Chapter 26
C assia
My feet skidded to a stop. “What?”
Selena glanced over her shoulder. “Yeah, Elijah had these fish, they’re really cool. They’re red, blue, and huge like koi. They eat flesh. They’ll eat any kind, but they prefer people. They drink blood, too.”
The fish I’d seen in the water that day with Lukas came to mind. “Are they in the water, here?”
“There’s not really water here. Underground, lots of it. There’s a few streams, brooks. A couple ponds but there’s no ocean or big lakes or anything like that. So, no, there’s none of these particular fish. There’s mermaids though and they will eat you.”
“Great. Note to self—stay out of the water.”
Selena laughed. “The streams are fine but yeah, I wouldn’t go in any ponds or anything like that. We use them for garbage disposal, anyway. Of the people kind.”
She pushed open a door and bright sunshine filled my gaze. A couple uniformed men seemingly appeared out of nowhere and started following us. They looked almost like ninjas.
“Your guards, I’m assuming?” I hitched my thumb over my shoulder.
“Yep,” she replied, sounding none too thrilled. “With your arrival, Elijah’s being a little extra.”
“What do you mean?” I stopped and waited for her to do so as well. “I want to put my feet in the grass for a minute.”
“Ha. Yeah, I get it. Well, because he expected retribution from First Realm people. And what better way to weaken him by taking me away? It's annoying, but I understand.”
I flopped on my butt and dragged my toes through the soft green grass, letting the sun warm my skin. A couple passers-by gave me a quick smile before looking away. My skin flushed. I knew I was being silly, but I wasn’t going to stop, not because a few people thought I was weird.
It’d been ages since I felt grass beneath my feet, and I’d never trusted Central Park or any of the other green spaces in the city—I’d seen too many things.
Selena squatted beside me. “When you’re done rolling around in the dirt like a puppy, we’ve got fish to feed.”
I giggled. “Fine, let’s go.”
The koi pond I’d spotted was actually part of a giant fountain.
Multiple streams of water gently trickled from the top of a multi-tiered feature and cascaded from the different levels into the tank below.
Large lily pads with pretty, blooming flowers floated on the surface as orange and yellow fish mingled with blue and red, playing peekaboo from below large, emerald green leaves.
“They aren’t eating each other?” I asked. A sprinkle of human flesh was tossed onto the surface. I may have spotted a small piece of bone.
The fish began lurching toward the surface, sending splashes of water over the edge. “Here fishy, fishy,” Selena cooed. “No, they’re spelled.”
“Oh.” Peering over the edge, I spotted sharp, vicious teeth. For something so beautiful, they sure could do some damage. “They ever bite you?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, God no. They wouldn’t dare.”
The inexplicable urge to stick my finger in the water hovered over me, but I refrained, putting my arms behind my back to watch the feeding frenzy. “Can I try?”
Selena walked over to me, and I grabbed the bag from her. “Who am I feeding to the fish?”
“A little bit at a time.” I let some trickle back into the bag. “I have no idea, could be anyone. Probably contains a little bit of the guard who backtalked Elijah last week but other than that, I don’t know.”
“You’re used to it? I mean, the violence.”
Her smile fell. “Well, I’m married to a vampire king. He used to throw women out his bedroom window after he fucked them or drank from them. I’d have to say I’m pretty used to it. But it makes sense, if you think about it. Maybe not for back home, but here, in this world, it does.”
None of it bothered me the way it did at first, and at this point I wasn’t sure if I was more bothered by it or bothered that I wasn’t bothered, when I thought I was supposed to be.
“The night I met Lukas, I’d caught my boyfriend cheating on me.
We’d been out, and then I saw him in a closet with a girl.
I went home and I was packing to leave and then he brought two girls home with him.
Lukas and Kiam showed up in my living room during all that and he slaughtered everyone.
And I mean slaughtered . Like brain matter on the walls and shit. ”
Selena laughed a little and then smiled. “That’s... wow. Kinda hot. He really likes you, then.” She glanced at me. “I mean, they don’t go to that much trouble if they don’t care. I’ve never known or met a vampire that beats around the bush or dilly dallies. If they do, I feed them to the fish.”
