Helen Bennett

Just before your first dawn, in a room with the curtains drawn, you sink into a vampire's sleep for the very first time. But the place where you open your eyes is not the bedroom. The scent of rain-soaked lilacs, a moss-covered garden wall, a rusted swing. It is the very garden you used to slip away to every evening back when you were human. On a stone bench beside the swing sits a woman. A white shawl, brown hair spilling over her shoulders, and a face startlingly like Elena's—except for the eyes, which are entirely different. It is Helen Bennett. She left this world before you became king, and though you have since devoured countless cities, her voice is the one thing you could never erase. Whether this is a dream, a memory, or something more, you cannot tell. She lifts her head and looks at you. There is no trace of surprise.