Chapter 3Nailed to the Wall, Reborn for Vengeance

The instant the amulet touched the moonsilver dish, Ellie's expression shifted.

Louis had given me that amulet at my coming-of-age ceremony.

He had fastened it around my neck himself and told me with a smile that the Vane bloodline made me a target, but the amulet would spare me trouble.

In my last life, I treasured it.

Only as I was dying did I learn that it was the weapon meant to kill me.

After coming back, I had no time to destroy it. In the rush, I had no choice but to wear it to the altar and think on my feet.

The Grand Elder immersed the amulet in spring water. A dark red curse mark rose from the bone chain.

The mark was shaped like a closed eye: the veiling curse, forbidden among the Nightborn.

A sharp challenge rang out from the Elders' bench.

"Isela, what do you have to say now?"

Still prostrate on the floor, Owen finally found his nerve.

"I saw it with my own eyes. Lady Isela wore this into the old tower several times over the past few days."

"The vault keeper reported it too. A strange blood scent masked by a forbidden curse had appeared near the Sacred Blood Vault!"

The witch maid at Ellie's side dropped to her knees and began to cry.

"I saw it too."

"Three nights ago, Lady Isela went alone to the sacred tombs, and she looked awful when she came out."

"I thought she was praying for the Bloodline Rite. I never imagined..."

She let the sentence hang, all the more damning for it.

Every gaze in the hall settled on me, mingling doubt, suspicion, and disgust.

Louis stepped slowly to my side and lowered his voice.

"Isela, if there's something you can't say out loud, tell me now, while there's still time."

I tilted my head toward him. "And after I tell you?"

His expression stiffened.

I gave a quiet smile.

"You'll plead for me. You'll say you believe me. You'll beg the Council to show mercy."

"And then, with the whole clan's gratitude, you'll bind me to a master-servant blood pact that puts you in command and leaves me unable to defy you for the rest of my life. Isn't that right?"

Silence fell all around.

Displeasure crossed Louis's face. "Why would you think that of me?"

"Because you're in too much of a hurry."

I raised my eyes to the Council of Elders.

"From the moment Owen entered, Count Ashford never asked how the Sacred Blood Vault was breached. Never asked whether the vault keeper had done his duty. Never asked why the shards were dusted with sungrass ash."

"The very first thing he said was, 'Tell me it isn't true.'"

Ellie shot to her feet, her voice shrill.

"Isela, Count Ashford is only worried about you! How can you turn around and blame him for not protecting you?"

"Has he protected me?"

I looked at her.

"Or has he been waiting for the whole clan to find me guilty, so he could become my master with everyone's blessing?"

Ellie's eyes reddened as though she were the one who had been wronged.

Grand Elder Blackwood raised a hand and cut the argument short.

"The Vane bloodline is unusual. To test her blood, we would have to open the First Ancestor's blood mirror."

"Once opened, the mirror will weaken the bloodline at best and damage its legacy at worst. Isela, are you willing?"

Before I could answer, Louis spoke first.

"Grand Elder, the blood mirror is too dangerous. Even if Isela has done wrong, she shouldn't pay that price."

"Let me seal a master-servant blood pact with her instead. I will stake my own bloodline on her causing no more trouble, and we can decide her case once the truth is known."

He sounded utterly sincere.

In my last life, I had believed every word and wept with gratitude.

This time, I only felt cold to the bone.

Once a master-servant blood pact is sealed, the master can draw on the slave's power at will, and peer into her memories through the pact mark.

That isn't protection. It's the harsh restraint reserved for the worst of criminals.

In the clan's thousands of years of history, marriages had always been sealed with equal, eternal blood pacts. No one had ever entered a predatory master-servant pact like this one.

Grand Elder Blackwood frowned. Clearly he found it improper too.

I pressed my hand over the amulet, my voice carrying through the whole sanctum.

"You have all seen the forbidden curse. But not one of you has asked whose scent this curse is actually hiding."