“Why are they stopping?” I asked as we ran past.
“Giving us more time probably,” Ruin huffed as he leapt across the boulders. “Making themselves more visible.”
It was hard to focus on either Death or Ash with all the movement, but from what I could tell, they had just frozen in place.
I clung tighter to Ruin as he soared over the craggy rocks, moving at a speed that made my dark hair blow back.
“Almost there,” he huffed. “Almost…”
The world vanished in a blink. I wasn’t aware that I had even closed my eyes until I discovered that I was dreaming. I stood alone on a long avenue. The night was absolutely silent. It took me only a moment to realize where I was. The blue, nighttime lights of Portland Dome flickered above us. The street before the Portland High Court stood empty. There weren’t even any guards.
“Kori.”
I spun to find familiar cat eyes peering down.
“Timmy...” My brain broke, and I couldn’t form any words.
Dark hair curled around my younger brother’s narrow face, but unlike my wild and unruly mane, his fell in soft waves. He looked healthy, if not a little dirty. Like me, he wore a patched jumpsuit. His brows went up. “How did we get here, and how come you can see me? I’m having a prophecy.”
I glanced around the city street, utterly flummoxed on what could be happening. “Do you mean that you’re having a prophecy right now, days after Ravage separated us in Irma’s house?”
Timothy’s nose wrinkled. “Weeks.”
“Yeah, that’s right. I was dead for a week.”
“From the look of you, you’re not far off now. I’m assuming Ravage hasn’t caught up.”
I rubbed my forehead and looked down at the coarse farmworker jumpsuit Irma gave me. “He might have now. His army was right at our heels, and somehow, I passed out. I actually think I might have died again—and someone is likely trying to revive me.”
“That’s so strange. I guess I was wrong.” Timothy made a humming sound at the back of his throat, and his brow wrinkled. “You didn’t turn into a vampire, and you’ve died more than once?”
“Wait. Timmy… none of this matters right now. What matters is that I keep getting pulled into Ravage’s memories, and he sees me there. He’s even found a way to follow me out of them. He’ll see you too and then he can find you.”
Timothy cocked his head to the side. “How?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped. Even though Timothy only ever followed the directions in his head, I rarely grew annoyed at him for it, but right now, my temper was rising fast. “Maybe there’s such thing as a memory blood mage, and it’s just been extinct for so long no one has heard of it.”
“Memory blood mage?” Timothy shook his head. “Brendan would have—”
I slashed my hand through the air. “Timmy, humor me, please. Go hide in case Ravage is here.”
Instead of hiding, Timothy pulled a coin from his pocket and flipped it in his fingers, over and over. “Kori, Ravage isn’t pulling you into his memories.”
There was the pounding of footsteps, and I reached for my little brother. “Timothy, hide.”
It was too late. Figures turned the corner, but to my shock, it was Brendan and Genevieve walking with their hands bound behind their back. Their expressions were pained, and Genevieve glanced back at where I stood, held by a vampire warrior with long, silver hair. The warrior had a hold on me as he led us all toward the Portland Palace.
“I remember this—they took us to Duchess Dread. Ravage was with her, in disguise. I remember this… they would have closed down the city that day and killed us all, but Griff and you got the rebels deep into the tunnels. That’s what Ravage was after all along… the humans. He didn’t want the city for some political game. He wanted the humans. That’s what this is—this is the past, Timothy. I’m getting my memories back.”
Timothy seemed unfazed by the scene playing out around us. He caught the dull coin out of the air and took a seat on the curb. “I think you’re getting more than your memories back. You have your Tempus power, Kori.”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Timothy, how does that make any sense?”
Timothy shrugged. “It just does. I’m really here. You pulled me into this prophecy, but it’s not my prophecy. I get prophecies of my future and the future of the people I care about. I’ve never seen the past before. Ravage also had prophecies about the future, so I’m guessing that his power functioned the way mine did. This here has to be your power. Obviously, you’ve been pulling Ravage into your prophecies too… up until this one. Maybe you’re just more powerful than we are… and you’re pulling the Tempuses in the surrounding area with you.”
“Timothy, I didn’t get my powers. I thought maybe I burned that vampire back in Nightendale, but I haven’t been able to make Ignis fire again, and I’ve been trying. My powers are still latent,” I said the words meaning them, but for some reason, they didn’t ring true to my ears. “Maybe this is a dream, and you’re here because of how desperately I want you to be safe.”
“Nope. I’m really here, Kori, and I know the difference between prophecies and dreams. This is a full-blown prophecy.”
I went to sit beside Timothy, finding the stone surprisingly cold through my canvas pants. Stretching out my legs, I said, “If this is real, tell me what happened to you back there in Irma’s cave.”
“A prophecy hit me as soon as Death left with you—Ravage was going to find me and discover what I was. I slipped out during the fight.” Timothy rubbed his chin and sighed. “After that, I’ve been travelling with Irma’s family group, watching the vampire army. Well, the trolls are spying on the army, I’m following Brendan.”
