Chapter 15 #4
The woman looked up at her, still running her fingers over the threads as though in a trance. Anelize gasped at the sallow skin along her face and bright burning eyes watching her.
Her lips parted, revealing blackened teeth the same as the Moroi’s as she hissed, “Long have I waited for you. Yet you are far from ready for the truth I have to offer, Anelize Yarrow. Alas, too weak to hold the true power I must share.”
“I do not want power…” she said.
“So it would seem.” The woman tilted her head curiously at her, black ink shifting amongst those shimmering eyes of hers. “Then why have you come? What is it you seek now?”
Anelize swallowed nervously. “I want…to find my sister. I want her returned to me. I want to put an end to all of this.”
“This…the king and his men? The war of blood and ghosts that haunt the streets of Elvir. The history of mad men and their makers. The saints turned into demons.” the woman murmured.
“Yes.” Anelize swallowed nervously, her entire body feeling as though it were a fraying thread. The power around her making her feel uneasy with every wave that swept over her.
“Everything comes at a cost.”
“What is the cost?”
The threads stopped spinning once the last of them were a deep red.
Blood dripping onto the floorboards, creating a slow viscous pool gathering near the woman’s bare feet.
The woman slowly rose from her bench, practically looming over Anelize.
She took a staggering step back as the woman slowly turned to face her, hands streaked with her own blood as she reached for Anelize. The same as she’d done in her dreams.
Anelize froze, could not move as the woman looked at her intently. Trailed her fingers over her face, to her eyes.
“Everything,” she said, her lips parting as the threads of the loom snapped.
Swirling and stretched around them as they unspooled from the loom, as though they had a life of their own the threads surged and began wrapping around them into a cocoon of power that burned Anelize as they grazed her skin, down to her veins.
Whispered with voices, sharing their secrets with her in a language of old and new.
Power unlike anything she’d ever felt before.
Calling to her. Urging her to hurry. The woman said, “Though you already know that. It is why you have come to me once more.”
Tears ran down Anelize’s cheeks as she stared up at the woman as she was wrapped into a sea of red, her eyes the last to go.
Anelize screamed as the threads tightened around her, crushing her very soul as it grew to be too much with a power that seemed to fill and drain her completely. Reducing her into a mindless puppet, slowly killing her—
“Anya!” a deep voice yelled as a hand gripped her arm in a vice, yanking her away from the threads and into the light. A bright, warm light that filled the room.
She hardly realized she was screaming as she tried to push away the hands that gripped her, shook her hard enough that her teeth rattled.
“Open your eyes!” the voice commanded as the hands eased their grip on her. Moving up and down her arms before they found her face. Warm, calloused fingers grazing her skin. “Temperance.”
Anelize’s eyes shot open on a gasp at the familiar name. The shadows around her slowly ebbed away, clearing until she found Aeric standing before her. His concern painted over his face as he breathed heavily as if he’d been running.
“Did you feel that? The power…” she said shakily.
“What?” Aeric casted a glare about the room, to the runes on the walls.
She felt dazed, swaying until he wrapped an arm around her to steady her.
“She said that power comes at a cost.”
“Breathe, Anya. It’s all right now.” Aeric pushed her back to look her in the eye. “Can you tell me what you saw?”
“I-I don’t know. I can’t—” Her vision blurred, her head feeling seconds away from splitting in half.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice softer this time. His arm still wrapped around her shoulders.
“No. I’m fine.”
Footsteps rushed into the cottage and soon the others were there. Looking haggard and on edge, but unharmed. Henry looked around the room with awe before his eyes met hers. His face went grim as he approached her, pulling her out of Aeric’s arms and into his. “Saints, Anya. Are you all right?”
She nodded against his broad chest before she heard Idris murmur, “What is this place?”
Glancing over her shoulder, she found the twins inspecting the runes on the walls. Aeric however, stood an arm’s length away from her with a stern look on his face. His hands flexing at his sides as he watched her before he turned away. “Don’t touch anything.”
“This was where the Weaver resided,” Henry practically whispered, as if he feared the Weaver would appear before them at the mere mention of her name.
“After she was cast out by the Vedrans in the village, she came here to live out the rest of her days in isolation. It was her punishment for allying herself with the king.”
“The air in this place feels…heavy. Unnatural,” Adan said with a sneer as he inspected another rune, what appeared to be dried blood coating its edges.
Henry nodded. “Her power is encased within this cottage. Her augmentation and conjuring, all of it was done here. One can feel it roiling within themselves. I have no doubt her very essence and power has remained within these walls. Did you see anything, Anya?”
Anelize hesitated before saying, “I think I saw something. But I can’t make sense of any of it. My head…”
Anelize shivered and she felt something heavy and warm being draped over her shoulders.
“Let’s get out of here. She’s seen enough. I think we all have,” Aeric said. When she glanced up to watch him striding for the door, she noticed he now only wore his black leathers. Slowly, she placed her hand over the fabric, realizing it was a cloak that she’d been wrapped in.
Henry frowned at Aeric but nodded.
Seeming to all have come to an agreement, they venture out into the forest and back to the city, wary of any other creatures they may encounter.
All the while, Anelize could not stop herself from glancing over her shoulder. Feeling as though something, or someone, was watching her. Her name lost to the howling winds.