Chapter 14

• Diamante left shortly after helping me into the dress, promising that someone would come for me soon. I nodded, too numb to respond properly, my thoughts still tangled in her parting words. I sat on the edge of the bed, pressing my palm to my chest where my heart pounded like a warning drum. Why would Gosto say something like that? Declaring someone he’d just claimed as a slave as Lady of the House it was absurd. Not that I wanted to be treated like a slave, but none of it made sense.
• The more I replayed Diamante’s words in my mind, the more a quiet dread coiled in my gut. Should I be proud of myself for not losing my sanity yet? In the past few days if I didn’t count the three I’d spent unconscious everything I knew about reality had been turned inside out. Vampires were real. That alone would’ve been enough to tip the balance. But now, I was in an entirely different world, one far removed from mortality, bound by rules I hadn’t even begun to understand. I’d been judged, sentenced, enslaved, and branded. Most people would’ve broken. But I was still here calmly, or somewhat calmly, waiting for answers. Maybe I wasn’t as fragile as I thought. Maybe I was adapting better than I gave myself credit for.
• A soft knock at the door made my heart leap to my throat. I was already on my feet before I even registered moving. A young woman stood in the hallway, dressed in a crisp black-and-white servant’s uniform. She bowed with a respectful smile.