Chapter 29 Danni
Danni
The first sound I hear in the darkness is groaning.
I’m so dazed that I can’t tell if it’s coming from me or someone else.
Something moves on my left, then I sense coldness.
Unwavering bitter cold seeps into my bones.
Even if I sat in front of an open fire with three blankets on, I’d still be shivering.
My teeth chatter as I push myself up. Cold iron chains bind my wrists.
My palms dig into the moist, craggy rock beneath me.
What have I done? Has this all been a big cosmic joke? All those promises of glitz and glory, just to be shackled like a prisoner. I lift my head to gaze through my curtain of wet hair and let out a scream.
A hand covers my mouth and hauls me backwards into a warm embrace that holds me secure. I almost relax and give in, when my eyes fall on Megan’s blood-covered body lying on the floor.
I claw at the hand covering my mouth, sinking my nails as deep as I can into the flesh. But I’m too exhausted to inflict much damage. My bones feel weak, like they’ll snap if I make any more sudden movements.
“It’s me. It’s just me,” Cyprian’s Familiar whispers in my ear. “I need you to be calm right now because they’re coming.”
My sigh of relief at the sound of his voice is cut short when Megan stirs, her groans echoing in the strange chamber. She clutches her stomach and rolls to her side, vomit splashing over the cold stone floor between us. Then, she lies still. Too still.
I have to get to her. I force my body to relax, convincing him it’s safe to remove his hand.
“I have to help her.” I make my way over to her, the rusted metal chains binding my wrists pulling tighter with each movement.
As if my punishment is to watch her die.
I yank on them in frustration. Everything I have done so far has been to protect the Familiars, the crowd enjoying the show—everyone trapped in this hellish nightmare.
And I failed. It feels like it was all for nothing.
“There’s nothing you can do for her. She didn’t pass the test.”
A slimy sheen of sweat coats Megan’s face. She looks deathly sick. Her youthful beauty is soiled by blood and vomit.
I memorize her face. When the time comes when I can finally expose the horrors the vampires inflicted in the name of entertainment, I’ll remember everything and everyone who got caught up in this sick game.
I turn to Cyprian’s Familiar, his blue eyes piercing my own with a hard certainty.
Looks like the illusion is broken and finally someone else besides me can see this place for what it truly is: an exhausting mind-fuck.
I break eye contact to fully take in our surroundings. We’re in a dungeon, like one from a movie with castles, complete with iron bars and the constant slow drip of water.
“Where are we?” I ask, looking everywhere but at Megan.
“Underground. Which vial did you choose?” he asks.
“Knox’s. The one with the wolf symbol. It’s what he was dressed like for the ball.” My throat bobs at the memory, at all the things we had both said and left unsaid… before I stabbed him. The hollow ache in my chest returns.
“And what about Megan? What happened?”
To my relief, she groans at the sound of her name.
“She tried to take Knox’s blood from me. She didn’t drink any but since she had grabbed onto me, the gateway took us both. I guess that’s why she’s sick.” I maneuver the chains so I can shuffle my way over to the wall next to him, my body aching with each movement.
He holds out a hand for me to shake. “By the way, my name is Jack.”
“Danni.”
“I know. It’s nice to officially meet you, Danni.”
But before I can shake his hand, murmuring and shuffling outside of the cell catches my attention.
Jack still grabs my hand. “It’s them. We don’t have much time. Listen to me very carefully.” His grip is almost painful as he pulls me in closer to him. “Do as they say. Without question. Don’t put up a fight. The Rabbids enjoy the chase far more than obeying orders.”
As if on cue, the deep snarls of the Rabbids approaching grow louder inside the dungeon.
Why are the Rabbids here? Why did the vials take us to a jail cell and not our Masters?
Jack releases me just as the flicker of a flaming torch comes into view, followed by two creatures who are certain to haunt my dreams for the rest of my days. Celeste leads them up to the iron bars, her face stoic and cold, as if we hadn’t shared anything between us in the circus.
As if she wasn’t my friend.
Had I dreamed it all?
“Well, I’m surprised to see you’re still alive.” Her shrill voice bounces off the stone walls, making the dungeon even more unbearable. “Take them. The binding begins in thirty minutes.”
My blood chills as the bars open of their own accord. I reach for Jack as the creatures wrap their hands around my arms and drag me to my feet, chains and all, but he must have hidden back into the shadows of the cell.
I don’t put up a fight, just like he instructed.
I try to memorize the path as I’m dragged through the labyrinth of damp tunnels.
There’s nothing I can use as a marker to find my way back.
