Lady Collfumes' POV

  I washed my face with water, staring at the blood-drenched woman reflected in the pond. I wished it were lava pooling beneath my hands, something scalding enough to scrape away this inhumane skin. When I saw Skadar, every instinct screamed no, yet my hunger betrayed me.

  I had refused to tell Felipe whether death awaited him in the near future. I couldn't see it clearly, and he would never believe that my sight had limits. The dream was a confusion of shapes and sensations, blurry and suffocating to even glimpse. A vision my mind couldn't fathom, like peering into a black hole from several stars away.

  As a result, he bludgeoned me without hesitation. My bruises healed in that supernatural way they always did, but the pain lingered.

  I groaned as the memory struck again.

  I don't want to be hurt about it. Just stay detached and I'll survive this all. Until I find Aria Windcore, I'll endure any obstacle placed before me.

  First and foremost: Laura Windcore. She's alive, has been alive all this time. She was supposed to be dead, executed and buried.

  And days ago, she had been the one punishing me. I was unable to recognize who I was anymore. The only thing running through my mind was when I would get food. I've had restless nights and nightmares ever since, visions bleeding into reality whenever I fainted.

  It was a land dressed in bloodshed. Whether it was prophecy or hunger-induced delirium, I couldn't tell.

  Ashes surrounded us, and the endless abyss of a sky, if it even existed here, was inhabited by cawing crows.

  I wore no chains, no handcuffs, because Laura could cast any spell on me through my choker, the one she played with between her delicate fingers. My husband's present to me, before he vanished.

  I washed my face again, and with each stride toward her, I discreetly hid mounds of ash inside my mouth. I had always practiced discipline because of Laura's Puppeteer's Magic, training myself to move in the margins of her control.

  "Done cleansing, Celestia?" Laura said, followed by a chuckle.

  I nodded out of self-preservation.

  "Good dingo. Now, hurry up and go with the troops. Attack the Dancing Island. They're still there in their camp," she smiled. "Lots of free prey."

  A group of vampires came forward, their piercings symbolizing their rejection of humanity, their pale skin glittering in the faint light.

  I'm not a mindless follower. I'm the Dream Seer of Glacia.

  Last night, I received a vision of where Aria is, and I cannot let this opportunity slip away.

  I covered my mouth and opened it, dumping the mound of ashes onto my palm, and threw it at Laura's face.

  I lunged for my choker, the one she had accidentally dropped, and flew away.

  Laura dodged most of my attack, but it still struck her shoulder. She spat curses as she rubbed it off, a look of disgust crossing her porcelain face.

  I flew as fast as I could, but the vampires were still able to reach me, throwing metal discs that sliced into my skin.

  "Traitor!" a man yelled.

  "Let's feed on her," a female vampire hissed.

  I took a roundabout through the rocky spires of Nocturne, which could fatally injure me if I collided with any of them at this speed. I had to lose them somehow. As I landed and sprang from a platform, I swung around and glided toward a tunnel I'd glimpsed in my vision.

  Despite my quick regeneration, I could still feel the anticipation, the dread coiling in my chest, so I closed my eyes as gravity pulled me into uncertainty. Stinging pain shot through my foot. The pointed ends of crystals.

  Shit. I don't know how to transform into a bat. Now I'm facing the difficulty of wandering through this cramped cave, forced to bend my spine just to navigate the obstacles pressing in from all sides.

  A distorted howl came, followed by the shrill scratching of stones, stepping closer in rhythm with my heartbeat.

  That crawling vampire. I'd heard that Laura had experimented on him long before he turned, messing with his brain in ways that twisted him into something else entirely.

  I quickly rolled toward an abyss, hoping it would be safer than the monster chasing me. I fell onto something soft, as though the heavens themselves were waiting to catch me.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Then I felt hairy, slender limbs clutching my body. Uncountable deep red eyes watched with satisfaction, and I realized where I'd landed: the chamber of a gigantic spider. Hundreds of cocoons hung from threads of silk, some decaying, others reduced to skeletons where pulsing skin once lived.

  The spider turned its back on me and started wrapping me in cobweb. I couldn't harm it. This was the known toxic spider. One slash, one drop of its blood, and I would be poisoned.

  The dry cave walls reminded me of the catacombs where Laura's supposed body must rest beneath her grave.

  A flash of movement. The crawling vampire. He gritted his teeth at the spider, seething, threatening. I didn't survive battering and thirst only to be torn apart by an inhumane being.

  He tore through the cobwebs that trapped him and wound his way closer to us.

  A twinge of pain shot through me. He had bitten my hand, piercing through the cobweb.

  "There's something deadly to a vampire other than sunlight," a deep woman's voice rang from the cave.

  I thought it was only my inner voice surfacing, the thought I'd been about to form, but it was the spider who had spoken.

  A spray of venom erupted from her fangs, resulting in the vampire's high-pitched cry. It spread quickly from his sternum across his entire body, melting him gradually until he was nothing.

  I looked up at the spider. She was one of the talking animals, a descendant of those living beings granted speech by a Dreamer's Magic user long ago.

