Darkfell vampire clan bo.., p.48
Darkfell Vampire Clan Boxset, page 48
Cyrus wandered in, skimmed his hands down my back, but even his calming magic couldn't take the edge off whatever I was feeling. Panic maybe, anxiety certainly, some misplaced sense of loss, perhaps.
“Do you know why he left, Seraphina?” Cyrus asked, running his hands down my arms this time and frowning when he didn't get the expected result.
“He left because he's a liar, and a traitor. He’s the one who gave that evil witch our location, and he soul-bonded himself to Katarina. So yeah, he's gone, and he couldn’t care less about what we do next. That's all I want to say about it.”
“Soul-bonded to Katarina, huh?” Cyrus asked thoughtfully. “That doesn't sound at all like my cousin.”
“Well then, maybe he’s lying about that too,” I sniped as I slapped together another sandwich. I really was starving.
“Deston wouldn’t lie about a soul bond. That’s some serious shit, Seraphina.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don't think I'm ever going to get used to you speaking like that. Maybe we should cut back on your screen time. I know there’s a setting…”
“I like my screen time, and you’re not taking it away.” Cyrus poured me a glass of milk, sliding it across the island to me. “Drink that, you need to hydrate.”
“Milk is not hydration,” I explained patiently. “Water is hydration, maybe unsweetened tea. But milk, not so much.”
He rounded the island and wrapped his arms around me, as if willing me to feel better. “I don't care what it does, just drink it. You’ve lost weight, Seraphina, and I don't like seeing those bruises beneath your eyes. Do you want to talk about Deston?”
“No,” I said curtly, drinking the milk to placate him. “Shouldn’t we be evacuating? I mean, Viktor's going to be coming for us, right?”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Tessa said defiantly from the kitchen doorway, her hands on her hips. “He’s driven me out, once before. This is my home, and we’re making a stand here. If Viktor wants to come after us, then he has to get through all of our defenses first.”
“I appreciate that, but Katarina got through fairly easily,” I pointed out uneasily. “I mean, she just poofed right in and out.”
“Katarina is a two-thousand-year-old Queen. She has ancient power at her disposal. Viktor's, what? Two hundred years at most? He’s strong, but he won’t penetrate Father’s wards, not without us knowing.”
“And if he does get through?”
“Then you have to kill him, Seraphina.” Tessa’s eyes let off a faint glow of anticipation. “That's what all of this is been about, right? You getting strong enough to kill Viktor.”
My fingers skimmed down the chain and curled around the key.
Deston’s last words rang in my head. In order for me to kill Viktor, Lyra had to die too.
But what if I could save her and still kill Viktor?
“What are you thinking, Seraphina?” Cyrus murmured in my ear, his hands massaging my shoulders. “This is a group effort now, which means we work as a team. No going off on your own and doing stupid shit.” He squeezed especially hard to make his point.
“Stupid shit is kind of my thing, though,” I joked halfheartedly, knowing that statement was truer than it should be.
“I think it's time me, Luthor, and you had a talk. Because to be honest, I don't know what to do next.” In fact, my stomach was twisted into knots just thinking about this decision. Tessa turned to go, and I stopped her.
“You should know what’s going on. Maybe… maybe you can help.”
The reason we were in this mess was because I did exactly the kind of stupid shit that Cyrus had just accused me of. Maybe it was time I gave this team player thing a chance.
“Then we'll talk,” Cyrus said neutrally, his gaze resting on Tessa. “I’ll fetch Luthor. Is there somewhere private we can go?”
“The drawing room…” Tessa began.
“No, not in there.” I interrupted. Dear God, not in there. “Is there anywhere else?”
“Father’s office,” she said firmly. “It’s the next best place.”
Luthor and Cyrus returned, and then Tessa led us to Hugh’s office, closing us in together. I pulled the key out from beneath my shirt and placed it on the table between us, Tessa’s eyes widening.
“That’s a royal key,” she whispered, glancing toward the locked door. “There are only five of them, and they remain with the King at all times.”
“Not this one. It’s mine.”
