by Cate Corvin
“I wasn’t dying or anything, Lu,” he said, but he sounded pleased and wrapped his arms around me.
“You could’ve,” I whispered, tears prickling the backs of my eyelids. “If I hadn’t been fast enough…”
“But you were.” Shane touched my shoulder.
“For a grand total of eight hours of practicing curse-breaking, what you managed is nothing short of a miracle, Lucrezia.”
I finally released my stranglehold on Roman and sniffed. “Well, we’re all here. Dom, these are for you and Locke.” I handed him the thick, heavy scroll. “And we’re all going to hear what Dr. Temple has to say about this in his book.”
“And the sword?” Shane asked.
“What sword?” Dom was practically salivating over the blueprints.
My lips twitched. “She had a Lockheart sword in her safe.” All covens had a personal seal, and the anatomical heart, pierced with an old-fashioned padlock, had been pretty self-explanatory to me. “I’m going to ask Locke if he remembers it.”
Even if he didn’t, there was no way I was letting a family heirloom like that rest in a dusty old vault for Gilt to gloat over.
“Tonight?”
“Tonight. We can’t wait any longer.”
Chapter 9
Shane
Locke paced his prison, his eyes drifting between Lu and the sword.
Lu had the Rites of the Cage cracked open under the lantern’s light, reading as fast as she could without missing any details. Roman held her in his lap, his eyes still tight at the corners from the memory of pain, and Steele was examining the blueprints, making notes while he listened to Lu occasionally blurt out a detail.
“Dr. Xavier Temple was Albrecht Gilt’s confidante and main financier when Cimmerian was first established,” she said, flicking to the next page. “He was a warlock from Templestone who specialized in healing magic, and… he helped bring in the first batch of inmates when this was Cimmerian Asylum, under Albrecht’s direction.”
Locke stopped in front of the bars, staring at Lucrezia. Flames flickered deep in those hard eyes.
Her voice slowed a little, and my stomach dropped. “Temple began as a witness to Albrecht’s ‘grand vision’, but it looks like he started his own projects shortly after moving to Cimmerian permanently.” Everyone looked at her. “He began siring vampires, starting with Subject Alpha.”
Locke’s fingers tightened on the bars until it looked like his bones would snap. “I know these names,” he said, his words becoming a low snarl.
“He never refers to you by name, Locke.” Bambi’s lower lip trembled as she read, and she bit down on it. Roman’s arms tightened around her. “This is… such inhuman bullshit.”
As much as I wanted to be her comfort, I was still too juiced up, afraid that Gilt would send the guardians after us. Lu had done a fancy little cantrip after I’d hauled Roman out of her work room to erase our tracks. She’d painstakingly dragged the curse-chain back into existence from a distance, but we might’ve overlooked a tiny sign that Gilt would pick up on.
Locke’s lips curled in a cold smile. “Perhaps I should be grateful my memories are gone, then.”
“He’s probably the reason why your memories are lost.” Her voice shook. “These tests were brutal. As far as I can tell from context, you were definitely Subject Alpha. Temple notes that Albrecht seemed to have a personal vendetta towards you and was pleased that you became the first test subject on the vampirism trials.”
“Why were they running experiments on vampires, anyways?” Roman asked.
“What do vampires have that many witches and warlocks have fought for over the centuries?” Steele looked up from the blueprints, his eyes flickering to the book in Lu’s hands. I swallowed back a growl; Lu had forgiven him, and that should be enough for me. “A side effect without the ramifications of existing on blood and going mad.”
“Eternal life,” Locke said quietly.
Lu gazed up at Locke, and went back to reading, her jaw stubbornly set.
“Bring those over here, Dominic,” Locke finally said. The warlock brought the lantern and blueprints outside the cell, and the two pored over the confusing, maze-like blueprints of Cimmerian’s cavernous depths, discussing Gilt’s notations.
Lu’s eyes were heavy with exhaustion when she reached the end of the book and snapped it shut. She stared at the far side of Locke’s cell for a long moment, her eyes blank.
