Her eyes were now brimming with tears.
I heaved a sigh.
I knew that she had to get back, but I had no idea how that would ever happen. Right now the best thing I could do was concentrate on protecting her and her unborn child from others, and from myself.
Chapter 23: Mona
Each step I took toward the circular chamber panicked my mind further. I tried to focus on Rhys’ last assurance to me before I left him.
I paused just outside the door.
I don’t even understand a word she says. How am I going to do this?
I pushed the door and it creaked open. I peeked my head inside and shut the door behind me. I inched over to the edge of the raised floor and looked down at the pool. The witch hadn’t surfaced. Although the stench had dissipated somewhat, it would return full force as soon as she appeared again.
My knees about to give way again, I walked down toward the pool.
I cleared my throat.
“I’m back,” I said, my voice cracking.
My voice echoed around the walls.
I waited with bated breath. But the witch didn’t resurface.
Perhaps she didn’t hear me?
I lowered myself to my knees and leant over the liquid, speaking louder. “Uh, excuse me. Lilith? I’m back. I’ve decided to—”
A powerful gust blew from behind me. I could barely scream before I fell face forward into the dark liquid.
In my shock, I opened my mouth to gasp for air, only to choke on a lungful of black liquid. I kicked and moved my arms frantically, trying to surface. I had underestimated how thick the liquid was. Each movement I made was ten times harder than it should have been.
I gripped the side of the pool, hauling myself up and retching. The pool’s rotten taste overwhelmed my senses. I clambered to pull myself out, but something closed around my ankle. I was yanked back down into the liquid with such force I lost my grip on the edge of the pool and was submerged once more.
I was pulled down further and further into the grave of this rotting corpse.
I did my best to keep my mouth shut this time, but my oxygen was running out fast. In my panic, I couldn’t think of any charm that could help me to breathe.
The grasp around my ankle didn’t loosen for a second. It only got tighter the further I was pulled. It felt like my hip might dislocate from the force.
My lungs were now screaming with pain. They felt like they were about to burst. As I felt I was seconds away from dying, my head bobbed above the black liquid. I opened my mouth and gasped for air. Wiping the fluid from my eyes, I opened them only to be met with pitch darkness.
I spread out my hands and felt stone walls all around me. When I reached my hand upward, it brushed a low rough ceiling. I was trapped in some sort of narrow container.
I was terrified that the hand would once again clasp around my ankle and pull me back into the black substance. I tried to push on the ceiling, but it didn’t budge.
Where am I?
No sooner had I asked myself the question than there was a loud crack. I looked up to see the ceiling had popped open. Except that this was no ceiling. It was a lid.
I reached up to push the lid again and this time it was much easier to budge. Careful not to submerge myself, I pushed at it until it slid off. I reached up and gripped hold of the ledge. I kicked and managed to heave myself over after several attempts. I found myself rolling onto a patch of grass. I coughed, remains of that foul substance still coating my mouth.
I sat up and gasped to see that I’d just climbed out of a grave. And now that I looked around, I was surrounded by marble tombstones.
It took a few seconds to realize where I was.
The Sanctuary.
My old home.
I remembered playing hide and seek in this graveyard with Rhys as a child.
I looked around in awe. I’d lost track of how much time had passed since I’d set foot in The Sanctuary. But my awe soon turned to panic. I’d been banished. I couldn’t be seen here. It wasn’t even possible to enter the boundaries of The Sanctuary without permission. Clearly this Ancient was able to bypass their protective spell.
I turned back around to look at the grave I’d just climbed out of. I almost screamed as I caught sight of the Ancient’s beady black eyes glaring up at me, her irises glinting in the moonlight.
She began talking to me, her voice hoarse and grating.
I held up my hands. “I don’t understand you,” I whispered. I shook my head forcefully. “I can read your language but I can’t understand.”
She scowled and, lifting two bony hands onto the grass, pulled herself out of the grave. I took a step back as she stood up, revealing her full height for the first time.
I gasped at how tall she was. Almost twice my height. Black cloth covered her body—I assumed it had once been a dress, but it was so ripped and ragged that it now showed more of her body than it concealed.
I stared in horror as she staggered over to one of the other gravestones, her sickeningly thin legs shaking as if they could barely carry her own weight. She bent down, her back folding sharply, and picked up a stone from the grass. She walked over to a slab of black stone and began scratching against it. She dropped the stone and stood up.
I waited for her to step back before approaching the stone. It was hard to concentrate on the text with her rasping breathing behind me. The more I read, the more I wanted to look away. The more I wished that I had never started reading.
My body was shaking more than ever as I drew my eyes away from it and crumpled to the grass. The Ancient’s eyes narrowed on me, as though she were studying my reaction.
I stared at her in disbelief.
She began clucking her tongue impatiently.
I managed to get to my feet and walked over to the slab. Picking up the stone, I wrote my agreement in her language.
She hissed at me and gestured toward the exit of the graveyard. A pair of tall gates.
