by Alicia Rades
Valkas let me go, and it was enough to send me falling to my knees without the support. A pair of hands reached out and caught me, then I felt my body being tossed upward. It took me a second to realize I was slumped over someone’s shoulder and already headed down the hall.
“Where are you taking me?” I thought I asked the question, but I didn’t hear the words come out.
“Shh…” It was hard to pinpoint the voice, but I thought it was Rogers. “You mustn’t worry.”
He was dead wrong about that. Worry was all I did these days.
It certainly wasn’t going to end now.
10
It was dark when I blinked my eyes open. I shot to a sitting position, but the top of my head slammed against something hard. I rubbed the goose egg on my head and cursed.
“Rachel,” a familiar voice called out from the darkness.
“Jenna?”
My eyes adjusted to the darkness to see that I was in one of the log cabins the blood slaves stayed in. Light from an oil lamp cast shadows across the room. I was lying on a lower bunk, and Jenna was eyeing me from the bunk opposite mine. Two other girls who looked a few years older than me gazed down with sad eyes from the bunk above Jenna.
Everything that had happened since I arrived at Gregor Island came rushing back. My skin crawled at the memory of what had happened in the privacy of Valkas's room. All I wanted to do was take a shower. My stomach rumbled, and I realized I was starving. My arms shook as I pushed myself up to sit on the edge of the bed.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said.
Jenna forced a smile. “For now. As long as they think they can use me to manipulate you.”
Of course. That’s why Valkas hadn’t let her die in the ring.
“What happened?” I asked.
Jenna cleared her throat. “Rogers dumped you at our door, said you were our new roommate. This is Andi and Bri, by the way.”
I looked up to the girls on the top bunk. One had long blond hair and a small nose, and the other had dark skin and tight curls. Judging by the way they were sitting, they looked close, like being on this island had brought them together.
“Hey,” the blonde waved.
“Hi.” I gave a non-committal smile.
“Are you okay?” Jenna asked, eyeing me with concern, a look I'd seen so many times throughout the years.
“Just hungry,” I lied.
“What happened to you?” she asked.
I dodged around the question. I’d rather talk to her in private. “Is there anything to eat around here? Or anywhere to shower?” I added.
Jenna stood. “Follow me.”
“Hey,” the dark-haired girl said softly, stopping her. “You want us to come with?”
“We’ll be fine, Andi,” Jenna answered. “But thanks for the offer.”
Jenna and I stepped out of the cabin into cool night air.
I turned to her. “So, you've still got some of that softness in you?”
Jenna frowned. “A lot has changed since we last saw each other, but I'm not a monster.”
“Huh. Could've fooled me,” I said, recalling her fist flying toward me in the ring.
Her shoulders dropped. “Come on, Rachel. Don't be like that. I didn’t mean what I said. I was shocked and overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure I actually believed it was you.”
I was just about to shoot back some snarky comment, but then I looked her in the eyes. All my snark vanished as tears rose to my eyes. Out here alone under the moonlight, it felt like I was seeing her for the first time since the night she was taken. And I lost it.
Without ceremony, I threw my arms around her neck and dragged her close. She still smelled like I remembered… subtle tones of fresh linen mixed with a light strawberry scent. Memories of us as kids rushed through my mind—playing in our treehouse pretending we were pirates, talking about boys at our late-night slumber parties, baking cookies with Mom at Christmas, and grilling out with Dad in the summertime. Tears rolled down my cheeks. Once they started, I couldn't turn them off. Jenna hugged me back, and for the first time since I'd lost her, I felt that hole inside my chest shrink ever so slightly.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “I’m sorry I didn’t come for you sooner.”
Jenna drew away from me and wiped at her eyes. The tough exterior she’d put up earlier in the night had completely crumbled. “Where were you, Rachel? I waited for you. I thought they’d killed you that night. I kept telling myself they didn’t, that you were alive and coming for me. But I-I—”
I sniffled. “I tried, but I didn’t know where to start. I was hopeless. Once I had enough money, I turned to a witch and tried to track you down, but the spell didn’t work. I didn’t know what else to do, so I gave up. I’m a horrible sister. I didn’t think I had a chance of finding you until I saw this vampire with the mark of the Soulless on his wrist. That changed everything. I finally found out where you were, but then… shit hit the fan.”
Jenna took my arm and led me toward a large building at the end of the rows of cabins. A few people passed by, but the cabins were mostly quiet. “Why don’t you tell me about it inside? Let’s get you cleaned up.”
We stepped inside a dark building with rooms going off in all different directions. It was stylized in the same way as the cabins, with smooth wood floor and thick wooden walls. Jenna led me into one of the first rooms. I could hardly see anything until she turned to a table next to the door and lit a match. She placed it to the wick of an oil lamp, and the room became cast in a soft glow. I looked around to see three separate tubs, the kind on claw feet, with hand-pump faucets over each of them.
“No running water?” I asked.
Jenna walked over to the nearest tub and set the lamp down on an end table next to it. “Unfortunately, no. The island is completely cut off from the mainland. Valkas has a few generators here and there, but he saves them for himself. Get in. I’ll pump your water for you.”
