The sounds of my sisters arriving to the banquet echoed up the stairs and died once they crossed the threshold of my bed chambers.

Cold, like winter itself taking root within me, crept through my veins as Nocti finished his drink.

When the nights grew late and all of my loves had fallen asleep, when I was alone in my bed with nothing to distract me, I would wonder if that same cold would be there at the end of me.

There was never any pain. In some small way, I even enjoyed it. A numb pleasure came with the cold that was similar to the heavy ease that came with having wine after dinner.

If there was anything that I did not savor, it was the darkness. I understood why he thought it necessary to drink under the cover of dark. His reasoning did nothing but give me more of a reason to love him. Still, I found myself counting the seconds until the glow of his eyes would light the room once again.

A burst of high pitched laughter bubbled up from downstairs and I could not help but smile at the sound.

Glim.

Glimmer, with her overwhelming talent to brighten any room she floated into and brighten the hearts of anyone within it.

My counting did not reach any sort of large number.

Red light, the same shade as the trail of blood trickling down my inner thigh, washed over me as Nocti opened his eyes and withdrew his teeth from my flesh.

“My apologies. Did I take too much?” He asked softly, refusing to meet my eyes. The shadows that his eyes painted over his face formed a savage mask. Despite it, he was still as beautiful as the night I had found him.

A starving husk of the man I had come to love he had been. Possessed by his cursed hunger and roaming the catacombs of a city named Velcreis, he had nearly torn my throat out upon our first meeting. I had known then, with the air in my lungs escaping from the gashes in my neck before it could ever reach my mouth, that there was no end to what I would give him.

There was only one other soul who had eyes like Nocti. After he was gone, I had thought I would never see them again. Like the rest of the members of my house I had taken him into my care. There was nothing else for me to do.

“No, my love. You could never.” I answered, brushing his hair back from his brow.

On his knees at my feet, he wiped my blood off his mouth with clean white clothe and did the same over the bite marks he had left on the skin of my thigh.

I could have healed myself. I had done it countless times before and it would have cost little. Even so, I took pleasure in watching him gently wrap the wounds he had marked me with. Of all my loves, Nocti took the most care with me. I did not know the reason, but it only deepened my love for him.

After making sure his pale hands were clean, he careful rolled the hem of my dress back down and helped me off the edge of the bed.

“Are you certain that you have had enough? There is time if your hunger has not been sated.” I told him, straightening his cravat and smoothing the front of his waistcoat with my hands.

“You are too kind to me, my lady. I have taken more than enough from you.” Nocti answered, still refusing to meet my eyes.

The way he looked after he drank from me, there was little that I had seen that was near as beautiful. He was like marble, with the faintest streaks of red showing against his skin in all the places my blood flowed through his veins.

“My love, look at me,” I said, gently cupping his jaw with my hand. “I have told you to call me by name. I am not your lady. We are equal here.”

Nocti sighed and did as I asked.

The moment our eyes met, everything I longed for but could not have returned to me.

How my cheeks had burned the first time I had blushed for a reason that was not embarrassment. The absolute peace of being held in arms that would and could tear the world in two to keep me safe. Being shown that the impossible was entirely possible if you had the heart for it.

All of it came and I pulled Nocti into an embrace before it could leave me.

“I know what you think of yourself. I know why you turn off the lights and I know why you hesitate to look at me once we are done. There is nothing to be ashamed of. You are nothing to be ashamed of. Accept that, if not for yourself, for me.” I said, finding a new way to say the same sentiment I repeated every time he drank.

Nocti agreed with a nod as he always did and then he looked away from me. “We must decorate your room, my lady. We have been here too long for it to be as barren as this.”

He was not wrong. The room had no windows and after I had moved the painting the small structure at the back of my rose garden, there had been nothing left but the canopy bed.

I had never seen the point.

“It is my least favorite room, why would I spend time decorating it when there are so many more valuable things to do with my time.” I asked, hearing another of Glim’s bursts of laughter.

It would not be long before she challenged Morrow to another drinking contest if she was left unsupervised for long.

Footsteps sounded from the stairs, sharp and evenly timed.

Galahad.

I knew each of my loves by the sound of their steps, bare footed or not. Nocti was the exception. There was never a sound when he moved unless he meant for there to be.

Galahad appeared at the threshold of my bed chambers and spun sharply on the heels of his boots. His perfect hair waved behind him like a curtain of spun gold as he stopped square with the doorway.

Like when I had looked into Nocti’s eyes, it brought what I had lost back to me for a moment.

“Lady Rhiannon. Our guests have arrived and dinner is ready to be served.” Galahad spoke in his perfectly proper tone. Every stitch of his embroidered tunic was perfectly straight and his boots looked like they were made of black glass.

It brought me joy that he had not tied his hair back. I had spent the morning brushing it out in the garden and would have hated if that had gone to waist.

“Let us go,” I said to Nocti, leading him out of the room and into the hall. “This banquet is in your honor. Each of them are as complicated as I, but do not let them intimidate you. They will learn to love you the just same as they did your brothers.”

