Chapter 36
After telling us exactly where he had Finn locked up, his father made quick work of undoing everyone’s shackles, knowing I was hovering close behind him. It’s good to know that Finn didn’t actually betray us this time. Even if he did, I need him if we’re going to make this cure.
Piper hasn’t spoken a word since we left the room, her eyes fixed in a permanent daze, and I haven’t been able to look at her after everything I know she heard.
They all know what I was before I arrived at the palace and what I’ve done, but I guess hearing it like that made it too real.
Too brutal. Part of me can never truly regret my actions—they kept Willow alive this past year.
But a nagging voice will always wonder if some of the vampires I killed were good, like these ones, and if I stole them from those who loved them.
I think back to the female vampire screaming over her brother’s lifeless body that night at the bloodring. The memory tightens my chest. I push away the thoughts, guilt suffocating me completely. I don’t have time to give in to the shame. And I certainly don’t have time for regrets.
“Move.” I push Finn’s father forward, hurrying him along.
His two men may be left dead back in our cell, but I don’t know who else knew about us being locked up, and we need to get out of here before it’s too late.
All we need to find is the list of ingredients to create the mixture that can siphon magic, and then to get the hell out of here.
I’m not even sure how long we’ve been gone, but it’s likely enough time for Karius to notice that we’re missing, and I can’t even think about dealing with his wrath when we return. I push the thought to the back of my mind. I’ll worry about that later.
We shuffle quietly down a narrow hallway until we finally stop in front of a locked door.
“Open it. And if you’re trying to play any games, you’ll end up like your two friends back there.
” I press the blade of the dagger against his throat to drive my point home, and feel him shudder.
He makes quick work of opening the door to the room, and my eyes instantly land on Finn pacing back and forth.
A sense of relief touches his features as his eyes land on me.
“Gods, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so happy to see you.”
I roll my eyes.
“You always want to see me,” I say.
“No, I want to sleep with you. When I see you in situations like this, it’s usually my throat that has a dagger pressed against it.”
I can’t help the smile that slips onto my face. Annoying or not, Finn is one of the smartest humans I know, and without him, the chances of finding a cure for Willow are zero.
I push the old man into the room as we all slip in after him. Finn’s eyes land on his dad, and he shakes his head.
“And you, I can’t believe you locked me up again.”
“It’s for your own damned good, the only thing you know how to do is get yourself into trouble, and not the good kind either.”
Finn rolls his eyes.
“That’s rich coming from you. You practically run the entire shadow market, and you say I’m the one who always gets into trouble.”
“I do things for a worthy cause to better the lives of our people. You get involved with any old riffraff.” His eyes glance at us.
“You’re such a hypocrite, but I don’t know what else I expect from you.”
“Sorry to break up this little family reunion, but we need to go,” Ajax says. He’s not spoken much. His biggest focus has been making sure that Kaia and Piper are ok, but he hasn’t been able to make eye contact with me ever since we left the cell.
“Do you know where it is?” I ask Finn, but he shakes his head. He looks at his father.
“I need to know where you keep the ingredients list to create the siphoner?” Finn asks.
His father cocks his head back and lets out a laugh.
“You must be a fool to think that I’m going to help you aid a group of bloodsuckers. I’d sooner die.”
I lift my blade to his throat, pressing just enough to allow a line of blood to appear. He winces and then holds up his hands in the air.
“Careful what you wish for,” I tell him.
“Ok, ok, let’s all just calm down. I can take you to it, just get that blade away from my throat.”
“No, you show us where it is, and after we get out safely, I will let you go.”
He grunts, but I leave no room for negotiation.
I feel the press of Karius’s power returning, the tingle of it caressing my flesh.
I also feel a mixture of something else.
Panic? Anger? Fear? It blends together in a way that makes it difficult to understand, but I know for sure that it belongs to Karius.
He said that we can feel each other’s intentions, and if I’m right, his are to tear down this entire realm.
“We need to hurry,” I say to the others, and Kaia nods at me knowingly.
“Show us whe—”
A high-pitched scream fills the air, cutting Finn’s words dead, and all our eyes fall to the door. I increase the pressure of the blade against his throat.
“What was that?” I growl at him, my voice not even sounding like my own.
He shakes his head frantically.
“I don’t know. I swear it.”
Finn’s eyes scan his father’s face, and then he lifts them to meet my gaze.
“He’s telling the truth,” he says. And the words bring me no comfort. If he didn’t set anything up, then what the hell was that?
“Maybe it’s Karius,” Piper whispers, the joy gone from her voice.
“I would feel him if he were this close.” She lifts her eyes to mine but looks away the second that they connect, and it hurts more than I expect.
“You can do that?” Ajax asks in surprise.
I shrug. “Sort of.”
Another scream tears through the air, this one sounding like a man’s, followed by a deep growl that echoes across the space. I’ve heard that sound before—and it makes my blood run cold.
“Impures,” Kaia says first.
Panic clutches my chest in a vice that feels crushing as I take in the new reality of our situation.
“That means they know we’re here. They’ve come for you,” Ajax says, and in that moment, whatever negative feelings they all have toward me disappear as we focus on the bigger threat. My gaze lifts to theirs.
