73. Chapter 73
Chapter 73
T here is no way to use magic to get to Dryvein without setting off a bunch of alarms we don’t want to set off. So it’s the old-fashioned way that we travel — by train.
The ride is over five hours long, taking us from lush continental Germany to the ancient sea-side city of Dryvein. I love trains, and if this was happening at any other time, I’d probably have my nose glued to the window throughout the entire journey. As it happens, I can do nothing but stop myself from squirming in my seat next to Nuala and across from Raven and Dryden.
“Hey,” Nuala warns when my squirming lands her another jab in the ribs.
“Sorry about that.”
“Will you stop being so nervous?” she complains. “We haven’t even arrived. And besides, it’s bad for your health.”
“Thanks, Nuala,” I say sweetly, making a point of dragging my eyes down her robes. “I’m happy to see being Baldur’s priestess isn’t interfering with your role of nagging mom.”
She quirks an annoyed eyebrow at me, Dryden blows out a laugh, and Raven just smiles and returns to staring out the window with an absent expression on her face.
I turn to the window as well, the current view being one of rolling hills turning rockier the closer we get to Dryvein. Ever since she told me she broke up with him for refusing to talk to her after the incident with Cain, I’ve had Raven and Alaric on my mind, although that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“It surprises me,” my wolf starts, “that they think it’s the mission you’re nervous about.”
I blow a laugh through my nose. “Well,” I reply, “I’m nervous about that as well.”
She stays silent for a moment. “You know, ignoring the thing that’s really troubling you won’t make it go away.”
My mind flashes with images of his face twisting in rage as the realization hits him — that we drugged him so we could transfer the collar magic from me to Lorcan, Jaeger and de Groot. They almost make me go back to obsessing over how everyone is doing, how he is doing. But I mercilessly force them out.
“You’re all so full of surprisingly helpful advice today,” I say to my wolf.
She doesn’t reply. Realizing I won’t be made to talk, she just retreats back into the shadows.
Get inside the cathedral, I start chanting as soon as she does. Find the shadow torch. Get a piece of the shadow. Return to the Academy. Forge the sword.
I’m on my fifth repetition when the train starts pulling into the Main Station. The four of us exchange a single determined look before we get up, readjust our robes and climb out of the train with the rest of the passengers.
The crowd — many of whom are actual priests and worshippers coming into the city for Baldur’s Day — is suffocating, so we don’t stop until we’re out of the station building and on one of the largest squares in the city.
It’s here that I make us all slow to a stop, taking in the view all around me.
The city is just as striking as the first and only time I got to visit. One of the few remaining First Cities — places found by Originals, for Originals, in the centuries when humans weren’t just in the dark about the rest of the bloodlines, but… in the dark in general.
It’s more than enough to take your breath away — the mossy mountain rising high into the misty sky, the translucent white marble gleaming through the mist, the enormity of it all making the rivers of people seem as if they were nothing more than ants. Right behind me, there’s the largest railway station this side of the world, to my left and right, there are towers suspended above the streets, and across the square on which I’m currently standing, there’s an enormous set of stairs leading to another square right in front of the cathedral.
The sight is inspiring as hell, but the moment my eyes get drawn behind the cathedral and up, to the grand palace perched on the very top of the hill… all the awe gets switched out for sudden, acute sadness.
It’s strange to say the least — to know that, so many years ago, I stood here admiring this palace without knowing it would one day be my mate’s home. But more than anything else, it’s making it hard for me to keep shoving all my useless desperation about him aside.
“Anna?” Nuala’s voice snaps me out of it.
Clearing my throat, I tear my eyes away from the palace. “I guess it was to be expected,” I say as I shift my focus back onto the crowd gathered on the cathedral square, “but this little holiday of his seems to be very well attended.”
“And the sentiments all seem to be… praise-worthy,” Dryden notes as he points at the people celebrating the burning of a statue — the one of Brothers Grimm.
Bile rises up my throat when I remember that, when I first got to visit, Dryvein was one of the most progressive places you could find in the entire wide world.
That all slips my mind as soon as I spot it — the shadow torch that was supposed to be inside the cathedral.
“Isn’t that the torch?” I hear Raven ask with tension in her voice.
I grit my teeth. “It is.”
My words are followed by a long moment of silence.
“Should we rethink this?” Nuala finally asks. “It’s one thing to go stealing from a cathedral while everyone’s in service outside. It’s a whole other to do it right in front of the eyes of thousands of people.”
I glance around the square, spotting a few shadowcursed going around begging. My heart constricts in my chest. “We might not get another chance,” I whisper.
I sense everyone follow my gaze.
“I guess you’re right,” Nuala mutters in a grave voice. “Let’s go then.”
