30. Chapter Thirty
We arrived in Traitor’s Hell with just enough time to reach Walter’s hotel and settle in before the start of the up-down hours. Having visited the creepy little supernatural town twice in recent months, I was prepared for the otherworldly screeches and utter dread that came with the darkness. Of course, on both previous occasions, I’d still been mortal and couldn’t hear the shrieking once inside. My super sensitive vampire ears heard every hiss and snarl from outside, making me even more agitated and restless than I already was.
Since Mat knew we were coming, I expected to find him waiting for us. Maybe with a sign or a beer. That didn’t happen. When my phone rang about an hour after our arrival, I was positive the unknown caller would be him. It was a woman. Her voice tickled the recesses of my memory.
“Hello, Zosia. How are you?”
Ewan and I sat together on the leather sofa in the living room of our suite. I hit the speakerphone button on my phone.
“Who is this?” I asked.
“I have gone by many names over the years,” the woman said.
Alarm flooded the bond, and I saw recognition on Ewan’s face. He recognized her voice, too.
“Madame Malia?” I asked.
“Just Malia will do,” she said.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“To offer my services.”
Ewan and I exchanged glances. “We have plenty of magic-users, so thanks, but no thanks,” I said.
“Stavros? I know you’re there. Are you going to let Zosia speak for you? Surely one of you has figured it out by now?” Her melodic laughter filled my ears, so irritatingly familiar.
“You’re the royal seer, aren’t you?” I asked. “You predicted the prophecy.”
“I relayed the words of the prophecy to this realm,” she said, sounding very haughty. “And the only living person capable of performing the ritual.”
“What’s in it for you?” I asked. “Why are you so interested in helping all of a sudden?”
“I think if you look, you will see that I have been helping you reach this end for quite a while.”
I met Ewan’s eyes, searching for some sign that he had any clue what she was talking about, but he was just as confused. “Does Mat know you’re talking to us?” I asked Malia.
“Who is to say?” she replied. “The enchantments surrounding Demi have begun to fade. We should begin the ritual at the top of the up hours. The storms are coming. We wouldn’t want them to derail us now, would we? Meet me at the mouth to hell, children.” Peals of laughter came through the phone, and then stopped abruptly when Malia ended the call.
Ewan and I sat staring at one another, the silence surrounding us deafening. With the added advantage of hindsight, I felt a little silly for not realizing sooner who Malia was. Not that immortal casters were common or even really a thing, as far as I knew. Still, it seemed obvious in retrospect.
“Have you ever met anyone like her?” I asked Ewan.
He frowned. “I’ve met her. She was my father’s royal seer.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve met her too. But I mean, someone besides her who is like her but not her.”
Understandably, Ewan looked confused. “You mean immortal, but not a vampire?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Is that normal?”
“Seers tend to live longer than the average fae or caster, I think. Not for centuries or anything. Maybe like 120ish?”
“How old do you think Walter is?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Over 150? Maybe 200? Where are you going with this?”
“I don’t know. Malia has been alive since what the beginning of time? She’s outlived her natural life a few times over. The only other person either of us has met like that is Walter. Isn’t that, I don’t know, weird?”
Ewan nodded. “Probably, but not weird enough for me to worry about right now. Speaking of Walter, he said there are some good blood dishes on the room service menu. We should eat before we go see the others.”
The menu had all sorts of blood soups, cold and hot. I ordered an assortment and pretended to enjoy them, even though I had no appetite. Then we went next door to Walter and Colleen’s suite to meet with the others and fill them in on the phone call from Malia. Understandably, no one felt great about blindly following her instructions, but we had come to Traitor’s Hell to perform this ritual, so refusing her felt counterproductive and counterintuitive.
Tish called Ewan to let him know she and Lucca had arrived in Traitor’s Hell. Lucca refused to set foot in Walter’s hotel and agreed to meet us out front at the start of the up hours so we could all head over to the prison. Like a school field trip or something. The thought made nervous laughter bubble up in my chest.
Big black SUVs pulled up in front of the hotel when it was time to leave. The air was thick with tension and humidity. I slid my hand in Ewan’s and let the feel of his cool skin against mine relax me. I wasn’t nervous exactly, which seemed ridiculous because there were a million things that could have gone wrong. Well, at least a dozen. And yet, I didn’t worry about these potential pitfalls.
Whatever was going to happen was going to happen. That was how fate worked. I’d spent so much time fighting destiny that I could barely remember what it felt like to be at peace with my own emotions.
The last time I’d visited the prison, there had been guards everywhere, but the grounds appeared empty as our caravan rolled through the gates. An eerie feeling settled over me and zipped along my skin. I squeezed Ewan’s hand instinctively. The doors to the main building eased open as we approached and a small, slim figure in a long, red cloak stepped outside.
