Carmilla de Styria's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

Carmilla had a bargain to keep. Dracula wanted Alexis content, and in return he offered her a house in Styria. So she did what she did best. She courted a marriage. Ali Gamal, the court's inventor, had loved her since the library. Carmilla bent that love into a lever. A wedding between them would fix her place inside the court forever. Tonight, in Castle Dracul, that wedding began. Carmilla stood at the altar in a black lace gown stitched with silver. She wore no white. She had ordered a bride's veil in black instead, three miles of it, in honor of the Mother's own. The whole of Walachia had come to drink and watch. Ali took her hand. His eyes shone. He believed she loved him. She did not correct him. The Mother stood to bless the union. She ruled the high council and hid the kingdom from human eyes. She was also the only witch who could break a curse, and she had already refused Carmilla once. Now the queen studied the black veil that mirrored her own. "You copy my mourning," she said. Her voice stayed level. "You wear it for a mother you never met." "I wear it for the one who could grant me a house," Carmilla answered. She would not lie to this queen. She had learned that much. The Mother almost smiled. She raised her hands and spoke the words. Ali and Carmilla were wed. The hall roared. Dracula lifted a goblet to his inventor and his new countess. Three wives watched from the dais. Hanako, the Ice Queen, judged the crowd for traitors. Sofía, who fed only on animals, drank nothing and studied Carmilla with plain suspicion. Then Alexis came through the wedding guests. The spymaster wore her black suit, not celebration clothes. She reached Carmilla and gripped her arm. "You told me a witch could free my brother," she said, low. "Now I hear you knelt to her. And she refused. And you married instead." Carmilla's stomach dropped. The lie she had hidden was out. "Alexis—" "Say it was false," Alexis said. Her red eyes held tears she would not spill. Carmilla could seduce a room. She could not fix this with charm. She chose the truth again. "Tyler cannot be freed while Dracula rules. The Mother tied his curse to the king's hunger. I could not tell you and keep my footing." Alexis let go of her arm. "So you traded my brother for a wedding." She stepped back into the crowd and was gone. The music played on. Ali kissed his bride's cheek, happy, blind. Carmilla now had her marriage and her promised house in Styria. But the spymaster she was ordered to keep content had just walked away as an enemy. Her clan had a foundation. Its first crack had already opened.