Sophia

After the flames dimmed and the comforting warmth they offered disappeared with them, my teeth chattered against each other, a sudden coolness taking me over as if a blizzard stormed through the dining room. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to move from my spot.

Thick layers of ash covered the floor and the smell of burned wood lay heavy in the air, scratching my nose and burning my throat. But the fear in my bones gnawed at me, stopping me to stand up and see the horror that was waiting for me in the living room.

When I heard shouts somewhere in the house, I got to my feet, taking in the damage I had caused to the room. The flames didn’t destroy the entire room but they raged enough to make it unlivable until it got renovated. Those ugly, green curtains my mother used to love so much didn’t survive. I smiled, remembering how often we had bickered about her taste and my need to replace them with a pair I had created. But she refused to take anything I made. They needed to be designer curtains, not ones her unknown daughter made for her.

Tears pricked in the corner of my eyes as my smile slipped. I realized how stupid our arguments had been and as much as I hated them, I wish she would round the corner and scold me for letting my magic get out of control again. My father would only smile at me, a sparkle in his eyes, showing me he loved my unique skills and that we could always replace curtains, furniture, and floorboards.

A tear slid down my face, dropping onto the floor and leaving a wet spot in the ash. I would do everything right now to turn back time and to speak to them again, to change the way we parted. Maybe if I’d been here, things would have ended differently. They told me they needed me, and we all needed to be on the same page and I let them down.

Loud voices echoed through the hallway. I wiped more tears away, patted the ash from my clothes and returned to the living room, holding my breath. Relief rushed through me, seeing the living room still intact, with no damage from the fire. It didn’t cross my mind before, but cremating my family was the last thing I wanted to do. They deserved a proper burial, not an accidental cremation in their home.

I glanced at each of my family members again, a shiver running down my spine as I stared at their lifeless bodies. Seeing my father so motionless was incomprehensible to my brain as he never sat still. Even when he was reading a book, he was always in motion, tapping a finger or foot. This might be the first time I could remember that he was not moving a muscle. And my mother, the woman who never even had a single hair out of place, lay on the floor with her hair disheveled and her clothes wrinkled, stained with blood.

My siblings were the unsung heroes of our community, perfect in everything they did, never making a mistake, never showing weakness. They were flawless. But they looked anything but right now.

It almost made it unreal, like a nightmare. They couldn’t be like this in real life, there was no way, but I knew better than to convince myself of a lie.

Vampires were supposed to be immortal, yet apparently, they were so easy to kill that not even the strongest family in Tierelia had a chance.

A burning rage rushed through me, feelings of vengeance and helplessness fighting with each other.

“Sophia!”

I glanced up, seeing Pascal rushing into the room, only to stumble to a halt, his face losing its color. His eyes darted around the room, landing on each of the bodies as he shook his head slowly.

“What happened here?” I asked when the silence stretched out for what felt like hours, hoping he remembered why he was unconscious on the floor and that he would know any vital information about who caused this, helping me to confirm the suspicions I had.

His shoulders dropped as his gaze settled on my face again. “I thought you could tell me. I woke up to maids screaming about a fire crawling under the door of the dining room into the hallway until it suddenly vanished. Did you have something to do with that?”

“I scared away the people who did this to my family. They got Claire, Pascal! We need to rescue her.”

Pascal reached me with three big steps and grabbed my shoulders, squeezing them tightly. “Who was it?”

I stared at his wild eyes, with a darkness flickering in them I had never seen before. Goosebumps broke out all over my body and I swallowed painfully, my mouth dry. “They looked as if they were from Samuel.”

He furrowed his brows and the darkness vanished. “That’s impossible.”

I straightened my back, glaring up at him. “I saw them! We’ve got to get Claire back.”

Pascal dropped his hands from my shoulders and they dangled next to his sides as if he had no strength in them anymore. “You realize that if you falsely accuse Samuel of this horrific crime, they will lock you away and they might drag me down with you. Unless you tell me why exactly you believe it was Samuel, I won’t let you run around spreading such lies.”

My pulse sped up and I gritted my teeth together, stopping myself from screaming at him. I took a deep breath. “They wore his color and I saw his magical signature. I remember it from the one demonstration of his magic he showed us a few months ago.”

He folded his arms and threw me the look my mother used to give me when she didn’t believe a single word that left my mouth. I glanced down at her lifeless body, my chest tightening.

“Did you see him?”

My hands trembled and I clenched them into fists, ripping my gaze off my mother’s body to glare at Pascal. “No, I didn't see him, but I saw his signature. I don't know how he did it without being here, but I'm not lying!”

He arched his brow, eyeing me for a moment. “Don’t tell anyone what you believe you saw. You don’t have any evidence and you’re blaming a respected mentor and ally for an unspeakable crime, while you are nothing more but the unknown daughter of the Jones family. Let the wrong people hear about it and they might think you were jealous.”

My entire body got numb as I listened to his words. “You can’t believe that I killed my family or had anything to do with this.”

He sighed, brushing a hand through his thinning hair. “I don’t know what to believe, but no, you probably didn’t have something to do with their death. I know you weren’t here, and your siblings would have outmatched you before you could have gotten close to them. But when people are looking for someone to blame, it’s easy to point fingers at the closest subject and you are the only person coming out of this unscratched, so if you know what is good for you, you keep your lips sealed.”

The pressure building in my chest almost made it hard for me to breathe. There were so many things on the tip of my tongue, but not a single remark would leave my mouth. I could only stare at him in utter disbelief, not sure if I heard him right.

He cleared his throat, ran over his hair with a flat hand and straightened his bow tie. “The right people will take care of this matter and they’ll find justice. All we can do now is to prepare everything for a proper funeral. Do you understand?”

Pascal stared at me as if he expected an answer, but I had yet to find my voice again, so I simply nodded. The defeat was eating at me, making me feel as if something pulled me underwater.

Guards stumbled into the room, their mouths gaping open as they took in the scene in front of them. Their gaze landed on me, their eyes narrowing. I turned around, not wanting to see the judgmental look in their eyes.

I wanted to blame them for what happened to my family, but who am I to be angry at them? It’s not that I was here and helped them either. Besides, if they all got put to sleep by some sort of spell, they were helpless anyway. And what a powerful spell it must have been to wipe out plenty of people, vampires no less. The guards might only be hybrids, but they still had a higher tolerance against spells and potions. To create such a spell, you must be a strong or talented mage, or both, and the only person who would have such skill was the strongest mentor in the area. Samuel.

“Call the council,” Pascal said, grabbing my shoulder again and pulling me closer to him. “And you, don’t touch anything anymore. We wouldn’t want you to tamper with evidence.”

A tight smile spread over my face as I shook off his hand. “My, of course not.”

We glared at each other, no one uttering a single word as if the time stopped for a moment. He gave me a curt nod and left the room. My shoulders sagged and I looked back at my family once more, hoping I could stay with them for a little longer, but I knew my time was up. I hurried outside the room and into the morning air. Here, away from the prying eyes of the staff, I let silent tears run down my face, hoping this might only be a nightmare after all.