I didn’t need her to show me the way. I’d been here a thousand times in my youth. I watched as she crawled back into the grave and lowered herself, disappearing from sight as she replaced the stone lid over her.
I looked up at the old clock tower outside the entrance of the graveyard. I didn’t have much time. The Ancient had given a strict deadline.
The first thing I did was clean myself of the liquid using my magic. Then, putting an invisibility spell over myself, I weaved through the tombstones until I reached the gates. I looked around the street outside. It appeared to be empty.
As I walked, it felt like I was walking to my death. There were witches here still far more powerful than I was. Killing fellow witches wasn’t allowed, but I was an outcast. I knew that they wouldn’t hesitate to end me if given the chance.
I guessed this was part of my test. How much was I willing to put on the line?
As I walked through the city, a wave of déjà vu crashed over me. Hardly anything about this peaceful place had changed since I’d left. The white architecture, domes studded with gems; the blue lakes and fresh pastures; the waterfall crashing in the distance; the breeze kissing my skin… my home. My heart ached for what I’d lost. This realm wasn’t called The Sanctuary for no reason. It was everything that the abode of the Ancients’ witches was not.
I imagined these streets during the daytime. A few days after my parents had died, I’d been dragged down this very road, blood pouring from my nose after the beating I’d received, to be thrown off of the island. I breathed in deeply, trying to control the emotions coursing through me.
I deliberately took a turning to avoid the street where I had grown up. I wasn’t sure I could handle that without breaking down and sobbing.
My mother, father, all my siblings, aunts, uncles… I was responsible for all of their deaths. Rhys was the closest thing I had to family now.
I was thankful at least that the Ancient was making me do this at night, rather than in the daytime when the streets would be t
eeming with witches. As it was, I already had to dodge a few couples who were out taking a stroll.
I walked through the residential area until I reached the foot of a hill. At the top of it was the abode of the ruler of The Sanctuary. The Ageless.
My breath hitched as I looked up at the white marble palace. As I climbed up the steps, my heart raced. My conscience screamed at me to stop and turn around. But I was too far gone for that now.
I reached the top of the hill and walked around the palace, studded with rubies that glinted beneath the moonlight.
I scanned the second floor until I spotted a balcony. I transported myself up there, and was relieved to see a balcony door had been left open, to let in the warm breeze no doubt.
I tried to quieten my breathing as I stepped into a circular bedroom. In the center was a gold-framed bed, where a beautiful woman with long silver hair lay asleep in the arms of a man, both bare except for the silk sheet covering them. I walked over to the end of their bed and cast a charm on them that would impair their hearing while I was searching for what the Ancient had sent me for.
I cast my eyes around the chamber. On spotting a row of cabinets in the corner, I began rummaging through them as fast as I could. I moved from room to room and by the eighth one, I was beginning to lose hope I’d ever find it in time.
But then I saw it, as I was rummaging through a small cupboard at the bottom of the staircase. Wrapped up in dark blood orange leather was a heap of maps, printed on old yellowing parchment. I curled up the leather binding and tucked it securely beneath my cloak.
Now for part two.
I climbed back up the staircase, approaching the Ageless’ bedroom cautiously. She and her lover were still asleep. I felt the hilt of the silver dagger in my belt. I withdrew it as I approached the bed.
Gripping the Ageless’ hair, I sliced through her neck.
She wasn’t even able to scream before her windpipe was severed. Blood stained the white sheets. The man woke up, but before he could move, I’d cut his throat too.
And then I ran.
I rushed to the balcony and jumped off. I sped down the hill and ran as fast as my legs could carry me, back to the graveyard.
Weaving between the tombstones, I arrived back at the stone where I was due to meet the Ancient. I looked up at the clock tower. I was early. I crouched down and tried to start moving the lid. It budged slightly and eventually I managed to pull it off. I decided that it was better to wait in hiding beneath the tombstone than out in the open after what I’d just done.
I lowered myself back into the liquid. And soon enough, a clammy hand reached out and gripped my ankle, pulling me back down into the darkness where I belonged.
Chapter 24: Kiev
I left Anna locked in the bathroom when I climbed up to Helina’s floor. I stopped outside her door and placed my ear against it. I didn’t detect any sounds coming from inside so I turned the door knob—unlocked as usual. Nobody in this castle seemed to be concerned about locking doors except me.
I crept along the hallway and headed straight for my sister’s bedroom. I glanced over at her dressing table, scanning it for some kind of perfume. There were several bottles. I grabbed the nearest one.
Then I raced back to the entrance. My stomach rose into my throat as I opened the front door to see Helina standing outside, about to push the door open.
Her eyes widened.
“Kiev. What are you doing?”
“I was looking for you,” I bluffed, slipping the bottle beneath my cloak.
“What for?”
“I wanted to check if rituals are resuming as usual tonight.”
“Yes, why wouldn’t they?”
“All right. That was all.” I turned and sped off in the opposite direction.
“Wait, I need to talk to you too,” she called after me, but I ignored her.
