Chapter One | The Unseelie and The Vampire
| Amaris, Friday, September 12th, 1340(AG)—Celitrianas, The Frozen Plane|
The blizzard was relentless, blinding Amaris with each gust of icy wind and snow, making it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead. Her breath came in shallow, desperate gasps, her heart thundering with overbearing panic as she sprinted across the open glade. The snarls of the hounds grew louder, snapping and howling just behind her, a nightmare chorus that blurred with the jeers of the Unseelie hunters trailing close.
A sizzling ball of golden energy spiralled towards her from behind; she stumbled, barely catching herself as she dodged the attack, her legs trembling with exhaustion and the weight of every chase she’d survived. But this time felt different, deadlier. Each escape had sharpened her instincts, yet there was a gnawing fear in her chest that this might be the one time her luck ran out.
But she wasn’t done yet. She would fight until her last breath, until the snow soaked her skin and silence fell over her heart. She couldn’t go back—she wouldn’t. The thought of their hands on her, of losing her freedom spurred her forward, her resolve as fierce and untamed as the storm raging around her.
As the golden energy hit the ground beside her, she staggered but managed to remain on her feet. She dodged another, and another, each barely missing her, each getting closer than the last.
“We’re gonna get you, princess!” one of the Unseelie taunted, his laughter reverberating through the woods.
Reaching the tree line, Amaris tripped into the dense woods, almost falling as she desperately dragged her boots through the thick, unyielding snow. She pressed forward, hoping that the forest would cloak her from the Unseelie closing in behind. The deeper she ventured, the thicker the trees grew, their shadows tangled with patches of glowing nullflare flowers. Each silver blossom pulsed softly in the dark, filling the air with a faint shimmer and an eerie stillness, guiding her onwards like tiny lamps in a world ensnared by total darkness.
The nullflares’ power muted her senses, dampening the hum of her own ethos and leaving her feeling strangely hollow, but she knew that it was her best chance. If she couldn’t use her power here, then neither could the Unseelie.
As she veered left, weaving towards the thicker clusters of nullflares, their silvery glow spreading like ghostly fire across the snow, she reached into her coat and pulled her brass-rimmed, rounded aviator goggles from the inside pocket. Her pulse steadied as the snarls and taunts of her pursuers grew fainter, swallowed by the heavy silence of the flowers and the forest, and when she reached a leaning, towering sequoia tree, she hid behind it, catching her breath and pulling her goggles on.
With trembling, frostbitten fingers, she adjusted the small gears on the sides; two blue lenses clicked into place over the original red ones, and the snowy forest around her transformed, becoming white and grey, and every single hint of heat lit up in shades of red and orange. She peeked from around the tree, and in thefardistance, she spotted the faint glows of her pursuers.
Amaris exhaled deeply, grasping her composure. She then pulled out her phone, took off one of her gloves, and quickly opened the screenshot of the map she’d taken back in the last town. Her violet eyes scanned the small screen, locating the dense forest surrounding her, her finger tracing a thin path that wound through the trees, edging closer to Emberreach. Her breath steadied as she looked up, her gaze fixed in the direction of the city. If she could make it there, she’d be safe; the Unseelie wouldn’t dare set foot beyond its walls.
She peered cautiously around the tree’s rough bark again, pulling her glove back on; she scanned the white-grey forest for any sign of movement or heat, but the world was quiet, blanketed in the soft, eerie silence of snow. No red-orange figures lurked in the shadows, no hound-like blurs prowled through the drifts. For the first time since the chase had begun, she felt a flicker of hope—faint but tangible—as she prepared to make her way towards Emberreach. Had she lost them?
Leaving the cover of the tree, she darted in the direction of the path. She kept her senses peeled, looking over her shoulder as a light breeze brushed through her magenta hair. When she reached the path, she stuck to the trees, unwilling to expose her position. But as the end of the forest came into view, what lay ahead wasn’t just a valley. She could make out small buildings and abandoned vehicles, and the smell of ash and blood hung heavily in the cold, unsettling air.
Amaris glanced at her phone, but there was no village or town marked on the map. Yet...she emerged into it—the small, decrepit hint of an old stronghold. The stone walls had fallen, the roads were cracked and buried in ice, and not one building was whole. Whatever this place was, it hadn’t long been destroyed; the ashy smell made that obvious, and so did the shimmering golden scorch marks scattered about the place. Unseelie were responsible.
She wasn’t going to hang around.
With a huff, she hurried through the ruins. The blizzard was picking up again, and she had no choice but to slow down to avoid tripping or crashing into something. She leapt over the rubble, squeezed between two collapsed buildings, and spotted the bright white glow of something up ahead—something so bright that it assaulted her eyesight through her goggles, forcing her to pull them from her face to fall and settle around her neck. Unsure of what it was, she focused her senses; whatever it was, it didn’t have an aura—it wasn’t alive. And the rumbling of an engine echoed through the snow.
A car?
