Chapter 38 #2
We led the way into the caves, the walls closing in around us quickly and the scent of salt clinging to the walls from when the tide came in. I threw a look back over my shoulder at the short stretch of beach behind us, eyeing the waves as they reached across the sand before retreating again.
“The tide is coming in,” I commented.
“We’d better hurry then,” Vesper replied.
“Or wait,” North suggested, falling still at the entrance to the cave. “I don’t really wanna end up drowning in some fucking cave.”
“What’s the matter, mutt? Are you scared?” Vesper taunted while the Vampires exchanged concerned mutterings too. “Feel free to wait out here.”
Vesper strode away into the cave but Lazarus caught my arm as I made to follow. “How long does this usually take?”
“Depends on how long it takes us to find the keystone. The others were buried deep beneath the dirt.” I shrugged him off and headed after my spectre.
“We’ll wait here and keep an eye on the tide then,” Lazarus called, and I had to wonder if that was precisely what Vesper had been hoping for when she’d decided to put a time limit on this hunt.
“I’m coming,” North said just as I thought we were going to be gifted some time alone at last. “I’m not afraid of the tide.”
“Oh good,” I muttered.
The dark swallowed us but I sent a Faelight out to illuminate the way on. The cave was twisting and narrow just as the others had been but Vesper didn’t so much as hesitate in choosing the path ahead.
“How come you and her are working together anyway?” North asked, sidling up to walk beside me despite the passage not being wide enough to do so comfortably, his voice echoing in the tight space.
“She is all I have,” I replied which seemed to throw him off for a moment but he didn’t let the silence stretch.
“You’re from Avanis though, right? And she’s from Stormfell, so how did you even meet–”
“I am bound in service to her king,” I replied, not feeling inclined to offer him more than the bones of my situation.
Though I could admit that I had begun to wonder about my connection to the woman I’d vowed to walk beside in all things, whether we might be more than two Fae who had found each other in the dark, whether she might be destined to become my mate…
If only I still had the piece of comet we’d stolen in Pyros, I could have asked the stars the truth of it.
But Dragor had stolen them along with everything else I owned when he’d captured me and I doubted I’d ever lay eyes on them again.
“Oooh, so you’re his captive – that explains the collar.
Do you do tricks on command too?” I ignored North’s question but that didn’t deter him from filling the silence with more drivel.
“My brother Kaiser had the Void as his captive once so I know how it works. She hated him for it, obviously. I guess you hate old Dragor then too, eh? Which we have in common because he killed my brother Diego, and that left me with lingering regrets because Diego always wore this dumb hat everywhere and do you know the last thing I ever said to him?”
“No.”
“I said ‘Diego, that hat is dumb’. Fucking haunts me it does. In the dead of night. Like, sometimes it’s all the war stuff that haunts me but that comment was harsh.
True…but harsh. He loved that dumb hat but it had tassels and a bell and it was just so ugly.
Apparently it was still on his head even after Dragor chopped it off.
Well, I say it was Dragor, but I guess it could have been any fucker in his army really.
Maybe it was the Sky Witch – do you think she did it? ”
He peered at Vesper’s back and she cut him a scathing look for talking about her as if she couldn’t hear him. “How would I remember even if it was?”
“Harsh. Decent folk keep count of their murders, you know? The fact that you don’t says a lot about your moral fibre. It’s very telling.”
“And yet you keep blathering on and tempting me to add yours to the list of names and faces I’ve already forgotten in death,” she replied.
“Anyway… back to the point. Do you hate Dragor? I bet he’s fucking insufferable now that he’s king.
I mean, I don’t know him personally and I only really saw him up close that one time and it wasn’t really a studying his face kind of moment.
But the paintings I’ve seen make him appear unbearable – real turned-up-nose-thinks-he’s-better-than-everyone type. Am I right?” North asked.
“Yes,” Vesper replied and I snorted a laugh.
“He is,” I agreed.
“So you gonna try and kill him like the Void tried to kill Kai?”
I said nothing. And I supposed that was telling enough.
“You said you found him on the battlefield and rescued him?” Vesper asked, her attention seemingly piqued by that claim.
“Err, yeah. She stabbed him good but I got to him, carried him to safety, nursed him back to health. It was pretty heroic of me actually, thanks for noticing.”
“But his hold on her shattered regardless?” Vesper pressed.
