Kahli’s jaw was locked, her mouth had gone dry. She wanted to see the expression on Will’s face. She wanted to know if the sensation creeping over her flesh was imaginary or if there was good reason for it. His eyes would tell her, but she didn’t dare look away.

The King blinked once and turned toward Will, “Tell her that her newest trinket won on both accounts and that Alice was purged today.” A think brunette standing next to Missy blanched. Her lower lip began to tremble, but no one comforted her. No one offered her an embrace, or defended her. Wide-eyed she looked at Kahli, terrified. The king continued, ignoring Alice’s horror, “I think feasting is in order. And my prize to the girl is anything she wants.” He turned back toward Kahli, “Anything.”

Kahli arched a brow at him, “Anything?”

The king placed his hands behind his back, smiling a smirk that was utterly attractive. “You’ll find that most monarchs will never make such a generous offer, but…” he looked up at her emerald eyes, “I’m curious as to what you’ll choose. Will it be your freedom? Will it be the location of a loved one?” He spoke as if he knew, as if there were information about her Mother. His words felt like a lash across her face. How did he know about her mother? Her lips parted, shocked. Surely he was lying. Kahli didn’t think that she would be permitted to just walk out either, so that meant he was lying about her mother as well.

As if the King could read her thoughts, he said, “My other half is not so gracious and I would think she’d be rather annoyed with me for releasing you, but if that is what you chose, that is what you will have. I will deal with the consequences and the Queen. Now,” he stood perfectly straight, his eyes cutting between the vampires next to him and Kahli. “What do you ask?”

There were many things she never expected, many things that came to pass that weren’t part of the plan. But this. His offer made her speechless. Kahli’s jaw moved, but no sound came out.

Freedom.

The thought lifted a cloud that had been smothering her since her arrival. All the things she’d lost would be hers again. But could she ever truly be free after living here? Would this time haunt her for the rest of her life, even if she evaded the Trackers for eternity? Somehow, she didn’t think so. Freedom would be tainted now. She owed Cole and didn’t want to leave Cassie. That was something tied to the other end of her freedom. No, she didn’t think she would ever be free again, not with the people she grew to care about still confined at the palace. Her stomach twisted when she realized Will was among those people.

His other offer was equally tempting—she could find out where her mother was—if she was still alive. It’d been over ten years since her mother’s hand forced her into the frozen thicket and Kahli had to move onto the next safe house alone. She spent a decade thinking she was an orphan, but the king spoke like she wasn’t. Could it be true? Was she alive? It was every hope and fear colliding together. The selfish part of Kahli wanted her mother to be alive, but that meant she’d spent a decade in captivity, being drained by bloodsucking leeches like the king. And if she wasn’t in the palace, they weren’t as kind. Kind, she almost laughed at the thought. It was considered kindness to kill your prey slowly here. Other places in this frozen Hell didn’t provide that luxury. They struck and humans died. There was no waiting, no slowly succumbing to death. If her mother had been alive for a decade in some vamp farm, she would have been miserable the entire time. Kahli’s stomach clenched. If she knew where her mother was, she could free her. She could ask for her release. But was it too risky? What if the king was lying and knew nothing of her mother? What if it was a trick to expose Kahli’s weakness?

Kahli’s heart raced as fast as her mind, sprinting wildly as she tried to figure out what to do. Her gaze landed on Will, and she could feel the sadness flow from him like she’d already left. It startled her to see that expression on his face, the melancholy slouch of his shoulders, the vacant gaze to his eyes. Kahli thought that she was nothing but an annoyance to him. Why would he care if she left? Her gaze dropped to the floor and she swallowed hard. Maybe Will did care. Maybe he didn’t. This wasn’t the time to consider his affections.

Deep in her gut, Kahli knew that there was only one reason why she grabbed the flag, and only one reason why she risked her neck to get it. Therefore, there was only one request she would make tonight.

Clearing her throat, she looked up. Kahli raised her eyes to meet the King, “I know what I want.”

“Then ask,” his placid smile was intimidating, but she wouldn’t be swayed.