“Good to know.”
“We can walk through the gardens to get to the road,” she offered.
Nodding, I followed her, the two ninja-looking men trailing quietly behind.
Everything was immaculately kept, neatly trimmed and brimming with life. I didn’t spot a wilting flower or browning petal anywhere. There wasn’t a single broken twig to be found, just like in Lukas’s Realm.
When we passed a fragrant white bush, Selena pointed it out. “That’s a gardenia. Bigger than what we’d see in the Third. That guy you met the other day at Juliet’s house, he planted it in remembrance of some chick.”
The scent of the plant was nearly overwhelming, even though it was beautiful. “Some girl who was a witch. He used to date her, I guess. That’s what they say, anyhow,” she added, pushing her hair behind her ear.
The bush was right near a door in the high wall that surrounded the castle. “Huh.” I didn’t really want to think about the guy Lukas blinded me over.
Our walk into the town was uneventful other than curious stares or little squirrels making me smile with their antics. My thoughts kept straying to Lukas, wondering what he was doing and hoping he and Elijah were getting along.
“They won’t kill each other, will they?” I finally asked.
Selena sighed. “They might try but they’ll be fine. I talked to Elijah last night, trying to get him to let you stay for a while. It's nice to have someone around from where I’m from.”
“What’d he say?”
“He said ‘over my dead body’ so then I offered him mine, and now, who knows.” She shrugged.
“Uh, well thank you for your sacrifice?”
She grinned at me. “Don’t worry, it was no hardship. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Elijah’s part pure blood so I think that’ll help.”
“Good.”
The town came into view, and we wandered through several stores.
There were lots of dress shops and Selena convinced me to buy a few gowns.
She said to just charge it to the castle.
I had no idea how money worked here, but I did what she said.
Lukas could deal with it after stealing my eyesight from me.
There were a couple of art stores we went into, and I stocked up on a bunch of supplies that would be delivered for us. It sure was nice not being loaded down with bags and boxes.
Our last stop was at a bakery with the strangest menu I’d ever seen, run by a very odd woman. Selena convinced me to try lavender spinach cookies, and I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive her for that.
“You’re no fun,” she grumbled around a mouthful when we stepped outside.
At least she wasn’t a fan of the literal mud pie. “I happen to value my intestines, thank you very much.”
She laughed so hard that she sprayed some cookie bits onto the sidewalk. “See, even the squirrels like it.”
Sure enough, the little scavengers were making off with crumbs. As I watched them scrounging around, a shadow fell over our heads and the hairs on my arms stood on end. The guards in black moved closer to us, scanning our surroundings and then peering up at the sky.
Suddenly, everything went dark under the Realm’s instantaneous nightfall and a cold breeze swept down the sidewalk.
“Oh shit, what the hell is happening?” Selena turned in a circle, a blade appearing in her hand.
The guards moved even closer but still kept the expected physical distance. “Back to the castle,” the taller man ordered.
A couple of people started running down the sidewalk, one holding a newspaper over his head as if it were about to rain. Someone bumped into my shoulder, shoving me into my friend.
“What is going on?” I asked her, smoothing the spot on her arm where I hit her.
The wind picked up and I looked at the sky. Amazingly, there were two moons. The silver orbs were full and luminous; their craters and mountains drawn in sharp relief. Despite the rising chaos around us, I knew I would one day paint them.
Selena took my hand. “I don’t know but we need to go. This isn’t right, it's never cold here.”
I’d truly thought it was just summertime. “No? Oh man, I guess... what do we do?”
I swiveled my head back and forth, eyeing our guards. One of them took out a cellphone and my head jerked in surprise. “Those work here?” I asked Selena.
“Sometimes,” she replied, grabbing my hand. “Let’s just go now.”
We were locked into the crowd, bodies streaming past us, everyone’s voices tense and loud.
One of our guards motioned to us with his hand.
It felt like we were trying to swim upstream against a raging river.
There was no rhyme or reason for the flow of traffic, with everyone heading in different directions.