Steele lowered his pen, and Roman woke up from where he’d been drowsing under Lu.
“Everyone calls this place the Cage,” she said, sounding hollow. “We’ve been thinking that’s the nickname for the school. It’s not.”
I felt a little sick at the look in her eyes.
“The Cage is what Albrecht and Temple called their Vita Machina, or life machine. It’s not a place. It’s a thing.” She looked at Locke. “Albrecht was in our dream.”
“How…” Locke started, and cut himself off. “He succeeded in creating the Vita Machina.”
Lu nodded and took a strained breath. “It seems as long as I directly quote the book, the geas isn’t affected as strongly. Here: ‘Lord Gilt perfected his wondrous machine after seventeen official trials, and countless off-the-books experiments’ and ‘of Cimmerian Asylum’s inmates, only three unintentional deaths were recorded. The majority of these lost causes were fed into the Vita Machina, which succeeded in keeping Lord Gilt alive beyond what any mortal man should be able to endure.’”
Pages rustled as she passed through the book again. “Albrecht married the oldest Locke sibling, Josephine. She died shortly thereafter, likely by murder.” Lu swallowed, her throat working. “When the Gilts spilled her blood on the cornerstone, her magic-binding ability bound the wards of the mansion itself. Albrecht would’ve been free to build his Vita Machina without the mansion’s interference.”
“Why my home?” Locke whispered.
Steele tapped the blueprints. “I’d heard a rumor Lockheart was built over leylines in Moira’s Forest. This is true. The cornerstone of the mansion was planted over a font of energy that would power a necromantic machine like that.”
The vampire rested his head on the bars, his eyes sliding shut. “So, my family doomed themselves. Our hubris condemned Josephine.”
“You couldn’t have known what they were going to do,” Lu said gently.
“What do you mean by, ‘Albrecht was in our dream?’” Roman squeezed Lu, burying his face in her hair. “You’re telling us this guy built a machine that’s kept him alive for over two hundred years? You saw him?”
Lu struggled to speak, but that was a little too close to the geas’s specifications.
“That’s exactly what she’s saying,” Steele said. His hooded eyes were focused entirely on her.
Beneath the trepidation and fear for my mate, anger was building up to a steady simmer in my veins. “Once sanatoriums fell out of style, they switched over to a private reform school. This is a perfect supply of fresh… bodies, blood, magic, who the fuck knows what else, all to power his Cage.”
“Magic,” she said, clutching the Rites of the Cage to her chest. “The Cage feeds on inherent power. The stronger the magic…”
“The more juice he gets,” Roman growled. His posture around her was entirely defensive now.
She nodded, paler than ever. “That’s why they made me a Gilt. I’m a walking magical battery. Wildfire is a force of nature.” Bambi’s voice grew mocking when she said it, like she’d heard those words somewhere before.
I was willing to bet that somewhere was under Cimmerian the night of her initiation.
“I’ll rip his head off before you get anything near that thing.” My twin was shivering, close to his inner wolf breaking loose.
I felt the same urge to become the beast, let my primitive instincts take over to protect her.
“Roman. Keep it together.” I cast a warning glance at Lu for his benefit. If he burst out of his human skin this close to her…
&nbs
p; Roman kissed Lu’s ear and moved her aside to get up. “I can’t stay like this,” he snarled, and stripped off his clothes.
He shifted, shaking himself out and relaxing a little when he was on four paws. For therianthropes, it was much easier to focus when we felt protected by tooth and claw.
My twin stationed himself near our mate, his ears pricked up and swiveled towards the cavern entrance.
Lu reached out and stroked the silky fur on his shoulder, some of the strain leaving her face. “It’s hard to tell what’s necessary and what’s not,” she said, frustration coloring her voice. “Like why Albrecht apparently had a vendetta against you. Was it personal or professional? Does it matter?”
