The thought of it only made my feet move faster.
I kept track of my turns as I made my way through the maze of the underground city. Rooms were dotted throughout. Some held small shops where ragged vampires sold their wares: vials of blood, teeth, and bones. Other rooms looked like something akin to homes, living rooms decorated with crimson furniture. There were no beds, at least not that I could see.
After strolling through the city for what felt like ages, I finally came across a small room where two female vampires were sitting inside, drinking wine from bone-carved goblets.
“The next trial starts in an hour,” one of the women said, pressing her long raven hair behind a pointed ear. “The king has invited everyone.”
“Everyone?” The other female, a voluptuous woman with gold hoops in her ears, raised her eyebrows and smiled a pair of crimson lips. “He must have something really good planned. I hear the girl’s little tricks have angered him, and you know how King Alexander gets when he’s angry.”
“She’ll never be able to pull it off,” the raven-haired woman replied before taking a small sip from her goblet. “Word has it he’s going to kill one of them. Right in front of her. That should be extremely delicious, don’t you think?”
A gasp exploded from my throat as my whole body went weak. Shaking my head, I clutched my neck. That couldn’t be right. The vampire king wouldn’t do that, even as terrible as he was. What would that ever prove? Why would that convince him of who I was?
A little voice spoke in the back of my mind, reminding me that these trials had never truly been about my original quest. He wanted to torment me. He wanted me to fail. This would be his payback for how I’d won during the first two trials.
He was going to kill one of my mates in front of me.
And then he would likely kill them all.
Chapter 19
When I was collected for my third trial, I numbly walked between the two vampires who had come to escort me from my cell to the arena. The red-haired vampire was one of them, and she acted as though we’d never spoken before in our lives. I tried to catch her attention. For what, I didn’t know. It wasn’t like she could help me any more than she already had.
She’d risked her life to warn me, after all.
I strode into the hallway with my head held high. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see where my mates were in chains, surrounded by an army of vampires. But I kept my gaze forward, as much as my heart wanted to turn and rush straight toward them. I had to show strength, and I couldn’t show fear.
Any weakness from me would be feasted upon by the king.
“Good of you to join us.” The king flashed me a wicked smile. He looked even more delighted now than he had before trial number two. “Welcome to your third and final trial. If you can complete this one successfully, then you will have won, and I will release the coffin into your care. However, I think you will find this trial to be the toughest of the three. No more battles, girl. It’s time to test your mental strength.”
Frowning, I stared up at him. I had no idea what that meant, but I was pretty certain I wasn’t going to like whatever it was, especially not if it involved my mates.
“I think you’ll find that I can beat you at this one just as I’ve beaten every other thing you’ve thrown at me,” I said, eyelids unblinking. I wasn’t about to let the king see just how worried I truly was. This was a test of mental strength. If I acted afraid before the trial had even begun, I might as well wave a white flag.
“Good.” His smile was razor sharp. “Have you ever shot a gun before, girl?”
Confusion flickered through me, but I kept my face blank, emotionless, and still. “I thought you said this test wasn’t about fighting.”
“It isn’t.” His smile widened. “Your skill with a gun will not win or lose you this trial.”
Dread pooled in my stomach. This entire exchange was giving me the creeps, much more so than any of the previous trials I’d endured. Fighting a vampire lion? Sure, that was scary as hell, but I understood how that worked. Going up against four vicious vampires? Again, I knew how to handle that.
But now, King Alexander was talking about guns while proclaiming that I didn’t need to know how to use one. He was speaking riddles, and it was making me more than a tad uneasy.
“I’ve never shot one before, no,” I said, determining that honesty was the only option I had.
With a nod, he turned to motion to a vampire behind me. It was the red-haired girl again. She pressed the gun into my hands, her own fingers twitching from her nerves.
“It’s easy enough to learn,” King Alexander said when the vampire had vanished from my side. “You merely point it at what you want to shoot and pull the trigger. You’ll be at close range, so it doesn’t matter if your aim is any good. Understood?”
I was beginning to realize what was going to happen next. The vampires I’d overheard in the tunnels had said that the king planned to kill one of my mates. And now, he was handing me a gun, saying that it didn’t matter whether or not I had a good aim. He wanted me to do it, not him. My final trial involved me killing one of my mates. And if I didn’t go along with it, we’d all end up dead.
The king motioned at the group of vampires holding my gargoyles captive. They shuffled them slowly toward me, keeping a tight hold around the chains that held them firmly to the ground. In this cavern, my gargoyles would be able to fly if they had the space to spread their wings, a fact that had not been missed by the vampires.
“These here,” the king said, gesturing at the six gargoyles. “These are your mates, yes?”
“Yes,” I said in a flat voice, finding no need to correct him about Sebastian and Alaric.
“Good.” He sat back in his chair and crossed his leg over his ankle, smiling broadly. “You will choose one of them to shoot with that gun. A true goddess would understand the need to sacrifice the few for the needs of the many. And you have exactly one minute to make that decision. Starting...now.”
The clock ticked down to the death of one of my mates, but I didn’t have to think for very long to determine what I needed to do. Blood roared in my ears as I met Sebastian’s gaze. His eyes were dark and hooded and knowing. Shooting him was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had no other choice. If I didn’t do it, the king would kill them all.
