The sound of the door echoed through the hall, almost like a quake.
I stood there for a moment, my back nearly touching the door as my trembling hands curled at my side. I tried to steady my breath, to calm my thudding heart.
Then I slowly lifted my gaze to the view before me.
The dining hall was impossibly vast. It was long and grand, and it stretched further than my eyes could see. A dark, polished table ran through the center of the room. I could easily believe the space would fit an entire army of soldiers. Candles flickered on silver holders, bright enough to see how equally majestic and terrifying the dining room looked.
Then I caught sight of the figures in the room from a distance.
My stomach tightened. People were already seated at the table. They looked human, perfectly human, but when a few slowly and deliberately turned to look at me, the crimson in their eyes betrayed them.
I felt the awareness. The suffocating awareness that I was the only human there.
A servant appeared silently at my side.
"This way, my lady." His voice was low, respectful, but there was something beneath it that made my skin prickle. I followed obediently.
As I approached the table, each step felt heavier than before. The moment I reached the table, I realized more eyes had turned to me. This was the attention I wished I had not received.
I could feel the way their eyes stared at me. Curiosity, amusement, and hunger.
Don't look.
Don't look.
I pleaded with myself, but I already took one tempting glance and regretted it immediately, because one of them now smiled at me. Not a kind smile, something that felt too human to understand.
My pulse heightened in my ears as I searched for the presence that terrified me the most. However, the very seat at the head of the table, larger, darker, and carved like a throne, was empty.
I blinked. Once. Twice.
A strange confusion slipped through my fear.
Wasn't he here?
Relief briefly filled me, but it died as I remembered the dozen eyes of vampires on me.
"Your seat, my lady," said the servant, guiding me into a chair. My seat was not at the far end, but closer to the middle, close enough to feel watched from every direction.
I sat as quietly as I could.
The moment I did, the room fell into a strange, expectant silence. Under their inhuman gaze, I desperately wished that I could dig a hole and hide in. I felt like a mouse sitting among wolves under their scrutiny.
"Well, isn't this a rare sight?" a voice drawled from the opposite end. "A human bride. I never believed the rumours flying around the castle until now. Who knew Hades had a thing for brown eyes? I always thought he liked red?"
There was an underlying meaning in those words.
My eyes instinctively glanced in the direction of the voice.
A man in a black doublet, with blonde hair neatly combed back, was grinning at me. He looked majestic, with a sharp jawline. However, his mouth opened, revealing the sharp fangs in it, which he slowly ran his tongue through, while his red eyes were fixed on me.
"Pretty thing," he mused, clicking his tongue. My fingers curled tighter against my dress. "Too bad the king did not join us for dinner."
"How rude of you, Sebastian. This is no way to welcome the king's bride," a woman, three seats beside him, dressed a little too much for dinner, voiced out. Her tone sounded like she enjoyed decency over drama.
I could not help how beautiful she was. Long, black hair and a cherry-stained lip that matched the colour of her irises.
A soft chuckle left the blonde man's lips, his eyes never leaving me.
"Oh, let him speak, Katy," another feminine voice murmured from somewhere further down the table. "After all, it is not often we get to see humans casually dining with us and not their skulls displayed as a trophy in the king's showpiece."
I stilled at her words. The thought of my skull being displayed as a showpiece terrified me.
I could feel the distaste evident in her voice. She did not want me there. I wished she had ended there, but she turned to me with a cold smile.
"Lift your head, dear. We cannot admire you if we cannot see your face."
My fingers tightened in my lap at her sarcastic request, but I could do nothing. I hesitated. Then, slowly, I raised my head.
Sebastian leaned slightly forward, not close, just enough to feel the daunting nature of his presence. "See, we do not bite, little human." His voice turned subtly menacing. "Not immediately, at least."
The red-lipped woman rolled her eyes at the blonde man's tactics. She turned to me with a considerate tone.
"You do not have to be frightened. You are the king's guest, and no harm will come to you. In the castle, everyone knows not to cross their boundaries."
Her eyes then narrowed at the blonde man. "Sebastian is just a jerk who unnerves people for his own amusement. I am Katherine. What do I call you?"
"J-Jasmine," I barely voiced out.
"It is nice to have you in the castle, Jasmine," she said. The first genuine smile I had seen since I stepped into this room appeared on her lips.
She tapped her painted fingers on her lap. "I am glad your injuries are gone. Losing you to the feral attacks of those werewolves was the last thing we wanted." She observed me closely.
"Maybe she should not be here in the first place, if she is so delicate." Just when I thought no one would press on me further, I heard a pissed voice speak.
A girl, probably the same age as me, wearing a black choker, had an irritated glance at me. She looked very pale, almost translucent, and if looks could kill, I would have been stabbed a million times.
"She does not even look special in any way. The king must have been drunk when he signed that measly peace treaty with that human king," she continued in an agitated voice.
"Let's hope you can say that confidently to Hades' face, Morgana. He must be surprised to know she is a result of his drunken decision," Katherine shot at her.
The girl in the black choker's gaze glared at Katherine. Her seat harshly scraped the floor before her lips curled in a faint sneer as she leaned slightly forward towards me. "Don't think the king brought you here for anything other than a decoration," she hissed. "We have seen humans before. Most do not last long."
A shiver crawled up my spine. My fingers clenched in my lap, nails digging into the fabric of my dress.
I do not want to be here, I wished I could say.
I wished I were not sitting at this suffocating table filled with bloodthirsty vampires.
I wanted to speak, but the words stuck in my throat. I could not say anything. They were vampires. One squeeze of my neck was all it took to end my fragile life.
Sebastian leaned back, still grinning at me. "Ah, but you must admit, Morgana. She does have a certain resolve in her. Here I was, expecting her to last at most three days, as the other humans."
He said, as if he was intent on pushing her buttons, dragging me further in his wicked game.
Morgana's sneer deepened. "I give her a week before she is found curled in a corner, begging for the mercy of a quick death." Her fangs snared coldly at me.
I felt chills sighting those angry canines, but what was scarier was that somewhere in the room, I could feel a certain familiar smile on me, not from the blonde vampire. It was not kind, not hateful, but more disturbing than the vampiress's hostility.