I had said much the same to him several times that afternoon.

“Take caution with Mother Ari, brother. She is quick to take up arms.” Galahad said as he led us down the stairs.

“He tells you that from experience, my love.” I laughed, reaching down and running my hand through his silky hair.

In the small time between Galahad stepping off the stairs and my own feet touching the stone of the floor, Glim swooped down and threw herself at me.

“Rhi!” She shouted, wrapping her arms around my neck and throwing her legs up with reckless abandon. It was a demonstration of her faith that I would catch her.

It was placed correctly.

“Hello, little sister. It is nice of you to drop in.” I smiled down at her. She was so light, I could have carried her with one arm, but I still appreciated Nocti placing his hand in the small of my back to steady me.

She blew a stray lock of her feathery hair off her face and held up three of her small fingers. “Three things. First, you have to tell your lady to stop bullying mine. Bess is too nice to make her stop.”

“I thought I sent word that her and her beloved had been forbidden from-“ I started.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Second,” Glim said, cutting me off and lowering one of her fingers. “Morrow says he wont drink with me until after dinner but I and every other soul in chaos knows it’s just because he’s scared.”

“I’m not scared of you, little bird.” Morrow called from somewhere out of sight.

I carried her with me as we walked towards the dinner table. I was surprised and thankful that she had managed to put on a whole dress for Nocti’s banquet instead of just a skirt like she had for Patience’s. It was canary yellow and thin enough that I could have pushed my finger through it if I wished, but it was still a dress.

“Third,” Glim continued, leaving only one of her fingers remaining. “Is there still a bed here for me to stay in or have you filled them all up with strange and mysterious men?”

“Glimmer, I am unsure if you realize that you just insulted our host.” Katarina said from where she sat in the kitchen. From the midnight blue gown she wore to her frost colored hair, every part of her was radiant.

The ground floor of my home was filled with the scent of dinner and the sound of the conversations that would hopefully carry us into the morning.

Glim unwrapped her arms from my neck and dropped to the floor. The moment her feet touched the stone, she bounded over to Katarina as if the forces that held everything else to the ground did not affect her.

“What do you think she should name it?” She asked, gently putting a hand on Katarina’s very pregnant belly.

“Hymneth will have to thaw before you will accept that it is a him will it not? Rhiannon, this is him?” Her icey blue eyes had settled onto Nocti and I watched as she judged him from the top of his head to the soles of his shoes in one long look.

From where I stood, I could see every one of my sisters and every one of my loves scattered throughout my house. The souls that filled my heart were all together and I should have been delighted at the sight.

Part of me would not allow that. No matter how full I felt, no matter how much love there was in my home, something was missing.

It would always be missing no matter how hard I tried to find something to replace it.

Before I could take my seat at the head of the table and introduce Nocti properly, everything fell away. My sisters, my loves, my home, they all vanished and I felt myself fall. . .

I opened my eyes and felt the open, vulnerable, feeling that only came with uncontrollable tears.

“What is your name?” A voice asked in a pitch that was so impossibly low I could feel the reverberations it made on the water I floated in lapping against my skin.

A girl stood above me. Dark of hair and dark of eyes, the long patterned dress she wore only made her more beautiful. I did not have to hide myself from her. She knew me completely.

Anna.

As soon as her eyes met mine, I knew the answer to the question the subterranean voice had asked.

“Autumn Aubrey.” I said aloud. Bringing my hands up to wipe the tears that were flowing from eyes. I only managed to wash my face with the warm salty water of the pool.

“Who is Autumn Aubrey?” The voice rumbled again, sending fresh ripples across the surface of the water.

Sam. I thought, unable to see my familiar from where I floated on my back. If his voice continued to drop every time he got new skin, he would shake the well house to the ground given enough time.

“An Underwitch of Zenithcidel. Daughter of Idensyn Aubrey. Thief and possessor of The Well. Debtor to The Circle of The Nine Mothers.” I answered, tipping myself forward and letting my feet drift to the smooth marble at the bottom of the pool.

“Who was Autumn Aubrey?” Sam asked his final question.

Somewhere in our time together, I had accepted that he was as powerless to not ask the questions as I was to not answer them. They used to annoy me to no end, but I had found an appreciation for the stability they brought as of late.

I pushed myself out of the pool before I answered. Anna handed me a towel and it joined the golden choker on the short list of things wrapped around me.

“Rhiannon. The Mother in Red. Nocti, the red eyed man I met at the school that can see through my glamor, he was drinking her blood.” I said, hoping that was enough to sate my familiars mental hunger.

Anna had taken her place on the stone bench, her pen already pressed to the paper of one of her notebooks.

Sam did not repeat his question which meant I had said enough.

“So he’s a vampire?” Anna asked, writing down whatever she found important enough to help our cause.