“Brendan is alive?” I asked. Hope surged through me when I remembered that this could all be a dream, and the information I was getting here might just be what I wanted to believe.
“Yeah, but… there’s something wrong with him, Kori. At first, I thought he was dying, but he’s seemed to recover some. Now every time I see him, he’s with a man all the time—I think he was one of Brendan’s lovers going back to the time of King Razor. He’s maybe forty-five and human.”
There were three courtesans that fit that description. Brendan was one of the most sought after submissives in any vampire court, because it wasn’t an act. His chosen lovers were all dominant and older. “Hopefully it’s Ferris. He was in Nightendale court when I left. From what I saw, he cares about Brendan—and he’s very protective.”
Timothy tossed the coin, caught it, and then tossed it again. “Maybe it’s Ferris. I don’t know, and I haven’t made contact with Brendan yet—but I’m watching.”
“You’ve been travelling with Irma’s family group? What does that mean?”
“Trolls don’t kill other trolls. It’s never happened before, so they’re tracking the threat. Ravage’s army is marching straight through their home, and any time a troll attempts to block the warriors’ progress, Ravage kills them. I’ve been able to explain how Ravage has the power to trick minds, and this is probably what he did to make trolls kill one another—it’s still really unbelievable to them. Thirty have died so far.”
I covered my mouth and closed my eyes. We were silent for a few moments, remembering the dead and the tragic ends we brought to their doorstep.
Timothy’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Kori, I think this prophecy is over…”
The street blurred, buildings smearing into long gray lines. My brother’s face lost definition. He smudged into a blur of black, tan, brown, and white.
“Take this—so you’ll know this is real.” Reaching forward, he pushed something into my hand, it felt warm, round and hard as metal.
Then the scene smeared away entirely.
I opened heavy eyelids, not surprised to find three worried faces standing over me and a bloody wrist against my mouth.
The wrist, I found, belonged to Ruin.
When I looked into his bright blue eyes, they brimmed with concern and relief. With his other hand, he held my cheek. “How come every time it’s my turn to feed you, I have to revive you from dying? I was actually looking forward to our next feeding.”
I laughed onto his wrist, but Ash growled, “Why the fuck are you joking about this? You’re the one who let her die.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” I said, but it came out a gurgle because Ruin’s bloody wrist was still pressed to my lips. Ash held up a ball of Ignis fire, casting dramatic shadows on their features and obscuring their expressions, but I could feel the fury roll off of Ash in waves.
“I’m taking her now,” Ash snapped. “Neither of you seem to comprehend that she dies every six hours without blood.”
“Careful,” Death growled. “You need to redirect your anger.”
Gently, I pushed Ruin’s sweet-tasting wrist out of my mouth. “Ash, I’m going with Death.”
“Fuck no, you’re not—”
“Ash, you need to stop. I’m tired of vampires taking my control away from me. You’ve worked out a system of how best to do this, so let’s stick to it, please.”
The truth was, I was tired of being handled and held altogether, but I knew it was necessary right now.
“If you’re willing, that is, Death,” I added with a glance up into Death’s dark gaze.
He nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“Good,” I said, “Ash we can talk later.”
“If you’re not dead,” he grumbled. “Fine, suit yourselves.” Ash stood and sprinted away without another word.
“It’s always such a lovely time with that man,” I muttered.
“He’ll be better once we're all enclosed in thick stone walls,” Ruin said through a yawn. He laid back and closed his eyes. Then he added quietly, “Hopefully he’ll be better.”
All I wanted to do was walk on my own two feet, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Even if I weren’t naturally inferior to vampires in strength and speed, my legs were weak right now, I was exhausted all the time and I kept dying. I felt helpless, like I’d been robbed of something cherished.
I knew who’d robbed me though, and I wasn’t about to take it out on sweet Death, so when he scooped me up, I didn’t resist.
“What’s this?” Ruin’s hand felt around and scooped something off the ground. His dark brows shot up as he lifted a coin. The dark, steel surface glinted in the lingering light from Ash’s ball of Ignis fire.
Ruin angled his head to see the markings on one side. “It’s not any kind of currency I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s mine,” I choked out as my heart lodged in my throat.
Ruin tossed it up and caught it out of the air. “Nice coin.” He handed it over. “From Portland?”
“My brother Timothy found it somewhere when we were kids. I think it was just a piece of scavenged junk, to be honest, but he’s always doing tricks with it,” I whispered as my fingers curled around it.
As Death started sprinting, I ran my finger again and again over the pattern on the coin. I cupped the metal against my shaking palm and wondered if the lingering heat on the metal was from my brother Timothy’s hand. I wasn’t sure how to understand what had just happened. I died and shared a prophecy with my brother, only to be revived. Every time I died, I had prophecies, sometimes one after another. Was my death causing the prophecies or was it the other way around?
