by LJ Swallow
Witch blood; tempting her.
My arm shakes and the trembling spreads through my body. "What is this place?" I choke out.
"A prison. She’s trapped, but after tonight she’ll be free,” Gabriella replies.
“What’s trapped?” I croak out as Anastasia circles the cavern centre, speaking an incantation beneath her breath. Runes appear on the floor behind her as she steps around, lighting up one by one as they did in the tunnel.
“Our First,” says Gabriella, watching Anastasia run her bloodied finger over the runes. “The one whose blood is the source of every vampire in existence. The humans slaughtered our kind and those who survived removed the one thing that would allow us dominion over their world—her blood in its purest form could create invincible vampires who could reclaim the world from humans. Confederacy members decided she’s too big a risk and sealed her away, using the witch magic that vampires couldn’t break.” She smiles. “Until now. Thank you, Maeve.”
“Why do you need me here?" I rasp out. "You’ve broken the wards." Anastasia drops her mental grip on my body, and I sink to the ground, knees hitting the rock and jarring pain through my body.
“We don’t need you anymore,” says Gabriella. “Well, I don’t but the First would benefit from a good meal.” She chuckles. “And Anastasia will benefit from your death.”
I squeeze back the tears building. I will die here.
“Why the Blackwood magic?” I ask as a faint rumble runs through the cavern. “I don’t understand.”
Anastasia snorts. “We haven’t always been exiled and once held powerful positions in the Confederacy. Our magic was a second layer, like two keys to separate locks—extra security since both families need to unlock their magic to gain access again. Unfortunately, the Blackwoods and Confederacy stopped seeing eye to eye and we went our separate ways.”
“The Blackwoods prefer our way of thinking. We would like the wards unlocked and our First freed, and in return the Blackwoods regain their place in power once the Dominion rule,” says Gabriella. “But we had a small problem—the Blackwoods could work on breaking their magical lock, but the Winterfalls most certainly didn’t share the Dominion’s world view, so killing the family was our solution.”
“Why?”
"As long as a Winterfall lives, their magic exists and the seal holds. We tried to eradicate the Winterfalls to end their magic, because they would never have joined us, Maeve," says Anastasia as she walks around. I look up at her through my hair. “Instead, we only managed to weaken the ward because a Winterfall still exists.”
“For now,” adds Gabriella.
The dizziness grows as I try to take in her words, and I place my fingers on the cool rock. The blood seeps from my arms as I fight to stay conscious. A Winterfall exists for now. I squeeze back the tears building. I will die here.
I pull in a ragged breath. Not without a fight. I’m here to stop this and I don’t believe Tobias is lost to me yet. “Don’t the Confederacy know your plans?”
“A select few, most of whom are dead now.” Gabriella waves a dismissive hand.
"Through our Confederacy contacts, we heard the Winterfall seal still held, even after Tobias Whitlock killed the family,” says Anastasia as she crouches down.
Gabriella’s voice hardens. “Winterfall magic still existed in the world and interfered with our plans, as did Theodora when she brought you here to reinforce the weakening seal. Rather frustrating that Theodora interfered, but she failed. The woman lost her mind.”
“We’ve spent years looking for the Winterfall witch," Anastasia adds. “A witch with a potency to match mine can’t live!”
"Yes, and not killing the girl the time you captured her is your biggest, stupidest mistake," interrupts Gabriella in a low voice.
"Maeve is our bargaining tool, Gabriella," says Anastasia as she stands. "She still is."
"What the hell do you mean?" she snaps back.
"Maeve stays with us. You don’t kill her tonight. And if you double-cross me or my family, I will ensure my followers will capture your First, bring Maeve here and seal your gateway again. Nobody will have access."
"Imprison her?” Gabriella barks a laugh. "Look how that worked out for you last time. Maeve has powerful allies. She needs to die. No more Winterfall to interfere."