Her eyes widened, and I turned to Luthor and Cyrus, unsure how to approach this. Maybe I’d included Tessa as a buffer, or maybe I’d just wanted some back up because what I had to tell them was momentous.
“I should've said something earlier, but to be fair, I didn't get a chance before Viktor came bursting in and everything went to hell.
“Deston and I went to the palace to figure out what this key unlocks.” I pulled in a shaky breath, my lungs feeling hollow. “Luthor, you straight up asked me what was in the chamber, right before Viktor invaded Ravenswood.” His face went still, but Cyrus gave me a small, encouraging smile.
“I never answered you.”
I took a deeper breath, which still didn’t seem to fill my lungs all the way. I feared, deep down inside, that the truth might cost me Luthor, if not Cyrus too.
My voice came out barely more than a whisper.
“Lyra's behind the door. She’s still alive, well technically alive. Viktor's been siphoning power off her all this time. It’s how he’s stayed so strong.”
I looked between their stony faces, my determination ebbing by the second. “I should've told you before now. Should've found time, found a way, to tell you all of it. I didn't, and that's on me.”
I squared my shoulders and waited for the inevitable outburst. “She’s unconscious, unreachable, according to Deston. But we know about him and the truth, so take that with a grain of salt.”
“She can't…” Luthor's voice trailed off, and he looked helplessly at Cyrus, who looked just as doubtful.
“We watched her die, Seraphina.” Cyrus had absolute conviction in his voice. “It’s been over a hundred years. She can't be alive.”
“She's alive… well, in stasis, is what Deston called it. He couldn't get a read on any brain activity, and even though we were there for almost ten minutes, I never saw her take a breath.”
“Stasis doesn’t last a hundred years,” Tessa said gently. “A few months, maybe a year, tops.”
“She’s there,” I said forcefully. “I wanted to bring her with us, but we never made it back.”
I shrugged my shoulders helplessly. “If you two had been there, I know you would've found a way to get her out.”
“If she's been in stasis this long,” Cyrus said thoughtfully, “there would be nothing left of the Queen we knew. Her magic would have consumed her.” He looked at Luthor, but he was deep in thought, his face inscrutable. I held my breath when he finally spoke.
“That door is warded with ancient magic that only the Queen… or Viktor, can bypass. Even with the key, we can’t get to her.”
“Normally, that would be true. But Deston claimed he dropped the wards on Lyra’s crypt, while being held prisoner in the palace.” I didn’t want to give them false hope and reminded them gently, “But you know we can't trust him.”
“We can on this,” Luthor said firmly. “Deston was vested in Lyra's reign, did everything he could to ensure she remained in power and to hold the court together. He might be a cheating bastard, but he never let Lyra down.”
I remembered his gentleness when he’d laid her hand on her chest, pushed her hair back. Or had that all been for show, as well? I could hardly tell anymore.
I was the only one who knew Deston had sold Lyra out, paved the way for the Carpathians to attack the palace that fateful night. If Luthor and Cyrus ever found out the truth, they’d hunt him all the way to Romania and put his head on a spike.
“Even so, we have two options.” I nodded at the key. “If she stays alive, Viktor has access to endless power. I’ll never defeat him, no matter how much I try, and the only other option is…”
I let my voice trail off. Murdering an innocent woman while she was in a coma was one of the most heinous acts I could ever consider doing.
“If she's a purmagicae, then there's nothing left of the Lyra we knew,” Luthor said quietly. “I’m your commander. I'll do it.” But there was enough doubt in his voice, I knew he’d never get over it.
“If Viktor can help himself to her magic, why can’t Seraphina?” Tessa asked cautiously. “I mean, if her power is based on Queen’s magic, then she and Seraphina’s power would be far more compatible.”
She talked faster. “Familial magic is usually passed down from generation to generation. It makes sense that Lyra’s magic would complement your own.” Her eyes flashed. “If you take Lyra’s magic before Viktor, you’d be stronger than him, even though he’s two centuries older.”
