Sending Viren an intrigued look, I lifted a brow questioningly at him. “You haven’t told her, after all this time?”
Belladona moved her gaze back and forth between Viren and me accusingly. “Apparently there is a lot he hasn’t bothered to tell me.”
Coming to Viren’s defense, I said, “Bells, I’m sure Viren’s silence wasn’t meant to upset you. He hasn’t actually spent a great amount of time with me, and therefore he couldn’t really have answered the abundant questions he was certain to have expected from you.”
Belladona frowned, but her face lost some of its ire. “Alright, I guess I can understand that…”
Viren took my sister’s dainty hand in his, and he turned fully toward her. “Belladona, I believed it would be best if Valkyrie herself explained things to you. I have kept you in the loop about everything else, but when it came to Val, well…” his gaze darted toward me. “She’s complicated.”
I laughed loudly. “Oh, if it were only as simple as being complicated. Bells, why don’t you put some clothes on, and then I will tell you every single sordid detail.”
My sister’s face softened as it trailed over me. “Okay, Val. I won’t be long.”
As my sister turned to go, my senses picked up something…unusual. Tilting my head to the side, I stepped forward, reaching a hand out to stop her. “Bells…what is that…” my voice trailed off, but in my mind’s inner eye, I studied what I was seeing. The unusual grid I seemed to carry within me had brought something to my attention, and I was trying to understand exactly what I was seeing. “Bells…why is there a tiny heartbeat inside you’re…”
Like a light bulb turning on, my mind understood what it was seeing. My eyes opened wide, my jaw dropped open, and I stared at my sister, before turning to Viren. “You got her pregnant!”
Viren’s face displayed a slight twitch, but other than that it remained stoic. Nodding my head, I moved my gaze back to Belladona. “Now, I understand why you’ve been hiding. I will admit, I didn’t know what kept you from the fight, and I was confused by it, but now, it makes perfect sense. However, my question for you is, why now? After all the years you’ve been lovers, now when the world is falling into darkness you choose to have a child?”
Belladona’s face was a wild display of emotions, and it caught me off guard. My sister had always been the master of hiding her feelings, of presenting the perfect face to our father, that I didn’t quite know how to react.
“We didn’t actually choose this, Val. It just…happened. Four hundred years I have loved Viren, and stolen off to see him beneath father’s nose, and it never happened, until you came back.”
I heard the message in her words. Belladona thought that her conception had something to do with my being reborn, but I didn’t understand how the two could possibly be tied together. I could see that my sister was worried. I understood why. We were on the brink of war, of losing control over our world, and there was every possibility that not long from now, this world might be a deadly place.
Belladona cleared the expressions from her face, and turned, walking deep into the cave. When she had gone, I turned toward Viren, unsure what to say.
“Valkyrie, your sister and I, we felt it was for the best if she stayed hidden, and if our child remained a secret.”
Inclining my head, I gave him a small smile. “You were right to do so. You have every reason to want to keep the woman you love, and your unborn child safe. I owe you an apology, Viren. I thought you were hiding her away for your own selfish reasons, but I see now that I was wrong.”
Viren smiled back at me. “You were right. I have been hiding her for my own selfish reasons, as you can see. Belladona knew you’d find her. She told me you would come to her when you were ready.”
Belladona returned a few moments later covered in a long white dress that flowed loosely around her somewhat swollen womb. Smiling at me, she pulled my hand as she led me to a pair of chairs tucked into the cave, but still near enough to the opening that we could see the roiling sea outside.
“The ocean hasn’t been happy lately. It’s like this day and night, as though it will never calm again.”
I followed her gaze, wanting to ask her so many things, but I felt that Belladona had the right to have her questions answered first. When her perceptive gaze returned to me, she scanned the wings which lay folded around me, holding me close. Normally, I would have retracted them, but ever since seeing Aeron again, I felt I needed the comfort they brought me.
