“Ezra, Cia. Lights damn it, open the door!”

I sit up in bed. Ezra is already pulling on his trousers. He looks at me, a worried expression on his face. It’s been two days since the Joining ceremony and we weren’t due back to the hamlet until tomorrow, yet Rhain is banging on our door today. It isn’t a good sign.

“What do you think is wrong?” I ask, a sudden fear pooling in my chest. Ezra and I have spent the last couple of days wrapped in each other’s arms, enjoying getting to know each other better in the confines of these four walls. It would seem that bliss is about to come to an end.

“Don’t panic. It could be anything,” Ezra says, although I don’t think he believes his words any more than I do. He rushes over to me and presses a kiss against my forehead. “I’ll just let Rhain in, okay.”

Jumping out of bed, I gather my clothes and pull them on. I’m still not used to wearing dresses, but this one is far more practical than any of the others I now own and more like the style of the dresses the other common folk wear day to day. Nostra had magicked up some pretty elaborate dresses that looked like they should be worn by princesses. They really aren’t my style.

Stepping out into the main living area, I see Rhain and Ezra talking animatedly outside. Rhain looks scared, terrified even, and I can see that Ezra is trying to calm him down.

“What’s going on?” I ask, stepping out into the night air. It feels far colder this evening than it has the whole time I’ve been in Ever Vale.

Rhain scrapes a hand through his hair.

“It’s Devin…” he starts.

“What about Devin?” I say sharply.

Rhain looks at Ezra. Ezra looks from him to me.

“Spit it out!” This isn’t good. They are scared. Devin. I reach out to him through our connection, but there is nothing but silence. DEVIN, I shout this time. Silence. “He’s not answering, I think the Binding has finally worn off. One of you needs to tell me what is wrong, and you need to tell me right now,” I demand.

“People are dead, Cia.”

“What do you mean, dead?” I look between Rhain and Ezra, confusion furrowing my brow.

“I called upon Devin earlier this evening. His door was left open. I smelt the blood before I saw the bodies.”

“Bodies?” I say, my voice quavering.

“Three women, all of them had their throats torn out,” Rhain says, reaching for me. I flinch away from him.

“No,” I say, holding my hand up, a sick feeling rising in my stomach. “Just because there were bodies in his house, it doesn’t mean Devin did it. Devin told me he hasn’t taken blood directly from a person for weeks now. Why would he suddenly go on a killing spree.”

“Accacia, Devin has always found it hard to control his bloodlust. We think his choice to refrain from taking blood from the vein caught up with him, sent him into a frenzy.”

“Rubbish. I refuse to believe Devin would do such a thing. I don’t think he’s capable of it. I can’t believe you’ve already played judge and jury, Rhain,” I accuse angrily.

“This isn’t the first time this has happened. Devin has a troubled past,” Ezra says, taking a step closer to me.

I hold my hand up, not wanting to believe him. Then I remember the conversation we had in the club when Devin confessed he’d killed people, and more recently, the strange dark looks and the weird murkiness of his soul. The churning in my stomach worsens. Why hadn’t I said something earlier? But even though I know all this, even though he had told me how he struggled before, something just isn’t sitting right with me. This isn’t the Devin I know, this isn’t the Devin who has shared his soul with me. Something more is going on here.

“But neither of you are taking blood from the vein,” I say, trying to understand why it would be any different for Devin. Well, except when Ezra bit my thigh the night of our Joining ceremony. That had been part of our lovemaking, it wasn’t the same as taking blood to feed. Ezra still has to do that. It is why we have a supply of blood with us now, all stacked in neat rows on the kitchen shelf. I know Devin. I have felt the goodness of his soul.

“Devin has always struggled…” Rhain starts, but I cut him off.

“Perhaps, once upon a time he might not have been able to control himself, but he isn’t a murderer. I refuse to believe it.”

“Cia, I’m sorry. It’s hard to believe, I know…”

“No. This isn’t him. Devin isn’t that person anymore. I know it.”

Devin, are you there? Tell me where you are. Tell me you didn’t do it. I reach out in the hope he can still hear me. Damn it, Devin, please answer me. I am met with silence. Cold, still silence.

“The bloodlust is all-consuming, Accacia. Once it takes over it is easy to lose your humanity. Devin won’t care about anything. The only thing he will care about is his next feed. Even if he hears you, he won’t answer. Believe me, I have tried…” Rhain’s voice trails off. He glances at Ezra.

“What aren’t you saying?” I ask.