This was exactly the kind of information we needed, in order to make smart decisions. I’d included her in this conversation on a hunch, and now I was glad I did.
“We’d still have to get back into the palace. Access her crypt,” I pointed out. Though another attack would be harder now, since Deston wasn’t around to stage a distraction.
Viktor was probably headed this way, bringing the fight to us. Which could offer a solution to our dilemma. My brain was starting to work again, after that unmentionable escapade in the drawing room. But this would avoid having to kill Lyra, which no one wanted no matter how much we rationalized it.
“So, we figure out a way into the palace. We did it once, we can do it again,” Cyrus said, backing me up in words and by wrapping his arms around my middle. “In the meantime, what do we do about Viktor? You know he's coming.”
Panic tightened my chest at the thought of it. Viktor would come, and it was up to me to stop him.
“If he comes,” I suggested cautiously, “there won’t be anyone left guarding the palace, will there?”
37
SERAPHINA
Deston was gone and my newly minted mate mark burned like hellfire.
As if the damn thing knew we were separated by thousands of miles.
I arranged my hair, making certain to hide it. I didn't know if this sensation was something I’d have to get used to, or if it would eventually fade with time, but the pain cut through me like a blowtorch set on high.
I glanced over Cyrus’s shoulder at the others gathered in the main banquet room, where Luthor was already proposing another palace incursion, Tessa emphatically backing him up, while I hid in the corner and licked my wounds on the couch.
I just couldn’t come to terms with the fact Deston had sold me out to Katarina. I knew I hadn’t been imagining all those moments we’d shared. And what we’d done together…
No, he hadn’t been faking his desire. Nor had I.
Cyrus’s hands began working their way toward the mark, and I shifted away, redirecting his hands lower. “I’m okay, just a bit stiff.”
“Seraphina, I know.” I looked away from those green eyes that seemed to know too much.
“About my shoulders? Well…”
“No, about the mating with Deston.” The air whooshed out of me, my body going rigid with shock. Or fear.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I pushed him away, but Cyrus pulled me right back into him, turned us until his body shielded me from the rest of the room. Laid his forehead against mine.
“It’s okay, Fina. I know you’re scared. I know Deston left, and while I haven’t heard the whole story, I do know this. A mating bond can’t ever be broken.”
“Never?” What did it make me, when that single word lifted my heart up with hope?
“Never.” He pulled away, his green eyes filled with sorrow. I hiccupped, then words spilled out of me like a fountain.
“He sold me out, and I trusted him. I trusted him, Cyrus. Do you know how many people I trust?” I held up two fingers. “You and Luthor. That’s who. And he wormed his way into my heart, and then he told Katarina I was at the Cormier’s. She could have killed someone.”
I drew a shaky breath. “He betrayed me. Just like everybody else.”
When he wrapped his whole body around me, all my confusion and misery finally took over, and I melted into a puddle. Burning tears spilled down my face; my chest shook with silent sobs. “We’ll figure this out together. Everything will be all right, love. I promise.”
He lifted my face up. “You planned on keeping this a secret, didn’t you?” There was no accusation in his voice, not even when he added, “Didn’t you think you could tell me?”
Now that Cyrus knew, and I didn’t have to hide anymore, I fell apart.
Pain exploded inside me, made the words tumble out. “Because this hurts us, Cyrus. I lied to you both. And for what? For someone who’s already bonded himself to another and flew away to freaking Romania, of all places. I’ve made a total mess of things.” I tried to keep myself tamped down, but my nose was running, my throat raw.
“I’m sorry, Cyrus.” I hiccupped. “I am so sorry.”
Now they’d leave. And I wouldn’t blame them one bit.
But all he did was nod. “I understand why you chose not to tell us. That we’re your family. That you don’t want to lose us. But you have to tell Luthor.” I’d faced down revenants, Katarina, and Viktor, and none of them made me feel as afraid as I did right now.
“I know.” I didn’t think my misery could get any worse, but the thought of facing Luthor broke something in me. I couldn’t stand hurting him, and this… What if he walked away?
