Chapter 14
Franchir
CLAIRE
We left at twilight the following day. The mountain pass between the Unified Territories and the Lawless Lands was too treacherous for a coach, so I rode with Bastien.
It was hard to share a horse and pretend he was nothing more to me than an employer. Especially when his free hand was splayed over my stomach, holding me protectively against his chest.
“We’re approaching the edge of the Blood Treaty’s protection,” he explained against my ear.
I nodded, but tried not to think about it.
After we’d left the tea room, he’d taken me back to our bedchamber and laid with me in our bed.
Continuing the fantasy, Bastien kissed my stomach and whispered “I love you” in a way that brought tears to my eyes.
I knew it cost him something to pretend like this with me when we had differing opinions. It only deepened my feelings for him.
Afterward, we lay beside each other and shared our dreams for the future. He told me about the youth home being built in the city where he intended to care for war orphans, and promised to take me there when we returned.
I shared my hope that my sister would come to visit us, and he told me she could stay as long as she liked. And when I fell asleep in his arms, I knew this was the future I was fighting for. It made breaking the curse on Mama’s choker even more urgent.
In a day, when the moon was invisible, Devlinn would help me communicate with the demon whose magick lived inside me and ask it to reestablish the bloodline of inheritance.
As we navigated the knife-edge road down the mountain, I tried not to think about the fact that we were one strong wind from being thrown off, and I wouldn’t have to worry about demons or curses.
Instead, I tilted my head into the crook of Bastien’s shoulder, looking up at the riot of stars.
They were beautiful this far north, like a blanket I could curl up in.
I searched for pictures in the sky, recalling the time I had stared up at it with Sera.
We spent many warm summer nights outside, making up stories about the stars.
Our favorite was about the brave witch in the sky.
In our tales, she was blessed by Diana with unimaginable power, and her spells filled the sky with stars so her people could see, even when there was a new moon.
Now those stories felt hollow, tainted after meeting Imogen.
I wanted to ask Bastien about the goddesses, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Not because I didn’t trust him, but because I didn’t want anything the old witch had said to be true.
Bastien raised his fist to signal our host to halt. My wolves stopped beside us. “This is it,” he declared. “The barrier between lands.”
There was no line that marked the boundary, but I could feel the magick all around me. I tried to be brave, like the witch in our stories, but we were so far from the safety of Chateau Rose.
“Are you ready to cross?” Bastien asked in a low voice.
I hesitated only for a second. “Yes.”
Bastien dropped his hand and urged Lucien forward.
As soon as we were through the barrier, my hands began trembling, and perspiration broke out across my brow.
Not wanting to appear weak, I kept my gaze fixed on the horizon, but the stars looked more like streaks in the sky, their colors exploding with light as if the brave witch in the sky had cast another spell.
A jolt of energy ripped through me, as if I had swallowed a bolt of lightning, and it was burning through every vein.
“Are you alright?” Bastien asked.
“I... I think so,” I stammered, struggling to gather my racing thoughts. “It feels like….”
I opened our connection and let him feel everything going on inside me. He immediately halted Lucien. “Do you need to stop?”
His devastatingly beautiful face was illuminated by the faint glow of the stars and the remaining moonlight. “No. I think it’s just my magick.” I reached for the horn that I’d stuffed inside my fur-lined pocket, and the shivering stopped.
Bastien noticed the way I sought it out and frowned. After last night, when he’d asked me to set the horn aside, I knew there was something he didn’t like about it.
Natalia rode up beside us on her white mare with an expression that would’ve made milk curdle. “Your Grace? Is there something wrong with the barrier?”
My white wolf answered, lifting her head and howling. The brown one joined her. Their voices echoing through the mountains.
“Shut those beasts up!” Natalia snapped. “Or everyone in the Lawless Lands will know we’re coming!”
The anger that lived at the tip of my tongue came exploding out. “They’re not beasts. They’re familiars. And they sense things you can’t.”
She turned to her uncle. “You’re going to allow an unruly pack of wolves to announce our position?”
“Fall back, Lady Natalia,” Bastien said with a forced calm. “Your leadership is needed elsewhere.”
His niece sneered at me but did as he commanded, falling back behind us.
One by one, the army marched down the narrow mountain pass.
As we pressed deeper, I continued to feel the same restless energy, the same shivers that had nothing to do with the cold.
In fact, I wasn’t even cold anymore. Sweat was soaking through my undergarments.
I wanted to ask Devlinn what this all meant, but he was too far back. So I sat with my anxieties and my magick as we continued to ride on through the night, not knowing what to do except hold the horn and pray for my powers to settle.
But I heard no response from the God of the Underworld, only Imogen’s warning. “In order to remove the cursed choker, you must die.”
Lies. They were all lies. I repeated it to myself over and over again, trying to quell the fear that was rising. But if they’d all been lies, then why had Tansy and Devlinn brought up that island?
I tried to be brave as the hours passed. The closer we came to the bottom, grass began peeking through the frost. Every once in a while, Bastien and I would talk in hushed whispers, but mostly he was silent, listening for trouble, and I was left to my own thoughts.
When we finally reached the base of the mountain, it was near dawn, and the muted light revealed an eerie graveyard that stretched for miles. Fog clung to the trees and grass, obscuring headstones jutting from the ground like jagged teeth. Many of which had iron cages over each plot.