With a deep breath, I lifted the gun and aimed it right at Sebastian’s chest. He’d told me he was immune to bullets. I had to hope now that he’d been telling me the truth. I couldn’t be sure. Not with him. All this time I’d been wary of trusting him, and now I had no other choice but to believe everything he’d said.
He didn’t even blink as he stared down the barrel of the gun, though his face was drawn down in sadness. My heart flickered in my chest, for fear I’d made the wrong choice. Even knowing he wouldn’t get hurt, my finger didn’t want to pull that trigger. It felt wrong. It felt like a betrayal. It felt as though I was shooting him for real.
“You have ten seconds remaining,” the king said in a singsong voice.
I knew what he was thinking. He assumed I didn’t have the guts to do it, and maybe I truly didn’t.
Sebastian’s eyes locked on mine, and the ghost of a smile crossed his lips.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. And then I pulled the trigger.
The gunshot echoed in the expansive cavern, and a cheer went up in the crowd. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the redheaded vampire staring at me with an open mouth.
But Sebastian didn’t fall, not like how they all expected. The bullet bounced off his skin and fell with a clink on the stone floor. Relief whooshed out of me, so hard and so fast that I felt as though I might collapse.
He was alive. He’d survived. I hadn’t done the unthinkable, though a part of me still felt like I had.
Sebastian would never forgive me, but at least he was alive.
Chapter 20
“Well, I suppose you have won,” King Alexander said with a glare. It was
impossible to miss his utter disgust at what had happened here tonight. He did not want to let us go, and he certainly did not want to hand over the coffin that we sought. He sat back on his throne of bones and regarded me and the gargoyles, his glittering eyes narrowed.
“Look, I know you think I’ve cheated my way out of it, but I’ve done everything you asked.”
“Indeed,” he mused. “I suppose you wouldn’t have won unless you’re what you say you are. And, if that’s the case, then you should receive what you need in order to fight the enemy of all of us.”
With a frown, he flicked his fingers at the back of the room, and I turned to find six vampires carrying a coffin into the arena. King Alexander gestured at the rotting wood box. “There you are. That is Vespa’s brother. Do not make me live to regret this, girl.”
The coffin was an awkward thing to fly all the way back to London. The gargoyles had to form a strange flying formation, though their wings kept smacking into each other as they flew. I travelled with Sebastian, who was strangely quiet for once. I didn’t know if he was upset with me for what I’d done or if he was still moping over the fact I’d added Silas as a mate.
“I’m sorry, Sebastian,” I finally said, twisting in his arms so that I could speak directly into his ear.
His arms tightened around me as if by instinct, and a strange warmth flooded my stomach. “Don’t apologize. You did what you had to do in order to win the trial.”
“You know I only chose you because I knew you could withstand the shot, right? Bullets can’t harm you.”
He ground his teeth and nodded. “Of course, but you were never going to choose any of your mates either. If Marcus had the same powers I do, you never could have pulled the trigger against him.”
“Sebastian, that’s just not true.”
In fact, I had barely been able to pull the trigger, even knowing that he would survive the shot. He didn’t know that though. My face had been a mask for the emotions raging inside of me. He hadn’t known how close I’d come to giving up, to calling the whole thing off, to letting the king of the underground vampires win.
And how could I tell him now? He probably wouldn’t believe me if I tried.
“Don’t sound so worried.” He let out his signature gruff laugh. “I knew the second Alexander told you what to do that I’d be your pick. And it’s fine. I expected it. I know you don’t love me like you love the others, so of course I had to step up to the plate and do it.”
My heart throbbed. I hated to hear him talk this way.
“You know I’m not in love with Alaric, Sebastian.” My words were intended to make him feel better, but they only made him flinch, and I realized too late why that was.
“Right. But you have a friendship with him. You care for him. Me? I’m just the annoying assassin who doesn’t deserve to live.”
Tears pricked my eyes, and I twisted my grip tighter around his neck, desperate for him to understand that I didn’t feel that way at all. “Stop it. I care about you, you idiot. Do you want to know how hard it was for me to do what I just did? It felt like my heart was being ripped in half. It felt as though my soul might shatter from the grief I felt in my heart. You might think I don’t care about you, but you’d be wrong. Somehow, you’ve gotten into my head. I think about you when we’re apart. I wonder if—”
Shit. I’d started to say too much. I’d jumped all the way into the deep end now, and I didn’t know how I was going to climb out.
Sebastian’s hands were warm on my waist. He went silent for a long, furious moment, his wings flapping against the night air. But even though I felt like hiding from the embarrassment of my words, a strange sense of calm had settled over me. I felt safe and warm in his arms. It felt right. Regardless of what he’d done in the past, regardless of how he’d acted once upon a time, he wasn’t like that now.
It was time for me to forgive and forget.
It was time for me to let go of the past.
“You really think about me when I’m not around?” he finally asked, his eyes focused hard on the puffy clouds before us, almost as though he was afraid to meet my eyes for fear of what he might find in them.
