Chapter 26 Sinister Smiles
SINISTER SMILES
“Wye, did you hear what I said? You need to come, now!” Torin shouted through the door, and something in my chest tightened at the reaction. Because it made one thing painfully clear, whoever this woman was, she mattered.
He moved without another word, rolling off me as he dragged the covers up over my body before crossing the room in a storm of motion. He was completely unbothered by the fact that he was still naked when he reached the door and pulled it open.
“Tell me,” He ordered darkly. I pulled the covers tighter around myself as I sat up, pressing my back against the padded headboard, my attention fixed on the doorway as Torin spoke.
“She was dumped through a portal, right at Walder’s feet. She’s unconscious… and she’s injured.” I watched as Wye’s back tensed at that, every muscle tightening as though bracing for impact.
“How bad is it?” he asked, his voice lower now, more dangerous for it.
“Fuck, Wye…” Torin exhaled roughly, dragging a hand down his face before continuing,
“It’s bad. Walder has a healer with her now, but…” he trailed off, shaking his head, and for the first time since I had seen him, Torin looked shaken. Like something far too close to breaking was clawing its way to the surface.
“Where is she?” Wye demanded, already turning away, grabbing his clothes from the floor and pulling them on with quick, efficient movements.
Torin’s gaze flicked briefly toward me, acknowledging me just enough not to be rude before returning to Wye.
“She’s in one of the rooms down the hall. Walder’s there… and so is the Kobalos demon.”
At that, Wye’s head snapped up.
“Why the fuck is that cretin there?!” he snapped, the sudden venom in his tone making me flinch as I realized exactly who he was referring to.
“He was there when she appeared,” Torin replied quickly.
“Said he recognized the sickness. Walder and I thought it might be important.” Wye didn’t respond immediately, but I saw it in the way his jaw tightened.
In the way something colder settled behind his eyes as he finished pulling on his shirt, his movements meticulous, yet edged with something that felt dangerously close to slipping.
Then he turned back to me and the shift in him was immediate. Gone was the silent fury, replaced instead by something far more focused. As he crossed the room in a few quick strides before reaching out, the back of his fingers brushing gently down my cheek.
“Get dressed, sweetheart,” he murmured, his voice softer now, though the urgency beneath it hadn’t lessened.
“Torin will wait outside for you and bring you straight to me. Be quick for me, yeah.” His touch lingered as his thumb traced slowly across my bottom lip, the gesture almost absent, as though he hadn’t realized he was doing it.
I nodded, my breath catching slightly as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead, one that felt… heavier somehow.
Almost reluctant.
Almost pained.
And I knew, without needing it said, that this was not how he had intended our time together to end. But whatever waited beyond that door mattered.
So, I watched him go, the door closing behind him as Torin took his place outside, and for a moment I just sat there. The silence pressing in as the reality of everything settled uneasily beneath my skin.
Then I moved.
The dress I had worn lay in ruined strips across the floor, barely recognizable now as anything other than torn fabric.
Which forced me to abandon it without hesitation as I reached instead for the clothes I had arrived in.
My movements were quick, almost frantic, as I shoved my feet into my sneakers and dragged my hoodie over my shoulders, zipping it up just as I reached the door.
Torin was already waiting.
He didn’t say anything, only gave a short nod before turning and leading the way down the hallway. His stride purposeful, the tension in him unmistakable now that I was close enough to feel it.
And then I heard it.
Voices.
Low, urgent ones.
The door ahead opened before we reached it and the moment, I stepped inside…
Everything else fell away.
Because the first thing I saw… Was her.
The one Torin had called Iridessa was lying rigid across the bed, her body unnaturally still.
Her posture was all wrong in a way that made something cold crawl up my spine.
As though she had been caught mid-movement and frozen there.
Her back arched slightly, her neck drawn taut, her mouth parted in what looked like the remnants of a scream that had never fully escaped.
Yet that wasn’t the most unsettling part. No, the most haunting part was… her eyes were open.
Wide open and locked on something that looked far too close to terror.
But it wasn’t just that. It was what lay beneath her skin.