“So, you’ve sprouted wings, little sister.” Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were wary. “Would you like to tell me about them?”
Studying my sister, I replied, “Yes, but first, I think it’s best if I start from the beginning, from the last time you and I saw each other.”
I spent the better part of the night telling my sister about the past year of my life, but unlike Valkyrian, with Belladona, I left nothing out. I told her of the dark desires I had begun having all the way back when I was with the wolves of Acadia. I told her about the way I had felt seeing Desmond for the first time, and the lust invoked in me when I met Aeron again. I watched her features and expressions as I did this, but it wouldn’t have mattered what I saw there, because I needed her to know the real me. I needed someone to know. When I had finished, my sister sat for a very long time, her eyes never leaving me, her intense gaze boring deep into my soul.
Taking a deep breath, she lifted her brows. “Wow, Valkyrie. That is a lot to take in. I’m still not sure how it’s possible that Byron isn’t your father, but for now I am willing to accept it.” Her gaze left my face momentarily, and when it came back to mine, there was something in it that made me certain I wasn’t going to like her next words.
“Val, I want you to listen closely to me. I do not think you are evil, or bad. I think you have changed…a lot. I think, that there are layers to you that perhaps we do not understand, but I think perhaps, that they were always there,” she trailed off for a moment, and when she resumed, it was like an arrow to my heart.
“As for the issue with Aeron…” her eyes darted away. “I know you won’t want to hear this, and I know it’s not easy, but I think it’s best if you try to move on. I think his death is weighing so heavily on your soul, it’s eating away at you. Have you stopped to think that maybe you’ve created his voice in your head, and this…Fenix, to ease the pain you feel? What if it’s this preoccupation with your lost love that is fueling the darker side of your nature?”
And there it was. The blow to the heart. The verdict, judgment and conviction all in one. My sister thought I should let him go. She thought I was imagining his voice, and that I had imagined the meeting with him earlier. My chest ached. Maybe she was right. Belladona had always been an open person, the one most likely to believe the impossible. If she didn’t believe he was coming back, then maybe it was time I gave up too. Lifting my haunted gaze to hers, I said, “I was hoping you would take me home…but I can see now that’s not something I can ask of you.”
Belladona chewed her lip with her long fangs. “Home? Home to Byron’s abandoned mansion? Why on earth would you want to go back there Val? No one has lived there in so long…after father…well, after he did what he did to you, he felt as though your memory, and the ghost of our mother was haunting him. He became unhinged, and soon we left that place. As far as I know, it’s been closed and condemned for centuries. I’m not even sure if the place is still standing.”
I frowned as I thought this over. “I’m missing chunks of my memory, Bells, and I was hoping that if I went there, they would finally come back to me. It’s hard to know who I am when I cannot remember everything.”
My sister’s expression turned sympathetic. “That isn’t so hard to understand. Viren can take you there. I gave him my word I wouldn’t leave this place.”
I shook my head. “Nor do I want you to. In fact, now that I know why you hide, I feel I shouldn’t have come. What if I’ve led someone here…” with panic rising
inside me, I stood, pacing.
From the back of the cavern, Viren’s strong voice drifted to me. “You haven’t. I have patrols, traps, spells, and guards, everything you could think of in place to protect her. The only ones who may enter without tripping them are you and Valkyrian.”
Closing my eyes, I exhaled in relief. “Remind me to thank you, when this is all over, Viren.”
I heard him chuckle, but he said nothing further. I wondered how he really felt about me. He had heard the prophecies the same as I had. Did he think that the one who was bound to doom the world stood right here beside the woman he loved and their unborn child, or did he believe I was the key to saving everyone? I knew Viren would never let on what he really thought.