Bastien slowed Lucien to a halt beside one such grave.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“This is the resting place of those who have fallen in battle.”
The wind threaded through the iron bars, making them groan. “What’s with the cages?”
“The witches place cages over the bodies to keep them from being used for ill will.” When I gasped, he held me tighter against his chest. “Don’t worry.
We won’t be going through the graveyard.
” He pointed to what appeared to be a stone mausoleum nearly hidden by snow-speckled moss.
“That is the entrance to the graveyard tunnels that were created to allow those who carry peace banners to pass.” My throat tightened.
“They will lead us directly to the secret entrance of Chastity’s underground stronghold. ”
He dismounted first, then grabbed me around the waist and helped me off Lucien’s back. Once I was safely on the ground, his hands lingered on my waist, and the heat inside of me grew. With his hair whipping in the wind and his frost-colored eyes, he truly looked like a prince.
Bastien leaned down an inch, bringing our mouths a fraction closer. “I need you to tell me to back away,” he breathed. “I’m feeling far too protective of you. And I need to do my job.”
Even though I ached to feel his lips on mine.
To hear his whispered promises. To let him linger a little while longer, we couldn’t.
Our marriage was still a closely guarded secret.
It was against the laws of vampires to take their mates as sanguine partners.
It was also against the law to command an army while mated.
By all rights, we should be at the capital.
However, my husband was a stubborn man, and I believed in what he was doing.
“Back away,” I whispered. “Do your job.”
With my permission, he stepped back, but held my eyes for a long moment.
Finally, he stalked toward the mausoleum.
I followed after him, keeping my distance as he approached the arched doorway, and stopped a few paces behind him.
Lifting his hand to the door, he knocked three times and said, “We seek safe passage under peace banners.”
I held my breath and waited for something to happen.
But nothing did. Bastien tried again, repeating the gesture, when the overwhelming scent of dark magick filled the air.
Sweet and fragrant. There was a spell keeping the door closed.
I could feel it. Natalia, Tyson, and Lady Okeri appeared beside me.
“What’s wrong?” Natalia asked.
Bastien slammed his fist against the door. “The arch is sealed. Some kind of dark spell.”
I didn’t know why, but I felt suddenly guilty. “Why would they do that?”
“Werewolves,” Natalia replied coolly. “Tracks are all over the place.”
“And the stench of them is horrible,” Tyson added.
A cold wind whipped through the graveyard, carrying the howl of a wolf with it. I pulled up my hood to keep the chill out, hoping I’d only imagined the sound. My wolves drew nearer, as if they heard it too.
“What are our choices?” I asked.
Bastien’s eyes found mine. “Either we break the spell on the arch, or we take the long way around.”
I stuffed my hand back into my pocket and found the horn waiting for me. Eager to help.
“There’s only one problem,” Natalia deadpanned. “We don’t have an experienced Dark Witch to break the spell.”
Bastien lifted his chin and scanned the ranks of soldiers gathering around us. “Send for Devlinn.”
“I can do it.” The words came out before I’d fully decided to say them.
Every eye landed on me. Natalia looked me up and down. “You don’t count as experienced.”
“Natalia…” Bastien growled.
“What?” she shot back. “She isn’t.”
Tansy and Devlinn approached. Her arm linked with his. Another wave of guilt and shame hit me. They were here, in this frozen graveyard, instead of on a boat, heading toward paradise.
“Your Grace?” Devlinn said, bowing low. I could tell he was leery of my husband after he barged in during our tea.
“Can you tell what kind of spell is on this door?”
Devlinn stepped forward and removed his fur-lined gloves. Carefully, he closed his eyes and pressed his hand to the stone. “It’s a closing spell, Your Grace.”
“I could’ve told you that,” Tyson quipped.
“Shut it, Ty,” Lady Okeri said, playfully elbowing him in the ribs. “Bad timing.”
Devlinn placed his other hand on the door. “If I’m reading this right, the spell was placed on here by a demon. A powerful one. To counteract it with an opening spell would require an offering under the new moon.”
Devlinn shot a look at me over his shoulder. I knew he was trying to walk a dangerous line between opening the door and helping me secure my magick through the ritual we’d discussed.
“So we’re just supposed to wait until tomorrow?” Lady Natalia snapped.
While they continued to argue over which path to take, my energy kept building. I needed to do something. I had to protect my friends who willingly came along on this journey. If anything happened to them, it would be my fault.
“Let me try,” I told Bastien through our connection. It was only when everyone’s attention settled on me that I realized I’d taken the horn out of my pocket and was holding it up.
In the distance, a crow shrieked. Another gust of cold wind sent strands of hair around my face.
Bastien studied me, uncertainty flickering in his eyes. “I don’t know—”
“I can do this,” I insisted, cutting him off. Speaking with words instead of through our connection. “Devlinn and Tansy can help me.” Bastien’s gaze hardened. He was going to say no. “You’ve seen the fire. You know what I can do.”
My husband pressed his lips together in a hard line, then relented. “Set up a perimeter and post guards. We’re making camp.”
He turned to Natalia and clapped on her shoulder, muttering something in Sanguisi. She gave a curt nod, then disappeared in the thick press of bodies.