The air-tight rock walls all look the same.
As the flaming torch Celeste holds illuminates the way ahead, I notice the sheen on the rocks is the same sick shade of green that covers the Rabbids… and now Megan.
Is Megan turning into a Rabbid?
We follow Celeste through the winding hallways for what feels like hours.
The air is stale as it fills my lungs. I focus on that feeling rather than my fear as the path slopes down, taking us deeper into the darkness.
The uneven path of jagged rock scrapes my bare feet, making them sting from countless tiny cuts.
When did I lose my shoes?
It seems like some sort of underground cave system. Are we under a mountain? Is this where the vampires have been cursed to remain so long ago?
We take a sharp left turn at the end of the slope and pass through an archway. Beyond is the most breathtaking city I’ve ever seen.
Carved deep into the stone is a medieval keep, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
A moat as wide as a river surrounds the city, with only a single bridge providing passage.
Even if an army made it across, the keeps’ barrier walls are so thick and tall, I bet it would take a thousand battering rams to break them down.
Above it all sit clusters of houses, square and small with flickering amber lights shining through the windows.
Behind those, the imposing spires stand taller still.
My eyes travel up even further, past more houses and spires, finally coming to rest on a gothic castle that looks straight out of Transylvania.
It’s beautiful, in its own twisted way. I can’t help but wonder if this massive city was carved from my ancestors’ imagination, if any of that story was even true.
“What is this place?” I ask.
Celeste turns to me, her face exhausted and sad. “Hell.”
We walk towards the entrance of the big stone bridge, a million questions racing through my mind. The chains around my wrist don’t feel as heavy as they did in the cell. Is this due to adrenaline or magic?
None of this feels real. Any moment now, I’ll wake up from this fever dream in my small, one-bedroom apartment.
I’ll curse myself for waking up late but still stop at my favorite coffee shop before work.
I’ll say Hi to Trevor and thank him for making my coffee just the way I like it.
Then I’ll sit at my desk at work and complain about Alan to anyone who will listen.
I’ll write stupid gossip columns and eat a bagel for lunch.
And I won’t ever think about Knox and how he made me feel, nor the ache in my chest that can be soothed only by his touch.
The iron gate to the city rises as we approach the end of the bridge.
“Where is everyone else?” I ask. The Rabbid’s claws dig further into my skin, painfully, but they never draw blood.
“The Familiars who fully embraced the magic are already at the binding ceremony,” Celeste says over her shoulder.
So that’s why Jack and I ended up in the cell: we passed the test but failed to convince the magic that we truly wanted to be here.
Celeste keeps her back to me as we walk through the gates, her long blonde ponytail swishing behind her.
We climb a few steep flights of stairs, my calves burning with each step.
Even on a good day, I’d struggle with this amount of exercise.
But she makes it look like a walk in the park.
Celeste stands at the very top, watching my every move like a hawk.
“I forget how fragile you are sometimes.” She wrinkles her nose. “Did you seriously not change before the final training?”
I snort. Of course she’s more worried about my outfit than my actual wellbeing.
“And I forget how bitchy you can be,” I snipe back.
She smirks, then spins on her stiletto heels and storms forward, faster than before, through an archway lit with more flickering torches.
The cobbled streets beyond the city’s outer perimeter are narrow and lined with crooked houses that look like they’d blow down if there was a strong enough gust of wind.
It’s quiet here. Eerily so.
Street lamps light the way, which seems odd. They look Victorian while the houses look even older, maybe Tudor-style, with their stark black wooden support beams contrasting against the lighter-colored walls.
We walk on, with the clicking of Celeste’s heels the only noise breaking the silence.
I struggle to keep up, exhaustion finally hitting me like a sack of potatoes.
As we wind through the narrow streets, each one identical to the other, again making it impossible to find my way back, a low hum drifts towards us.
I can’t make out what it is at first, but as we finally reach the heart of the city, the sound of the crowd becomes deafening.
I’m barely able to keep standing upright as I’m dragged into a large stone arena, one just as impressive as the colosseum in Rome.
I scan the crowd, desperately hoping to see Knox as the ache in my chest reaches an excruciating crescendo.
Dread wraps itself around my bones as thousands of people cheer and scream.
Sensory overload threatens to make me collapse to my knees.
The deafening roar fades away when my eyes travel to the very center of the colosseum. Knox stands next to an altar made of stone, watching, waiting. I wrench out of my captor’s vise-like grip. My feet move of their own accord, the grit of the sand rubbing into my cuts, but I don’t care.
The terrible aching finally stops and nothing else matters but him.
I need Knox.