Falling asleep that evening was easy. As soon as I had settled myself under the covers and silence had filled the room, my thoughts had gone straight to Andreas. His scent still lingered in my memory and the warmth his touch brought me echoed across my skin. Without any effort from me, my body relaxed into the comfort of the bed and my eyelids fluttered shut, pulling me into a calm and gentle sleep.

He was there in my dreams, waiting for me with his arms outstretched and his golden eyes full of joy. I ran barefoot across the soil, my hands reaching outwards, desperate for his comforting touch and heartwarming smile.

However, as I grew closer towards him, his smile began to crack and his warm skin paled. A single tear rolled down his cheek, and then another, and another until a floodgate was opened and they came pouring out. 

"Artemis," he whispered, his voice hoarse and full of betrayal. "Why?"

And then he was not alone. All around him stood figures, dressed in ethereal white robes with the same look of horror and sadness on their face. 

"Artemis, why?" they cried. "Why did you do this to us?"

They began to approach, their feet gliding over the cracked earth as though they could no longer touch it at all. And as they drew nearer, their faces became clearer and their features sharpened until I knew exactly who they were. 

Mother, father, Marcella, Andreas, Octavia, Titus, Felix, Lucia.

All dead. 

Because of me.

I woke sobbing and freezing cold, my covers cast aside on the floor and my nightclothes crumpled and soaked with sweat. Hands were clinging to my shoulders; cold, skeletal hands with an unbreakable grip. Twisting around, I saw the anxious face of Princess Octavia, illuminated by the soft moonlight that streamed through the windows.

"Artemis, are you alright?" she asked softly, her scarlet eyes not missing the way I flinched as my name left her lips or the way I tried to blink back tears and force a mask of calm onto my face.

"Of course, Princ - I mean Octavia," I corrected myself, as I had been doing since she had asked me to use her name. "It was just a bad dream. I apologise if I awoke you."

She sighed, shaking her head slightly, as she moved to sit on the bed next to me. "You do not fool me, Artemis. You are a good liar, but not that good. You can tell me the truth and I will listen; you do not have to be strong all the time."

Breaking eye contact, I looked down at my hands and began to pick at the dirt trapped under my nails. "I keep on thinking about Cassia - Marcella's promised," I clarify as she does not recognise the name immediately. "Marcella should not have died. It should not have been her. She did not deserve that."

"No one ever does," Octavia murmurs. "But death is cruel and comes when we least expect it. Even to vampires, who can live for ten thousand years before our body fails us."

A tear rolls down my cheek. "She was going to turn 125 years old in two months time. Cassia had planned a surprise trip to the Borealis mountains to celebrate and I was-" my voice wavers as I remembered the ornate dagger I had scoured the entire city of Desmodus for. A gift I would never get to see her open now. "She died 75 years before her time. And I cannot help thinking that it was my fault."

Her grip on my shoulders tightened and she pulled me into an embrace, the coolness of her body calming my stifled sobs. "It was not your fault," she said firmly. "There was nothing you could do."

"I could have opened that door instead. Or knocked her out of the way. Or-"

"No," she cut me off. "You couldn't."

My mouth opened and closed, emptied of words, and in the end, I found myself leaning further into her embrace and closing my eyes. 

"Sorry," I whispered. "For waking you up and for spilling out my heart like this. It is really unprofessional."

Her chest shook slightly as she let out a soft laugh. "It is nice to know that the Agem are people too. And, I did say I wanted to be friends."

Silence settled over the room for some time before she spoke again, interrupting my thoughts which seemed to have naturally gone straight to Andreas, despite only meeting him once.

"I do not remember the first time I witnessed someone die, but I do remember the first time someone died protecting me. It was at the end of the Great Clan War, soon after my mother and father had made their intentions known to all the Clans. The Domitius Clan was winning, and once victorious, they planned to be crowned the first monarchs of Santorini. The other clans did not like this, however, and it put a target on our family's backs.

Turning me gently so I faced her, she continued with a faraway look in her eyes as she recalled the memory that had almost been lost to time.

"I was about forty years old by then and living with my father's clan of birth, the Calpurnias Clan. Late at night, an assassin crept into the settlement with the intent of killing me. Had I not been entertaining a very beautiful guest, the poisoned blade would have struck me instead of them and I would have died instantly." 

There was the ghost of a smile on her lips as she thought back to that brave vampire who had died in her arms and I noticed the way her tongue moved to gently caress her fangs and realised what that meant. Drinking each other's blood was a very intimate and pleasurable experience vampires partook in and she clearly could still remember the taste of them - they were lovers.

"I am sorry," I murmured, understanding her pain. "But at least they now run free in Aiónio Dásos, alongside their brother and sisters. They are not suffering any longer."

"That is a Lycaon belief," she stated. "For me, and them, there is no life after death. Just endless nothing, which I have condemned them too."

Standing up, she distanced herself from me and wandered over to the window where her deathly pale skin was softly illuminated by the glow of the moon. A heavy silence once again fell over the room and I forced myself to sit completely still, so her deep thoughts would not be disturbed by the rustling of sheets. 

Finally, as my eyes were starting to droop with exhaustion, she spoke.

"I was able to honour her through the Blood Rites. You should be able to say goodbye to her as well." She turned, giving me a reassuring smile. "Her body rests in the Eiríni room. Get the closure you need, so you can move on."

"Perhaps another time," I answered, knowing it was unlikely I would ever go in that room whilst I remained sane. Her cold, dead body was surely only going to remind me of my failure to her. And, besides, I could visit her grave in the Delectus Graveyard when-

My breath was knocked out of me as I was hit hard by the truth. My promised, the one I already was so desperate to be with, meant it was very unlikely I would be returning back to Santorini. The life I had was now over because he was too perfect and I was too weak to the promised bond. 

I realised I needed to be stronger, to push him to prove himself to be worth giving up everything for. And that thought ran through my head until the sun rose and we dressed for the next council meeting, me strapping on armour whilst Octavia donned a blue, shimmery dress with an exposed back made up entirely out of crystals.

And, as we silently met up with the two lieutenants and made our way to the Council Chambers, that thought turned into an oath to myself. 

An oath that was almost broken when I saw him waiting for me.

------

So this was a much shorter chapter, sorry, but I wanted to better introduce Octavia. If I manage to finish this book and am pleased with the results, she will be one of the main characters of its sequel and the main character of the third book and so I wanted her to be better understood as she is a cold character at times.