I knew it was Malia, though her face wasn’t familiar, like her voice. She greeted every person in our group by name, including Elder Verdes, who seemed very surprised and a tad alarmed that she knew him.
“Where’s Mat?” Ewan asked, making a show of looking around.
“Inside with the others.” Malia swept her arm in a wide arc. “Join us.”
Ewan squeezed my hand as I exchanged glances with Winter, who was still pretty upset about Lena. Our group followed Malia inside the prison, through a maze of corridors and down several flights of stairs to a dank subterranean hallway with runes carved into the walls. A magic current ran along every surface and pulsed beneath my feet like a giant beating heart.
Those not doomed to be endlessly reborn shot each other uneasy glances. Even Walter looked like he deeply regretted coming along on this adventure. But for those of us who had competed in more than one rodeo, the situation was eerily familiar. For the first time in days, the memory glitches started.
Caught off guard, I cried out and staggered into Ewan, disoriented. Waves of nausea rolled over me and I experienced a zapping sensation in my brain. I wasn’t the only one suddenly in distress, either. Drake slammed her hands over her ears, and Tish whimpered as Lucca steadied her.
“Your sister-wolf calls to you,” Malia sang, her voice echoing in the narrowing tunnel. “Do you feel her power?”
I felt something stabbing me behind the eyeballs. Squeezing my lids shut only made it worse.
Malia stopped in front of a door and placed her palm flat on the surface until the runes decorating the stone slab started to glow. The air shimmered, and a portal appeared in the center of the door. Through the golden light, I saw the ritual room.
“I am afraid only the eternals and protectors move on from here. The rest of you may wait in the tunnel,” Malia announced.
One by one, we stepped through to the ritual room, with Malia coming through last and sealing us in.
Mat stood in the center of the room, directly beneath an opening in the ceiling. The space reminded me of the ritual room where I had rejected Enzo in Mat’s vampire city. Silver light poured down from above and bathed the eternal king, making him appear ethereal. He wore a crown made of twisted black metal and ruby thorns and a black fur cloak.
Enzo and Hayden were on opposite sides of the ritual space, both turning to watch us enter. Ewan gripped my hand tighter and gave the other men a smug smile and bent to kiss my cheek. I felt a little flutter in my belly that had nothing to do with nerves and everything to do with the thrill of knowing Ewan thought I was a prize worth gloating over.
“Take your places,” Malia called like she was directing a high school play instead of running a complicated ritual. “Hurry. Diana, you take the north point. Zosia, next to Zeno. Stavros, my king, please join Matthieu. Nicasia and Ambrose, I’ll need you two on opposite sides.”
Ewan’s gaze followed me as I went to my designated spot. I had expected to feel hatred for Enzo coming through the bond, but Ewan almost seemed indifferent. He didn’t like the guy, yet he also didn’t resent my previous mate the way I resented Angelica. Though, I supposed, Stavros and Zeno didn’t have hard feelings for another the same way Illiana and I had, so maybe it was more about that than jealousy.
Once we were all where Malia wanted us, a portal opened on the opposite side of the room from where we’d entered. Four people stepped through, starting with quite possibly the last eternal protector I would have expected to find—Christos. I had seen him while in the Cursed Realm and given him my blood after some king stripped his wolf.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted out, unable to hide my shock.
“Matthieu came to get me. He said it was time,” Christos said with a lopsided grin. “And you stole my boyfriend, so I had to come find him.” His tone was light and teasing, and I really hoped I wouldn’t have to be the one to tell him about Webber being a member of the fanged set these days.
Reggie came through the portal next. She looked pale and thinner than the last time I’d seen her, which was only a few days before. Her face seemed to be permanently stuck in a scowl. Her terrifying vampire-child sister Madeline was beside her, grinning from ear to ear.
Last but not least, Demi waltzed inside the ritual room wearing a white lace gown and fur cloak. She joined Mat and Ewan in the center of the room, and I was starting to wonder if this was really just an elaborate trick of Mat’s to ensure he had guests at his bonding ceremony.
Malia cleared her throat and began to chant in old faerie, raising her hands toward the light streaming down from above. After a few minutes, Hayden, Winter, and Mat joined her. Nothing happened at first. In fact, nothing really seemed to happen at all for a very long time. The underwhelming pause was protracted, and the mortals in the ritual room grew fidgety and uncomfortable from standing for so long.
The silver light from above switched to gold and then red, and then darkness settled over the room before the cycle started over again. Five times the circle completed before I started to notice the faint outline of the runes on the walls. After ten cycles, the runes began to glow. Twenty-five cycles, and the stone walls thinned, becoming almost transparent. After forty cycles, the cracks developed and at forty-three, the ritual room crumpled around us to reveal a neon forest.
