help, so I used our Soul Pact."

My breath hitched. "You... you didn't catch the curse naturally?"

"No." She shook her head. "I take advantage of the Soul Pact to siphon every single drop of the Blood Corruption out of his veins and anchored it into my own body. I took his death sentence. I never told him."

I stared at her in absolute horror. She had traded her life for his, and this was how he repaid her.