Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Archer patted the side of Alexia’s swollen face, but she didn’t stir. “Exactly how much have you been lifting at the gym?”
It’d been an hour since they’d gotten Alexia back to their house and tied her up to one of the kitchen chairs.
Bridget shrugged. There had been a year’s worth of pent-up rage in her punch.
She wasn’t going to apologize. In the living room, Nylah pretended to pick up and throw a person to the ground.
She growled and kicked the air. Archer stared at her incredulously.
“What is she doing? I swear I only let her watch wrestling once. Maybe twice.”
Bridget narrowed her eyes. “You let her what?”
Archer ignored her question. To tighten the ropes around Alexia’s wrists, he pulled up the sleeves of her dark green robe. He froze. “She’s from Andarre. Did you know that?”
Eyes wide, Bridget leaned down and inspected the now visible tattoos. Each one shimmered purple against Alexia’s skin in the fluorescent lighting. In all her time with her in Vassuryn, she’d never seen the markings. “How is that possible?”
“If you weren’t so busy trying to escape every day in Vassuryn, you might have noticed,” Alexia mumbled, finally lifting her head. She studied the tiny apartment before she fidgeted in the chair. “Why am I tied up?”
Archer let out a laugh. “I would think that’s pretty obvious.”
“Why are you here?” Bridget asked through gritted teeth. Alexia had only been around an hour and her attitude was already grating her nerves. Did she really think she would greet her with open arms? Or trust?
“I’m not answering any of your questions until you untie me,” Alexia said.
When they continued to stare at her, she relaxed and added, “I’ve spent the last few months in a dirty, damp cell in Astraeus.
Not once did I spill any secrets to the king or tell anyone about Andarre or Cora until I made a deal with your boyfriend.
Why don’t you ask him how patient I can be?
Oh wait, you can’t. If you want to know how he’s doing, I suggest you free me.
I can tell what he yelled as I went through the gate. ”
Bridget stilled. Rage exploded through her veins as the world narrowed to a single, blinding point of heat behind her ribs. Alexia was offering Cade like bait, counting on her to bite.
Grabbing her arm, Archer said, “Bridget, I know she just mentioned your trigger word but…”
Recoiling away from him, she swallowed back the bile in her throat.
She knew not to fall for Alexia’s tricks and could see now how many times the other girl had manipulated her in Vassuryn.
She wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of reacting, even when she dangled information about Cade in front of her.
Too focused on calming the fire in her veins, Bridget didn’t notice Nylah grab a knife from the kitchen drawer. Before she could stop her, Nylah cut Alexia’s binds.
“We want answers,” her sister said, pointing the knife at Alexia’s face. “Now talk.”
Archer threw his hands up in the air and muttered, “You’ve created a monster.”
Bridget wasn’t sure whether to be angry or impressed. Either way, she grabbed Nylah by the shoulder and pulled her backward.
“At least there’s someone here with some sense,” Alexia said, rubbing her wrist, and then her jaw. Her heated stare met Bridget’s. For a long moment, tense silence filled the room.
“You heard her,” Bridget chided. “Tell us what you’re doing here and how you found us.”
“That coven mark on your hand is more than it appears. With the right spell, it can be used to find you. Luckily, I was able to find some Witches in Salem to help me. That little town was Cora’s backup plan if she ever had to track you down in the human realm.”
“That was you following me yesterday… I should’ve known, but I still don’t understand. You shouldn’t remember or know who I am.”
Alexia paused. “The curse is broken.”
Every ounce of air whooshed out of Bridget’s lungs. It wasn’t possible. She looked at Archer, expecting him to say a contradictory remark. After all, he’d been the one to explain curses to her. But he stared at Alexia, mute, pale, and shaken.
“That’s not possible,” Bridget whispered.
It had been Cade, not her, Quinn had tried to kill. It was Cade’s blood, royal blood, needed to break the curse on Sanguis. Or at least that’s what her and Archer had surmised after months of speculation.
“It is. You owe Cora for giving you back the final piece,” Alexia said, nodding at the ring on Bridget’s finger.
“But I’m not…”
How many times had she read that the curse could only be broken by the blood of the girl Vega had killed?
How many times had Cade told her the same thing?
She glanced down at her cracked ring and remembered the fuzzy vision of a crevice in the stone before the ambulance doors closed… Bridget’s stomach swirled.
“No, you’re not,” Alexia agreed. “But you must be related to her, like your prince to the person originally used for the curse for the Sanguis. A direct descendant. I’m certain.”
“You can’t be certain. It’s a centuries old curse,” Archer said, “and Bridget isn’t from that world. I don’t see how…”
“Except she is... She’s from Andarre,” Alexia stated, turning her fiery gaze back to Bridget. “Like I said, I’m here to take you back.”
Feeling all eyes on her, Bridget laughed.
It exploded in an uncomfortable rhythm from her chest. Alexia was wrong.
So wrong. There was no possible way she was from Andarre.
She remembered her childhood, remembered bouncing between multiple foster homes in elementary school and her first night in a group home in second grade.
And she remembered her mother dying. The ring on her finger was proof of that.
It was hers. Not some centuries old anchor to a curse.
