Chapter 24
L ukas
After I was covered and dressed again, I did the same for Cassia. Yet again, she gasped at the sudden appearance of clothing, and I took her hand, helping her down from the altar. She liked the previous garment so much that I made sure she wore it again.
“Thank you,” she said, swinging the hem of the gown up to look at her feet. I’d given her ankle boots. “So convenient.”
She glanced up at me with a small smile and peered at the shoes before her gaze snapped back up. “Your hair... what’d you do?”
Pulling my hair forward, I examined it. “It's still here. What’s the problem?”
She took the lock I’d been holding into her own hand. “It’s more silvery now.”
The castle’s structure groaned lightly, too quiet for Cassia to hear.
I’d stripped every cell of magic from the building, save for the water.
I even used our joining on the altar to seize more.
The building likely had absorbed some sorcery deep within its bricks in the past, and I’d disturbed the balance.
No matter, it would settle. It had no right to any of mine.
“The magic, I’m assuming,” I stated, addressing her questioning gaze.
The magic I’d consumed presumably interacted with the powers I already contained—including Annalise’s curse that’d turned my raven-toned hair into a white blond.
Carefully, she draped my hair back over my shoulder. “It's still pretty.”
Giving her a soft smile I said, “Come on, let’s go.”
Once we were outside the castle, we stopped on the short, stone bridge. Cassia knelt to watch some overly ambitious squirrels running back and forth, and I stood beside her, listening and feeling.
When I’d punished Elijah, I’d partaken in a small amount of his woman’s blood. That signature would lead me to him, wherever he was. My behavior with her had nothing to do with him and everything to do with my fury over being woken up. At the time, I had no idea how it would serve me in the future.
“This way,” I said to Cassia.
She made a cooing sound at the fluffy rats and stood up. “They’re cute. They look different than the ones back home,” she gestured toward the animals and I wrinkled my nose, “a lot friendlier.”
“They’re a menace,” I said. “And no, you cannot have one.”
Her face fell and she let out a deep sigh. “I’ll take a cat.”
Cats had their uses. “Okay, I suppose.”
“Why do we need to see your friends?” Something flickered in her gaze, a brief unease.
Cassia followed me off the bridge, glancing at the sights around us. We were at a crossroads and farther down; the roofs of a town peeked through the trees. Riders on black horses trotted past us, one of the men doing a double take when he spotted me.
“Nobody knows you around here, do they?”
I led Cassia into the woods, keeping the other girl’s energetic signature grasped in my mind although we weren’t following her path directly. “No. Maybe some know me with my original appearance. Elijah and his woman do, but I don’t believe there is anyone else. At least not nearby.”
“Is he a good friend?”
With my mental pathways open, several different energies circled around me, piquing my interest. Witch. Demon. Human witch. Sorcerer. Sorcerer vampire. Demon vampire. Vampire demon. Disembodied souls. It was dizzying.
We reached a sparkling brook, and I crouched by the water, staring into its mirror-like surface. A face with eyes like coal peered back at me, someone’s memory. Then it disappeared, rippling away as Cassia trailed a finger through the water.
There were so many different beings that were not supposed to exist. Half of the signatures I’d picked up, it was my job to extinguish them.
I stood, my heart doing an uncomfortable somersault in my chest. I couldn’t say I wouldn’t strike them down should they show their faces. The universe was one of order. My species' survival depended on our laws.
Small warm hands grasped my own. “What’s wrong?” Cassia asked. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “It’s not that much farther.” She squeezed my hand but didn’t let go.
We wound our way past large moss-covered boulders and hanging vines, traversing a fern-lined path. Cassia exclaimed over the bright and deep green shades, and I had to admit, it was enchanting. The Fourth Realm certainly had its charms, despite being a hotbed of crime and lawlessness.
Before the trees thinned, a pair of fragrances brought me to a halt. The sickly sweet and spicy scent of gardenias, and then the heady smell of Bloodmoon flowers were carried on a breeze, the effect as if one had stepped into a perfumery.
At least, for me.
“What is that?” Cassia sniffed the air. “Is there a garden around here? That’s really strong.”
Dragging her along, I strode into a clearing full of hedges. The Bloodmoon flowers were everywhere. Crawling in vines over what turned out to be a maze of shrubberies, dripping their poisonous liquid nectar all over anything they came near.
“Do not touch a thing,” I growled at her. She drew her hand back, startled.
