Chapter 29 #2
I glanced at Elijah. I wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t look concerned and said, “He might want to, but he had his chance before and didn’t take it. He’s a reasonable man.”
I laughed. “Don’t be so sure...”
He smirked. “None of us are known for being reasonable in matters of the heart but in this case, he would certainly try if anything happened to you. That’s why you’re not leaving this building until he comes back.”
His head tilted down, and glanced at me again, arching an eyebrow. “If I have to leave to chase after you and endanger Selena, there will be nothing for Lukas to come back to.” His expression was pleasant, unlike his words.
The message was clear—I may be out of my cell, but I was still trapped.
Selena gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I’m not going anywhere, don’t worry,” I insisted, stomping my feet to get some of the residue off that was on the bottom of my shoes.
“But I don’t want to do nothing, either. What can we do from here?” I asked, glancing at the two of them.
As soon as I asked the question, the light in the room flashed crimson. The lightning was back. My heart thumped in my chest, and my blood ran cold as beams of red light zigzagged through the air.
Outside the window, crimson streaks spread across the sky like shards of broken glass. There was a deep cracking sound and then a rumble shook the castle. A vase fell off the mantle and onto the floor, sending glass shards skittering along the stone and carpets.
Almost like an afterthought, Elijah waved a hand at the knickknack, and it reassembled itself while it floated through the air and back to its designated spot. Something like that would have sent me running from the room not all that long ago.
Now, instead, I was strategizing, trying to figure out how to keep my vampire lover from being killed by other supernatural beings. So far, I couldn’t come up with anything other than the instinct that, first of all, we needed to get out of this room.
“Elijah,” Selena glanced at him quickly.
He took hold of her upper arm and looked at me. “We need to go downstairs,” he said.
My paintings. Dust fell from the ceiling and I heard a noise that reminded of grinding stone. Then, it sounded like a pebble fell somewhere in the corner.
“I need my art,” I told them, glancing back and then swinging my head around. I wanted to take my painting of Lukas.
More noise sounded and then a rock big enough to cause serious bodily injury fell on to the floor by the window. “Cassia, come. Now.” Elijah’s voice was firm.
With another backward glance, I moved toward my new friends and left my heart behind. It didn’t matter that I was beyond pissed at him for building me a prison cell, I still wanted that picture.
Selena motioned to me with her hand and I hurried up. We made it out the door, down the hall, and had just started to descend the staircase when a resounding thump echoed around us.
“Was that...?” Selena glanced up at her husband. Elijah didn’t answer her, his attention was elsewhere.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a fluffy brown squirrel showed up and latched onto her leg. It climbed up her side, making squealing and chattering sounds. “Squirrel!” She exclaimed, repositioning it to her shoulder.
She turned to me and said, “His name is Squirrel. Super creative, I know.”
My friend seemed to be in a pretty decent mood, considering that we were likely under siege.
I had no idea what to say so I didn’t. I just quietly followed them down yet another corridor, and then we were in the same underground chambers that Lukas had brought me to when we first arrived in this Realm.
Squirrel jumped off Selena’s shoulder and scaled a nearby wall to go and sit on a light fixture before it began chattering away again. She waved a hand at him and Elijah rolled his eyes. “Stupid rat,” he muttered.
Elijah walked off and stopped about twenty feet away from us. He flicked his hand at the wall and a panel opened. I saw him reach inside and I turned to face Selena.
“What are we going to do? Do you think they’re here?” I asked the questions, but I had to imagine if they were, they’d already be in the building. We wouldn’t be hanging out in this room.
She twisted in a circle, searching for her husband. He popped out of the hidden closet with multiple swords strapped to his back before he marched toward us. He looked terrifying, with his face set firmly and his blue eyes glowing. He was nearly as tall as Lukas, and he looked like a warlord.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do but we should be okay down here. We’d be better off if Lukas hadn’t killed all the wraiths,” Selena said, giving me a tight-lipped smile. She didn’t appear mad, just inconvenienced.
“There’s still magic here,” Elijah said. He fiddled with Selena’s belt, adding another dagger.
Still magic here . “You didn’t hear back from Kiam, did you?”
He slowly shook his head. “No.”
“So, what are we going to do?” I couldn’t fight. I couldn’t flick my fingers at stuff and make hearts stop or things float or anything else happen.
Another man walked in and Selena whispered in my ear, “That’s Markus, his advisor.”
