She appears surprised to see me, but with a quick shake of her head, erases the look with cold indifference as she assesses me while I do the same to her.

She’s changed since the last time I saw her, dressed in a cloak, her pale skin even paler and tinted grey. Her eyes are flakes of withering ash, and her purple lips are cracked like embers. Her long, blonde hair and elegant height are the only features that haven’t altered. The only reason I can even recognize her at all is because of the necklace hanging around her neck with two vials attached to the end, each filled with Holden’s and my blood. She drew the blood from us when we were younger to prove that she was stronger than us—our blood is one of the most precious possessions to a vampire. Then she kept the blood to hold the power of us, to show that she could use our blood at any given moment to change a creature into one of us, something that isn’t done very lightly. But I’m sure you already understand that, considering what I’ve already told you.

As far as I’m aware, she hasn’t used our blood to create more vampires, but I’m sure the threat is about to come up in this conversation since her fingers instantly seek those vials.

“Aw, look, it’s a family reunion.” Her lips spread into a grin, revealing a set of black teeth.

“Mother, glad to see your body has taken so well to the Soul Realm.” Sarcasm oozes from my tone.

Her gaze sharpens as she lets out a hiss. “Glad to see you’re still a little disrespectful brat.” Lifting the bottom of her cloak, she moves across the grass and around the trees toward me. “I guess I didn’t lock you up for long enough. But that’s about to change.”

“You’re not locking me or Holden up,” I growl out. “And if you know what’s best for you, you’ll take your guards, back the hell away, and let us go.”

She rolls her eyes as she stops a few feet in front of us. “Take a look around you, Legend. You’re entirely outnumbered in an unfamiliar realm you were never supposed to be able to get into to begin with.” She eyes me over with a frown. “How did you get in here anyway?”

I seal my lips together and carry her gaze.

She sighs exhaustedly. “Fine, if that’s the way you want to play, then I guess let’s play.” Lifting her hand, she snaps her finger and her guards instantly charge for Holden and me.

Twelve against two isn’t that great of odds, but I’m not going down without a fight. As the first guard reaches me, I swing around and pierce my fangs into its shoulder. It howls out in pain as I steal a mouthful of its vile blood before pushing away. I spit the blood out immediately then dodge to the side as another guard scurries up behind me. I swing my fist around, but it ducks then barrels at me, crashing its head into my stomach. I wince from the impact and stagger back, only to slam into another guard. My gaze darts over to Holden who’s being restrained by three guards. And in the center of the madness, our mother watches with a smile on her face.

“Stake that one in the heart,” she orders with a nod in my direction. “But this one”—her gaze shifts to Holden—“he needs to stay alive. For now anyway.” With a swish of her cloak, she strolls toward Holden. “Now, darling, tell me what you did with my witch.”

Holden’s gaze collides with mine as a taller guard with broad shoulders moves in front of me, gripping a hand-carved stake.

“Don’t kill him,” Holden growls out, the vein bulging in his neck. “I swear to the gods, if you do, I’ll—”

“You won’t do anything.” Our mother presses her finger to his lips. “Don’t try to be braver than you are, son. We’ve both borne witness to your patheticness for the last couple decades.”

Holden pales. “N-none of that was by ch-choice.”

Her brow arches. “Wasn’t it?”

His body quivers, and the guards holding him laugh. “Y-yes.”

A growl rips from my chest as Holden begins to stutter. When we were younger, he used to do that constantly when our mother would talk down to him, cut him off, or verbally abuse him, which was every single day.

Every single day we put up with her torture. Her mind games. Obeying her every command only for her to beat us even when we did exactly what she demanded. I dreamt of fighting back so many times, but our mom has been around for a very, very long time, and Holden and I were young vampires at the time.

In the vampire world, ancient equals strength. The older you are, the more powerful. Even now, Holden and I may not be able to take her. Then again, whatever she did to become the reaper queen has clearly affected her, at least on the outside anyway.

“K-kill me instead,” Holden chokes out. “A-and let Legend go. He’s not even p-part of this.”

Our mother rolls her eyes. “Like you even know what this is. You’re too stupid to figure it out. Always have been.”

“Shut your fucking mouth.” I throw my weight forward, attempting to slip loose from the guards.