Thin, branching veins of something dark and unnatural spread across her throat and down her arms. A map of glowing lines that pulsed with a sickened violet hue.
Like some supernatural poison that had taken root and was slowly consuming her from the inside out.
The color throbbed faintly, alive in a way that made it impossible to mistake for anything natural.
She looked like a soldier even now, dressed in black tactical gear that clung to her frame, weapons still strapped to her thighs. As though she had been ready for a fight right up until the moment she had been taken.
And whatever had done this to her…
Hadn’t given her the chance to react.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, the words slipping out under my breath before I could stop them.
“She was attacked,” Torin answered quietly from beside me, his voice tight and controlled in a way that suggested it was taking everything he had to keep it that way.
Wye didn’t look at me.
His focus was entirely on her, one hand hovering just above her body as a faint green glow began to gather beneath his palm. His power seeping outward in slow waves as though searching, probing, trying to understand what he was dealing with.
And then he stilled as recognition flickered in his hard gaze.
“This isn’t poison,” he said slowly, his voice darkening.
“It’s a binding curse… a vessel construct.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Maledicta vas,” he whispered, the words heavy and ancient. Making me ask Torin in hushed tones,
“What does that mean?”
“It’s Latin for, Cursed Vessel,” he replied softly before walking passed me to join Wye, now standing at the other side of the bed.
“A containment spell,” Wye told me and I could tell with the way he said it that something far more dangerous had begun to surface beneath it.
“She isn’t just infected… she’s carrying it.” Silence followed and it was one that pressed in from all sides. But then his head snapped to the side as if he had just detected something… something important.
“The scent… I recognize the signature… but from where…” he murmured, almost to himself now, frustration threading through his tone before lifting his gaze to Torin.
I should have stayed where I was, every instinct in me warning me not to move, not to step any closer to whatever had taken hold of her.
And yet something pulled at me all the same.
A feeling low in my chest that was sharp enough to steal the breath from my lungs.
An insistent force that refused to be ignored no matter how much I tried to resist it.
Which meant that before I even realized what I was doing, my feet had begun to move. Slow, unsteady steps carrying me closer to the bed as though something unseen had taken hold and was guiding me forward.
No one stopped me, not Wye, not Torin, both of them too focused, too consumed by what was happening in front of them to notice how close I had gotten.
It was only when I was a few steps from the edge of the bed that something finally broke through.
A hand catching mine mid-movement, warm and solid enough to ground me, even if only for a second.
“Hey… what are you doing?” Bo’s voice cut in, quieter now, edged with confusion as his fingers tightened slightly around my wrist.
I blinked, my gaze dropping to where our hands touched, only then noticing what he meant as he nodded to my other hand. One that was reaching out toward Iridessa, before I even realized what I was doing. The movement slow and unsteady, as though it no longer belonged to me.
“I…” The word left me weakly, but I had no explanation, no understanding, because something else had already taken hold… something stronger than my own will.
“Eliza?” Wye’s voice cut through then, sharper this time, edged with warning.
“What are you doing?”
But it was already too late as I lunged for her. And the moment my fingers made contact with her skin, everything shattered at once, the fragile stillness in the room breaking apart as a scream tore through it.
Only it wasn’t mine.
It was hers.
The sound ripped free from Iridessa’s body as the violet sickness erupted violently outward. Now pouring from her in thick, writhing tendrils that lashed through the air before slamming into me like a living storm.
It wrapped around me instantly, cold and burning all at once.
It was consuming me before I had the chance to react, locking my body in place as the air was torn from my lungs.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even think beyond the force of it as it coiled tighter, dragging me deeper.
Into something I didn’t understand, and I didn’t realize, not then, not until it was far too late, that it had wrapped itself around Bo as well.
The world twisted violently around me, the room collapsing, tearing apart at the edges as the force of it dragged me under. It swallowed everything whole until there was nothing left but darkness and the sound of my own pulse roaring in my ears.
And then…
Silence.
I hit the ground hard, my knees buckling beneath me as the weight of it vanished all at once, leaving me gasping, my head spinning as I struggled to catch my breath.
The air felt different.
Wrong.