For a moment—a tiny, stupid little moment—she let herself wonder ifhehad finally come for her, if the man she’d left behind when she fled had found her, ready to rescue her from the long, draining escape that was slowly gnawing away at her soul.
But she knew that it wasn’t him. He’d not use something as mundane as a car to carry her away to safety. No, the vehicle likely belonged to a human, but she didn’t care. She’d push aside her disgust for their kind over remaining out in the open running from Unseelie. So she sprinted towards it, desperation filling her racing heart—
A pale-as-ice hand reached out of nowhere, grabbing Amaris’ collar before she had a chance to react. Horror filled her, terror wrapped thorns around her heart, and as her back hit the cold, hard cobblestone wall, she reached for her weapons—but whoever grabbed her was faster. They snatched her wrists and pinned her arms above her head, still holding her collar.
Amaris winced in both pain and panic—was this it? Were all her years of running over? Were they going to take her back to that...place?
She stared wide-eyed, but through the pouring snow, she didn’t see golden eyes and a maniacal grin.
Red eyes stared into hers, blazing with fury, their intensity almost suffocating. The pale visage of the man who held her in his grip radiated anger, his presence chilling and unnatural. He smelled undead—no...caught between life and death, some sort of limbo. Dark, tattoo-like markings branched from the left side of his forehead, curling downward over his eye like a sinister brand. His lips moved, shaping words that failed to reach her ears, as if the very air around them refused to carry his voice. Then she saw them—fangs, elongating from his canines with each silent utterance, growing sharper and more menacing.
Vampire.
“Answer me!” the vampire demanded, the falling snow catching in his black hair.
Amaris shook her head and tried to pull free, but he just tightened his grip. “Get off me!” she shouted.
“What are you doing here?!” he yelled back. “Did you do this?!”
Her eyes shifted to the destroyed building across from them, and then she turned her head towards the tree line. She couldn’t see through the snow, and she wouldn’t be able to sense the Unseelie inside the woods, either—not until they were far away enough from the nullflare flowers. “Let me go!” she screeched as she reached inside herself and pulled her ethos from its slumber—with a furious yell, she let her power free, sending a deafening, blinding blast of golden energy from her body. The vampire was thrown off her and hit the wall of a fallen building not far away, but it was far away enough for Amaris to make a run for it. There was no way the Unseelie hadn’t heard that.
Amaris ran towards the lights, quickly reaching them. An offroad jeep waited at the edge of the village, window wipers creaking back and forth, the engine left running and the radio on inside. She pulled the door open, but before she could get in, the vampire yanked her back by her hair and pushed her to the snow-covered ground.
The vampire pulled a silver sword from the rune on his wrist and swung it down—
She reacted fast, unsheathing her sword from her side and blocking his attack.
Their swords met with a ringing clang, silver against vendite. Amaris kicked his shin, and as he stumbled back with a grunt, she climbed to her feet and swung towards him. But he held up his blade in time to block hers, and for a brief moment, their hostile gazes met. She had a million questions—how did he survive that blast? What was a vampire doing out here alone? There was no time for answers, though.
The barking hounds cut through the tense quiet.
They both sharply turned their heads towards the noise.
The Unseelie were coming.
Heart pounding, Amaris yanked her sword free and spun, darting away from the vampire and his jeep. But before she could get even a few feet away, a sparking orb of energy burst at her feet, erupting in a flash of searing light that sent her hurtling backwards. She crashed into a heap of rubble, landing with a rough thud, a sharp cry escaping her lips as pain tore through her arm. Glancing down, she saw a metal rod embedded deep in her shoulder, crimson beginning to stain the purple fabric around it.
A guttural snarl yanked her gaze upward. Three Black Dogs prowled towards her, eyes glinting in the dim light, their lips pulled back in snarls that exposed rows of lethal, glistening teeth. Panic clawed at her insides, her desperation intensifying with each step they took. She gritted her teeth, fingers curling around the rod as she tried to pull herself free, but a wave of blinding pain shot through her, nearly overwhelming.
She couldn’t just lie there and let them close in. With a fierce, agonized cry, Amaris forced herself upright, gripping the rod and wrenching it from her shoulder in one brutal motion. Her vision blurred with pain, but she straightened her stance, sword in hand, just as the first Black Dog lunged. She swung with every ounce of strength she had, her blade slicing cleanly through the creature’s neck. Its head fell, its body crumpling before her, and she steadied herself, ready for the next, teeth gritted against the pain that threatened to pull her under.
The two creatures lunged, but Amaris made quick work of them. She sliced the first one’s head off, and as she dodged to avoid the second, she charged a ball of sizzling gold energy in her free hand and launched it at the Black Dog. The monster burst into sizzling ash upon contact, but the three dead hounds didn’t bring Amaris relief.
There were more of them.
Black Dogs.
Unseelie.
She saw flashes of golden light through the blizzard, wisps of orange flame and crimson electricity. The sound of clashing metal echoed not far ahead, and strained grunts and frustrated yells banished the silence.