I would have found the situation alarming if I hadn’t been through it before. Twice. First when I became a wolf, and then again when I bonded with Winter. Even though I didn’t need to breathe, I suddenly felt like I couldn’t. This wasn’t right. Nothing about it was right.
This wasn’t about breaking Demi out of prison. It was about putting all of us in one. Either Ewan had the same epiphany, or my alarm tipped him off. He went for Malia since he was closer to the caster. Mat got between them, and he and Ewan started trading blows. Enzo grabbed for me, managing to get a fistful of my hair. I howled in pain, which sent every wolf in the circle into a frenzy.
Drake and Tish wolfed out immediately and converged on Enzo. He released me and sprinted off toward the surrounding trees, only making it a few yards before Penn and Lucca descended on him. Fur flying and teeth gnashing, the wolves fought like starving strays.
“Give me the cure, Zosia!” Mat hollered as he grappled with Ewan.
“Reject the protection bond!” I fired back, dodging a stream of magic from Hayden’s direction. “That was our deal!”
Overhead, lightning crackled across a purplish sky as Malia continued to chant like chaos hadn’t erupted in the middle of her ritual. Winter fired spells at the caster, which Malia deflected with the flick of her wrists, an ugly, angry expression taking over her pretty face. Hayden intervened, putting himself between the two women. One of Winter’s spells hit him square in the chest. His eyes went wide with surprise, and then he vanished into thin air.
Malia continued to chant, though I swore I saw her smile as she watched everything unfold. Beside her, Demi trembled, her scared gaze darting back and forth between Mat and Ewan, and Enzo, Penn, and Lucca. Then she looked at her sisters. Reggie had shifted and stood protectively in front of Madeline in wolf form. The child vampire wore a delighted smile, like this was one of plays her living dolls put on for her entertainment.
Tish and Drake turned their focus to Malia, charging toward the caster. Lucca and Penn managed to pin a struggling Enzo to the ground. Malia did an okay job fending off the pair of wolves initially, but she was no match for them. If not for Winter, Malia’s very long life might have come to an end in the middle of that weird ass neon forest.
“Wait! I need her to do something before you kill her!”
Drake and Tish skidded to a halt, sending grass and dirt flying, and began circling Malia. Mat and Ewan both had blood smeared over their knuckles and faces, though neither was actively bleeding since they both had vampiric healing powers.
“Sever the bond!” Winter screamed at Malia. Then, her eyes found mine across the clearing. Tears poured down her cheeks. “Do you remember the promise you made to me when we first bonded in this same clearing?”
I started to shake my head, but then I heard the words in my mind. Say goodbye when I ask you to. It was one of the official vows that went along with the protection bond. Winter had whispered it in my ear as the vines wrapped around our arms and our blood dripped to the ground.
“I’m not ready,” I said.
“You have to be. None of us are getting out of here if you don’t.”
I felt all the eyes on the clearing turn to me, everyone waiting with bated breath for my response. As if there was even a chance that I could have said no. That was the thing about the protection bond. It made me blindly devoted to Winter in a way I wasn’t toward Ewan. I had never worried about what that meant for me because Winter wasn’t a power-hungry egomaniac. Still, the fact I wanted to tell her no and couldn’t was hard to accept.
Winter said the words in old faerie, and I repeated them back to her, every single one like a metaphorical dagger in my chest. Mat and Ewan stilled. The mortals barely breathed. Malia chanted louder, her magic weaving a web between Winter and me. I thought I would feel some sort of drain or exodus or snap when our connection severed. Instead, I felt drunk on power, dizzy from it.
Winter raised her hands to the sky as if to pull the lightning down and hold it in her hands. Malia crumpled to the ground as the earth shook beneath us. Then, there was a flash so bright that it burned my retinas. A hard force rammed into my side and knocked me to what felt like a stone floor. When I opened my eyes, Ewan was hunched over me, his body protectively huddled around mine.
We were no longer in the clearing. We weren’t back in the ritual room, either. We were outside the prison. Well, where the prison used to be. Now, there was nothing but a giant crater that stretched in every direction as far as the eye could see. I spotted the others, including Malia, but Mat, Winter, and Demi were gone.
“Where is she?” I grabbed Ewan’s shirt. “Where’s Winter?”
He cupped my cheeks and then folded me into his arms as I sobbed uncontrollably. “With Archer, wherever she is.”
Want More Eternalverse?
The Lost Pack – Ophiuchus Rising
The Cursed Fae
Fire Fae Series