And if love was only something Synrith could imagine. A memory, or an idea. Or a wish.
He knew for the first time in his life, that as his ambitions had been solved, that he did need it.
He needed that feeling.
He just didn’t know who he should take it from.
CHAPTER TEN
He was her one hope, and he had given up.
Jet.
Jet Strongarm.
He had been Cheryl’s first dragon love. Maybe he would be her last too.
Cheryl stared across from her cell into his, and observed his fragile state. The sweat. The blood. The screams she couldn’t hear, but had evidently occurred a short time ago. She wanted to reach out to him. Touch his face. Cover his wounds. Whisper in his ear to let him know everything was going to be okay…
Jet wasn’t looking at her. But Sophie was.
Adjacent to Jet’s cell, she sat in the middle of the floor with her legs crossed, glaring at Cheryl coldly. Cheryl didn’t know what to say to her. She’d tried to reach Sophie before. Tried over and over again. But whatever it was inside her sister that caused her to pull away, that thing – that ugly thing – was what controlled her now.
An embittered smile crept across Sophie’s lips.
“I miss you,” Cheryl said sincerely. “I miss my little sister.”
Sophie’s eyebrows rose slightly.
Cheryl leaned back against the wall. “You remember that lake outside Uncle Brian and Aunt Caitlyn’s place? When they were still together, and not divorced. I think we only went there two or three times.”
Sophie gave no response.
“I remember you then. Seven … eight… maybe nine years old. You were so happy. I remember how you and Aunt Caitlyn got on well. She was … showing you how to cook or something.”
Sophie nodded. “So?”
“I remember … you gave me a piece of chocolate cake. And you’d written my name on it in icing pen. It was … really good.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. She stood from the floor. “Fuck you and the cake I gave you.”
“I saved your life in that lake,” Cheryl said. “You were drowning and I rescued you. There was no one else around and I was the one who swam out there to save you, even though it could have meant I’d drown too. Do you remember that?”
Sophie shrugged.
“That’s why you gave me the cake. It was a thank you. We took some of it home, and the next Monday at school or whatever, you made sure my cake was wrapped up in a red serviette or something. Each piece of it. Was a gift from you to me.”
“Is there a point to this story?” Sophie asked.
“You weren’t like this back then. I mean, afterward… I saw you distancing yourself from me. You gradually pulled away. But if I think back far enough. There was a time where you still loved me. When we really were sisters.”
Sophie’s eyelids blinked away a layer of residue. She became rigid.
Stiff.
“Fuck you,” she said.
“Whatever,” Cheryl shrugged.
“No, I’m serious,” Sophie went on. “Really. Fuck you.”
“Why? Why are you so angry towards me?”
“Even if your piece of shit story, the one you cherry pick from all the things that happened to us – even that still has you coming out on top.”
“What? I don’t even –”
“You think I wanted to make that cake for you? Shortly after I’d been resuscitated, I got a beating from Mom, and then she pushed me into the kitchen. She forced me to make that cake for you. And what were you doing then? Sitting outside in the flowers. Being told how much of a hero you were. I was hungry that day. I was hungry at school. But oh no – I wasn’t allowed to have any. Because I was the stupid one who’d accidently fallen into the lake like the bad joke I was. So I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed your whole fucking childhood.”
Cheryl was taken aback. After a moment she said, “I’m sorry. I never quite saw it that way.”
“Well, why would you?” Sophie shot back. “You never asked me how I was really feeling.”
Cheryl stood up. She wrapped her hands around the bars.
“I’m sorry, Sophie,” she said. “I’m sorry for everything.”
“Don’t be sorry!” Sophie shouted. “I’m the one who feels sorry for you!”
“What do you mean? Why?”
“Soon enough Synrith will send for me, and I’ll get out of here. I’ll stand by his side as I rightly should.”
Sophie walked forward to the bars.
The sisters locked eyes, hard and cold.
“And I feel sorry for you because you still love me. Because you still believe there’s a way it will go back to what it was. That … must be hell to live with.”
“You can hate me all you want,” Cheryl said. “It’s not going to stop me from caring about you.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s what I’m here for. That’s what I was born to do.”
At that moment before Sophie could answer, the door to the dungeon’s exit could be heard opening and a series of footsteps emerged.
Soon Rafe was standing in the middle of the cells, by himself.
He took the keys from his pocket.
“Are you letting me out?” Sophie asked him.
Rafe walked over to Sophie’s cell.
Cheryl watched him stand facing her.
Sophie seemed perplexed.
“Well, come on, hurry up,” she said.
Rafe looked over his shoulder. Back to Cheryl.
Just a glance.
“Come on!” Sophie shouted.
Rafe turned back to her. “Do you love him then?”
Her lips parted and her mouth hung open. “Of – Of course I love him. And I’m sorry about the fight we had. I was … clearly overstepping my boundaries.”
Rafe turned back to Cheryl.
“What about you?” he asked. “Do you love him too?”
Cheryl closed her eyes a moment.
She had to.