“Yes, Sebastian.” I squeezed him a little tighter. “I think about you. I miss you. I look forward to seeing you. I wonder how you could make me feel. And yes...I want you.”
“My god, woman.” He let out a low growl and tightened his grip around my waist. “Why did you have to tell me all this when we’re hundreds of feet off the ground. I want nothing more than to rip your clothes off right here and now and show you exactly how I could make you feel. You wouldn’t be able to walk for days.”
I blinked, my face flushing with heat.
“But,” he said, his face clouding over, “your mates will never accept me. You know that, right? We’re lucky they’re even letting me fight by your side.”
With a frown, I turned to catch a glimpse of my mates, who were still struggling to carry the coffin across the skies. Unfortunately, Sebastian was right. None of them were fond of Sebastian. They wouldn’t want him to be part of the harem, and their strange mate-off ritual would only end in bloodshed.
When we landed back on East London’s streets, I felt a strange ache in my heart. We’d gotten everything we’d gone for, and every single one of us had walked out of there alive. Sebastian and I had told each other how we felt, but my bones ached from loss. Despite the way he made me feel, despite the fact I needed him in my life, I knew he was the one gargoyle I could never have.
And my heart felt empty because of it.
Several humans spotted us as we strode toward the club’s double doors with a coffin. While we’d been fairly nondescript before, it was next to impossible not to stick out like a sore thumb now. It didn’t matter though. I was done caring what others thought. Let the humans stare.
Athan Vespa stood from his crimson sofa when the seven of us poured into his room. I gave him a tight smile and nodded at the coffin. “As requested.”
His face lit up, and his eyes went wide. He’d been so closed off and emotionless before, but now he looked like a kid who had just gotten his favorite toy at Christmas. It reminded me of what the red-haired vampire had told me in the tunnels. They weren’t all monsters. They weren’t all murderers. They had emotions just like all the rest of us, and sometimes, they actually did want to do the right thing.
Not King Alexander, of course. That guy was just an ass.
Athan rushed to the coffin and pressed his hands against it, breathing in through flared nostrils. His eyes shone with tears as he unclasped the lid. Bending down he peered inside, and I glanced away to avoid the sight of a rotting corpse.
“It’s him,” he said, his voice light and excited. “And he’s been perfectly preserved. As soon as I remove this stake, he’ll revive. Thank you, Rowena Mortensen.”
He moved in front of me and took my hands in his, an action that almost made me jump ten feet in the air.
“You’re welcome?”
He grinned. “You have brought my brother back to me, and for that, I will always owe you a debt. Let me gift you with the Harp of Reese as the first in many gifts to come.”
“The Harp of Reese?” I asked, twirling when two of his fellow vampires brought in the most gorgeous instrument I’d ever seen in my life. It shone with pure gold, each strand glistening like they held millions of tiny stars.
“This is the object you requested. Play the instrument around a god or a goddess, and they will be captured forever.”
Chapter 21
“So, it’s a musical instrument?” Kipling pursed his lips and began pacing across his study. His eyes were zeroed in on the harp we’d brought back with us from Athan Vespa, who had attempted—numerous times—to get us to stay and enjoy the pleasures of his club.
I was pretty certain those pleasures included some kind of blood exchange, so my mates and I couldn’t get out of there soon enough.
“Athan said that when someone plays it when a g
od is within earshot, that god will become trapped.” I glanced at Eli and frowned. He’d had the same thought I had, and it was a realization that didn’t sit very well with me.
“Basically, Rowena will need to be way out of the range of the instrument if or when we use it against Eris,” he said with a tight smile.
A fact that threw our entire plan out of whack. I needed to be the bait in the Eris trap, since I was the one thing in this realm she wanted most. But I couldn’t do that if I’d be trapped by the very thing we needed to use against her.
“Right,” Kipling said with a nod. “I’ll need to sit down and do some research on this, and we’ll need to develop a very precise step-by-step plan to ensure this goes down without a hitch.”
Eli frowned and glanced at Jasper, and then at Marcus. “You don't mean that we’re still going through with this?”
Kipling leaned against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, unless you have a better idea.”
“But if Rowena is anywhere near this thing,” Sebastian started.
Kipling held up a hand. “I understand the risks involved, but this is still the best option for defeating Eris. And there is no reason at all why we can’t have a plan in place to whisk Rowena away from the harp when the time is right. Remember, all six of you lot have wings, not to mention Tess has the ability to teleport the both of them if need be.”
The gargoyles grumbled, but there wasn’t much they could say to argue against Kipling’s plans. The old steward with his shock white hair and knotted hands. They always listened to him, no matter what. I just had to hope in this instance, he was right.
I stood in the living room at Mont Circeo. When we’d first arrived in this place, this front room had been stark and empty. There’d been one lone sofa, angled toward a fireplace that looked as though it hadn’t been used in decades. Over the past few weeks, the witches had worked hard to make it feel like home, and the room had been transformed because of it. Six comfortable couches were now clustered together. Tables and chairs and bookshelves had been added. Carpets were spread across the floor, and plants hovered in the corners. It was cozy, warm, and welcoming, and now it was time to destroy the coven’s happiness all over again.
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