  She removed the web wrapped around me.

  "Go out. Now," she demanded, "before I change my mind."

  I flew up toward the open boulder above, and there I found an empty mine cart. Just as I boarded it, the two other vampires landed behind me. I gave them a middle finger as the cart sped up, carrying me away just in time.

  ***

  Two moons had passed, and I finally reached the Fresha Kingdom. It was a long way from the southwest to the middle east. I would have arrived sooner if only I were immune to sunlight.

  I finally had fresh air after so long in that ash-barren land. Along my journey, I only fed on small animals to sustain myself, but still, I hated myself for killing them. It did little for me, and their blood tasted horrible.

  I picked a grape from a tree and ate it. All of a sudden, I threw up the remains, my stomach twisting with sickness. Being a vampire isn't cool or badass like the legends tell. It's the worst race that ever existed.

  I saw a basket from the vineline moving toward the Plant Palace. I flew and held onto the bottom of it, shielding myself from the harsh sunlight.

  There, I landed beneath the garden trees as the basket stopped.

  I peeked through the glass window pane and found Callum Windcore, the brother of Aria Windcore. The Plant King spoke with elegance, matching the enthusiasm of the Light King beside him. He had youthful cloud-white hair, despite being a century old already. I think they were discussing the founding day of Finnian.

  I searched the palace's structure, looking for an opening where I wouldn't be struck by sunlight and wouldn't be spotted by the palace staff.

  I sniffed blood. Delicious. And in a matter of moments, I felt my nails slice through flesh, my fangs sinking into warm skin. It didn't matter what happened. There was only one certainty: it was exhilarating.

  No. I've killed an innocent being. Shit, shit, shit. I slapped myself to remind myself of my goal, why I was here. I didn't come this far only to start feeding on humans.

  I left the gardener's corpse on the grassy mud.

  A jade balustrade two floors above glinted in the light. The ledge was also protected by a neighboring leaf from a giant tree nearby.

  I flew toward it and landed on the balls of my feet. With a push of my leg, I sprinted into the hallway, searching for the room where the Windcore family portrait was hidden. It was the only painting of them that existed, so it must have been secured well.

  I caught the doorknob of a door where my instincts told me the storage room lay, and my jaw fell open at the scene.

  Carrie sitting in a rocking chair, her eyes open, irises pale, staring into nothing. A dish with food that once would have tasted good to me sat on the slim vertical table in front of her, untouched.

  I felt the agitation rising, acid pooling in my mouth again. I shut the door and ran as far from that thing as I could. I felt worse than before. It was like I had prevented myself from eating the final piece of cake, a flash of it in my mind: crimson red filling and white cream, the syrup dripping and turning into blood.

  Then I caught a familiar photo on the wall. Callum and Aria, with baby Aerol in her hands. But there was something off with this portrait. Something missing. The spot in the corner where Laura should have been beside Callum had been erased.

  I pressed my palm on that area, pressuring it, as if Laura might pull me toward it.

  In the speed of light, I was entranced within the portrait. I stood on icy ground: Glacia Kingdom. But it wasn't the same one from the present. It looked different, entitled by its own grace. Glacians with warm looks on their faces despite the cold, bold enough to show off their culture. This was during King Aether's reign.

  The beginning after the end of the harsh medieval era, and the calm generation before the storm. The time when Ice Technology was invented, when Glacia was the coolest and most advanced kingdom in the world. Oh, how nostalgic it is.

  It really was enchanted. Aria Windcore had been sealed here all along. Wasn't she?

  I saw a familiar man emerge from the luxury merchandise shop called Diamondaze. He had dark blue hair and a youthful, generous face, one you would assume belonged to the hero of the century. Domestan Glaciouso during his peak. A bold young man, able to seduce many girls in Glacia.

  He didn't notice me and continued with his errands, a pouch clutched in his heavy fist.

  There, at the archery range, was Aria Windcore. She threw an apple into the air and shot straight through it, pinning the arrow and the pierced fruit to the target's central point.

  Good thing I didn't feel any hunger toward humans here, but I was feeling a predatory pull toward Aria. She was real and living a past on repeat. A never-ending cycle of drama and conflict.

  This is horribly messed up. Laura must have been on opium when she used her magic.

  The scent of iron didn't stop. I can't mess up here. Not now.

  "M'lady, you're looking gorgeous today. May I borrow your time for a while?"

  "And what makes you think I'd answer that futile question?" She rolled her sky-blue eyes and shot another arrow.

  "One last conversation, please? Before my expedition to Finnian." He pleaded with puppy eyes.

  "Get out of here and go to the brothel. You only want my body." She squinted her eyes at him, her white curls flowing elegantly. "I've heard rumors that you're a womanizer, and I've read the letters you received from other women. A heartbreaker and a deal breaker."

  But no, her values wouldn't matter anymore for what was to come.

  I suddenly lost my appetite and started grinding my teeth. This was the day Domestan proposed to Aria, and the day he dodged the bullet of the Glaciouso Massacre.