*
Dressed as Baldur’s priests, we don’t even have to elbow through the crowd to make our way to the stairs. It’s with reverence in their eyes that people let us through.
Everyone seems to be merry — the merchants at the stalls lining the square giving out free food and drinks, the dancers doing their acts with smiles on their faces and the children running around chasing each other.
But the closer you look, the more underlying misery you see — most of the people seem to actually be starving, a worrying number of them have symptoms of highly treatable diseases, and sure, some of the children are playing, but I actually see more of them working.
Just keep moving, I tell myself. The fastest way to help is to complete this mission.
We keep going, moving across the square leading to the stairs.
And of course, the closer we get to them, the more ‘select’ the crowd becomes, now mostly made up of lavishly dressed vampire noblemen.
As we walk, my eye gets drawn to this especially boisterous group. My eyebrows pull down when I register a couple of shadowcursed trying to retreat from them. I slow down, realizing the vampires are laughing, wearing these fancy masks and using their bejeweled canes to shove the poor people around.
And it’s not that no one else is noticing, it’s just that no one seems to be willing to do anything about it.
“Hey,” I yell out as I move straight towards them.
“Anna,” Nuala comes to whisper in my ear as she struggles to keep up with me, “you’re leading us farther away.”
I stop to throw her a frown. “I can’t just let this happen, Nuala.”
She lets out a frustrated sigh, but she doesn’t try to stop me when I keep moving. “Hey,” I say as soon as I get withing the vampires’ earshot. But I’m not stupid. I force myself to stay calm and try to resolve this peacefully.
So when they turn around to face the four of us, I put on a smile and urge, “Come on. Leave those people be.”
With the corner of my eye, I spot one of the shadowcursed shake his head at me in a silent warning.
The most lavishly dressed man in the vampire group lets out a scoff and gets in my face. “Do you know who I am, priestess?”
I force myself to give him another smile. “No, I’m afraid I don’t.”
His lips curl into a smug smile. “I’m the man who just last week had dinner with the Emperor himself.”
His men all push their chests out and laugh.
Gritting my teeth, I keep smiling. “Among other things, that must also mean you’re much more privileged than these people and have no real need to pick on them.”
The man frowns. “Who are you to tell me who I can and can’t pick on?”
“What’s the point in arguing with the bitch?” one of his men demands.
Their leader gives me a sly smile. “You’re right. Get her.”
Damn it.
But just as they prepare to obey and the four of us to defend ourselves, this priest comes between us. “Why don’t we all calm down?” he suggests.
The way the vampires look at him makes it clear to me he’s of a high rank. The leader seems to take a moment to think. Then he laughs and motions at the stalls. “Yeah, there’s free meat being handed out. Let’s go.”
It’s a huge sigh of relief that I breathe as I watch them disappear into the crowd.
*
“Thank you,” I turn to tell the priest. I bow my head in a show of respect. “We’ll be on our way now.”
My stomach drops when I see him shake his head at me. “You’re coming with me,” he says.
I hear Nuala let out a low, dragged-out groan.
I smile, choosing to buy time while I figure out how to get out of this. “Where are you taking us?”
He raises his eyebrows at me. “You’ve been near the infected. You need to be blessed, as quickly as possible.”
I turn to exchange a smile with Nuala, Dryden and Raven. It’s straight to the shadow torch he’ll take us.
“Lead the way,” I say as I turn back to him.
“How lucky are you?” my wolf states with a snarky smile.
Suppressing a chuckle, I just keep following the priest through the crowd. Once we get to our destination and while I’m receiving the ‘blessing,’ Dryden will get what we came here for and we’ll be on our way back, having successfully completed the mission.
We climb the enormous stairs and get onto the cathedral square. The actual service not having started yet, we wait for the crowd around the shadow torch to part for us. Even this goes without any hiccup whatsoever.
The priest leads us straight to the pedestal, the golden torch spewing the black flame of Baldur’s shadows now only an arm-length away from me.
My heart skips a beat.
The priest touches the flame then turns to touch my forehead, muttering, “In the name of the Gods and the Mother and the Holy Blood.”
“Fidelis sanguini,” I say in reply.
But that makes the priest pull his hand away and frown at me, making my breath catch in anticipation.
“You don’t know how to properly receive a blessing?” he demands, his frown only growing deeper. He glances at the rest of the team as well. “What church do you all belong to?”
*
Church? Fuck. My mind goes blank for a moment before instinct takes over. I sway in place and let my body slump to the floor, pretending to lose consciousness.
“Bloody,” the priest starts and breaks off as soon as he realizes he almost cursed out loud. I feel his hand on my upper arm, his knee gently pushing into my thigh. “Are you alright, child?” he asks.