ͼ ͼ ͼ ͼ
13
Whispers of Ghosts
Leaving Belladona had been one of the toughest things I’d had to do in a while. It had felt so good to sit with her, talking and laughing. Remorse washed through me because I hadn’t wanted to leave her. Being with her reminded me of the good things about me, the ones where I wasn’t killing and destroying everything. As much as I didn’t want to leave, I knew it was for the best. On my best days, I was an unpredictable loose cannon, on my worst, I didn’t even want to think about that. I didn’t want anything to happen to my sister, and I needed to visit my childhood home.
More and more, it seemed that everyone wanted me to focus on forgetting Aeron, to move on from him, but I just didn’t think I had it in me. Thinking back over the year I had spent as a Vampire, I realized the connection between Aeron and I had been at times, questionable. There was even a time when I felt more drawn to Desmond than I had to Aeron, but when I really sat down and thought back, my feelings for Aeron had always been there, and they had always been deeper than anything else.
Viren and I didn’t have long to travel. He might not have had wings on which to fly, but Vampires were super-fast. I chose to run beside him, rather than fly above him. Places blurred around us, and we whizzed past trees and buildings. Less than an hour had passed when he came to a stop. Glancing around myself, I saw only the wild overgrowth of the woods and ivy around us, and I turned to him in question.
“I don’t see any house here, Viren?”
Viren grinned at me. “You’re standing in what was once the grand gardens surrounding Byron’s mansion.” Lifting a long finger, he pointed into the dense woods. “Beyond those trees, you will find what you are seeking.”
I was about to step away, when Viren’s hand on my arm stopped me. Lifting my eyes to his, I lifted a brow. Viren sighed. “I hope you find the answers you seek in there, Val. The next battle is closing in, and we need you to stand with us. We need you undivided. Whether you move on from Aeron, or choose to let him haunt you forever, we need all of you.” With a final squeeze of my arm, he spun around, and disappeared into the gloomy half-light of the eclipse.
Facing the tree line again, I took a deep breath. I had no idea what awaited me on the opposite side of those thickened, ivy covered woods, but whatever it was, I needed to see it. There was no going back from here. With a final inhale for courage, I stepped into the small crevice between two overpowering pines and into the darkness that lay beyond. No light penetrated this dense canopy, and my abilities kicked in quickly, allowing me to scan the bleakness around me.
As my eyes roamed the area, they fell on the large structure that stood a couple dozen yards away. Its façade was covered with ivy, its windows broken, and the stone crumbling, but the once grand mansion was still mostly intact. A mist hung low over the ground, and I didn’t think I had ever seen a place with such a haunted presence. It was easy to feel the spirits that gathered here, and a chill ran down my spine. Long wisps of moss hung down from the branches that surrounded the structure, the empty, long-dead gardens, and statues.
The pallor of death and decay seemed to erode the place, and I could smell the scent of dying plants and fading life. Loneliness cloaked everything here. Walking slowly into the stone paved walkways of what once must have been a breathtaking garden, I looked around myself, hoping I would recall something. Small stone statues stood in varying states of destruction, and I had the feeling this wasn’t merely the result of time. Someone had come here, they had destroyed these beautiful carvings. Chunks of the ornamental stone lay strewn about haphazardly, and I felt sorrow for this garden to have been desecrated as it had.
My eyebrows were drawn deeply into a frown as I looked around, trying to understand why someone would do this. Kneeling, I looked down into the face of a small stone figure, the only one that hadn’t been demolished. The young girl of stone looked up lovingly as though she looked at a loved one, and I couldn’t help but be moved by her large wide eyes, and long hair that shrouded her back. Tilting my head, I realized there was something startlingly familiar about her. Reaching out a hand, I gently brushed the dirt off the stone girl’s face.
The moment my fingers connected with the cool stone, images bombarded me with such force that I fell back onto the earth behind me. Byron stood above me, his smiling face full of warmth and love. He looked down at something dear to him. When he spoke, his voice was fatherly, caring. “I’m going to have a statue made just like you, my beautiful little Valkyrie.”
