Rapture (The Immortal Chronicles Book 4)

by Sloane Murphy

  “Don’t. I know why you’re going, and you know I didn’t want to keep it from you. I’m not going to stop you. Saving them by sacrificing yourself for them is in your very nature. It would be like trying to stop a hurricane. I’d ask you to be safe, but doing this means you won’t be safe. They will probably sentence you to death just for breathing. Are you ready for that?”

  “If that’s what it comes to. I’ll try to find a way out. I’ll work something out – and if I don’t,” I shrug. “What the matter. I will not allow my father, or my beautiful little girl to pay a price that isn’t theirs.”

  “I know,” he says, pulling me close. “But I need you to know, I’m not ready for this: I’m not ready to let you go – and neither is Xander. Please, just try to stay alive. Promise me. Promise us.”

  And there it is. That intricate, crazy tie that weaves between the three of us and binds us. I wonder if I should kiss him goodbye. Who would that betray. Xander? Dante? Myself?

  “I swear it,” I whisper. There’s a moment, a moment where we are both making a choice, and then it passes. He squeezes me before letting me go.

  “You had better go before anyone wakes up to discover you’re gone. There isn’t long until the sun rises, and my brother never sleeps for long.”

  “Thank you, Kaden.”

  “Please don’t thank me for letting you go, Addie,” he says before turning and walking away from me.

  I look into the darkness of the trees and steady my mind. I wasn’t ready for that, but I’m ready for this. I swore I would protect Sophie against the world, and I’ve already failed her once. I won’t do it again.

  Chapter Ten

  Addie

  "Adelaide Valoire. You have turned yourself over to the council, and given us your unconditional surrender."

  I look at the council woman in front of me, the one who spoke out originally. I think her name is Emily.

  "Yes, that is correct," I say defiantly.

  "And your terms of surrender were the release of those close to you, and for them to no longer be hunted or persecuted, is that also correct."

  I nod, trying to keep my head high. They have stripped me of my clothes, of my dignity, of my pride. I’m stood here bare, as they try to shame me. I refuse to be shamed. Clothes or not, I am no less than them. I am not the animals that are doing this to another living being.

  "I wish for all of those associated with me to be free of persecution in any matter related to me," I declare.

  I see Emily snort derisively and it is all I can do not to break free of the pathetic chains they have cuffed me in. It would be so easy, a mere flick of the wrist – and then, I could smash her face right in. I swallow down my anger. It’s what they want. They want to see me lose it and then they get everything.

  "And with this,” Emily crows. The bitch is actually enjoying herself. I swear that one day, she is going to get it. “You give yourself over to us unconditionally from this point forward. You hand your fate over to us. You choose to accept any judgement we deem fit to pass, without recompense or resistance," she says, a smug smile on her pinched face.

  "I do,” I say, trying to ungrit my teeth.

  "Then, as it is asked, so let it be done. Release the prisoners, and call off the hunt," she tells the guard at the door, shooing him away with a flick of her wrist. Who the hell does she think she is? How close to my mother must she be to wield such self-appointed power?

  "Now, as for you,” she says, returning her attention back to me. “You will be judged. But first, we must deliberate as to what exact punishment would be fitting for one who sought to bring down the entire Fae race. While this takes place you will be held, exactly as you are, in the prison cells below the Palace. The council will convene daily until an agreement has been made. I expect it might take some time. There are still some Fae, believe it or not, who think that you are not guilty of the crimes you are charged with.”

  My hope flutters at this morsel of information and just as quickly is snuffed out when she adds,

  “But don’t let that idea fuel any kind of silly notion that you’re not going to be found guilty – it’s amazing how easily dissenting voices can be silenced.”

  Her threat is clear. She will have anybody who dares to support me, murdered. Kaden’s conversation emerges at the edge of my thoughts. I try to shake it away – I don’t want to acknowledge it. I don’t want that conversation to hold the answer to this sorry situation.

