I splashed the cool water over my face and cupped my hands in the washbasin again, reaching for the soap to scrub my skin. I had to wash every inch of it so it wouldn’t be marred for the procedures that Mortis Kato must do. If I left even a speck of dirt, I would pay for it later.

Every visit he made meant another procedure. And even though my instincts were telling me to run, to get away as quickly as possible because the pain was inevitable and terrifying…I knew I couldn’t hide from it. Even though I had never been told with words, I was all too aware that I was only alive because of the need for this procedure every few months.

Though it brought me pain, it kept me useful. And as long as I was useful, I would be alive.

I ran the cloth over my arm, then down my left hand, staring at the birthmark. Sometimes I wondered if this was why I was abandoned as an infant. If even my birth parents saw me as an abomination, a burden they could not carry without risking themselves.

I shook the thought away. No. I didn’t have time to lament being cast away and left in a forest to die before I was found by hunters. And then passed from temple to temple, called a monster, called a blight on the world… I had done that enough over the course of my life, wishing I was someone, anyone else, that I did not carry this mark, this power, that I was a simple girl with a loving family. Surely anything had to be better than this.

Those early years were bleak, until I’d finally met Caius here at the Sepulcrum Osa when we were just four years old. He was the only person in the world who would talk to me like I wasn’t a monster. And when he had fallen from the top of a climbing tree and broken his neck, it had lit something inside of me like a fire.

The memory was still seared into my mind, of holding him close, feeling the breath fill his lungs again, hearing the thump of his heart. He’d been revived, and by my hand. It was something only the Morti should have been able to do. But I, a child of four, had managed it.

And not only that, but his soul had remained intact. That was what set me apart, because such a feat had been deemed impossible. It was the reason High Mortis Kato insisted on these procedures, to study me and see if it was possible to replicate the process in their own revivification.

Sometimes I wished it would work, but the moment it did, what would become of me? If they could do what I had done, then I would no longer serve a purpose here.

Of course, I knew what would happen. As soon as they got what they wanted, I would be discarded. But hopefully that day won’t come for a long time.

I sighed and dipped the cloth in the water again, but it was dark with dirt now. I needed clean water if I was going to be presentable.

Knowing I didn’t have a lot of time to lose, I lifted the basin and hurried out. High Mortis Kato would be here soon, and whenever I was late, he somehow managed to make the procedure even worse.

In the kitchens, I refilled the basin, not even bothering to try to speak to the servants. They always ignored me, many careful not to look my way or come within a few feet of me, as if I had a disease they were afraid they might catch. In this whole place I might as well have been a shadow, because I kept to the edges most of the time, trying to ignore the hard stares and whispered taunts calling me a monster.

Outside the kitchen, the stares and the whispers followed me, and I hurried back to my room as quickly as I could, dipping into an alcove when I heard footsteps approaching.

I waited there, not in the mood to listen to someone call me an abomination to my face. Two officers appeared, one of which I recognized as Caius’s captain.

They spoke in hushed voices, an urgent tone to the conversation.

“And you’re sure, you’ve verified it?” the captain asked.

“Yes, that’s why I rode here as fast as possible to bring the news. The crown prince of the bloodsuckers is dead, felled by one of our own soldiers last night.”

Even from my alcove I could see the captain’s grin. “This is excellent timing. High Mortis Kato will arrive shortly. He will be most pleased. And we will be rewarded for being the ones to tell him.”

I absorbed the information as they hurried down the corridor toward the front of the citadel, no doubt hoping to be the first to speak with High Mortis Kato.

When they were out of earshot, I left the alcove and hurried to my room. It didn’t matter to me, the news about some dead crown prince in a ten-thousand-year war that I knew would never end. Whether he was dead or alive, who cared? Nothing would really change. I had my own problems, like making sure I was ready before the High Mortis arrived.

***

After scrubbing my skin until it felt almost raw, but free of any dirt and grime I’d picked up outside, I pulled on a simple frock, white as bone and made of hemp. It was the only clean thing I owned, delivered to my rooms for the express purpose of greeting High Mortis Kato.

I would never dare wear anything else. He would see it as an insult, to have the precious specimen presented in dirty clothes.

I hurried down the halls toward the front gates, knowing that if I wasn’t there when High Mortis Kato arrived, I would be in trouble. But then it didn’t take much for me to be in trouble. I could look at the wrong person for a second too long and receive a lashing, or not bow low enough, or hesitate in answering a question. So many little things that had added up over the years and left me trembling inside at the thought of what was about to come.

Once I arrived, I saw the two officers already waiting there. Oh good, he isn’t here yet. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

But as I stopped behind the officers, a horn sounded, signaling the arrival of an honored guest to the citadel.

My stomach dropped a little as the gates were flung open and a procession entered, including a very beautiful, ornate carriage that held my worst nightmare inside.

Out of practice and self-preservation, I lowered my head and folded my hands, listening as the carriage pulled closer.

Servants hurried forward to place a plush stool by the door of the carriage as it swung open and a cloaked figure emerged.

Immediately, it felt as if the air grew a few degrees colder, the expectant atmosphere hushed, tense enough to cut with a blade.

There was a rumor that the Morti were made of ice because of their constant work with death. And even though I knew better, sometimes I felt it.

The face beneath the dark cloak was comparatively pale, somewhat wrinkled with age, set with a square jaw and hair shorn close to the head.

I stayed back, not wanting to draw attention to myself just yet. It would come soon enough.

The officers stepped forward. “High Mortis Kato,” the captain began. “I have good news from the war front.”

High Mortis Kato nodded, and the captain hurried to explain.

“The crown prince of the Sanguine has fallen.”

The cragged face broke into a cold smile. “This is joyous news,” he said in that low, authoritarian voice, the voice I had never heard rise above that volume, as if he was confident he would always be obeyed.

“High Mortis Kato.” It was the head priest, brushing past the soldiers to bow before the other man. “You must be weary from travel. Can I offer you any libations?”

High Mortis Kato waved him off. “No, I require nothing.” My pulse thumped in my ears as he turned to me, his eyes fixing on my face.

I forced myself to stand perfectly still as he walked toward me, trying not to flinch when one of his cold fingers found my chin, turning my face up so that I had no choice but to look at him, to make eye contact.

Even though I had been in this situation so many times now, it was still monumentally difficult not to quake at the sight of his dark eyes, eyes that held more cruelty than any I had ever known.

“Let us not waste time,” he said in his low voice. “We will begin the procedure now.”