Updated Dec 14, 2025 • ~8 min read
ALARIC
The history books didn’t tell the full story.
I’d spent the day in our archives, researching the last witch-vampire bond. The one that had ended in the Ash Wars. The one everyone used as justification for why Cassia and I should never exist.
What I found was worse than I’d imagined.
Mira and Dante. Five hundred years ago. A witch princess and a vampire lord. Their bond had snapped during peace negotiations—much like ours.
At first, it had been hopeful. Both kingdoms saw it as a sign from fate that peace was possible. They’d married in a grand ceremony. United their peoples. Created laws that protected both species.
For five years, it had worked.
Then the power started growing.
Witch-vampire bonds didn’t just connect souls. They merged magic. Mira gained vampire speed, strength, immortality. Dante gained access to elemental magic no vampire should wield.
Together, they became unstoppable.
And they knew it.
The historical accounts varied on what happened next. Some said they’d tried to help—using their combined power to protect both kingdoms from external threats. Others claimed they’d become drunk on power, demanding absolute authority over both peoples.
What everyone agreed on: they’d tried to force unity. When diplomacy failed, they’d used violence. Burned cities. Killed resisters. Declared themselves gods.
Both kingdoms had united against them. It had taken a year and thousands of deaths to bring them down.
The final battle had been apocalyptic. Mira and Dante’s combined magic had nearly destroyed both kingdoms. In the end, they’d been killed by their own families—Mira’s sister and Dante’s brother, working together.
After, both sides had sworn: never again. No witch-vampire bonds. Ever.
The law had held for five centuries.
Until us.
I closed the book feeling sick. Because the parallels were obvious. Cassia and I were repeating history. Bond snapping during political tension. Both of us connected to kingdom leadership. Power already starting to merge—I could feel her fire magic humming in my veins, could sense her accessing vampire abilities she shouldn’t have.
Were we doomed to repeat Mira and Dante’s fall?
“Your Highness?” Celine appeared in the archive doorway. “The witch is here.”
“Cassia?”
“At the border. With her friend. They’re… actually here.”
I’d thought she might not come. Thought she’d choose exile over me. Relief and terror warred in my chest.
“Prepare rooms. The best ones. Make sure the staff knows they’re under my personal protection.”
“Your mother will be furious.”
“My mother orchestrated the execution of an innocent man. Her fury is the least of my concerns.”
I found them at the border checkpoint. Cassia and Sage, both carrying single bags. Everything they owned fit in canvas packs.
The sight broke something in me.
“You came,” I said stupidly.
“Did I have a choice?” But there was no real venom in it. Cassia looked exhausted. Defeated. Like she’d spent the last day crying.
The bond confirmed it. I felt the shape of her grief—losing her pack, her home, her identity. All because fate had tied her to me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “For all of it.”
“Stop apologizing. It doesn’t change anything.” She adjusted her pack. “Where do we go?”
“The palace. I’ve prepared rooms.”
“Separate rooms,” Sage interjected. “Or I’m staking you in your sleep.”
“Separate rooms,” I agreed. Then, to the guards: “Escort them safely. Anyone who threatens them answers to me personally.”
The walk to the palace was tense. Vampires stared. Whispered. Some with curiosity. Others with open hostility.
Witch.
Traitor’s mate.
Abomination.
I felt Cassia’s magic spark in response to the slurs. Felt her fighting the urge to prove exactly how dangerous an abomination could be.
“Ignore them,” I said quietly.
“Easy for you to say. They’re not calling you a race traitor.”
“Actually, they are. Just not to my face.”
That earned me a surprised glance. The bond hummed with her realization that I was facing backlash too. That choosing to honor our bond was costing me politically.
Good. Let her see I was sacrificing too.
The palace was vampire opulence—black marble, silver accents, tapestries depicting our bloody history. Cassia’s hand drifted to her belt knife as we entered.
“You won’t need that here,” I said.
“Won’t I?”
“Not from me. I can’t vouch for everyone else.”
Sage snorted. “Comforting.”
I showed them to their rooms—a suite in the east wing, far from my mother’s chambers. Two bedrooms connected by a sitting room. Windows overlooking the gardens. The best I could offer while maintaining propriety.
“It’s…” Cassia looked around. “Excessive.”
“It’s yours. Both of you. No one will enter without permission.”
“Including you?”