"Oh, yes? And, where are these allies?" asks Anastasia with an arched brow. "Ah. That's right. Fighting the army I also helped you build—the shifter army who’ll kill them. They’re under a necromancer’s control, not the Dominion’s. Necromancers who could control the First."
"Necromancers are part of the Dominion," Gabriella retorts.
I cough a laugh into the stone floor which they don't hear. Neither side will trust the other and with good reason. Whatever this First is contains power that those who control it have, and I can't see anybody sharing. They'll destroy each other.
But the First will be loose.
Can't anybody stop this?
As their argument continues, I reach in front of me and drag myself along the ground. How far would I get? Escape may be pointless, but if the world is lucky, the pair will kill each other here and now.
A low sound rumbles below my hands and the stone inside the circle created by Anastasia’s runes cracks as large fissures appear between the symbols.
As long as a Winterfall lives.
Maeve is our insurance.
I sprawl forward, unable to move further as somebody takes control of me again. "While we looked for the Winterfall, we worked on unlocking the Blackwood seal but couldn’t gain entry into the academy. So, we ensured our magic found a way in," Anastasia says as she crouches down. "The curious students who found the pendant and grimoire—and there were others through the years—absorbed our magic. Blackwood energy grew inside the academy and its presence loosened the seal as we planned, but without anybody knowing. Unfortunately, those using Blackwood magic were always found and dealt with which slowed us down."
I swallow. Like Matt. Is this why Theodora sent him to Ravenhold for a minor crime?
Omigod. "Did the Confederacy kill April?" I whisper in horror. "She never had the grimoire or pendant."
"Do you think your Confederacy are benevolent, Maeve?" Gabriella sneers. "Don't you understand? They'll also kill to protect themselves and they don't only kill their enemies."
"Poor Maeve; so trusting.” Anastasia chuckles. “April came across our runes. Often the smart ones make the stupidest mistakes; they're drawn to the forbidden and we ensure they find their way. Through her father, April had access to other books and artefacts that the Confederacy historians keep hidden. Fortuitous for us, but not so lucky for her once she found the runes."
“Perhaps not a Confederacy murder, though.” Gabriella pushes her tongue against her teeth. “Others live in this tunnel, Maeve, hidden in the walls. Vampires who once guarded but who now wait for the First."
My eyes widen. The walls? The ‘men’ in the asylum notes? “I saw one. In a vision. And another man,” I stammer out. “He killed April.”
Gabriella purses her lips and looks at Anastasia. “One of yours?”
“Not a man.” I squeeze away the gory images from my vision.
“They’re coming out,” retorts Anastasia. “She’s woken them, as we’ve woken her.”
Like the First has woken Petrescu hemia.
The shaking in my body intensifies as I look around, expecting creatures to emerge from the walls at any moment, and my head pounds to match the heartbeat booming deep below the cavern.
“How can you hope to control something like that?” I ask in panic. “If she’s stronger than you?”
“The First will be weaker initially. She’s barely fed for years,” says Gabriella with a smug smile. “We’re working on finding necromancers capable of controlling a vampire’s mind, so we can persuade her to help us.”
Anastasia steps back from the crumbling edge. “Our necromancers that we created, Gabriella.”
Ga
briella’s eyes darken. “I’m sick of your attitude to me, Anastasia, when I’ve offered you more power than you could seize alone,” she snaps. “Who do you think you are? Your little army are nothing against me.”
I choke out a scream as Gabriella blurs across the room and pulls me to my feet by the neck. “Stop boring Maeve with our stories.” She holds me close to the new hole in the cavern centre where stone continues to crumble into the black. “I’d like a little more blood to strengthen the First so she can join us, please, Maeve,” she whispers in my ear. “Or should I just push you in?”
I desperately claw at her hands as she spins me around, holding me around the neck. Anastasia doesn’t move, and with an exasperated noise, Gabriella grabs my hand and drags her teeth across my palm.
I cry out at the sharp pain.
“Stop whining; you’re lucky I haven’t opened an artery,” she sneers in my ear and I stumble as she propels me forward.
I’m going to die.