She had to find what was there.
And it wasn’t an easy thing to see. Because for what felt like such a long time Synrith had consumed her. He had been her everything. So many times she’d been with him. In his arms. Holding her.
But then…
The lies.
The betrayal.
His stand on the wrong side on the line between good and evil.
For so long she had been unsure of what was in Synrith’s heart towards her.
But what was it then, that was inside her heart for him?
Cheryl opened her eyes again.
And now that she did, she saw that she wasn’t facing Rafe.
She was looking at Jet again.
“No,” Cheryl whispered. “No, I don’t love him.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“You see?” Sophie fired from inside her cell. “Now are you going to let me out or not?”
Rafe didn’t look back to her. He walked to Cheryl’s cell.
“Hey!” Sophie shouted. “Fucking get back here!”
Cheryl watched in amazement as Rafe lowered the key to her door and unlocked it. He pushed it across, opening the path for Cheryl. She stepped out to face him.
“I never put up a fight,” he said. “When I knew I was beaten I just stood there and allowed it to happen. I think I was waiting for her to change her mind.” He looked back to Sophie. “But I don’t think she’s capable. She’s too far gone.”
“Rafe,” Sophie hissed at him. “Open this fucking cell.”
Rafe turned back to Cheryl and handed her the keys. “You know what to do.”
Cheryl held them in her palm a moment, her eyes lingering back up to her sister’s.
Her face had suddenly changed. It had softened. Become less pale. The hew in her cheeks began to glow.
“Come here, darling,” she said. “Come to me.”
Cheryl took a step across to the other side of the room.
/> “That’s it,” Sophie urged her. “You know what you have to do. You know our destiny.”
Cheryl looked back to Rafe.
He hadn’t really meant for her to release her … had he?
“Cheryl,” Sophie whispered. “Fucking hurry up.”
Cheryl tried to block it out. She didn’t want to hear it. Not over her own thoughts.
She had to decide what to do.
“Wait!” Sophie cried. “What are you –?”
She was unlocking Jet’s cell.
Cheryl quickly raced in after the door was open and ran to him. “Jet! Jet wake up!” She looked back to Rafe. “Can you help me get him down?”
Rafe walked into the cell and put his hand into the darkened corner. He pulled down a small lever, releasing Jet from his confinement.
Cheryl attempted to catch him as he did so, but his body landed on top of her, knocking them both to the floor.
“What’s going on in there?” Sophie shouted. “What are you doing?”
Rafe hobbled over to Cheryl and Jet as she was struggling to break free of him. He helped her back up to her feet, while Jet continued to collapse and spread out, unconscious.
His back was bloody and torn as the result of multiple lashes.
“Jet?” Cheryl cried kneeling beside him. To Rafe, “Help me turn him over.”
As they did so Jet let out a heavy gasp, and coughed twice. His eyes opened wearily.
“I knew you were still alive,” Cheryl said. “You can handle anything.”
Jet grimaced. “What’s happening?”
“You have to stand up,” Rafe said. “You have to walk.”
“Why?” Jet breathed.
Cheryl’s eyes followed Jet’s gaze back to Rafe.
He had backed himself against the wall.
“Because this is the last chance this city has,” Rafe said. “For you stand up to the vampires. To my wolves. To Synrith.”
“How do I…? How do I…?”
“I don’t know how you’re going to do it,” Rafe replied. “But I know what you’re going to do as of this moment. You’re going to take a deep breath, and you’re going to manage to get yourself up off that floor. Then you and Cheryl are going to walk out of here and upstairs.”
“What?” Jet spluttered. “Why?”
“Are you really that stupid?” Cheryl said crossly. “Because he’s helping us escape.”
Jet groaned.
“What?” Cheryl snapped. “Would you prefer to just lay here and die?”
“No,” Jet finally muttered. “Help me … Help me up…”
Cheryl nodded to Rafe. “Let’s help him.”
They both knelt down beside the fallen dragon and pulled him up to his feet.
“Are you okay?” Cheryl asked. “Can you walk?”
“I don’t know,” Jet said, holding onto both of them. “I’ll try.”
Then as the three of them looked up to the opening of the cell, Sophie’s presence emerged, standing directly in front of them.
“No one’s going anywhere,” she said.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“How’d you get out?” Cheryl shrieked.
Sophie smirked. “A few bars of iron are no match for my powers.”
Her body shifted slightly, and Cheryl could the see the glowing orb in Sophie’s hand.
“Please,” Cheryl tried. “Don’t betray us.”
“It is you who have betrayed Master Synrith,” Sophie said wickedly. “May his judgment of you be swift and merciless.”
She flung the ball at the cell’s opening and it hit the bars, spreading out across the opening. Sophie’s figure could be seen on the other side of it, walking away.
Cheryl and Rafe lowered Jet back to the ground, where he rested leaning against the wall. They approached the opening and found they had been sealed off with a wall of ice.
Rafe touched it, spreading his fingers out across it. Then he pulled them back and curled his fist into a ball.