“I want you to spare Alice’s life… I want you to skip the Purging this year.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

For a moment no one spoke. Thick silence crept over her skin as she stared at the King. Except for a twitch of his brow, his gaze barely changed. Chaos erupted, and it was like she dropped a pack of wolves in the room. Vampires and humans alike were shocked. Audible gasps came from the humans, but the vamps in the room were louder, more confident of their station. Their voices were loud and cut through the chatter, stating their displeasure with Kahli’s request. As the sounds echoed around her, Kahli didn’t move. It felt like she was locked inside a glass dome with the King. It didn’t matter what was happening around her, what they said—how their indignant voices grew louder—the King made a promise. If Kahli learned anything from her time in the palace it was that the vampires valued their word. If they said they would do something, they did. They King offered her a gift and, according to the enraged vampires surrounding them, this was a hideous misuse of such a precious present. She’d pay for it, that much was clear.

Kahli’s gaze was locked on the King. He looked at her with an unreadable expression on his face. The King’s eyes moved over Kahli like he was considering her request. He knew he couldn’t offer anything and then withdraw the offer because he didn’t approve of the girl’s choice. And she didn’t know about the Purging. Speaking of it to newlings was forbidden.

Kahli could feel Will’s eyes from across the room boring a hole into her head, but she wouldn’t turn.

The King’s voice was so soft that only Kahli could hear over the chatter in the room, “If that is truly your request, then it will be done. The girl will live. Are you certain you wish to spend your reward so frivolously?”

Kahli’s fingers clenched tightly at her sides. Alice was like Cassie—disposable. “Life is not frivolous, Your Majesty.” She bit off the last two words, her body shivering with rage. “Your kind is utterly foolish if they cannot see how their lack of value for other living things has affected them so far. The world has died and been buried in an icy tomb. Your only source of nutrients has died with it. If you didn’t force humans into camps like prisoners, if you let them be, this wouldn’t have happened.”

She’d said too much, but she couldn’t stop. Once Kahli started the words just flew out of her mouth, uncalled. They’d burnt a hole in her tongue since she was a child, since she understood how the vampires devastated her kind. If humans were left wild, like her family had been, humanity would have had a chance. But now their blood was so intermingled that is was poisoned by aliments that couldn’t be corrected. There was no way to undo the damage that was cast by that one decision.

And the Purging was another devastating decision meant to ensure the vampire race survived, even when there were only a handful of humans left. The Purging strengthened the remaining human’s blood by forcing a survival of the fittest on a group of people who didn’t know the first thing about survival. It wasn’t fair, and it didn’t work. Weeding out the weak would not help the strong to survive. If anything, it only made the gene pool smaller and smaller. Kahli’s eyes narrowed into slits, her breathing hard. She couldn’t cover the fury bubbling beneath the surface.

The King saw it. Whenever he looked at that girl, he was intrigued by her curves and coloring, but the decision she just made rendered him speechless. There was no word for what she’d done. He offered her information on her mother. He offered her freedom and a new life. She could have asked for both, and demanded his protection, and he would have granted it—but she didn’t. The insane girl requested he spare a weaker member of her race, one that should have died long ago, one who was sheltered by other humans who tried to keep her alive.

The King turned to Will, and a hush fell over the room. He knew what he had to say, but this would not be the end of it. He’d see to that. “William, Amend my statement about Alice. Apparently she’ll be with us another year.” The King glanced at Kahli out of the corner of his eye, his hand rubbing his chin, his head cocked like she was odd. “There are few who have ever truly shocked me. You stole the other team’s supplies to win… and then you risked your life to save theirs. You damned them, and then saved them. Yet, they’ve done nothing for you. That group would have skinned you and left you in the cold, if they weren’t afraid of bleeding to death while they did it.” He shook his head, as if he didn’t understand, while sliding his hands into his pockets. Glancing up at her he added, “Then you turn around and give that girl her life back. Truly shocking behavior.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Kahli thought the blood would never flow back into her fingertips. They felt numb for so long and then when she first arrived at the palace with Cole, everything was beyond stressful. Bending her fingers over and over again, Kahli tried to get the blood pumping.

Will walked next to her, glancing over at her. “Are you going to let me help you?” he asked, glancing over at her. She was so damn stubborn. He was forbidden from telling her about the Purging, although he nearly broke that oath to warn her. Cassie hushed him and promised to tell Kahli what she needed to know. Will was certain that he was going to lose her again, but Kahli managed to surprise him. The King wasn’t the only one who was shocked at her request. Since Kahli arrived, she was a loner. The only person she spoke to was Cassie, but Will didn’t think she was loyal to anyone. He didn’t know what drove her to that decision, but he admired her for it.