Chapter Sixty-Five
MAEVE
My vision passes in front of my eyes, only this time everything I see is real.
I'm on the edge of the pit that never existed until minutes ago, bleeding, the heartbeat as loud as if I had my head pressed to somebody's chest.
Everybody told me I was strong.
That Winterfall magic could take down a Blackwood.
But they were wrong.
I teeter on the edge and another stone crumples beneath my feet, falling into the silent dark. I shout out as Gabriella pulls my arm over the space. “Anastasia thinks she can take you from me?” I shudder at her sickly sweet breath by my ear as she whispers, “I’ll bleed you slowly to tempt her out. No point throwing you down yet.”
Blood drips from my hand and arm into the open pit and a few seconds later, something crackles. How deep is this? I stare down and a tiny blue light sparks deep in the darkness. My mouth fills with the taste of blood and my heart beats in rhythm with the one below me.
“I’m warning you, if you kill Maeve our alliance is done,” snarls Anastasia.
“Cross me and I’ll ensure you’re eradicated!” warns Gabriella.
“You need us. The Dominion needs Blackwood magic.”
"I see that nothing changes between you." Tobias's voice echoes into the space and as Gabriella startles and releases me, I drop to my knees, knocking a stone into the hole, almost crying with relief.
"How the fuck did you get out?" half-shrieks Gabriella. “Did your spell fail, Anastasia?”
I roll onto my back away from the edge and, upside down in my vision, I see Tobias and a second person standing behind him.
Andrei.
Both are unscathed, appearing the same as when they walked away. What happened?
Stay strong. You’ll survive. Tobias doesn’t look at me, but his words are clear. Stay still. Wait for the right moment.
Andrei remains behind Tobias, close to the entrance, and doesn’t shift an inch as Gabriella leaves me to walk over to him. “Hello, Andrei, my sweet.” He stares ahead, ignoring her, and she mock pouts. “Don’t disrespect your mother or she’ll be forced to punish you.”
My heart rends for him, because the only way he'll survive this, if we don’t win, is to walk away with Gabriella. He'd be a prisoner too, because if she doesn’t kill Andrei, I can't believe she could ever corrupt him.
She chuckles and steps to look at Tobias instead. They stand face to face but neither speak. “You do know that you’ll all die here?” she sneers.
"But you seem to have a problem, Gabriella," says Tobias evenly. "The Blackwoods and Dominion can't seem to agree on tonight’s course of action."
"We agree that the First is released tonight," snaps Gabriella.
"And then?" he asks.
"Then the world falls," she sneers.
"Then hurry!" calls Anastasia.
I'm involuntarily hauled to my feet by her. “Let me go!” I yell and push back against her mental control, fingertips against my temples. Tobias rushes towards her and she lifts a hand; he halts as if hitting a wall.
Her control invades my head like the night by the farmhouse, and I mentally fight as stones crumble away under my feet, managing to step back a little.
Anastasia said she doesn’t want to kill me.
Beneath me, the tiny spark grows to blue flames that move higher.
"Should I make her step over the edge?" calls Anastasia from across the cavern.
“You don’t want to kill me,” I say weakly.
“Try me.”
"Let her mind go," Tobias yells.
"And what? She’s strong with you. Maeve comes with me, or Gabriella kills her. Which is it Tobias?"
Black spots dance in front of my eyes and I rub them. I need to push away this fear and step up. Anastasia's break on me drops as Tobias's mental assault sends her screaming to the floor and further across the cavern.
I stagger and look around to see blood trickling from her nose and eyes.
"I can't see," she calls out.
“Oh, stop wasting time!” says Gabriella. “You’re useless!”
Where she stands with Andrei, I'm unable to tell from her mask-like face if she's amused or worried. Frozen by shock and indecision I look to Tobias who’s focused on mentally holding Anastasia to the floor.
Gabriella purses her lips. “This will be over soon. You have one last chance to join me, Andrei, or I'll destroy you like the others."
