Messy Business #3
My body stiffened as the vision unfolded. The vampire’s memories showed flashes of an ambush. Rhazien’s guards had been slain and without his sword, Dommik was overpowered. They beat him senseless and I wanted to cry out for them to stop. My heart cracked seeing him bruised and bloodied.
He’d fought. With every fiber of his being, he’d fought. Just as I would expect him to. But there were too many of them. And after his body fell still, the Northern Hive guards hauled him away.
The vision cut to Vaspar’s face, his pointed chin accentuated from his snarl. “What do you mean they escaped? FIND THEM,” Vaspar roared with a motionless Dommik behind him. Other guards were unshackling Dommik’s bruised wrists to move him again.
“Bring them directly to the Moon Garden,” Vaspar ordered as he returned his attention to his brother.
There. The Moon Garden. I knew what I needed to know.
I released my grip on the squirming immortal.
“Free me, sorceress!” he snapped.
Not a chance.
I moved to pick up the nearest piece of a broken chair.
The splintered leg ended in a fine, deadly point.
In three confident strides, I was back in front of the male.
His eyes were wide and I wondered what he saw.
What kind of feral creature I’d devolved into in the moment before plunging the stake into his panicked chest.
Blood poured from the flesh and his gurgling breaths made my gut swirl. But more than the nausea was my determination to see him dead. To see my family safe. To hold and be held by Dommik again.
His pale skin faded to a lifeless gray and his quivering chest stilled as Cova withdrew her shadows.
The body thudded to the floor, pushing the stake clean through his middle on impact. From the corner of the room, Lydia gasped for breath, her energy spent from siphoning her own magical source into Cova.
“I’m so proud of you. Hear me? I’m so proud of you.” Cova wrapped Lydia into a supportive, consuming hug. She rocked her daughter, whispering praise in the dark. I moved to join my family as Cova took Lydia’s cheeks into her hands. “How did you know how to do that?”
Lydia swelled and looked at me. “I just…knew I could.”
I nodded at her in silent understanding. The thrum of magic in her veins told her instincts to take over.
“You amaze me,” Cova said, stifling a sob.
“You amaze me,” I echoed and placed a hand on my sister’s shoulder. “I thought you said you hadn’t practiced?”
“I guess—” Cova placed her cheek on her daughter’s forehead. “I just knew I could too.”
We spent a moment there in the dark, reveling in the comedown as each breath took us further from the scene around us. It was clear we’d only scratched the surface of what our magic was capable of. I regretted that we hadn’t explored the possibilities of our power before this pivotal moment.
Cova looked up and stilled.
I jumped into a defensive stance as a figure entered the room. Dommik’s sword was mere feet from me and the person’s frame didn’t seem that big. I considered charging them but stopped when I heard their voice.
“My lady?” Alba cooed in the dark.
Relief swept through me and before I knew it, my limbs were around her.
“You’re alive!” I breathed into her robes.
“You are too.” She sounded just as grateful as me. “But we can’t stay here.”
Cova helped Lydia to stand and the four of us formed a small circle of trust. While so many had perished in Eryx’s call for a culling, we four mortal women had somehow survived. And from the look in our eyes, we intended to keep it that way.
“I need to get to Dommik,” I insisted, looking at a concerned Alba. “I know where he is. I know what they’re planning to do.”
“Leave him,” Cova suggested in a tone that reminded me of our father.
“It’s not just him. It’s all the loyalists to Rhazien. Anyone who supported his great matter.”
“Fine. Leave them,” Cova amended.
I bit back, “I can’t. I—”
The women paused and I collected myself in the space of their silence.
“No matter what we do, there’s a good chance we are caught and killed.” I purposefully avoided looking at Lydia as I spoke. “But Eryx must be stopped. The future of Atoris depends on it. We need all the help we can get.”
Especially Dommik. A truth I chose to keep to myself.
Dutiful and loyal Alba gently laid her hand on my shoulder and I had to bite my lip to keep tears from falling at the kind gesture.
“Do you at least have a plan?” Cova arched her brow.
I scoffed and stretched my sore limbs.
“You’re not going to like it.”
Alba had assured us she would take Lydia to safety. She would bring her through the secret tunnels to meet with the Day Guard.
I held a limited hope that a small faction would hold true to their oaths to Rhazien’s court.
It was entirely possible that the Day Guard—who, on a normal day, would be suiting up for duty right about now—would abandon their posts.
Their allegiance to coin made their loyalty to any deeper cause fickle at best. Some may even join Eryx’s faction and hope to retain employment.
Meanwhile, Cova and I needed to descend farther into the Hive.
Deep down to the dark nothingness. To the cavernous prison I’d seen in my dreams. To the writhing center of a pit filled with vengeful entities.
Down into the den of the shades.