My heart hammering in my chest, I raced back toward my room and locked myself inside. I knocked on the bathroom door.
“Anna,” I whispered through the door. “I’m back.”
No answer.
“Anna?”
I knocked.
I heard a retching sound and then a weak voice. “Yeah… I’m here.”
“Open the door.”
The door opened slowly and Anna appeared, her face pale as she wiped vomit away from her mouth with a tissue.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I’m wondering if it’s something to do with the meal you gave me. Either you poisoned it, or my stomach has forgotten how to digest proper food.”
I stared at her. I doubted that there was anything wrong with the food I’d given her. It had smelled fresh enough.
She finished wiping herself down and got back into bed, shivering as she pulled the covers back over her.
I handed her the bottle of perfume.
“You need to cover yourself with this. Use the whole bottle if you have to.”
“Puke and perfume,” she muttered, eyeing the small bottle. “Great.”
She sighed and got out of bed again, walking toward the bathroom with the bottle and closing the door. I waited outside the door until she’d finished.
She stepped out after several minutes, holding up the empty bottle. “Ugh, I reek.”
The scent of her blood was still very noticeable to me, but the perfume masked it a lot better than I had thought it would. It was strong stuff.
She began walking back over to the bed, but her knees gave way before she reached it.
I caught her just before she made contact with the floor.
“I feel d-dizzy,” she gasped, her eyes shut tight.
I carried her over to the bed and laid her down on it, pulling the covers over her. Worry gripped me as I looked at her fragile state. “I’m going to need to find some more food for you. You can try to eat it again in a few hours. You have to get something in you.”
She looked up at me weakly and nodded. “I’ll try.”
I felt her forehead. It felt warmer than before. Too warm. I placed two fingers against her neck. Her pulse felt weak. Something wasn’t right.
There was a knock at the door.
Anna looked up at me, panic filling her eyes. I scooped her up and rushed her back into the bathroom.
“Lock the door,” I hissed.
When the bathroom door bolted shut, I answered the front door. I breathed out in relief to see that it was just my brother.
“Erik? What do you want?”
He was about to open his mouth, but he paused as he sniffed the air.
My stomach churned.
“That smell… women’s perfume?”
“Oh, Helina. She visited me.” I cringed internally, praying that he wouldn’t confirm this with our sister.
“Helina, huh?”
His eyes darkened, his face shrouded. His chest began to heave and then, to my shock, he gripped my shirt and shook me.
“You’ve been sleeping with Julisse!” he hissed.
Julisse?
I gripped my brother’s hands and yanked them away, his claws tearing through my shirt in the process.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“That’s Julisse’s perfume.”
“No! This is Helina’s perfume.”
“Don’t lie to me, Kiev.”
He launched at me with speed I’d forgotten my brother possessed. I staggered back and attempted to slam the door against his face, but it was too late. He’d entered the apartment and was beginning to rip my bedroom apart. Upending tables and tearing through curtains.
I was stunned. I couldn’t remember ever witnessing my brother lose his temper like this.
I leapt on him and wrestled him to the ground. I held him in a choke until his breathing became a little steadier.
“You dare accuse me of sleeping with my own brother’s woman?”
He scoffed. “You sleep with enough women to lose track of who belongs to whom.”
“I’ve never to
uched Julisse,” I growled, tightening my grip around him.
“Then explain why your room reeks of her perfume,” he choked.
I breathed out in frustration. Helina must have been borrowing the bottle from Julisse.
“I took the perfume from Helina’s room.”
“Oh, to satisfy your lifelong urge to try out women’s perfume?”
I knocked his head against the wooden floor.
I held my breath. I knew now that he wouldn’t believe any other explanation but the truth. But the memory of the way he’d stormed Matteo’s island was still too fresh. I didn’t trust him, just as he didn’t trust me.
“I’m telling you, I’m not sleeping with your woman,” I said through gritted teeth. “I don’t need to explain my every movement to you, and if you don’t believe me, you can go to—”
A retching came from the bathroom.
I swore.
That second of distraction became my downfall. Erik kneed me in the stomach, loosening my hold around him. He scrambled toward the bathroom and forced the door open with one powerful kick.
His mouth fell open as he stared at the floor.
“No,” I hissed, rushing to block his view of Anna.
But it was too late.
She was crouched over the toilet, vomiting again. Her whole body trembled.
Erik took a step back, dumbstruck.
“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered.
“You’ll be more than sorry once I’m through with you,” I growled.
I saw red and lunged at him, flooring him once again. I dealt him one blow after the other until his face was a bloody mess.
“Stop!”
I glanced up to see Helina entering the room, her hands clasped over her mouth. She hurried over and hauled me away from Erik.
Erik staggered to his feet and crumpled to the floor in a corner of the room, breathing heavily.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Helina demanded. She paused, sniffing the air. “And why does this room smell of Julisse’s perfume?” She narrowed her eyes on me and gripped my collar. “Have you been the one sleeping with Erik’s girl?”
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