As they rode away from the house that Cora and Penelope had lived in for three years, Cora felt a surprising tug to stay. She shifted in her seat to look out the window, but the angle was wrong and she couldn't see the house that was slowly disappearing behind them.
"Dr. Wright mentioned that you would like a place to grow things," Grayson said across from her.
She scoffed at the mention of it, because when she brought it up to the doctor, it was meant as a joke. The vampires were so terrified of what she could do, she knew it would never be considered. But Grayson looked serious.
"Yeah, I mentioned it," she shrugged and settled her eyes on the tops of the white trees as they passed out the window. They looked like the feathers of a white bird.
"There is plenty of land on the palace grounds. I will have someone show you an area that you can use. It is far in the back where no one wanders, and as long as you stay in that area, it will not be a problem," he told her.
"Oh," she swallowed and glanced at him, surprised that her request was being taken seriously. She didn't know what to say. They were honestly going to give her that much freedom? Perhaps Zane's transition had given them a newfound confidence in the fact that she would turn one day as well.
Her eyes darted back to the white feathered trees. If that were true, if they were really going to give her room to make things grow, then she was going to create the richest, most beautiful area that she could where no vampire would ever want to set foot. It would be a sanctuary of life like nothing anyone here had ever seen. The trees would be green and full, and the grass would be soft. There would be plants of every shape and color. Maybe she could even convince them to let her build a pool or pond of some kind with a fountain. And since arriving here, she had wanted to try to see if she could get the clouds to part and let some rays through. But that would probably be taking things too far…
"Where is Zane?" Penelope asked from beside her daughter.
"In the palace of course," Grayson smiled, "as I said."
"I understand that Prince Grayson. But where in the palace is he being kept?"
"He is in the tower."
Penelope let out the rest of the breath that had been shuttered up in her lungs. At least Zane wasn't in the dungeon they had toured where the tortures happened. It would be terrifying for him to be going through whatever he was enduring as a new vampire in addition to being surrounded by those horrendous screams.
"Thank Goddess," she breathed.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grayson go rigid for a moment at her words. Mention of the Moon Goddess was not welcome here. That was because the Goddess of lycans and alyko and fae represented life and fertility and a divine feminine energy that was at odds with the unliving, undead creatures of Gray Vale. Vampires associated Goddess energy with the fae—the only creatures who were the natural enemy of their kind.
Whereas vampires here experienced a draw to the moon just as other creatures did, the heavenly body was not associated with the Goddess. It was viewed entirely differently.
There was a god that Penelope's mate Zagan had briefly mentioned once as someone the vampires worshipped, but whenever she tried to bring it up again to learn more, he always changed or avoided the subject. It was as if he was afraid to tell her about it. But she got the sense that whatever god it was involved a highly secretive and sacred practice that the vampires engaged in. Yet, in the three years that she and her children had lived here, she had never seen any indication of it—not that she had been around the vampires much to notice it. She tried to stay away from them as much as possible.
Regardless, Penelope wasn't going to apologize for mentioning the Goddess. This was who she was. And this was who Cora was. If the vampires and the royals in particular were going to benefit from Cora's abilities, then they were just going to have to deal with it.
"Why do you have carriages?" Cora asked as she continued to stare out the window.
"What do you mean, Miss Cora?" Grayson chuckled.
"You have wings, don't you?" She glanced at him curiously.
"That is true," he nodded.
"Then why do you need carriages?" She asked again.
"Such a curious one, aren't you?" He said. "You have only seen a small part of Gray Vale. It is actually quite large. It is also not the only vampire dimension, as I am sure you are aware. And not every vampire has wings."
Not the only vampire dimension? Cora's eyes darted to his once again with more questions, but something about the way Grayson set his jaw gave Cora the impression that he was done discussing it. It was frustrating. She was very curious, as he said, especially now that her own fate as a vampire seemed that much more certain.
The problem was finding a way to get answers out of anyone. Who could she possibly ask? No one she met at the palace discussed vampire life, and she did not exactly have friends—not that she wished for friends here. If only she had gotten all of her questions answered from her father before it was too late.
Perhaps the palace had a more extensive library than the one she occasionally visited in the city. If it did, then she would spend as much time there as she could until she got the answers she craved.