“I can come with?” Cyrus offered gently, and for one wild second, I almost took him up on it. But I’d made this mess, and I’d face the consequences, without using Cyrus as a crutch.
“No. He deserves the truth, and I’ll tell him alone.”
“I’ll be here when you get back.” Cyrus’s hands went back to massaging my sore muscles. “I’ve been around a long time, Fina.” The kneading stopped. “Times like these, when everything seems to be too much to handle, when your whole life seems to be slipping away…” He shook his head, his blond hair flying. “It’s not. I love you. Luthor loves you. And Deston loves you.”
He sent a flurry of his magic into me, and my convulsing sobs eased up.
“Clearly, he doesn’t.” I rubbed my wet cheeks. “He’s with Katarina.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem.”
“Seemed pretty clear to me. He told me never to…”
“Fina, think about how soul bonds work. My guess is, Deston never bound himself to Katarina. She bound him to her, I expect, a long, long time ago.” His fingers squeezed harder. “The one who’s bonded cannot hide anything from their master. Not even their thoughts.”
Everything inside me just stopped.
If that was even remotely true, then I’d been looking at this the wrong way. Hope curled in my chest. Somehow, I kept making mistakes. It was time for me to stop.
“We’ve decided how we’ll get into the palace,” Luthor interrupted. How he’d crept up on us, I didn’t know, but one minute we were alone, the next, he was sprawled on the sofa next to me. I dried my face on Cyrus’s shirt, pretending I sneezed. “When Viktor leaves to attack us, he’ll leave the palace mostly unguarded. That’s when we go in. That’s when you’ll take Lyra’s magic.”
I drank in the sight of him, memorizing every strong line of his face, the slightly crooked nose, the silver-streaked hair down to his shoulders—just because I liked it that way—when he couldn’t care less.
“I’ve seen magic transfers done before.” Tessa plopped down beside Cyrus. “I can help.” She drew back. “Hey, are you okay? Your eyes look…”
“Seraphina. Are you ill?” There was a note of alarm in Luthor’s voice, his hand massaging my knee. I pulled away. Instead of the usual delicious heat, his touch just made me feel guiltier.
“I’m fine, just heading outside to practice, Luthor.” My fake smile slipped off my face as quickly as it appeared. “I know you’re in the middle of… planning. But can you come with me?” I asked abruptly, pushing off the sofa.
“It's not safe out there, Seraphina,” Luthor reminded me, his tone patient. “Better to stay inside and out of sight.”
“Maybe not. Since Katarina's on her way back to Romania, I don't have to worry about her skanky ass ambushing me in the woods.”
“Skanky ass. I like that.” Cyrus laughed, but there was a hint of sadness in the sound.
“I’ll go with you.” Luthor’s shoulders sagged in resignation. Did he already know?
Cyrus discreetly shook his head.
“We’re heading outside,” Luthor informed the room, and activity paused for a second before resuming. One last scan of the room had Luthor’s eyes glowing intensely, the exact opposite of how he’d been these last few days.
He had a purpose now; it was clear in the way he held his body, the set of his shoulders, the hint of pride. After months of being my lover, I was finally seeing Luthor, the soldier. Even if he couldn’t accept the truth about me and Deston, maybe he’d stay on as my commander.
That way, I could still see him, even if he didn’t want to be mine.
Luthor offered me his hand. I took it, noting how my own disappeared completely into his.
I didn’t want to lose him.
I wanted to be happy.
And if I failed at the first, I would never have the second.
“That was…” When I cast my magic, Luthor’s voice trailed off in quiet wonderment. “Thank you for showing me. I've never seen anything like that, Seraphina. Not even with Lyra.”
We'd opted not to go into the woods after last time. Instead, we’d compromised on the long, gravel drive, the moss hanging from the live oaks swaying from my last burst of power, but not a single leaf was out of place.
I was every bit as amazed as Luthor.
I didn’t know how, but everything had finally clicked. My magic belonged to me, feeling as natural as my body did. There was an ease to using my magic now, and miraculously, it did exactly what I wanted it to do.