“Umm, yeah – wait, how do you know about the bond he’d put on her?”
Vesper fell still suddenly and we were forced to a halt too. “Wait here,” she commanded, ignoring the Wolf’s question as something stole her focus from their discussion.
“Last time–” I began, reaching for her.
“Last time you almost lost yourself in the flow of ether and were spotted by the monster at its heart for good measure. I don’t want to draw its focus again and it is likely expecting me now.
So this time stay away unless the silence stretches so long as you have no choice but to approach.
And don’t for the love of the stars open your magic to mine while I’m caught in it either.
I know how to pull myself free but if you can’t wake me then just get me out of there and when we’re at a safe distance, burn this in my right fist.”
She handed me a scrap of fabric decorated in runes and tied tightly around a bundle of herbs, her gaze meeting mine and locking there.
“Promise me, Bastian. Do as I say or I’ll send you away and entrust my survival to the mutt instead.”
“Me?” North asked in surprise but we both ignored him.
“Fine,” I growled, shoving the bundled herbs into my pocket. “But I’m not waiting on some lingering silence. You have five minutes and no longer. Tell me where I need to go.”
“Turn right at the fork and follow the passage to its base. The keystone is there,” she said, turning away.
“Vesper,” I called, barely managing to restrain myself as I fought the urge to catch her hand and refuse this mad plan.
Water trickled over the stones and bumped into our boots as we locked eyes with one another and I couldn’t help but look down at it. “Be careful,” I said. “And hurry.”
She made to turn away then stopped, stepping toward me instead and catching hold of the front of my shirt to yank me down and press a hard kiss to my lips.
It didn’t last for more than a heartbeat and I fought the urge to drag her into my arms for a proper goodbye as she turned and swept away along the passage, leaving me to dwell upon thoughts of what might be awaiting her there.
“Wow,” North said as she stalked away. “Are you her enemy? I heard she likes to fuck her enemies to death and the two of you seem kind of like you’re fucking, so…”
“Don’t speak about her like that if you value your life,” I growled.
“Okay man,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “Just figured maybe you didn’t know and needed a warning. But I guess it’s a better way to go than most if it is true so…oh right, yeah, shutting up.”
I gained a full three seconds of silence during which another wave washed into the caves, my pulse ticking a little faster as I considered how long it had taken us to make it down here. Would we be able to get out before we found ourselves submerged?
I placed a hand on the rock, my magic leaking into it as I picked out a path of weaker stone in case I ended up having to tunnel us out of here.
“Vesper,” North said thoughtfully. “Ves-per. Vesssperrr. Nope. Doesn’t suit her. Kinda weird that she has an actual name really. I don’t like it.”
“You thought she was given the name ‘Sky Witch’ upon birth?” I drawled.
“Naw. Well…not birth. I figured she kind of popped out of the ground one day, pre-witchy bitchy, you know?”
“No. That is idiocy.”
“And you’re fucking rude. And grumpy. Lucky for you, I’m used to hanging out with Kai and he was always grumpy…well no, not grumpy. More like void of any feeling whatsoever.”
“That sounds about right,” I muttered. A tremor resounded through the cavern which surrounded us and my eyes followed the path Vesper had taken. She was with the keystone. It had begun.
“How so?” North pushed, either not noticing or not wishing to comment on what I’d just felt in the stone that surrounded us.
“Because you said that the two of you spent a lot of time together. And you seem like the kind of person who saps the emotional energy from everyone around them,” I deadpanned.
“There you go being fucking rude again. You Stonebreakers are no fun. That’s what it is. It’s all ‘dig, dig, dig’ with you bastards. And you know what they say – all dirt and no play makes for a boring, grumpy motherfucker at the end of the day.”
The next wave of water ran over the toes of my boots and did not recede.
“No one says that. And my people grow things with our magic, we create life. All your kind do is burn and destroy,” I said.
“And fuck – we have a lot of orgies.”
I breathed a laugh but turned away from him. The water rushed over our ankles. Vesper’s time was almost up either way.
“I don’t wanna make a fuss or anything, but is she almost done?” North asked, lifting a boot out of the water and giving it a shake before resigning himself to the fact that he had no choice other than to submerge it again.
“She has forty-seven seconds remaining before my oath to her is fulfilled.”
“How have you kept count that accurately while we’ve been talking?”
“This conversation is less than riveting.”