The noise fell when nothing else happened.
The cold breeze remained, and heavy clouds still darkened the skies, periodically blocking the moons, but there was no progression.
The atmosphere was stretched tight with the weight of an impending storm, edging us the way a tornado warning would.
Nobody knew what to do, nobody knew what would happen.
All anyone could think of doing was seeking shelter.
My hand had a vice grip on Selena’s as we were led down a narrow corridor between two buildings. We dashed across the road to the other side, winding our way between people and carts, all the way to a door tucked in an alcove.
“Oh lord,” Selena groaned. “Ugh.” She glanced at me. “Just stay close to the wall when we get in there.”
The door was opened and one of the men went first and then he beckoned us inside. “Oliver will go first and Sven will be behind you,” my friend declared.
“Okay,” I agreed, not really understanding what I was committing to. Everything was nearly black around us, now, and it got darker the moment we were closed inside.
A torch was lit, and the flames wavered over a second wooden door with roughhewn boards and a black iron latch. Oliver pulled it open and deftly tossed the torch over our heads for Sven to catch before producing a second one.
A steep staircase was in front of us, where it led to—a mystery.
I couldn’t see the bottom. A freezing cold wind washed over us like a blizzard as we began our descent.
My muscles seized, screaming at the unwanted chill while my skin felt like it was trying to hug my bones for extra warmth.
My breath puffed in a white mist that instantly turned into something like snow, dusting my shoulder when I turned my head.
Selena’s teeth chattered loudly, and her eyes softened when she looked at me. “Give it a minute and you’ll acclimate a little bit,” she tried to reassure me. I could barely make out her words.
I clung to the handrailing and carefully followed Oliver and her. More torches sprang into life, lighting our way, and soon we reached the bottom.
“Stay to the left, miss,” Sven directed me, gesturing for me to step closer to safety.
To the right, all I could see was a wall of black.
After we shuffled forward and my eyes adjusted, I was able to start to make out some kind of ledge alongside us.
The floor wasn’t smooth and the soles of my shoes weren’t designed for hiking.
I felt every bump and lump of the stone and couldn’t see past the dark to figure out what was beside us.
It took everything in me to stay upright and in place.
The pull of the abyss was too strong. My gaze kept tracking to the side, as if I could penetrate the deep nothingness and see what lay behind it.
I wanted to .
Sven grabbed me suddenly, pulling me back in line. “Don’t—there’s nothing there. I mean that in the most literal sense.”
My hand brushed the side of my upper arm, wiping the foreign, masculine touch away. Sven’s words only managed to pique my interest further. “What do you mean? It's just like empty space?”
Selena tugged on me and I started walking again. “There might be water way down there somewhere, nobody really knows. We just know to stay away,” she told me.
“Okay,” I muttered, giving the void another glance.
“It does that to everybody, you just have to ignore it. Block it from your brain.”
She knew it was deeply affecting me. She said to shut it out, so I tried to think of anything other than the alluring hole in the ground. All that did was make me think of it more .
So, I decided it wasn’t there. It just didn’t exist. There were strong, sturdy walls on either side of us, and we were heading back to the castle because the sky freaked out.
We all shuffled to a stop behind Oliver and when I looked up, there was a door. He opened it and I couldn’t say it was a warm breeze, exactly, but a warmer breeze of fresh air curled around my shoulders.
The ground beneath my feet gradually changed over to dirt, and then tufts of green grass appeared, and we were outside.
It didn’t take me long to realize we were beside the castle, right by the stone bridge that led to the entrance. “Well, that’s perfect,” I remarked.
It was a secret tunnel, placed in an ideal location. Too bad it had a weird dark abyss in it, or it would have been great for getting to different places quickly.
“It is. For obvious reasons, I like, never use it.” Selena was rubbing her arms briskly and she shook with a deep shudder. “The demons use them more than the vamps. Hotter blood, of course.” She let out a short laugh.
“There’s more than just the one?” We hurried across the bridge and made our way inside.
“Yeah,” she replied, just as Elijah made an appearance.
“What the fuck took you so long?”