I nodded and watched as the two men conversed. “Come on.” I tugged her arm and she followed me to the other side of the room. There was a shelf full of curiosities—little jars and pouches, a crystal ball and candles.
I lifted each item, examining it, while Selena watched my every move. “What are you going to do other than possibly blow yourself up?” She laughed a little.
Some of the stuff was labeled. Not that it helped me at all. The only thing I recognized was the Bloodmoon flower nectar.
“I don’t know but I can’t get rid of this feeling that Lukas won’t be coming back. I need to do something, even if it doesn’t work. Like, I need to have at least tried.”
“I get that. What are you thinking? Casting a spell, maybe? Elijah can do all that stuff.”
A huff left my chest. “He would have already. Plus, why’s he gonna help the guy that kicked him out of his own castle? I don’t really see him going out of his way.”
Selena sighed and pressed her fingers to the corners of her mouth before dropping her arms. “Point taken.”
With the crystal ball and its brass stand in hand, I brought it over to the altar.
The same altar that Lukas... yeah, I didn’t want to think about that right now—but it was also why I was doing this.
He’d said something about energy, and I needed as much of that as I could get.
If the two of banging on a ceremonial chunk of quartz enhanced anything, I was going to do my best to try and take advantage.
My friend stepped beside me and laid her hands on the stone. “Do you guys clean this thing at all?” I asked.
“No. Why?”
I pressed my lips together. “No reason.”
Her brows furrowed, and she slowly slid her hands away, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. “Uh huh. Do you want to tell me what you’re doing?”
“I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“I can see that.”
“Shush—let me think for a minute.”
There were videos that would come on my social media feed every now and then, with this lady that could move things just by thinking about it. I had thought it was just silly stuff to garner views and comments but now I wasn’t so sure.
Since I’d been here, I’d seen magic in action. I’d seen the wavering in the air around people and animals. Around the doorways. A desk drawer.
The lady on my phone screen talked about auras and energy fields, about harnessing it. She said everything had its own energy field, and that fields could mingle and communicate. She said it was kind of like the internet—everything is connected.
“Get me the Bloodmoon stuff?” I asked Selena
She eyed me. “That stuff’s poisonous.”
“It’s not like I’m going to snort it.”
She laughed. “But it is like your dramatic boyfriend will stab me in the throat.”
“Didn’t you say yours threw women out the window after he fucked them?”
She lifted an arm in the air like Elijah’s past habits were no big deal and retrieved the little jar of red liquid. “Thank you,” I said.
“What are you going to do with it?” She glanced down at the water. “Maybe dip the ball in there, first?”
She was pointing at the stream. “Good idea. Water’s a conduit.”
Kneeling, I held the object in the flowing stream and washed it back and forth a few times, trying to stay focused on imagining the energy around us being drawn to the crystal. It was hard, but I tried to remember everything I’d seen about metaphysical stuff in the past. Thoughts are things .
If I intended for the gadgets and potions to help us, they had to do it. At least, that’s what I was telling myself. That’s what the social media lady insisted was true.
“Okay.” I stood and walked a few steps to the altar.
Selena was watching Elijah and Markus. Her husband had sat down in a chair and was resting his chin on his hand, listening to the other man. They were tense but didn’t seem overly upset or anything.
I glanced at my friend just as the room shook. I heard a cracking sound across the way, coming from deep inside the cave where Lukas had gotten the wraiths. I had to hurry up.
Quickly, I uncapped the Bloodmoon nectar and dumped it over the crystal ball. Streams of red flowed over the top and pooled on the altar’s surface. It looked like blood.
I held my hands over the top of the globe and caught Elijah staring at me, looking puzzled. I ignored him while Selena stood patiently beside me. The lack of him doing anything about what I was doing lowered my confidence for a moment. Was I going to be that ineffective?
While everyone else stood around acting like red lightning and a crumbling castle with apparently significant foundation issues were every day, ordinary events, I was doing something to try and help.
It felt like nobody else cared, and the very thought of that soured my stomach.
“Focus,” Selena whispered. I glanced at her and she gave me a little nod. “I think you have to look at it while thinking about what you want.”
Standing a little straighter, I redirected my thoughts. I pictured Kiam and tried to think of what his house would look like. Probably as overdecorated as he was.
The glass turned cloudy, and warmth emanated from it. My heart skipped a beat as I watched in wonder.
It looked like a picture was starting to form.
But all I saw were crows.