I stood at the head of the tub and hesitated.
“Come on,” Jenna encouraged. “We’re sisters. We used to take baths together as kids. It’s nothing I’ve never seen before.”
True. I stripped down and climbed into the tub while Jenna worked on the pump. Icy cold water rushed over my toes, and I screamed, almost jumping out of the tub.
Jenna laughed. “No electricity, either. Remind me again what a warm shower feels like.”
“A lot more pleasant than this.” I settled back down into the tub, trying to ignore the coolness surrounding me.
When Jenna looked at me with her soft blue eyes, I could see the sister I used to know. She spoke quietly. “Do you want to tell me about it now?”
Yes! I wanted to tell her everything.
I took a calming breath, then dove into everything that happened after I found out about Gregor Island. I told her all about being the Ravenite, about Clarita’s warning, about our journey to the caves and my encounter with Matias. I told her about the dagger, my past lives, Synchrony, Venn—all of it. By the time I’d finished, I was clean and had been soaking in the tub for what felt like an hour.
“Wow,” Jenna said, dragging out the word. She sat on the lip of the next tub, her elbows rested on her knees. “That’s… a lot to take in.”
I bit my lip. “I know. I think I know what Clarita’s warning meant now.”
She tilted her head in question.
“Her warning was all about the dagger. If I hadn’t gone down into the cave, I’d never would’ve faced Matias. I never would’ve gotten the dagger that could kill Valkas. But now…” I dropped my head. “I messed up, Jenna Bean.”
She sighed, like she didn’t know what to say. She had no words of comfort to offer me.
“You’re a big help, sis,” I stated flatly.
Her shoulders fell. “What do you want me to say, Rachel? That you can’t give up? That you’ll make it off this island alive? I’ve been here a long time, and I’ve never seen anyone escape. This is our realit
y now.”
My stomach felt hollow. This couldn’t be it, could it?
But Jenna had a point. We didn’t have a way off this island. My one chance had already come and gone, and I didn’t know what to think about that. Hopeless was the best way to put it.
To take my mind off it, I asked Jenna, “So, what’s up with this island anyway? How’d a chateau end up out here? I mean, if this place was hidden for over a century…”
“As far as I’ve heard, the mansion was here before Valkas was imprisoned. The cabins and stuff only came after he escaped. His cronies run off to the mainland all the time to bring supplies back.”
“So, the Soulless… are they all here, then?” I’d honestly expected there to be more of them.
“God, no,” Jenna answered. “The Soulless are everywhere, stationed at different places around the world. This is just their headquarters, where Valkas keeps the strongest of them and the ones he trusts most.”
“Oh, okay.” It made sense.
“Anyway, about the mansion… rumor has it one of the witches who trapped him here—Gregor, obviously…” She shot me a knowing look, since I’d told her all about my past lives. “Lily Gregor owned the island and lived here on and off. She offered it up as the place of his sentence. As the legend goes, the mansion was symbolic to his imprisonment. It was supposed to make him reflect on what he’d done, to look at all the empty rooms and think of the people he’d killed.”
I laughed lightly.
“What?” she asked curiously.
I shrugged. “That sounds like something I’d come up with, even if it was in a past life.”
“I still can’t believe you’re all those people.” She spoke so softly I barely heard her. “It’s crazy that my sister is such an important part to all of this.”
“It’s not like I chose it,” I said.
“I know, but…” Jenna left the sentence hanging. The following beat of silence made me a little uncomfortable.
“I still can’t believe you’re a raccoon,” I subbed in, laughing.
Jenna smirked. “What did you expect? A dragon?”
I smiled. “I guess I always knew you’d be a shifter. I mean, since it’s genetic and all of that. But I just couldn’t ever picture you as an animal, you know? I mean, you’re Jenna.”
“Jenna the Fierce Raccoon,” she teased. “And don’t you forget it.”
“Oh, I won’t be forgetting that anytime soon.”
“And you’re a raven?” She rose her eyebrows, like she was impressed. “Can’t say I’m surprised. I think it suits you.”
“Does it?” I asked. I didn’t know what that meant, but I supposed it did, in a way.
Another beat passed, but I spoke to break the silence. I was dying for more details. “What happened to you these last two years?” After a pause, I added, “Only if you want to talk about it…”
Jenna shrugged, like she didn’t mind sharing. It was weird. I looked at her, and she was my sister, but there was definitely something tougher about her than I’d ever seen before. I guess that was what being a blood slave did to you.
She laced her fingers together in front of her. “What’s there to tell? I was kidnapped, fed on, and forced to fight other shifters for the vampires’ sick entertainment.”
My stomach dropped like a bag of rocks. I hated that she’d gone through all of that. “That’s how you got so good at fighting?”
“I had to,” she answered coolly. She barely sounded like my sister when she talked about it. “They care about shifter blood around here—for feeding—but they care about watching a good show, too. Some of those fights end in death, Rachel.”
I knew they had to, but hearing it from her mouth made me shudder.
