Chapter 54
Fifty-Four
Where is he? Mina thought as she misted into the pyramid’s crowd of what must be a thousand Loreans.
The masked crush filled this impressive structure from wall to wall, spilling out of all the rooms. She scanned faces for the male she loved, still surprised that Mirceo and Caspion had agreed to hold back and let her go on her mission solo.
By the light of mesmeric torches, immortals sampled sex, drugs, and gambling. The Queen of Vice must be harvesting a feast of power tonight.
Next to low tables with large opium pipes were rows of dice games. In darker corners, naked bodies writhed. Their screams of ecstasy were an alternating drumbeat to the yells of the dice winners.
Opium smoke hung so thickly in the air it must be embedded into the fabrics, the very stone. How would Adham tolerate it? She tried to imagine him living here but couldn’t. How many centuries had he lost within these very walls?
He wasn’t the only Sorceri she needed to find. She also searched for his nemesis, Enti—the sorceress who’d stolen his future and even this part of his past. Mina was here to change all that.
She’d expected the sorceress to be up on a stage somewhere, the center of attention. Instead she found Enti in a back room, enjoying what must be a game of poker.
Several drunken demons sat at the table, their mugs making rings on the surface and dampening their cards.
Enti’s eyes were bright behind her red mask, her golden ensemble shimmering. She looked fully recovered from her trials in Nightside, her smile even more dazzling. When the time was right, Mina would have to strike quickly with her.
Enti laid down her cards and told the demon across the table from her, “You win again!”
The demon slurred, “Don’t know how you can keep losing. And you, a mind reader!” He hugged the pile of gold between them and dragged it closer.
“Because when you win, I win. Another game?”
He laughed. “Play you all night!”
Sorceri gleam. “Won’t you just?”
With Enti’s position stationary, Mina returned to the main hall, scanning the throng. Where are you? What if he didn’t show? Despite Caspion’s reports, she worried that Adham might be killed fulfilling any other vows he might have made over the ages?—
There.
Out of the corner of her eye she spied a tall figure, a male who towered over even the immortals here. He wore a domino mask, but she would recognize that bold stride and laborer’s build anywhere.
Her fangs sharpened for him, her predator instincts rising. She almost smiled. The plague alone hadn’t made her thirst for this male. The fated bond between a vampire and a sorcerer had.
He wore gloves to conceal his palms. One of his eyes was alight, the other regenerating—because a vow compelled him to stab it. He would be bound by it until Enti returned his oath-breaking ability.
According to Bettina, two Sorceri must be within sight of each other to transfer sorcery, so Mina needed to lure him to Enti. But to do so, she would need to do the one thing she ought not to. . . .
Kosmina.
Adham thought he’d spied a female with long blond hair amidst the crush, but she’d disappeared. She couldn’t be in this place; her brother would never allow it.
Must be imagining things. Anguish coupled with lack of sleep had warped his mind. His eyesight suffered, but his right eye was almost regenerated. He had a blade in his belt, ready to stab it. This saved time—time he needed to complete the vow that would destroy everything.
He hoped Kosmina was safe in Dacia, far from his befouled reach. All he wanted to do was protect her, and now he was the greatest danger to her.
She wouldn’t know what had befallen him, would think he’d deceived her yet again. After all the times he’d puzzled over her believing in him, now he desperately wanted her to. But he’d given her no reason to trust him.
He scanned the crowd. No sign of Mirceo yet. Why would that vampire abandon assured safety to come here? To come to my own godsdamned stronghold? Kosmina had admitted that Mirceo could be a touch arrogant. That trait would get him killed tonight.
At the thought, panic gripped Adham, but he knew he looked outwardly calm, an automaton running on vows. He hastened through the mass of Loreans, their antics calling to mind his own past behavior.
He passed what used to be his library. Orgy.
What used to be his den. Gambling hall.
What used to be his smoking room. Well, that remains the same.
Without interest, he recognized some of his former concubines, had heard they’d opened the doors to Enti. His thinking on them had changed. He no longer harbored ill will, could understand why they’d shown him no loyalty. He clearly hadn’t been worthy of it.
But Enti . . . he boiled with wrath toward her for all her thefts. When he’d first heard that the sorceress had wrested control of the haven he’d intended to share with Kosmina, he’d been furious. Yet more stolen from me. But seeing it like this, he knew he could never bring his mate here.
You can’t anyway! He was cursed to forfeit her forever. I cursed myself.
The remembered horror of striking against Mirceo and Mina continued to gut him, but he would do it again. Most of his old vows were null and void because he’d made them to Loreans who’d died over the years. He’d been forced to carry out a few Sorceri assassinations, yet now only two vows remained: to stab his eye and to kill his brother-by-fate.
Adham couldn’t pay an assassin to take himself out of the game, couldn’t even utter the words: “Gold for my death.” He couldn’t use his sand to travel to the pit of mystical flames where immortals went to die. I tried.
Though Silt was in Enti’s proximity and fully empowered, he couldn’t force her to return his sorcery because that would counteract the aim of his vows.
No way out. Despair was a vice, one the Queen of Vice amplified in this lair. It wrapped around him as absolutely as smoke had. The barren soullessness of being an Inferi was nothing compared to this.
At last Silt knew what he was and what he wanted, yet he had no control over his future. His dreams were a vanishing mirage.
He drew up short at another flash of blond. That is Kosmina! On the heels of dread and yearning, shame flushed his cheeks. She couldn’t be here, seeing this desecration of his home. His own vices had been a facet of this cesspit.
Compulsion struck yet again. He shoved past immortals, yanking off his gloves. He pulled sand from the realm to follow him inside. It churned for a capture as he pursued her. He couldn’t warn her away, couldn’t leave to spare her.
Despite how much he loved Kosmina, nothing could break this curse—until his actions had broken her .