Elijah may as well have smuggled the Second Realm’s rubies, or the Seventh Realm’s Fae diamonds. It was expressly forbidden to transport the blossoms out of the Second, it was unthinkable that he would do this, and yet here I was, standing in a huge garden brimming with the illicit blooms.
After everything I had done for the man.
Birds flitted in and out of the bushes, dripping nectar from their beaks. “What is this? What are these flowers? The nectar is a liquid?” Cassia stared at me wide-eyed.
“Bloodmoon flowers. They are deadly, but one generally only finds out too late,” I answered.
“You’re angry,” she stated.
I leveled her with a gaze. “They are illegal.”
“And how, exactly, was I supposed to know that?”
Ignoring her attitude, I snared her hand and led her to the house, a sprawling pile of dark brick and vast, legal , gardens.
I climbed the short staircase and eyed the doorknocker before I lifted my hand. No point in being polite.
The entrance swung open with a bang, and Cassia hopped on her toes. Something small tumbled to the floor somewhere in the distance.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” A woman exclaimed.
“Not exactly,” I muttered, walking into the foyer.
“Not even close,” Cassia said, wincing.
The woman stopped where she was, placing her hands on her hips. “If one more person shows up in my house, you are all going to die.”
I wasn’t sure who she was talking to, but a distant voice stated, “Technically, it's not your house.”
Cassia glanced up at me, her grip on my hand increasing. Gently, I freed myself from her grasp and guided her to the side. She grumbled, not so much a complaint and more because she didn’t know what to do.
“Who are you?” I asked the woman, taking a step closer to her.
Admirably, but uselessly, she held her ground. “I’m Juliet. Get the fuck out of my house.”
That wasn’t going to happen, and it was slightly cute that she thought she had a say. If necessary, I’d toss her out of my way like a ragdoll.
The voice in the background muttered, “I hate repeating myself.”
The air in the house shifted and I knew Elijah and his woman were present. Whoever the other man was, he had cloaked them.
“I am here for Elijah,” I told her, taking another step forward and watching her pulse jump pleasantly at the base of her neck.
Her weight shifted as she positioned herself to snatch the dagger at her waistband. I wouldn’t have to dirty my own blade—not that doing so was much of an inconvenience for me.
“And who are you?”
Cassia’s heart pounded in her chest, her unique cadence providing me with background music I wouldn’t ever live without. “I am Lukas. I have business with him. Remove yourself or I will do it for you.”
The door opened behind her, and she whirled around the same time Elijah came out. His skin paled as he said, “What the hell? Lukas?”
Then he remembered himself and fell to the floor in a respectful bow. Juliet gaped at him and I tilted my head to the side, giving her a soft smile. She blanched and backed up several steps until she couldn’t anymore.
The door opened again and Elijah’s woman took in the entire scene. “Elijah! What’s going on out here?” She pulled two knives, one in each fist. “What the fuck are you doing you fucking freak!” She yelled at me. “What did you do to him?”
Cassia rushed forward and I snatched her waist, stopping her beside me. “What are you doing to these people?” She cried out. “What is going on?”
Elijah lifted his head and his woman eyed Cassia. Juliet’s gaze scanned all of us, trying to make sense of what was happening around her.
Then, the rear door opened once more. A man taller than I stepped through, his long glassy ebony hair swinging over his shoulders. He had bright, grass green eyes and various tattoos covering the olive skin of his neck and hands. Hieroglyphics and vines, other symbols I hadn’t seen in years.
He was an abomination, one that shouldn’t exist. He was a shell of a man. The highest ranking of the demons, but now a vampire. And his blood was tainted even further than that. It possessed a trace of the cold blood of angels.
A sharp breath sounded beside me. “Holy shit,” Cassia whispered. “Wow.”
Her voice didn’t contain nearly as much fear or distaste as it should have. No, it bordered slightly on the edge of admiration. That tiny trace injected white hot fury straight into my heart.
“Oh my God,” she screamed. “What happened?”
I picked her up and set her on a chair. “Lukas!” One of her hands gripped the arm rest and the other waved around in the air, feeling for nothing.
“Damn,” the tall man remarked. “I’ll have to remember that one. Samantha! Get out here,” he called over his shoulder.
A woman in a royal blue gown that matched her eyes sauntered out and she slid her hand down his arm. Cassia yelled for me until I flicked my fingers her way. Elijah’s woman glared at me hard enough to set me alight, had she the ability to do so.
“Yes, Ramone? What is it?” She took us all in and glanced back at him. Elijah lifted himself from the floor.