“I’ve done what I had to do to survive,” she said, not meeting my gaze. “I didn’t always want to, but…”
“But what?” I regretted asking the question as soon as it left my lips. I didn’t want to make Jenna say any more than she was comfortable with. I understood how hard this kind of thing was to talk about.
“But I wanted to survive. To see you again.”
Tears rose to my eyes again. She endured all that for me?
“I love you, Jenna,” I whispered.
“I love you, too, Rach. Now finish up.” She stood and turned away from me, but I heard her sniffle as she paced across the room. It was like she didn’t want me to see her cry. Wow, how she’d changed.
I scrubbed down a second time to give her a moment of privacy. She handed me a towel when I got out, but didn’t say anything. I dried off, enjoying the warmth that came with it, then wrapped the towel around my body and secured the corner under the pit of my arm. I gathered my clothes and folded them into a neat pile, then took a bar of soap. Jenna eyed me curiously.
“You know how I told you I was a witch?” I asked.
“Like I could forget that.” She rolled her eyes playfully.
I smirked. “Do you want to see me perform magic?”
Genuine interest crossed her features. “Yes!”
Jenna and I settled on the floor on either side of my pile of clothes. I held the bar of soap above the clothes and whispered the cleansing incantation Sondra had taught me.
“Did it work?” Jenna asked when I finished.
“Wasn’t very fantastical, was it? It’s one of the only spells I know.” I grabbed my shirt off the top and sniffed it. It had a hint of the soap scent hidden beneath a layer of sweat, as if the spell had only half worked. My shoulders fell. “This worked perfectly the last time I used it.”
Jenna sniffed my jeans. “Ew, Rachel.”
My eyebrows knitted together. “I know. This spell is simple. It’s like ever since I stepped foot on this island something’s been blocking my powers.”
Jenna pressed her lips together in thought. I could barely see her expression in the shadows.
“What?” I asked, seeing the gears turning in her head.
“I’m just thinking about what you told me about Synchrony. You talked about positive and negative energy.”
“I do have positive energy,” I countered. “I’ve been getting a lot better at casting spells. How can all of that just go away?”
“Because that’s how life works,” Jenna said. “Nobody’s positive all the time, Rachel. Sometimes, it takes just one thing to set us back ten spaces.”
I snorted. “One thing? Like Valkas.”
“Exactly,” Jenna agreed. “Magic isn’t a linear progression. It’s a rollercoaster ride of loops and turns and ups and downs.”
A light smile crossed my lips. “When did you become the expert in magic?”
Jenna shot back a smirk. “I’m not. I just know how life works. I’ve been through enough shit to know that one.”
I dropped my gaze, really contemplating what Jenna was saying. “Maybe you’re right. I have been holding on to a lot of anger lately.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to force out some of the tension in my shoulders.
“Believe me…” Jenna reached out and placed her hand on mine. I opened my eyes to look at her, and the rest of the tension melted out of me. Her words were like an energy of their own, reminding me that I wasn’t alone. “I know how hard it is to stay positive in the roughest moments.”
Silence settled over the washroom as Jenna and I stared at each other. The knot in my chest softened, and I felt my lips twitch into a smile. I turned my hand over to hold on to hers. Jenna didn’t have to say anything else. Just her presence here and the familiar look in her eyes restored a sense of peace within myself I realized I’d let slip away.
“Can you try the spell again?” she asked.
“Okay.” I grabbed the soap bar and repeated the incantation. This time, my clothes smelled fresher, though they still had a few dirt stains on them.
Jenna shrugged. “Good enough, I guess.”
I changed back into my clothes and ran my fingers through my hair. Before Jenna and I left the building, I stopped her.
“Hey, Jenna?”
She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “Yeah?”
“Don’t let me forget what you said, okay? About the ups and the downs. I need a reminder about that every now and then.”
She draped an arm around my shoulder and opened the door. “Me, too, sis. Me, too.”
11
I laid my head back in the sand and closed my eyes, focusing on the sound of the waves lapping against the shore. The sun was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds, as it tended to do here on Gregor Island. I thought that maybe the sounds of nature would take my mind off everything, but it did nothing to shrink the gaping hole in my chest where all the hope and determination I’d had once resided. Now, there was nothing.
Several days had passed, but it felt like months. I still wasn’t any closer to figuring out how to find that dagger, kill Valkas, and get off the island. At this point, I didn’t think I ever would.
On the bright side, I hadn’t seen Valkas again, which was both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, I didn’t want to see him again. On the other, it made me a little suspicious. I’d stayed alive that first night because he was having fun with me. Now he was totally ignoring me? It didn’t sit right with me, but I decided to look at it as a blessing.
Blessings these days were few and far between. I spent my nights forced into slave labor in the chateau, cleaning chimneys and fireplaces or polishing baseboards. That part wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the uniform, a tight-fitting outfit that my butt cheeks hung out of. At least once an hour some sicko would pass by and whistle at me. I’d even been slapped in the ass a few times—and I just took it, because what was the point in fighting back now?
During my downtime, I’d been trying to channel more positive energy, but it wasn’t helping with my magic. It was nigh on impossible to stay positive after everything I'd seen.