  “However,” she continues, and I think with a smile that she sure does love the sound of her own voice. “There are terms to this arrangement. Those who you wish to be pardoned of any wrong doing must have no access to you until your judgement is passed. We will not stop them visiting with you – but you must send them away. You must make them think it is your decision. The more convincing you are, the safer they will be.”

  I listen to her words and I wish I was shocked by her cruelty. She’s clever, I’ll give her that. To deny them access to me would only embolden them, make them more righteous in their beliefs – but if I send them away, convince them they are nothing to me, it will pluck the fight right out of their soul. "Ms. Valoire. Do you fully understand me?"

  "Crystal clear," I say, trying to not let my anger overwhelm me. I will not let them win.

  "Any persons seen to be colluding with you, Ms. Valoire, will be sentenced to the same fate that we pass for you. There will be no exceptions to this. Regardless of age."

  Her statement is a stab in my heart. She means Sophie. I know she means Sophie. She asks me to deny the love I feel for my own adopted child. For the child I would die for. Emily looks at me to make sure I understand her meaning, and I give her a small nod, trying to keep my eyes from making contact with her because I am sure that I will burn her to her a crisp right where she stands. Even so, I can still see the evil glint in her eye when she confirms that she has won.

  I look to Dante's parents, who are a part of the counsel. Dante, thank the heavens, is not there to see me like this – reduced, broken. They look torn and I thank them for this small moment of compassion. I know they have to do what they must to stay safe, to keep Dante safe. I shoot them a small smile so they understand I do not hold it against them. Just like them, I am sacrificing myself for my child. The thought hits me hard. Sophie is my child. I cannot imagine loving anybody more. This fierce she-wolf of a mother inside of me has woken, and my death is nothing compared to Sophie’s life. In that moment, I have no regrets except for one –I will now not get to tell Sophie exactly how I feel – that I am her mother, and always will be.

  Instead, I have to tell her to turn away and never think of me. That I don’t love her enough for her to fight for me. The lie already threatens to choke me. That I don’t love her enough to fight for myself.

  Emily signals to two of the guards stood behind me, and they seize me, one taking each arm. Their grip is so tight, I know I will have bruises later.

  "Take her to her cell, and make sure she is suitably confined," Emily says. The delight in her voice makes it shrill. They try to drag me behind them, but I make sure to keep up.

  We walk down the back staircase, the rough stone of the floor grazing my feet as I stumble. The guard on the right of me grunts as I trip and he slams his elbow into my face. The pain is nothing to what I am feeling in my heart.

  "Keep up, girl," he growls as they continue to drag me along between them.

  At the staircase, I quit trying to keep up, and let them carry me to my fate. I chose this, I remind myself. I pull strength from the words. If they're doing this to me, I can't even imagine what poor Sophie might have endured – or the horrors that have be fallen Kellan. I imagine it was so far from the opulence he has grown used to over the centuries. His heart is not made of steel like mine.

  We reach the bottom of the staircase, and the walls are lined with bars. The cells. They take me to the very end cell, and walk me in. That’s when I see the chains and shackles on the wall that will hold me.
<
br />   I never thought I'd wish for Aeveen, my demon self, to be back in my head, but I'm not sure I'd have made it through Cole's hell if it weren't for her, and I’m not sure I’m going to make it through this.

  I resign myself to my fate as the cold metal presses into my skin.The locks twist, confirming my future. The one I traded for Sophie and Kellan. I watch as the guards walk away, locking the door to my cell behind them, snickering as they leave me here. Bound to the wall. I curl myself into a ball to protect myself from the experience as much as I can. But even then, there is no escaping the horror I am facing. My back grazes on the stone wall as I slide down to the cold floor.

  Chapter Eleven

  Addie

  I watch Xander pace in front of my cell, and it sets my nerves on edge.

  "Will you please just stop?" I ask quietly.