“She’s fine,” I hear Raven say, “she just needs some air.”
But the priest is slapping me back into consciousness. When I open my eyes, I see him turning to another priest that has materialized in the meantime. “Otto, quick,” the first priest urges, “we need to get her to the infirmary.”
I rush to push myself into a seated position. “No,” I mutter, “there’s no need for that, it’s just very crowded here and I haven’t eaten anything all day.”
The priest quirks an eyebrow at me. “As I’ve already said, you’ve been near the infected. I’m not letting you go anywhere.”
I open my mouth to protest some more, but it’s then that I spot Dryden taking advantage of the commotion. He’s inconspicuously backing up towards the shadow torch with a hand in the pocket in which he’s keeping the box meant to contain the stolen piece of shadow.
“Alright,” I turn to tell the priest, “I’ll go.”
The priest gives me a content nod and holds a hand out. I take it and let him help me to my feet. I’ll figure out a way to escape, but for now, going to the infirmary with the priests might just be the distraction Dryden and the team need to safely leave with the box.
It makes me even more determined, when I see Dryden succeed in trapping a piece of the shadow.
“Hey, you,” I hear someone yell out just as he puts the box back into his pocket.
Goddamn it.
“What did you just do?” a guard demands as he appears right in front of him, already lifting his hand to use Mind Magic on him.
And now the attention of everyone in our vicinity is on Dryden. I freeze, my mind buzzing in search of a solution.
But it’s Raven who throws me a wink, lifts a hand to point a finger at me and yells at the top of her lungs, “Infected, she’s infected.”
Everyone around us seems to come to a screeching halt. There’s a moment of silence before sounds of screaming pierce the air, followed by a stampede of people running every which way.
Before the priests can react, the four of us are taking advantage of the commotion to run away.
*
We storm down the stairs and across the square in front of the Main Station, elbowing our way through the crowd. The plan is to hop onto the first train and get the hell out of here.
But just as we reach the center of the square, my wolf grows restless. I throw a look over my shoulder and see a dozen guards running after us with murderous expressions on their faces.
“Quick,” I tell the others as I change course, dive deeper into the crowd and lead us into one of the alleys off the square.
We keep running, but I can’t sense them anymore so I slow down a little, trying to catch my breath.
Just as I think we’ve escaped them, they materialize at the end of the alley, making us all come to a stop.
There’s a moment of silence before they start approaching, lifting their hands to use Mind Magic on us.
My eyes narrow. Why are there only six of them now?
I glance over my shoulder only to see the other six blocking our way back.
Fuck.
The next thing I know, Nuala and Raven are shifting and the guards are trying to get in control of me and Dryden, at least judging by the way he starts squirming next to me.
“Shift,” my wolf urges.
“I can’t,” I grit out.
Straining to resist the Mind Magic, I don’t move, but I start summoning a flame to the tips of my fingers, choosing to fight as a fae so as not to raise suspicion by using Shadow Magic.
The guard trying to get me under his control lets out a scoff.
Smirking, I shoot a blaze of fire straight in his direction.
It makes me grit my teeth when he doesn’t even try to evade the attack. The flame does nothing to his fireproof uniform.
And Nuala, Dryden and Raven seem to be struggling to deal damage as well.
Fuck. Now what?
My wolf wildly sniffs at the air. The very next moment, the guards all freeze in place and I see Cain land with Lorcan, Jaeger and de Groot struggling not to fall off his wings.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this pissed-off. Mercilessly, he folds the wings, making the three Embers fall to the ground.
“Release them all,” he coldly addresses the soldiers, but there’s a threat lacing his every word.
They waste no time in doing as they’re told. “General,” one of them mutters with a look of shock on his face.
Cain shoots him a single look, but that seems to be enough to make them all disperse as if they were never there in the first place.
As soon as they’re gone, Cain shifts his focus onto me, his eyes scanning my body.
For a moment, I struggle to comprehend the situation. Then the looks on Lorcan, Jaeger and de Groot’s faces tell me he somehow managed to force them into this.
I open my mouth to say thank you.
It makes me clamp it shut when he just looks away and starts moving out of the alley, coldly yet at the same time radiating so much anger.
It’s without a word that we all follow, heading straight for the train. I keep my eyes fixed on his back, unable to wrap my mind around any of it.
We’re safe, Dryden has the box in his pocket, and Cain did just go to a hell of a lot of trouble just to get me out of this mess.
But the fact seems to be making him angrier than I’ve ever seen him.
And just as I step into the train, I sense an energy coming off of Dryden, off of the box, and for the first time in what feels like forever, I hear the familiar, smug drawl boom inside my head.
“Thank you for giving me a way to talk to you, Freya darling.”