Her nostrils flare as she narrows her eyes on me. “Did you just tell me to shut up? Me, your mother?”

“You aren’t our mother!” I growl. “You may have given birth to us, but you have never, ever been a mother. You abused us for decades and for what? To make yourself feel powerful.”

Her hollow laugh sends a chill throughout my body. “You’re just as stupid as your brother. Do you really think I did what I did to you and Holden simply because I wanted to feel powerful?” She stops just short of me and shoves the guard holding the stake out of her way, a smile twisting at her lips. “Everything I’ve done has been for a reason, from my decision to become queen here to convincing the reaper king to keep Holden alive.”

The gleeful look in her eyes has me severely uneasy. When angry, our mother is scary enough. When happy, she’s downright horrifying and any creature around her should run away.

“I bet you’re wondering what I’m up to.” She snaps her fingers and large wolves of various colors emerge from the trees.

Fuck.

The largest wolf of the pack runs forward and shifts into a human, naked form, which is awkward for about two seconds until I realize who he is.

Around middle-aged with dark hair and blue eyes stands Julian, the werewolf king of the Violet Mountain pack.

“So, this is your son, huh?” He crosses his arms and studies me with his head tilted to the side. “I know you.”

“Well, I do have an awesome reputation.” I grin despite my internal shakiness.

If he figures out who I am, that I know Lake and his son, he’s going to torture me to try to get their location. I won’t give it to him, though. Thanks to our mother, I have a high endurance for pain. Still, that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.

“No, it’s not that.” He drums his finger along his lips with his arms folded. “You’ve been to my kingdom before.” His brows suddenly lift, the corners of his lips pulling upward. “You’re friends with my son.”

Mom slants her head to the side. “Just what have you been up to, son? Hanging out with werewolves?”

“You’re doing the same thing,” I bite out, wrestling to get my arms away from the guards.

“I know, but I have a good reason.” She rubs her lips together, contemplating. “The question is: what is your reasoning?”

I dramatically smash my lips together, making a show of my silence.

She shrugs. “If that’s the way you want to play, then I guess I’ll have to keep you alive for a bit longer.” She glances at two shorter guards. “Go fetch my king and tell him our guest of honor has arrived.”

I wonder if she means me or Julian.

Doesn’t really matter, since her reaper king is gone.

I should keep my lips shut. Let her be surprised by this revelation. But just once I want to take her off guard, want the upper hand.

“Oh, yes, please do go get your reaper king,” I say smugly. “I’m quite curious myself where he went to after we drank his veins dry.”

A roaring wave of anger ripples through her. Then her lips part, releasing the most blood-curdling scream into the forest. Her reaction surprises me. My mother has never shown any sign of caring about anything. Did she actually manage to fall in love with the reaper king?

“You’re going to pay for hurting him.” Her fangs materialize, as black as the rest of her teeth. Then she angles her head back, preparing to sink her teeth into my neck. If she does, she’ll drink me dry—I can see the untamed need in her eyes. “But just so you know, the reaper king isn’t dead.”

I tense. “What do you mean?”

She leans into my face. “I mean, he can’t die just yet. Not with all the souls he’s been feasting on lately.”

Worry creeps through me. “If that’s true, then why did I just see him evaporate?”

“Because you weakened him. But he’ll be back to get his revenge.” She digs her fingernails into my flesh. “But don’t worry, you won’t be around when he returns.”

I throw my weight forward as she grabs my hair and tilts my head back, trying to flee.

“Oh no, you’re going to watch me do this,” she breathes out. “And I’m going to do it slowly.”

The wolves begin to turn away and slink back into the trees. Julian stays, though, while Holden shouts out for our mother to stop. But she only laughs before spearing her teeth into my neck.

Getting drank from by a vampire can be either pleasant or extremely painful, depending on what the vampire is feeling at the time the biting takes place. Right now, pain tears through my veins, searing hot, melting me from the inside out. I can feel every drop of her anger, every speck of her hatred for me. I’d believe she felt that way because of what I did to the reaper king, but sadly, she hated me before this.

I never understood why. Why she despised me and Holden so greatly. I wish I got to find out before I died; wish I got an explanation of why we had to suffer for all those years.

But my only answer is the raging hatred burning through my body.

Burning me to death.