“There’s something else,” Rhain stalls, his eyes flickering to Ezra. “Ilana was seen leaving Devin’s cottage a few hours before I found the bodies. She had puncture wounds on her neck, Cia…”

“And?” I demand.

Ezra presses his fingers against his eyes. “She’s disappeared alongside Devin. We think he’s returned to the castle… with her.”

“With Ilana?”

“Yes.”

“That bitch,” I say, unable to hold back the venom in my voice.

“You think she has something to do with this?” Ezra asks, levelling his gaze on me.

“I don’t think it, I know it.” I remember the way she looked at me the night Devin took me to the Light fields. It had concerned me then, but circumstances had meant I hadn’t time to think about it. There was hate in her eyes when she looked at me, and ownership when she looked at Devin.

“Tell me, before Devin decided to stop feeding directly from a person, who did he feed most from?” I know the answer, but I wait for them to confirm it to me.

“Ilana,” Rhain confirms, his gaze flicking to Ezra.

“I would bet my life she has something to do with this.”

“What are you thinking?” Ezra asks.

“Devin stopped taking blood a few weeks back, around the time we returned from the Forbidden forest. He said that Ilana was bringing him blood for him to consume. Before that he drank from her…. It is pleasurable to be bitten by a vampire, right? Could it not be that Ilana has done something, said something to make Devin take blood from her again? If she had feelings for him then it could be possible?”

“Devin isn’t easily persuaded, Cia. He is stronger than that. No one has the power to make him do anything he doesn’t wish to do.”

“Unless…” I look at Ezra, a sudden thought occurring. “Ezra, get the horses. We’re going back to the hamlet. I need to speak with Nostra.”

“What is it?”

“Just get the damn horses,” I say, rushing back inside to get my coat.

* * *

“Sit down, Accacia. Tell us what you are thinking,” Nostra says as the chair slides out in front of me. I sit down heavily, the cold night air still lingering across my skin. Mr Tickle jumps up into my lap with a loud meow, then settles himself down, padding gently. Ezra and Rhain sit either side of me.

“Devin has a tattoo of a rose on his back. It’s exactly the same as the rose on my arm. Or at least it was until fairly recently.”

“Yes, I remember. He told me about it a long time ago. When I saw your tattoo, I thought it interesting.” Nostra taps his finger against the table.

“When you say until fairly recently, what do you mean?” Ezra asks.

I look between the three men. “Devin’s rose is losing its petals. He showed me it the evening of our Joining. A couple of petals have fallen away. It worried me, so he said he would speak with you, Nostra,” I say, turning to him. “Did he?”

“No, he didn’t,” Nostra responds, getting up and moving around the table towards me. He bends down beside my chair. “May I?” he asks, his hands hovering over the tattoo on my arm.

“Sure.”

“In the Fae city, Solomon drew this tattoo, didn’t he?” Nostra’s fingers are moving over my arm as though he is searching for something.

“Yes. Devin told me that Solomon drew his tattoo as well.”

“Tell me, Accacia,” Nostra says, standing. “Exactly how did you get into the fae realm beneath the Forbidden forest?”

I explain to Nostra what took place, the fireflies dancing by the tree in the forest, the doorway appearing in its bark, the stairs going downwards, the stone room, the dais, the carvings on the doors. All of it. Once I finish he sits back, considering me for a moment.

“That’s very interesting indeed. I did not enter the fae realm this way. A portal appeared to me, and I walked straight through it. This place you entered by, it is unknown to me. Did you choose the door with the rose carved upon it?”

“I tried them all. I didn’t really choose. The door with the rose was the only one that opened.”

“That’s where you are mistaken, Accacia. Five doors to enter. Five different flowers. A five-sided room. Five sisters. I do not profess to know the purpose of that room or why it is beneath the Fae woods of all places, but it is significant. That door opened because of your affinity with the rose. I suspect it is no coincidence that Solomon carved that flower onto your skin, that Devin had it carved onto his all those years ago. It’s all connected.”

“If the rose is so significant, why does only Devin have the tattoo, and not either of us?” Ezra asks. “I am assuming he has it because of the prophecy? Are we not one of Accacia’s three as well?”

“Of course you are,” I say sharply. “This has to mean something else. Something we are missing.”

“Why Solomon? Why did he draw it? He gave me this tattoo.” Rhain says, pulling the collar of his t-shirt back slightly, revealing more of the swirling, black tattoo that runs across his left shoulder and down his arm.