“Are any of your powers back?” I ask, my eyes flickering between them.
The chorus of shaking heads feels like a slap in the face.
“Yours?” Kaia asks.
“It’s starting to. I can feel it, but I’m not at full strength. It won’t be enough.”
Panic fills her face, and I grab hold of Finn’s father’s collar, spinning him to face me.
“What did you give us?”
His eyes widen at the rage in my eyes.
“A dampener. It lessens the effects of a vampire’s abilities.”
Ajax curses under his breath as he begins pacing the room. “And you made this using our own venom?”
He nods. “Venom is just raw magic. You can make many types of ma—”
“I know what the fuck it is! I just need to know if you can reverse the effects?”
He shakes his head.
“I don’t know how to. It just wears off by itself if you don’t inject or ingest more.”
I rub a hand over my face at his words.
“You need to find a way because if you think that vampires are your problem, then you have no idea what lies beyond that door,” Kaia tells him.
“What about a booster?” Finn asks, and all eyes fall on him. Another shrill scream rings out, and a cold chill creeps down my spine.
“What’s that?” I ask.
Finn looks up at me. “It’s a way that magic can be used to give temporary powers to a human.”
“For fuck's sake, what the hell else have you guys been cooking up down here?” Ajax asks.
“I think that’s the least of our worries right now.” I turn my attention back to Finn. “Could it give them back their powers?”
He looks genuinely lost.
“I don’t know…maybe.”
“We don’t have time for maybes. If one of those things gets to us and we have no power, then we’re all dead, so you'd better find a way to make something work.”
“In theory, it could, but I’d need to know where he stores it.”
Finn’s father seems hesitant, but then quickly thinks better of it when he takes in the gravity of our situation.
“I have some, but it’s back in my office. We would need to go out there.” I can see the fear on his face.
My temples pound in response, and I reach for Athriel, but he’s annoyingly silent once again.
Fuck. I don’t know what to do. I take a long breath, trying to calm my nerves. This isn’t the time to panic. We have to survive.
“I’m the only one with a bit of power, so I can hold them off while you get him to his office.”
“No.” Ajax’s voice booms, and I’m so unfamiliar with the tone that I almost forgot that he’s a member of the royal guard for a reason. “You’re not going out there.”
“What choice do we have? They’re going to come for me first. Should I just wait to die?”
I see the resignation on his face.
“This isn’t about me and Karius, Ajax. This is about saving innocent lives. People are dying out there because they’re trying to get to me. I’m the only one who stands a chance.”
“She’s right.” I’m surprised to find that Kaia is the one on my side, and a look of understanding passes between us. “You get him to the office, and I will go with her.”
“You have no powers,” he reminds her.
“You don’t need power to win a fight. You just need to know your enemy’s weakness, and I know theirs.”
A long look passes between them, and I see the moment that he gives in. He nods, and an emotion that twists my gut fills his face.
“Stay alive.” He looks at both of us before he turns away, grabbing Finn’s father by the arm and racing out. Piper and Finn rush out behind them, and I take a breath.
“Stay behind me,” I tell Kaia, and a cocky grin fills her face.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I’m not cowering at the back.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“And what happens when you're the one who dies?” she says. “We all die, and I’m not going down without a fight. It’s not in my nature.”
“Ok.”
We head out the door, moving toward where the bulk of the noise was coming from, though it now seems to be silent. I keep my footsteps light as we weave our way down the tight hallways. They’re not making a single sound. An uneasy feeling ripples through me.
We seem to be moving in the quiet for what feels like forever before we finally resurface at the entrance of the alleyway that we came from. As we emerge, my entire body freezes. Kaia moves to walk around me, but I put out a hand to stop her.
Standing in three silent rows are at least fifteen impures.
Their eyes are fully black, and dark lines leak down their cheeks in a web of veins, extending like tree branches in every direction.
They stand immobile. I train my eyes on their chest, but I don’t even notice a single one rise or fall.
It’s as if they are just husks of nothing.
“What the hell are they doing?” Kaia whispers from beside me, and a tremor racks my body as realization dawns. My mind pulls me back to the night at the bloodring as they all stood silently for their next instruction.
“Waiting.”
“For what?” she asks.
As if in answer, a dark figure emerges from the shadows, cloaked just like all the others, but I recognize him, and my back stiffens at his presence.
Julian. He drags a smaller figure along with him, their body hidden by the thick black cloak, but it seems to take him minimal effort to do so as he keeps his attention firmly on me.
His smile extends as his face lands on me, and a strange excitement seems to brighten his eyes.
He doesn’t stop moving until he is standing in the middle of the group.
He looks straight at me as he pushes the unknown person to their knees in front of him.
He slowly peels back their hood, revealing a face that is all too familiar.
A breath leaves me, and I nearly collapse to my knees, but Kaia steadies my arm, keeping me upright.
Dark brown eyes brim with tears as they find mine through the darkness, a cry ripping from her mouth and echoing with my own.
Fire sears through every inch of me as my gaze locks on her taut skin and hollowed cheeks.
I gasp. “Willow.”