It was that vampire—hewas fighting the Unseelie.
Amaris wasn’t going to waste the chance she now had.
With an anxious huff, she ran towards the jeep. She climbed inside, but as she was about to release the handbrake, a quiet, curious coo came from behind her. Amaris looked over her shoulder, and sitting there with blood and ash on its tiny face...was a baby. It stared at her, the golden and fiery flashes from within the blizzard reflecting in its big blue eyes. It wasn’t a vampire, so why was it in a vampire’s jeep?
Staring at the baby stirred something inside Amaris, a memory, a fragment of things she’d long forgotten when the Unseelie took her past from her. Whatever or whoever this baby reminded her of filled her with a desire to protect it, and to do that...she’d have to help that man kill the Unseelie.
Amaris felt frustrated, confused. She was in a jeep—it could take her all the way to Emberreach, and she could leave this godforsaken place, but the idea of leaving this baby made her feel sick. It made her heart ache. And a deep, harrowing sadness drowned her.
Why?
A massive explosion of flames and golden energy lit up the blizzard, and the baby started crying.
With an irritated grunt, Amaris got out of the jeep, closed the door, and hurried towards the battle, sword in hand. And the second she reached an Unseelie, who was distracted charging a ball of energy, she plunged her vendite blade through his chest. The man’s pained cry drowned out as he turned into stone, and when Amaris pulled her blade free, the statue burst into dust.
She then watched as the vampire sliced the head of an Unseelie off, but before he could turn, another Unseelie grabbed his throat and lifted him up off his feet. Amaris scowled and charged towards them; she stabbed her blade through the Unseelie’s chest, and as he turned to stone and ash, the vampire dropped to the icy ground with a thump.
“Look out!” he shouted.
Amaris spun on her heel, her blade slicing off the hands of the Unseelie who attempted to grab her. She then shifted her grip, her thumb pressing firmly against the intricate clasp set into the hilt of her sword. A sharp click echoed as the internal gears whirred to life, tiny cogs turning and releasing hidden mechanisms. The blade trembled slightly before splitting apart along its centreline, revealing a seamless transformation into two smaller, jagged-edged swords.
With her free hand, she grasped the newly formed second blade. Before the Unseelie could recover, she drove the weapon into his chest, the blade sinking deep. His body stiffened, and the fight left him in an instant as he crumpled to the ground. Amaris exhaled, her grip tightening on the dual swords as the faint hiss of escaping steam rose from the hilt.
But then a Black Dog burst out from the blizzard, colliding with her. She lost her grip on her swords as the bear-sized beast pinned her down on her back; she grunted and struggled, trying to hold back its snapping jaws. Her ethos wouldn’t work on this thing, and she needed both hands to keep it from grabbing her neck, so she couldn’t reach for her knives.
The vampire’s silver blade cut through the Black Dog’s head and burst out through its mouth, covering Amaris in its twisted, black blood. She wiped it from her face as the vampire shoved the corpse aside, but instead of helping her up, he pointed his sword at her throat. She scowled up at him, discreetly edging her hand towards her belt where she kept four of her knives.
“Who the hell are you?” the vampire growled. “Why did you kill your own?”
Her own? Those words made her feel disgusted. “They’re not my own,” she growled, gripping the hilt of one of her knives.
“You’re a fucking Unseelie,” he spat.
Amaris’ scowl thickened. “And you’re a fucking vampire. Why’s there a baby in your car?”
Confliction flickered across the vampire’s furious face. “That’s none of your business.”
He was distracted.
She grasped her chance and pushed his blade aside; she shot to her feet, grabbed his wrist with her free hand to keep him from using his sword, and then pinned him against a splintered wooden beam, pulling her knife from her belt and holding it to his throat.
The vampire breathed frantically, his face smothered with startle. And then he tried fighting, but all he could do was punch and grab with his free hand.
Amaris resisted his feeble attacks, though. “How did you survive my attack?” she questioned skeptically. “Nobody lives through Unseelie ethos.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but the roars of Black Dogs echoed from the woods.
More Unseelie were coming.
They glared at one another for a moment. Amaris’ heart raced, and the vampire’s conflicted stare thickened. She wanted to leave him and take his jeep, but for all she knew, that baby could be his—it could be relying solely on him. She’d not separate them.
“There’ll be more this time,” she told him. “We need to leave.”
“We?” he scoffed.
“I saved your life; the least you can do is drive me away from here,” she snapped.
He kept his scowl but didn’t waste time arguing. “Whatever. Get off me.”
Amaris let go and recovered her swords; she merged them back into one blade and sheathed it. As she then tucked her knife back into her belt, the vampire raced to his jeep, and she quickly followed. They climbed inside, and as he turned the car around and drove off towards the valley, Amaris looked over her shoulder and out the back window at the destroyed village. She’d put so much more distance between them and herself now that she was in a vehicle, but they’d eventually catch up.
They always did.