“I don’t know what that is,” I answered, pushing the water from my hair with aura. I had to speak quickly or all the small details that I had learned would recede back into the darkness of my already crowded mind. “But, there was a banquet. All of The Mothers were there. I spoke to The Mother in Yellow and one of The Mothers in Blue.”

“Names?” Anna demanded.

The leg she held the notebook on bounced furiously.

Some part of me, the part that had spent nearly every waking moment of the past months with the dark haired girl, thought something was wrong.

Why is she nervous? I thought, feeling that there was no other explanation.

“Glimmer. She is small and light, like one of the faeries from a story my mother has told me. And Katarina, she was pregnant with a baby boy. I’ve been in the memories of both before,” I answered, closing my eyes and forcing myself to hold onto the fading edges of the memory. “Galahad, the lover from the night we all played points, he mention Mother Ali, but I don’t know which Mother he was referring to.”

Like water being poured into an already full cup, the excess was rolling over the edges and spilling out of my mind.

“Rhiannon. Underneath it all, she was sad, so sad,” I said, feeling my eyes fill with new tears. Regardless of who she was, seeing through her eyes and feeling what she felt had left a mark on my heart. “There is someone she loved more than anything that is dead or gone. I don’t know which and I don’t know who he was.”

Anna scrawled what I had told her across the page furiously, connecting the scraps of information we had as she went. “She’s sad, uses fire, and has seven lovers. Erosette is always warm and I can’t blink without some kind of celebration happening.”

Even her words came to quickly. Anna was uneasy and I needed to know why.

I sighed and let myself drop down to the bench. Without the will to dry myself off, I would wait until the air did it for me before I got dressed.

“Both of your efforts are entirely useless.” Sam spoke suddenly, his voice full of anger.

“What?” I snapped, whipping my head around to look at my familiar.

“You are a foolish little girl in possession of something that you could not hope to understand. Worse, you have allowed yourself to be convinced by this mortal that you can somehow harness this power for your benefit. It is useless.” My familiar growled, every hair on his big blue body standing on end.

“Shut the fuck up.” I spat, my own anger building begin my navel.

“I can’t do this.” Anna said through a sigh.

“I am bound to serve you. Since you are unable to determine what is best for you rationally. I will assist you.” Sam spoke, rising to his feet and setting his eyes on Anna.

“Sam!” I shouted, sudden heat pushing me to my feet. My aura, blood red and burning, pressed against my seal and begged for me to let it out.

“This will wound you know, but long after she would have died naturally, when you are still young and strong, you will thank me.” My familiar growled, prowling towards Anna with his fangs barred.

In the dim light of the well house, I saw red.

“If you take another fucking step,” I said through clenched teeth. I brought my power to bear and flicked my right wrist out to my side. A cord of blood red aura ran from the channel on my palm and looped onto the stone floor. “I’ll kill you.”

Sam pounced.

I swung my arm and sent the end of my aura streaking towards him like a whip.

The damn cat moved much too quickly and I only managed to leave a broken line in the stones of the floor.

My familiar landed much too close to me for me to try and strike him again.

“Die, mortal.” His low voice rang out.

Before he could move and before I could do much as think, Anna wrapped her arms around me from behind and held me.

“Why are you so angry?” She whispered, her voice shaking.

Sam stared up at me from where he sat in a much too relaxed position.

“He is trying to kill you.” I answered, knowing that if I was quick enough, I could kick him right in his whiskers.

“Why does that make you angry?” She whispered again.

It was not just her voice that shook, every part of her quacked for a reason I did not understand.

“Because I love you.” I said. It was the only answer I could have given.

I would face down all of The Nine Mothers if they dared to threaten Anna. In the presences of unimaginable horrors, I had become more than truly was so I could save her. The anger, the rage, came from the unshakable truth that there was no end to what I would do for her.

Something within me changed. The burning anger that I felt towards Sam shifted into an entirely different kind of fire.

A thin tendril of pearl pink light snaked down my blood red cord and spread like creeping vines.

The damaged red circle of the seal brightened and fell away from my flesh in trails of dust.

The two shades of my aura burned together. From pink and dark red, they met in the middle, and melted into a pure and perfect red.

“Well done, my lady.” Sam said simply, his long blue tail swishing behind him.

My focus broke and my new cord joined the dust from the seal on the floor.

“I’m sorry, Autumn. I didn’t want to do it. I’m so sorry.” Anna said, letting her head drop to the back of my shoulder.

Sunlight brightened the dim room and I turned to see my mother stepping through the pink marble door of the well house.

“Anna, dear, did your suspicion prove to be true?" My mother asked, coming to where we stood and placing her hand on Anna’s back.

Anna did not answer her question. "I'm sorry, Idensyn. I can't do things like that to her."

My towel had fallen to the floor sometime during the moments that I thought my familiar was going to kill the woman I loved.

The seal around my navel was less

Where there had been nine circles, only eight remained.

Understanding struck me like a bolt of lightning and I glared at my mother with a great tear forming in my heart.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” I asked, manifesting my new shade with as little effort as it took for me to breath.