“Don’t,” Cheryl whispered.
He punched the wall sharply and Cheryl watched in disgust as Rafe’s blood sprayed across the ice, without leaving a dent.
“Aargh,” he winced.
He crouched down and looked back at the wall, hopelessly.
“How does she know how to do that stuff?” Cheryl asked. “Who taught her?”
“Ask the vampires,” he muttered. “They were her friends before anyone.”
Cheryl nodded. “Do you think I should give it a try?”
“You’ll hurt yourself.”
“Is there any other way out of here?”
Rafe didn’t reply. He looked away from her, nursing his hand.
Cheryl stared at the wall of ice. She clenched her fist together and pulled it back towards herself.
She felt her cheeks burning. Her muscles generating heat beyond the icy confines.
Her eyes tensed.
Her teeth bit into each other.
Then just as she was about unleash her fury, a voice spoke up behind her.
“Cheryl.”
She turned.
“Rafe.”
He looked up too.
Jet was standing on both his feet without any aid or assistance.
“Stand back,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rafe knew immediately what Jet meant. He dropped to the edge of the cell and lay on his stomach as Jet took a solid step forward. Cheryl’s footing buckled and she fell also. Just in time.
Jet’s face went blue and his dragon flashed across his eyes. He opened his mouth and a tunnel of flames streamed out of it, slamming into the wall of ice opposite. Cheryl shielded herself from the flames, her instincts locked into a vice grip of terror. Although they never touched her, the heat itself omitted was enough to cause her pain. She couldn’t shake it. Even after the flames were gone they were still with her.
Burning from the inside.
“Come on.”
The commanding voice above her.
And then the hand reaching out.
Cheryl looked up and saw it was Jet. She took his hand and climbed to her feet.
Rafe stepped in from behind them. “Follow me.”
Cheryl turned and saw the wall of ice had melted. There was nothing but water on the floor where it had been.
Rafe stepped out into the dungeon corridor, checking to make sure they were alone.
Jet was still holding Cheryl’s hand.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Are you strong enough to walk?”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “Thank you for rescuing me.”
“Well we’re not out of the woods yet,” Cheryl replied.
“Let’s go,” Rafe said went down the left side of the pathway, in the opposite direction Sophie had gone. Cheryl and Jet hurried on after him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Master Synrith felt the air move. He was outside again, on the balcony, watching the night time stars. And the air in front of his face. The air that he inhaled through his nostrils and down into his lungs. That wonderful, magical air.
It moved.
He turned abruptly, aware someone was soon to be entering the bedroom. His eyes opened wide, picturing her face. Thinking about her. Anticipating their reunion. She would come around after all. She had to. Synrith knew what was in his heart. He knew the darkness inside that room, but somehow he had made it out of there. And now he was waiting.
For Cheryl.
But it was her sister Sophie who opened the bedroom door breathlessly, marching towards him.
Synrith pushed open the door to the balcony and went into the bedroom to meet her.
“Master –” Sophie began.
“What’s happened?” Synrith replied.
Sophie scoffed at him, taken aback. She stared at him carefully, then walked past him and sat down on the side of the bed.
Synrith looked from her to the doorway. “Where’s Rafe?” he asked. “Where’s –”
“Cheryl?”
Synrith shot her a fiery gaze. “I felt it. Out there. Something’s happened. What did you do?”
“Syn, Syn, Syn,” Sophie muttered. “What would you do without me?”
Synrith walked directly in front of her. “Is she still alive?”
Sophie opened and closed her eyes.
“Is she?” he repeated again.
“Now I wish I did kill her,” Sophie said. “Because I can see you’re too weak to do it.”
Synrith cleared his throat. “I wanted you both up here. Where is she?”
“She was going to try and escape. Rafe was helping her free Jet.”
“WHAT?” Synrith roared. He quickly raced past the bed and towards the door.
“I stopped them,” Sophie hollered, behind him. “So you have me to thank.”
Synrith glanced over his shoulder. “What happened?”
Sophie walked up to him. She took his hand away from the door handle and closed it. She stood in front of it, blocking his path.
“She’s no good for you,” Sophie said. “Rafe asked her if she still loved you.”
“And?”
“She said she didn’t. I saw her … she was staring into Jet’s cell. The look in her eyes. It was as if she never loved you.”
Synrith breathed heavily. He pressed his head against the door behind Sophie.
She wrapped her arms around him.
“You’re mine now,” she said. “If you want a future with me, if you want our marriage to work, then you have to let Cheryl go.”
“You don’t understand what we had –”
“She never knew who you really were,” Sophie continued. “I do. I love you. We’re the ones who belong together.”
“And what about Rafe?”
“I’ll kill him myself,” Sophie declared. “As long as you kill Cheryl.”
“I don’t know if I –”
“Then I’ll kill both of them. Jet as well.”
“Where are they?”
“They’re in Jet’s cell,” Sophie explained. “They’re not going anywhere.”
Synrith leaned back from the door. “What is it you want?” he asked her. “Shall I call off the city attack?”
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