“You’re out of your mind,” Bridget sneered. “I didn’t break the curse. The reason I remember is because Cade already paid the price for me. The rune in your skin must have protected you somehow.”
Alexia shook her head. “Cora and I were sent by your father to retrieve you.”
“I don’t have a father,” Bridget snapped.
“You do.”
“No. This ring was my mother’s.” Bridget fumed, holding up her hand. “I remember her dying. I remember taking it before the doctors took her away.”
“Bridget, maybe let her explain,” Archer said softly, stopping her from her unconscious assault forward.
Bridget whipped her gaze to him. With an accusatory glare, she asked, “Did you know?”
Immediately, she bit her tongue. Did you know.
Why did she ask the question like she believed Alexia?
She didn’t. Desperately, she tried to think of any memory she had before the age of seven.
After several moments of trying, nothing popped in her head.
Panicking, she closed her eyes. The room spun.
Everything spun. She didn’t know what to think.
At that moment, she desperately wished for Cade.
He’d be able to search her head for memories.
He’d be able to reasonably explain Alexia’s lies.
Or truths. She wasn’t sure what her shaking body believed anymore.
Nylah must have sensed her distress, because she felt her sister gently grab her hand. Her heart rate calmed.
“He didn’t, but I’m guessing he overheard something,” Alexia said. “I met Cora in an Andarrian jail. She traveled there to ask for help for the covens. The king had just stopped all trade with Vassuryn. She didn’t have a warm welcome. Let’s just say magic is not a popular subject in our homeland.”
Hearing our homeland made Bridget sick to her stomach. She wanted no connection to the girl in front of her. “And why were you in jail?” she asked blithely.
“I’d been falsely accused of murdering a girl from school.
We shared a cell and grew close. One day, Cora was plucked from the masses to chat with someone.
Someone important. Someone with power. Days later, so was I.
I learned Cora had been asked to go to Pontas to retrieve you and that she bartered for my release, as well.
As a Witch, she’d be able to travel through Elyria and Vassuryn undetected. ”
“Pontas?” Bridget echoed, the word settling like a weight in her chest. Dread crept up her spine. Of all the towns in Vassuryn, Pontas was the one Cora had avoided at any cost. The Gemini coven had been attacked there… by Cade.
Because of her.
She’d been there. The scars along her stomach twitched beneath her clothes, an involuntary reminder. Whatever she couldn’t remember, her body did. The sheer physicality of it still seemed imprinted on her.
“It’s where we found you unconscious at an abandoned farm with the Gemini coven, along with Quinn and Archer.”
Once again, Bridget glared at Archer. How much had he not told her?
He held up his hands and pleaded, “Bridget, I swear, I didn’t know about any of this.
When we came across them in Pontas, they said they’d been looking for a way to the human realm and were told Quinn might know about a gate.
Quinn believed them, but I was skeptical.
It seemed like too much of a coincidence. That's why I told them who you were.”
Believing him, she turned her hateful stare back to Alexia. “How could you possibly have known I’d be there?”
A shadow passed over Alexia’s face. “Andarre has been under attack for the last year. Creatures from the sea rise up from the waters and attack the coastal towns every few months. According to Cora, the royal family enlisted a Shaman to help. They said to find you. The Shaman told your father when and where you’d be. ”
“I don’t believe you,” Bridget said, trying to keep her voice even. A Shaman sent them to her? What would she do? Throw knives at sea creatures?
“Yes, you do. It’s why you’re so angry. You hate that it explains what Cora did to you. I admit, she took it too far sometimes. It was revenge, I think, for what she’d gone through in that jail, and for them not helping the covens.”
Bridget was going to kill her if she didn’t shut up. Alexia needed to leave. She needed to leave right now. Before she did more than punch her. “Whatever mission you think you’re on, you’ve failed. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“It’s not only Andarre that’s in danger. It’s Elyria. It’s Vassuyn,” Alexia snarled. “It’s your duty—”
Bridget let out a sharp laugh. Her duty? What duty did she have to people she’d never met? “No. I’m never going back to that world again. You may believe some curse has been broken, but I won’t risk my sister. I won’t put her in danger.”
Unreadable, Alexia took a step forward. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”
Before Bridget could blink, Alexia grabbed Nylah and plunged a syringe into her neck.
Panic exploded through her chest. She lunged forward and caught her sister before she hit the ground.
Nylah coughed and rubbed at her neck. Bridget’s stomach lurched as every horrifying possibility played out her in mind.
Pulling her sister closer, Bridget demanded, “What did you do?”
“It’s a simple poison. I found the ingredients by the gate.
The herbs by themselves are harmless, but together…
” Alexia said, making Bridget’s heart fall to the ground.
“It was supposed to be for you, but I think this plan works better. Don’t worry, she’ll be fine.
For now. It’s slow-spreading. Luckily, the antidote is in Andarre. ”
Archer ripped the vial out of her hand and immediately started analyzing it. “Give me that. I’ll come up with something,” he told Bridget. “You know I will.”
Grasping Nylah tightly, Bridget sent Alexia the most venomous glare she could muster. “I’m going to kill you.”
“What she needs isn’t grown here. There’s nothing you can do,” Alexia explained, unbothered. “Also, I forgot to mention that your father has my family. He’s not going to release them until I come back with you. So… when do we leave?”