Gasping, I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. I didn’t want to remember the good father Byron had been once. That wasn’t what I’d come here for. It seemed, however, the lingering memories had other ideas. Images and scenes flashed through my brain, and I felt powerless to do anything to stop them. I watched as Byron swung me in the swing that hung in the giant oak to my left. I watched as he placed the small stone girl he’d had carved to my likeness in the spot she would occupy. His words reverberated through my mind. “Beautiful Valkyrie…the light in my darkness…just like your mother, so beautiful…”
Grabbing my head, I gave it a hard shake. “Stop it! Get them out of my head!” My chest heaved with frustration and anguish. Pain welled in my heart. I didn’t want to see the good side of the man I hated, I couldn’t take it.
A soft feminine voice floated to my ears. “It’s not so easy to hate someone when once they were good and kind, is it?”
Lifting my gaze slowly, I peered toward the house. She stood there at the cracked marble steps to its entrance. Her semi-translucent form hovered just above the ground. In a white dress that looked like it belonged in a medieval ballroom, her long dark hair hanging around her face and over her shoulders, she was stunning. Icy-blue eyes seemed over bright in her fading face. She came closer to me, and I felt the shiver that coursed through me. Something about her was niggling at me. I had seen this woman before, but where? My mind felt blurry, as though it were desperately trying to figure out where it had seen her.
Her lush lips drew up in a smile, revealing a pair of long curved fangs. “Do you remember me, my sweet Valkyrie?”
Her voice was like the softest melody, a song that fluttered on the breeze, a voice that I had heard…once before…
No. It wasn’t possible, was it? Could this apparition be my mother? I didn’t even bother standing up, I was too stunned. “Are you Corentine?”
Her eyes softened, and she studied me intently. “You are so beautiful, my special little Val. You’re so much more than you seem, aren’t you?”
I blinked, unsure how to process this. It could be a trap, I knew I should be careful, but…if this was really my mother…
“Why do you say that about me?” I watched her closely, looking for any slight twitch, any sign that this was dark magic, or some kind of trap.
The translucent figure drifted a few feet away, looking down at the child-like statue. “Because it’s the truth. Everyone thinks they know who and what you are, but they don’t. Like Dresden couldn’t kill me, Byron couldn’t bear to kill you.” Her eyes drifted to my face, and they held a thousand sorrows.
Frowning, I stood and dusted the dirt from myself. “Byron did kill me, don’t you know that?”
The Ghost sm
iled at me. “He did, yes, but it haunted him forever. To this very day, he cannot live with what he did to his sweet little Valkyrie. Little does he know, that with those actions, he produced his most powerful adversary ever.”
“Are you really Corentine? Are you really…my mother?” I couldn’t seem to grasp it.
Her lips twitched in amusement. “I am. I have been with you all along. From the time you were a small baby, I watched over you, and your brother and sister too. I was there when you died for the first time, and I was beside you on your rebirth. I am sorry I could not interfere.”
Frowning, I asked, “If you’ve been there all along, then why is this the first time you’ve shown yourself to me?”
The Ghost called Corentine looked away, her face turning sad. “Because you were not ready then.”
“Am I ready now?”
Shaking her head, she walked past a tall dilapidated stone structure, her body going straight through it. “No, I’m not certain you are, daughter.”
My jaw muscle twitched. “Then why reveal yourself?”
Her face was a spasm of emotions when she turned to face me, and I couldn’t pin them all down. Sadness, apprehension, fear. “Because I fear for you.”
My eyes widened slightly. “Okay. Why do you fear for me? Obviously I can take care of myself.”
“You think you can, but you battle within yourself to keep control. I know what you are, Valkyrie. I know what blood flows within your veins, and I know the monster you hide away. I was much like you. It’s like we wear two faces, the one we show to everyone else, and the broken one we see in the mirror. The darkness inside of you is real, and it’s strong. You want to protect the humans and this world, but in order to do so, you must fight your cravings, and keep control.”
Valkyrie Divided (Pyralis Book 2) Page 14