CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
PRESENT DAY
Lucien
Inside, the chamber was quiet. Reverent. The stone walls were smooth and clean, untouched by rot or decay. A wrought iron chandelier hung above, its candles still burning with blue, ghostly flames. And at the center of it all, resting atop a stone dais draped in faded crimson silk…
My body.
Though I’d known where it was since my memories returned, I’d never dared to visit it.
I couldn’t.
Not only because I didn’t want Serena to know that I knew where it was, but because it was too hard. The memory of the day Serena took my life from me flooded my mind, rage filling my body as I stared at her .
She moved through the catacomb, rounding my body, her hand caressing my chest as she looked up and grinned at me. I had to resist the urge to break each of her fingers as I watched her trail them over my form.
My body lay still, regal and composed, my skin pale but not sickly, like marble. My mouth was relaxed, the faintest crease of a frown still etched into my brow. My hands rested over my chest, fingers slightly curled.
But I was breathing.
Relief swept over me.
The painting was nearly gone, my energy depleted, but there was still hope.
I hadn’t heard Mia’s summons, if she’d tried. Another lie I’d told her in the void. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hear her summons, but I’d had to make her leave.
It was the only way to keep her safe from Serena even if it meant I would die.
I’d had no real plan at the time… not until Serena demanded that I steal Mia’s dagger to destroy my body.
If I was lucky, it would work and Mia would return to the castle before the painting completely faded. Perhaps even now she was realizing that summoning me wasn’t working.
Serena moved around my body, her cold blue eyes locking with mine. “Don’t look so upset, my love. We have always been destined to be together.”
I narrowed my gaze on her, fighting the urge to scoff. “Let’s get this over with.”
I pulled Mia’s dagger out, slowly twisting it in my fingers as I moved toward my body… toward Serena. She smiled up at me as I came to stand next to her, but I didn’t even look at her. Instead, I focused my attention on my body, hoping she couldn’t see the betrayal beneath my expression.
“Go on, Lucien,” she urged, her eagerness marking her tone. Her eyes gleamed with victory, and her smile stretched wider. “Straight through the heart.”
I lifted the dagger, positioning it over my body, my hand hovering just above my heart for a moment. Waiting.
From my peripheral I watched Serena’s gaze move from my face to the dagger, her attention entranced now. A gleeful, wicked grin spread across her too thin lips, hungry, knowing, as she waited for me to plunge the dagger into my body.
I closed my eyes, picturing Mia’s face–warm, fierce, loving.
I swung my arm quickly, arcing the blade outward instead of downward.
The dagger plunged into Serena’s heart, straight through the center of her form. For a moment, she stood frozen around the blade, gaping at me in disbelief.
Tears filled her eyes as she wrapped her hands around mine where I still pressed the dagger into her. She tried to pull it out, her sobs now a raging panic, but I held onto it, digging it further and further into her body. Her scream tore through the crypt like a storm.
She wretched back, determined to break free, but I gripped the back of her head with my free hand, pulling her against me. The dagger embedded even deeper, only the hilt in my palm exposed now.
I leaned my mouth close to her ear, the scent of rot and decay assaulting my senses. “We were never meant to be, Serena.”
Then with one swift movement, I shoved her hard, the dagger ripping from her chest as she stumbled backward and crumpled to the stone floor.
I didn’t even spare her a second glance as I turned to leave the catacombs, hoping Mia had realized that I wouldn’t come and had returned to the castle.
Before I could even take a step, however, a bone-chilling scream echoed through the catacombs, so loud and guttural that it rattled the stone. The air turned frigid, then snapped warm with fury in an instant.
A spectral form emerged from the darkness, writhing at the mouth of the corridor.
Serena stepped out of the shadows, her smile almost teasing yet, laced with pure rage. Her face contorted, twisting with fury. The room began to tremble and the castle groaned and wailed like a dying thing.
I stumbled back, my eyes wide. Confusion stirred inside of me as I watched the woman I had just killed with an enchanted blade move toward me.
“No,” I breathed, my brows furrowing. “How?”
Serena laughed, a grotesque sound that grinded against my nerves. Then her eyes moved from my face to behind me where I’d left her body just moments before.
A panic flooded my body as I slowly turned to follow her gaze.
The world stopped, my heart shattered into a million pieces.
It wasn’t Serena on the floor. It was Mia.
Her auburn hair spilled across the stones like bloodied silk, her body was limp, her skin was pale, lips parted slightly like she’d wanted to scream.
I rushed to her side, falling to my knees, the dagger clattering beside her body.
“No…” I choked on a sob as I pulled her lifeless body into my lap, pressing her face against my chest and burying mine in her hair.
“Mia,” I whispered, my voice breaking.
Serena slithered behind me. “She never left, Lucien. The little fool tried to stay to save you, but I warned you.”
She moved around us, circling us like prey, but I barely noticed, barely heard her voice as she continued.
“She is weak though. Her magic is a plague that eats her until her body is ripe for the taking ”
She leaned close to my ear then. “She was such a convenient vessel.”
“You possessed her?” I demanded, my voice strained, my whole body trembling with grief and fury.
Her laughter echoed through the crypt. “You thought I was foolish enough to believe you would destroy your body? Oh Lucien, you are the one who is a fool. You played right into my hands.”
I clutched Mia to my chest, pressing a kiss against her temple, rage surging through my undead veins until my vision began to cloud.
Gently, I laid Mia back against the cold stone floor and then I moved.
Serena had no time to react, no time to see my fingers grip the dagger, no time to move before I plunged it into her heart.
The blade sank in and Serena screamed, her throat tight with fear and agony.
This time it was her that crumpled to the floor, her that stared in disbelief as the magic in Mia’s blade consumed her. Her flesh rotted away, decay and death replacing it until there was nothing left of her, but a whisper of black smoke.
I dropped to my knees beside Mia again, my hands trembling as I gathered her into my arms.
She wasn’t breathing.
Her body was warm, but slack. Her head lolled against my shoulder, deep red hair tangled, lips still parted.
My chest cracked open.
I pressed my forehead to hers, rocking slightly as tears slipped down my cheek. “Please, Mia… Please wake up. I didn’t know. I didn’t…”
The truth scalded me. I had planned to kill Serena. I had planned to protect Mia by sending her away, but instead… she had taken Mia’s body and I hadn’t seen it. I hadn’t seen her. I had plunged the dagger into the woman that I loved.
I wanted to die. I deserved to die.
My hand reached blindly for the blade, fingers curling around the hilt.
If she was gone, I would go too. I would follow her into the dark. Into the void… wherever she was, I would find her.
My grip tightened around the dagger as I pressed one last kiss to Mia’s forehead…
But then something caught my eye.
A faint glow.
I looked down, shifting her in my arms. Her locket–the one with a piece of her soul meant for me–was glowing.
Pale gold and blue light pulsed from within it, slow and steady, like a heartbeat.
My breath caught .
I stared at the light, the way it flickered across her face, soft and warm.
Hope, wild and reckless, rushed through me.
“I can bring you back,” I whispered, cradling her tighter.
The curse wouldn’t break. I wouldn’t be freed, but Mia would live… and I would make that trade a thousand times.
I gently unclasped the necklace from her neck, my fingers shaking. The locket pulsed brighter as if it knew what was coming.
I pressed it over her heart, directly above the place that I had destroyed.
“Come back to me,” I begged, voice raw. “Please, Mia, take it. Take what is yours.”
The light flared, blinding gold and for a moment, I felt her soul move.