  I don’t want him here. I don’t want him to see me like this – naked and shackled. Humiliation burns through me. At the same time, the thought of him turning his back and leaving me is just as bad.

  Emily’s threat echoes through my mind. I need to tell him to leave. I need to tell him that I don’t want him here – that I don’t love him. That our love is nothing to me. I have to say this or they will kill him.

  The whole time he has been here pacing up and down, I have tried to force the words out, knowing that with each minute I fail to send him away, I am sealing his fate.

  "Stop?” he asks. “I'm trying to work out how to get you out of here and you ask me to stop? You came here without consulting any of us, you were rash and acted without thinking. And now you're here and it kills me seeing you like this."

  I try to move but my shackles make it hard. The metal scrapes on stone as I try to get closer to him.

  "Xander,” I shout gaining his attention before lowering my voice so the guard cannot hear my words. “I love you, with everything that I am, but you need to stop. Stop trying to protect me. Stop keeping things from me. Stop stifling me because you think it's what is best for me," I say, as strong as I can with as weary as I feel.

  The shock and pain on his face is like a thousand cuts, but I just can't take this anymore.

  "This was my decision. I didn't act like a rash child, storming in here without a thought or a plan. I did what was right and now, now you need to let me go. You need to walk out of here and not come back. This is my battle. My war. I don’t want you here," I say with words that rip my throat like barbed wire.

  "How do you know it’s the right thing, Addie?”

  "I just do. Maybe, it’s time you trusted me? Trust that I know what I'm doing. Trust that I have a plan. Believe in me," I say, a tear running down my cheek. I'm so tired of fighting with him about this.

  "I know all you've ever wanted to do is protect me, Xander. I love you for it, but I'm starting to think it isn't enough. Maybe for us, love doesn't conquer all."

  "What exactly are you saying, Addie?" I look at him, the anger and pain radiate in his eyes.

  "I'm saying, again, I think you should leave."

  "Surely you don't mean that? After everything we've been through. I'm not going to lose you now."

  "But I already lost you. You died, and I carried on living. I'm not the girl I was before, Xander. We've been apart for so long, and we had such a short time before that. I don't think I will ever stop loving you, Xander, but I also don't know if I'm still in love with you."

  I take a deep breath and look him in the eye. "So please, just leave."

  Chapter Twelve

  Xander

  I don't want to believe her. She is so stubborn, and like me, does what she thinks she must to protect everyone around her. You'd have thought we would have learnt by now that we are stronger together than when we are apart.

  I spent the entire journey back to House Bane trying to figure it out, but I can't tell if she meant it. I’m certain she was put up to it. It didn’t sound like my Addie – and yet, she’s right, she’s changed. My death changed her.

  But, regardless of what she says, it doesn't matter, because like I told her, there is no way we've gone through all we have, not to come out of it together. It’s our destiny. I need to speak to my Kaden as I know he will know how best to get her out of this mess.

  "Xander."

  I turn and see Dimitri, Michael and Celeste gathered in the main room of the house. "How is she?" They ask in garbled unison.

  I clench my fists and shake away the image of her chained up like some animal, laid bare for all to see.

  "It's bad,” I say. “Bad enough that we need to do whatever we can to stop it, and quickly. Like, yesterday," I say.

  Kaden steps forward. “We do need to do something, but that’s not our only problem, Xander,” he says with a grim look on his face. “I met with Kellan earlier today. He has reports coming in from the cities. There are whispers of Humans and Vampyrs alike, becoming restless at the quiet from the Palace. There are talks of a rebellion. The numbers of the Fallen, Vampyrs and Human far outweigh those of the Fae these days. The lack of information coming from the Palace is causing issues. The people have grown suspicious. They have not seen Addie or Dante, and there are rumours they have been removed from the royal court. I’m afraid, brother, that your reappearance at the wedding feast has not gone unnoticed, either. They have put two and two together and come out with five. It’s not unknown that the council had issues with Addie being allowed to live, but her tours of the cities and the schools have given her a large backing. The people love her, and they are worried about her.”