“Including me.” Though the bond already ached at the distance. We were in the same building and it still wasn’t close enough. “Though I’d like to talk. Later. When you’re settled.”
“About what?”
“The Ash Wars. Mira and Dante. The last witch-vampire bond.” I pulled out the book I’d been reading. “I found records. We need to know what we’re facing.”
“You think we’ll end up like them? Mad with power?”
“I think we need to understand the risks. And prepare for them.”
She took the book. Our fingers brushed. The bond sang. I saw her pupils dilate, felt her sharp intake of breath as the connection flared.
Still affecting her. Good.
“Tonight,” she said. “After dinner. We’ll talk.”
I left them to settle in. Returned to my chambers to find my brother waiting.
Lucian. Younger by seventy years. Ambitious. Currently furious.
“You brought her here? The witch whose brother committed treason?”
“Her brother was framed by our mother. But yes, I brought my mate here. Where else would she go?”
“Anywhere but the palace! Alaric, the court is already questioning your judgment. Bringing her here makes you look weak.”
“Or it makes me look like I honor the mate bond. Which is sacred, if you recall.”
“Not when it’s with a witch!” He paced. “This is madness. The council won’t accept her. Mother will use it against you. And Cassia herself wants you dead.”
“Wanted. Past tense. We’re working on it.”
“You’re delusional.”
Maybe I was. But the bond left me no choice. “She’s staying, Lucian. Under my protection. If anyone threatens her, they answer to me.”
“Even if that someone is Mother?”
“Especially if it’s Mother.”
He stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “You’d really choose the witch over your own family?”
“I’d choose justice over murder. There’s a difference.”
He left in a huff. I sank into a chair, exhausted.
This was going to be harder than I’d thought. The court was already hostile. My family opposed it. And Cassia barely tolerated my presence.
But the bond pulsed with possibilities. With the chance that maybe—maybe—we could be different than Mira and Dante. Could use our combined power for good instead of destruction.
If we survived long enough to try.
That night, Cassia appeared at my door.
“Ready to talk about how we’re doomed to destroy everything?” she asked.
Despite everything, I smiled. “Come in. Let me pour wine and we’ll discuss our inevitable descent into madness.”
“Finally, a vampire with realistic expectations.”
She entered my chambers. Sat across from me in the reading nook. Accepted wine with a wariness that would take months to ease.
If it ever eased.
I opened the history book. Showed her everything.
“They lasted five years before the power corrupted them,” I said. “We need to figure out how to last longer.”
“Or we could just reject the bond and get it over with.”
“That would kill us.”
“Slow death versus destroying both kingdoms? I’ll take the former.”
“Cassia—”
“I’m joking. Mostly.” She studied the pages. “So we have merged magic. What exactly does that mean?”
“You’re accessing vampire abilities. I’m accessing witch magic. Over time, it’ll grow stronger. Eventually, we’ll be as powerful as Mira and Dante were.”
“And then we go mad and try to rule as gods?”
“Or we learn from their mistakes. Choose differently.”
“How?”
Good question. “By staying connected to our peoples. By using the power to serve, not dominate. By—” I met her eyes. “By trusting each other. Being honest. Not letting the power isolate us the way it isolated them.”
“You want us to be partners.”
“I want us to survive. Partnership seems like the best path toward that.”
She was quiet for a long time. Then: “I met with Leander today. Kael’s lover.”
My heart stopped. “What?”
“He’s vampire. He and Kael were working together on the peace mission. He has names. Evidence. Everything we need to prove your mother orchestrated the execution.”
“Cassia, if my mother finds out you’re investigating her—”
“She’ll what? Try to kill me? She’s already trying to keep us apart. This just gives her actual motivation.” Her eyes blazed. “I’m not backing down. Kael died for peace. I’m going to make sure his sacrifice meant something.”
And there it was. The fire I’d sensed in her from the beginning. The determination that would either save us or destroy us.
“Then we do this together,” I said. “Partners. Because taking down my mother alone will get you killed.”
“Partners in overthrowing your mother. How romantic.”
“It’s not supposed to be romantic. It’s supposed to keep you alive.”
“Same difference.”
Despite everything, I felt something like hope. We were talking. Planning. Working together instead of against each other.
It wasn’t love. Wasn’t even friendship.
But it was a start.
And given where we’d begun, a start was everything.
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