“As long as Locke remained alive and human, he was a threat to Lord Gilt’s grasp on the covenstead,” Steele said. He braced himself against the bars of Locke’s prison, one arm propped on his knee. “Josephine Locke’s death would’ve nullified most of his claim over Lockheart. A vampire can’t inherit a covenstead by Pact law.” He glanced up at the vampire with no small amount of sympathy. “As for the personal… if Albrecht was willing to murder your closest family to achieve his aims, surely there was a vendetta between the two of you.”
Locke inclined his head. “Of that I’m sure. Besides words of friendship, I can’t remember the last words we spoke, but no doubt I hated him towards the end of my mortal life.”
“Locke… we need to get you out of that prison.” Lu got to her feet and tucked the book away in her jacket. “If one of us gets taken for the Cage, we’re going to need everyone.”
Roman stared at me, his lip pulling back over his teeth.
I didn’t like it, but we’d do what we’d have to do.
Even if we had to leave her alone.
“We’ll need to hunt down Cadogan Brand.” I pushed a hand through my hair, the beginnings of a headache growing in my temples. “If we kill him, Locke’s free to live in the forest.”
Steele shuffled through a few pages of blueprints. “If I’m reading Mallory’s notes correctly, the vampirism lab was located towards the very bottom of the warren, nearly twenty-five stories down.”
“How far down does it go?” Lu worried her lower lip, pacing back and forth. “When Anthony brought me up, it seemed to take forever, but twenty-five floors? And that’s not even the bottom!”
“No.” With a riffle of papers, Steele found the end of the blueprints. “This Vita Machina- the Cage- is housed nearly thirty stories beneath Cimmerian.”
“Christ,” I breathed, and even Roman made a low noise of discontent.
But Lu had stopped pacing. “Aradia, that’s a long way to fight.”
“With guardians and curses planted on every level. The blueprints show an absolute labyrinth beneath us.”
Everyone glanced down at the floor in unison for a split-second.
The idea of a hive of vampires living and feeding beneath us was stomach-turning.
Lu ducked her head, trying to hide a jaw-cracking yawn, but Steele rolled up the blueprints.
“Now we know,” he said grimly. “It could be weeks before we’ve deciphered enough of the notations on these curses and guardians to venture down, and we’re not going to get far if we’re all sleep-deprived and giving away our cover.”
He took in Lu, who was drooping over Roman’s shoulders, and the dark circles under my own eyes.
“Everyone needs to sleep and pull themselves together. Brand will need to be put down if he can’t be convinced to move on. Locke and I will continue to work on these by night.” Steele pushed the blueprints through the bars of Locke’s prison, and the vampire accepted them. Those two nerds were clearly getting along swimmingly over code-breaking the blueprints. “Lucrezia needs to continue her combat training.”
She nodded, her tired gaze lighting on the rowan sword she’d found. “This was in there too, Locke. Keep it away from her.”
Lu gave the sword to the vampire, who frowned at the length of dusty, unpolished wood. “This feels familiar to me…” He examined the Lockheart cameo set in the hilt and ran his fingers over the leather-wrapped grip. “It might have been mine.”
Lu gave him a tired smile, kissed him through the bars while whispering sweet nothings, then trailed out after us. I lifted her onto Roman’s back, and we began the long walk back to the school. The moon was high overhead.
Poor Bambi was going to be a mess at her training tomorrow, running on only a few hours of sleep and unending, unpleasant surprises.
“The geas is still in effect,” she finally said. “But reading the book helped. I can couch my words a little. Albrecht is here, but I’m worried about… what I’m wanted for.” She glanced at Steele, who walked on Roman’s other side. “And what I might’ve just bargained your life into.”
The professor’s hand rested on her thigh. “I was already here, Lucrezia. She could’ve found me out at any moment.”
She was wearing her Steelblood ring. “Speaking of people and their engagements…” I said. Lu reached out and grabbed my hand, tangling our fingers together. “You’re not taking her back to Steelblood. Unless you’re willing to transport two therianthropes and a vampire with you.” I hoped the meaning in my words was clear, but I couldn’t outright snap at him. Not now that Lu had forgiven him.