  “This isn’t all bad news,” I say. “We can use this to help free her.”

  “Using the anger of a few people is only going to create the panic of the many. Think like a soldier rather than a lover,” Kaden warns. “We need to be smart. At the minute, it is embers, all it needs is a little tending and it could become an inferno – and as much as that could be a good thing, you know that once lit, we won’t be able to control that fire. It won’t be an army under a general’s command, it will be a mob – and mob’s don’t care for rules of engagement. And often, they don’t even really care what it is they are fighting for.”

  “I know you’re right, but god dammit, you didn’t see her. I never want to see her like that, and the fact that I am, yet again, powerless… It cuts me to my very soul.”

  “You are not alone in wanting her free,” Dimitri says, placing a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me. “We need to plan about how we reach out to our people further and find out just how true these whispers of rebellion are.”

  “If only we’d known this before she ran back to them. Being a martyr isn’t helping anyone.”

  “That’s not exactly true, brother. Kellan and Sophie might not have been locked up in the dungeons, but you know as well as I do, Emily is crazy enough to have used them against her and would have thought nothing of injuring them to make a point. She was desperate, and desperate people do foolish things,” Kaden counters.

  He’s right, and I know it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’m being bull-headed and I know it, but I’m frustrated that we’re in this position again. Sometimes, I wonder what her life would have been like if I’d taken her away to a faraway land as a child, rather than keeping her close. Perhaps I had always acted through selfish motivation.

  I shake away the thoughts. What ifs aren’t going to help us now.

  Footsteps hurry across the courtyard before the door slams open. A few seconds later, a winded Logan appears in the doorway.

  “Tomorrow,” he pants, before bending in half.

  “What do you mean tomorrow?” I ask, trying to keep any panic from my voice.

  “Addie’s trial before the council – it’s tomorrow,” he says before composing himself. “They’re making their decision regarding the oath, at least that’s what they’ve told the people around the town. There is talk of it everywhere.”

  “We need to do something,” I say to nobody in particular. I hate that when it comes to A
ddie, I lose all sense of myself, and I can’t think rationally. I should be the one who’s able to protect her.

  “I have an idea,” Kaden says. “It was a back burner, last-resort kinda thing, but I think we’re there.”

  “Well?” Dimitri asks him.

  “We’re going to need a transporter.”

  ***

  We arrive at the Frostheart Palace and rush to find Rose, along with Dante.

  “Nice of you boys to join the party,” Rose says, and I look at Kaden and Dimitri, my confusion reflected on their face.

  “Sorry, what?” I ask, and she sighs.

  “I assume you got one of the many messages we’ve been sending to you over the last weeks?” She says impatiently. “I guess not.”

  “What’s going on?” Kaden asks them both.

  “Why are you here?” She counters.

  “We wanted to enlist your help, yours and your parents, to help Addie.”

  “Well at least we’re all on the same page,” she says. “I’ve been working with Dante since Addie fled, rallying support for her among the people of the Mainland, along with Addies friends across the world.”

  “The rebellion? That was you?” I ask, looking to Dante.

  “I’ve done what I needed to, to help Addie.” He says and I’m floored. Here we were banging our heads against a wall, and he’s been working for weeks on ways to save her.

  “So, like I said, it’s nice of you boys to join the party. Are you ready to do what’s necessary to save our girl?” Rose asks and all three of us nod.

  “Well, let’s get this show on the road then. We’ve got a lot to do and about twelve hours to get it done!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Addie

  I am pulled up to the centre of the podium stage they have erected in the council chambers. They appear to have gone to a lot of effort for little old me. Clearly, Emily wants a spectacle. I am bound and on show, dressed in a simple cotton shift. Everything has been designed to humiliate me. To break me. There is a crowd of people who I barely pay attention to. At this point, I’m not sure I care who is here or not.