“These are all questions only Solomon can answer. Perhaps he had magic before he even became fae. It is not unheard of to be blessed in such a way.”

“Okay, so assuming Solomon holds some kind of magic, a magic that existed prior to the curse, we still don’t know why only Devin has the tattoo,” Rhain persists.

Nostra sits forward in his chair, pointing at Rhain. “You Claimed Accacia with your body. That was the driving force behind your connection, was it not?”

“Yes, but…” Rhain starts. Nostra turns to Ezra.

“You, Ezra, you made a choice to let go of your past, to join with Accacia. You made your mind up. You chose to open your heart again.” Nostra turns his attention to me. “It is no coincidence that Devin has the same tattoo, that he shared his soul with you to help you through your difficulties with Rhain. Later, you recounted the Binding when you saved him from the fae city. You are connected by your souls, or at least you should be. The tattoos you both wear are an external representation of that. That is your destiny with Devin, that is what Solomon must have foreseen, that is why you both have the tattoo. Mind, Body & Soul. Once they are consummated by the act of making love, it is fixed. This is the key.”

“Lights be damned,” Ezra says.

“It is the only explanation.” Nostra leans back in his chair. “When did Devin start losing the petals?”

“He said it started a few days after we returned from the Forbidden forest.”

“And he stopped taking blood from the vein around the same time?” Nostra asks.

“Yes, that’s right,” I confirm.

“Where are you going with this, Nostra?” Ezra asks.

The same place I went, I think. But I don’t say that out loud. I wait to see if Nostra comes to the same conclusion as me.

“This girl, Ilana, who has also gone missing. He used to drink from her?” Nostra questions.

“We both did, yes. Devin more so than I,” Rhain says.

“And Ilana, was she the one bringing Devin blood by chance?”

“Yes,” I confirm.

“The blood-letting can be intensely pleasurable for the blood-giver. It can stir up feelings of lust, desire and quite often, false feelings of love. Ilana, who once fed Devin and Rhain, has been rebuked by both since your arrival, Accacia. Jealousy is indeed a very powerful emotion. The only way for her to get Devin to feed again would be to draw out the beast within him. Ilana must have put something in the blood she was giving him.”

“Lights damn it,” Ezra swears.

“Of the three of you, Devin found it the hardest to transition to his new life after a curse, did he not? And of the three of you, he is the only one who has not yet lain with Accacia.”

Ezra nods his head in confirmation, whilst my cheeks blush furiously.

“Why would that make a difference?” I ask, avoiding eye-contact with Rhain and Ezra.

“A coming together of bodies is a powerful magic in itself; combined with the other sacred acts of Clan Lux it would have been impossible for Ilana to sway either Rhain or Ezra.

“With Rhain you underwent the Claiming, an unusual and unbreakable bond amongst Clan Lux’s people. With Ezra you had already tasted each other’s blood and therefore already performed the Joining, which is only breakable by death. The ceremony I performed just made your Joining recognisable to the people of Clan Lux.”

“Hold on a minute,” I say, rubbing my fingers against my head. “But what of the Binding? Devin and I have swapped blood, have swapped a piece of our soul. That must count for something?”

“Only if the Binding is made permanent. Both times you merged blood, it was on a temporary basis. Given you have not yet lain together, Devin was the easiest target.”

“Okay, so she’s poisoning him. With what? And why would a poison make Devin murder people. Why would it not just make him take their blood… Ripping someone’s throat out is extreme.” I try to push away the thought that Devin had murdered those people. I can’t correlate the man I know with such a monster. I feel my heart break a little at the thought.

“I agree, Accacia. What exactly?”

“The fae,” Ezra says. “We escaped from the Forbidden forest. If that is not a reason to want to poison one of us, I don’t what is. The fae king knew of the prophecy. It wouldn’t take much to work out that Accacia is one of the sisters, that we are her three. The fae king only needs to stop one of the sisters from fulfilling their part of the prophecy, then life will remain as it is, and more importantly he can remain ruler of the fae realm.”

“That’s it. The petals are falling because Ilana is poisoning Devin’s soul, making him forget who he is and forcing him to become the monster he once was,” Nostra says, his fist slamming onto the table.

“She forgets one thing,” I say, standing.

“What’s that?” Nostra asks.

“Me. He is my soulmate and I’ll be damned if some twisted fae king and one psychotic bitch will take him away from us.”

I stand, looking between the three men. “Let’s get Devin back.”