“But you give your blessing for our handfasting?” Steele made a sound that would’ve been a scoff in a less uptight man. “Thank you, Mister Frost.”
“We can all be handfasted to her, but we go where she goes, and we’re not going to live on Steelblood land like outcasts-”
“You two.” Lu cut across us. “Someday I’ll probably visit Steelblood, but let’s be honest. I want Cimmerian. Josephine called me, and I’m going to do this or die trying.”
“Steelblood wouldn’t turn you away if I brought you,” Steele said. “And none of us will die.”
His words seemed to echo through the forest. The trees shivered around us.
“I’m not usually superstitious, but that had a definite air of finality to it,” I said, cutting through the sudden tension. Roman broke through the edge of the forest, and the lawn spread before us.
I stepped onto the springy grass and the Sight took me.
The lawn was covered in the white mist of visions, but the sun cut through the pearly swirls. I walked forward as the hedges came into view, peeking through the mist.
In my vision, Lu stumbled in front of me, blood seeping through scratches and welts on her face and arms. Blood ran down her leg in a freshet. My heart pounded in my chest, fangs breaking through my gums at the sight of my mate in danger.
She raised her hands and unleashed a torrent of wildfire as a giant shadow loomed over us in the mist, snake-like briars winding towards her legs. I tensed to dive in front of her-
She and the shadow vanished. I was surrounded by quiet once more, but still in the mist, still lost in the Sight.
The sun had shifted, filling the mist with a warm glow. Something caught the corner of my eye and I glanced over my shoulder and froze in shock.
A rumpled little boy bounded up to the edge of the forest, covered in dirt, his hair sticking every which way. He turned around, beckoning to an unseen someone.
His brilliant hazel eyes were familiar- and he reached out and took the hand of a black-haired girl, no more than a toddler, who came running after him. “Wait for Dad,” he said, his voice piping through the mist.
She smiled over her shoulder with my twin’s blue eyes, her dusky skin shimmering emerald with tiny feathers, and the vision cleared before I could See her shift.
“What was it, Shane?” The others had frozen, waiting for me to snap out of the Sight.
I was speechless.
It all felt like a dream now. Had I really Seen that, or was it just a hallucination?
“Shane?” Bambi touched my shoulder. Roman rumbled, staring out at the forest.
I blinked, clearing away the last of the haze from my vision, and pulled Bambi into a long, deep k
iss.
They all looked at me like I’d lost my mind by the end of it.
“You need a chaperone when you go outside during the day,” I said, and Lu sighed.
“Adult woman here-”
“I just had a vision of you covered in blood and fighting a thirty-foot-tall… thing. I’m not taking chances with that.”
“Chaperone,” Steele agreed immediately. Roman huffed.
Lu’s lips were set, but she shook her head. I’d won this round.
But no matter how hard we tried, it’d be impossible to anticipate everything Cimmerian could possibly throw at us. How could we watch her twenty-four seven when we needed to keep Locke from going nuts too?
At least I had that brief glimpse of a vision to keep me going. A sign of good things to come. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her yet, still processing the shock of it.
A better future… as long as we survived the coming battle for our lives.
Chapter 10
Lu
For a moment, combat training felt almost like old times.
I was so tired my entire body felt like it’d been weighed down with bricks, and I stumbled instead of feinting. Dominic took me down easily.
“Up,” he said, his voice brusque.
I climbed to my feet and fell into the guard position, but this time I made an effort to withstand him.
“You’re not trying,” he said, not even sounding winded, and my irritation kicked up a notch.
I was fucking exhausted. A two-hundred-year-old mummy who’d murdered Locke’s sister wanted me for nefarious purposes. We needed to kill a rogue vampire.
And I was now officially engaged to Dominic, and I hadn’t had a single moment of rest to just be happy that he was finally mine, that I could wear the ring he’d given me openly.
I put all that irritation and stress into taking him down just once this session.
It took a lot of feinting and letting a tongue of wildfire flare to life in my palm to win. He lost a precious second to the distraction.
