Chapter 3
Ivy's POV
Eventually the cold forced me to move. I picked up the tray and made my way back to the kitchen on autopilot.
Connor was waiting by the prep station, pale and sweaty. "What the hell happened up there?"
"I dropped a tray," I said quietly. "I'm sorry."
He ran a hand through his thinning hair. "Ivy, those men—that's the Blackwood family. They own half of Ashhaven."
Connor studied my face, then sighed. "Go back to washing dishes. Whatever you saw up there, forget about it."
I returned to the industrial sink, plunging my raw hands back into ice-cold water. All I could think about was the way Lucien had stared at me, the way his body had tensed as if he'd wanted to stand up but couldn't. He'd been sitting next to the silver-haired man who commanded the room with nothing but his voice—Valerius Sinclair, the head of the Blackwood family.
He should be in college now, I thought distantly.
Hours later, I found Garrett near the back exit. "I need to leave early today."
His eyebrows rose. "Leave early? We're still backed up—"
"I need to leave early," I repeated, my fingers twisting my apron.
Garrett leaned against the wall, studying me. "This is about upstairs. Do you know them?"
I said nothing.
"Ivy. Do you know them? Because if you do, you need to tell me right now."
"I know one of them," I admitted. "From high school."
Silence.
Garrett's face went through surprise, fear, and resignation. "Jesus Christ. If they decide they want something from you, there's nothing anyone can do."
"I'm sorry."
He sighed. "Go. But stay away from the front of the house. Stick to the kitchen."
Six years ago, a rogue vampire broke into our home. My grandmother died protecting me, pushed into furniture so hard her skull cracked. My grandfather bled out from bite wounds, blood toxin spreading faster than any hospital could treat. My father crashed his car rushing home and was paralyzed by the toxin paramedics injected.
After that, I dropped out of high school. Started working to pay medical bills. Stopped talking unless necessary.
And I started dreaming about sunlight.
The abandoned lot was nearly half an hour's walk through ice-slicked streets. Ashhaven's perpetual overcast sky meant true daylight was rare—by seven in the evening, the thick clouds had already swallowed what little light the day had offered, leaving the city in near-total darkness.
This place was nothing but cracked concrete and dead weeds now, surrounded by chain-link fencing and the skeletal remains of a demolished warehouse. No one ever came here.
I pulled out two white candles and wilted white daisies—the cheapest from the supermarket's discount bin. My numb fingers fumbled with the lighter before getting both candles lit.
There was no grave here. My grandparents' ashes were in a public columbarium on the other side of the city, a three-hour bus ride I couldn't afford more than once a year. So I'd chosen this place instead—empty and forgotten, where no one would disturb me.
This was all I could give them.
I crouched down, staring at the flickering flames. "Grandma. Grandpa. I'm still alive. I'm still trying. Someday I'll get to a place with sunlight."
Fresh snow began falling, landing on my hair and shoulders, melting into icy water. I stayed until the candles burned down to nothing, until my legs went numb, until I couldn't feel my face. Then I stood, brushed snow off my knees, and walked away.
The employee dormitory was dark when I returned. I eased the door open quietly, but Tessa's voice cut through immediately.
"It's you again. Always coming back late, making noise. Where do you go? Selling blood on the black market? O-negative can go for five hundred dollars a bag."
"Sorry," I whispered.
Springs creaked as she shifted in the top bunk, her gold-brown wavy hair spilling over the edge. "I think you're trying to get noticed by vampires. Trying to become someone's personal blood servant."
I didn't respond, just peeled off my damp coat in the darkness.
"It's pathetic," Tessa continued, her voice dripping with contempt. "You think you're special because you've got rare blood? You're still just trash like the rest of us."
I climbed into my bed with its thin, musty blanket that smelled like mildew. The heating had been broken for over a month—the landlord, a human middleman working for vampires, kept promising to fix it "after Winter Solstice."
I reached under my pillow for my battered copy of Ancient Latin and Sanctuary Law and clicked on my small flashlight.
S-V-A. Solaris Visa Application.
To escape to the Equatorial Daylight Sanctuary where vampires couldn't survive, I needed to pass an incredibly difficult exam—Ancient Latin, advanced botany, survival skills testing. And proof of uncontaminated blood.
I had the blood. I just needed to pass the exam.
Tucked between pages was a printed photograph: the Sanctuary's beach, brilliant sunlight and crystal-blue water. No vampires. No blood contracts. No endless darkness. Just light.
I stared at the photo until my eyes burned, memorizing every detail—the way the sun sparkled on the water, the white sand, the clear blue sky. Then I closed the book and turned off my flashlight.
But even in the dark, I could still see Lucien's face. Those amber eyes that used to be warm and human and that gentle smile from high school.
I pulled the thin blanket tighter and closed my eyes, clutching my Latin textbook like a lifeline, waiting for a morning that might never come.