“Go to hell,” he says through clenched teeth.
I wrap a hand around my bleeding arm and take another step from the pit edge, heart pounding. I can take Gabriella. Help Andrei.
Don't attack her, Maeve. Wait,” says Tobias in my mind.
I teeter at the edge of darkness as the blood loss and shock pull me towards unconsciousness. In my mind, I'm at the Blackwood house, oppressed and frightened. Nikolai's face flashes across my vision. Anastasia wouldn't protect me. I'd be a prisoner for life.
Gabriella wants me dead.
Which would be the greatest torture?
"I'd leave with her now, but I agree with Gabriella on one thing—you all die,” Anastasia says, wiping blood from her eyes.
I take a shuddery breath and look between the blue flames growing deep in the pit and to Anastasia, held in place by Tobias's mind. She's fighting back, now standing, and he's weakening. I sense his energy dropping away as she manages to step towards him.
He needs to deal with Gabriella before she harms or takes Andrei.
I need to take over from him. Now.
"Anastasia," I say, struggling to find my voice.
She turns her head to look at me, making what I hope is the mistake of her life.
Emotions always fuelled my ability to control minds, and the fear for myself and all our lives magnifies my magic at exactly the time I need. I have seconds before she decides to look away and I project every ounce of energy I have to capture her mind.
I take Anastasia by surprise at first as I force her to step back. Anastasia rights herself and I take a deep breath before my magic pulses forward again. The spell hits a barrier, but I'm far enough into her mind to detect and block her from conjuring a temporal spell.
"No, you don't," I rasp out. "I killed your brother and I'll kill you."
Her surprise at my words allows me one last push at Anastasia’s mental wall and I knock through before she can gather her energy.
"Winterfalls don't kill," she retorts and then gasps as I slam magic against her head and inflict the pain she deserves.
"A Winterfall edged with Blackwood magic does," I say.
"And that’s why you need to come with me and learn."
Anastasia attempts to move, and the dark Blackwood magic whispers that I could force Anastasia to step over the edge into the maw, but Tobias's voice warns me not to.
Widening my eyes at Anastasia, I push harder so she backs up against the cavern wall instead, and she shouts out to me when she can't retaliate. I breathe heavily as I concen
trate on holding her to the wall as if she’s attaching magnetically.
I could kill her.
I close my eyes and focus so that when I open them again, I'm seeing through Anastasia’s. I can't pick up any thoughts, only Anastasia’s fury that I'm managing to hold her steady. She throws back mentally whispered threats that when she takes me, I'll suffer.
But this woman won't take me. Nobody will hurt me—or any of my guys.
I see myself nearby, kneeling on the floor, blood streaking the stone around, and fixated on the person whose mind I occupy. Again the temptation to send Anastasia into the pit grows.
Andrei launches himself at a distracted Gabriella and I share her shock as she's sent flying halfway across the cavern before landing on the cavern floor. He crosses, appearing above her, breathing heavily as he looks down, hair obscuring his face.
"You've fucked up my life!" he shouts.
Before I can blink, Gabriella’s on her feet, and the pair are at the opposite end of the cavern, Andrei held above her, against the wall by his neck.
"As long as you live, you'll never escape the Petrescu name, Andrei."
"Not if you die!" he shouts.
Tobias advances towards her. “Let him go.”
As she looks around, Gabriella screeches and drops Andrei to the floor, doubling over and sucking in a breath before dropping to her knees. She looks up at Tobias, teeth clenched against the painful attack, then hauls herself to her feet. "Is that what you think, Tobias? That you can control me? Kill me? Which fool told you that?"
“If only you knew everything about me,” he says in a low voice.
She sneers at him. "The First can give me a greater power, but do you think I’m weak now? Would I walk this world and hold dominion over others if I’m someone who'd die in fire?" Tobias moves forward. “Step back.” He keeps advancing, slowly, deliberately, and she seizes Andrei again and throws him with enough force that his head cracks the wall. “I said step back, or I’ll kill him!”