None of it made any sense.
One thing I did know was that my Tempus powers were waking—and that might be what was killing me.
Chapter Nineteen
Kori
We didn’t stop again. Something changed in the three vampires. Instead of waiting for Ruin, we’d left him to recover, only to have him catch up hours later. When it was Death’s turn to feed me, I drank his blood as he held me, and then we left him directly after.
We avoided open spaces, taking the winding paths that ran parallel to the great cavern.
“How do we even know we’re going the right way?” I asked Ash as he held me.
“We don’t, but we’re following Ravage’s army now, and we’re assuming he knows how to get to the Deep.”
“Do you think we can overtake them?” I asked.
His jaw clenched. “Not at this pace.” Almost as soon as he said it, Ash slowed down and whispered, “What the fuck?”
I glanced over my shoulder. Our passage opened up into a wide cavern. The illumination from Ash’s ball of Ignis fire fell on rows of bone-white trees. Cool water dripped from above, hitting my cheek and slipping down my back. The cavern was freezing. As we crept closer, the cold air seeped through my rough clothing and into my skin. The boughs of the ivory trees knitted above us, giving the appearance of a network of interlacing bones. Tree roots snaked around their neighbors, intertwining into a fine lace. Beneath the trees, was a field of barren mud that reeked of fresh-turned earth. Like the trees that grew from it, the mud was a chalky white color, almost like ash except for a slight yellow tint.
All three men slowed to a stop. Ruin reached out to the nearest tree trunk.
“Don’t touch it,” I said, as I fought against Ash’s grip until he set me down. I grabbed Ash’s hand and moved his ball of Ignis fire near the trunk, and the wood melted away, dripping down. “They’re like the Tree of Life—we can’t go this way.”
“The only other way is out in the open where Ravage’s army is waiting for us.”
My heart beat faster and faster. Images flowed through my head of corpses sprouting bone white trunks.
“Look over here, there’s a clear path.” Ruin gestured to an area a little way off where there was a small, well-defined road leading through the trees. “If we just stick to it, we’ll get through.”
“We should turn back,” I said, swallowing hard.
“And go where?” Ash demanded.
“Anywhere else. These trees are evil—they have ghosts in them—I know it sounds ridiculous…” I rubbed my eyes. My legs grew loose, and my knees wobbled together. Damn it. I’d only been standing for a minute, and my energy was draining away. I staggered a step, and Ash caught me up in his arms and clutched me to his chest.
Ruin leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine. “Kori, there’s nowhere else to go. If we go back, we all die.”
“Okay.” I squeezed my arms around Ash’s shoulders. “But, I don’t think it’s a good sign that these trees are letting us pass.”
“You might be right. I say we do this fast,” Ash said, as he fell into a run, within a dozen feet though, he slowed and all three of the men walked at a cautious pace.
The temperature plummeted as we moved, and thick clouds of condensation billowed out with our every breath. I shivered, feeling like I might never be warm again. There was a heaviness to the air, like hundreds of gazes were watching us pass. Prickles shot down my back, and I rubbed my thumb over Timothy’s coin, hoping that my brother’s sweet energy could ward off the evil that was pressing in around us.
Ruin’s blue gaze met mine, and he whispered, “Why do you think these trees are haunted?” The note of fear in his voice made me think that he was starting to believe me. “Did you see something with the Tree of Life?”
“Sort of. I had a dream… or a dream memory… that the Tree of Life was once Ravage’s brother. After his brother turned into the tree, he haunted Ravage as a wraith, demanding that Ravage feed him humans.”
Suddenly, the image of Mira, the consort of Portland, flashed before my eyes. Her body lay on the corpses of the rebel army, and everyone was being swallowed by the roots of the Tree of Life. Then I saw the image of Mira as a ghost, luring Genevieve into the darkness. Ghostly hands pulled Brendan into the earth.
“I think Ravage fed people to the tree and their ghosts lured Genevieve and Brendan back. I think that’s why I went back too that last day. Ruin, you said that all three of our trails vanished into the tree just before my memories were taken. I’m starting to suspect that the tree ate us, b
ut it let us go.”
“Maybe the Tree of Life stole your memories, but you got some of theirs in return,” Ruin said.
“You might be right…” I realized. I had thought that I was looking into Ravage’s memories, but that was probably wrong. The Tree of Life, or Night, as he was named before he died, consumed a part of me, and as I reclaimed my past, I was seeing into the tree’s history too. For a moment, I considered telling the men that I was beginning to recover my memories, but I hadn’t regained a single memory about them, and that may never happen. It seemed cruel to let them hope.
“If that tree was Ravage’s brother…” Ruin mumbled as he rubbed his chin, “Who were all of these trees?”
A rustling sound spread through the forest, and Ash muttered, “We should wait to talk about this until we’re through.” His thumbs made slow circles where he held me at my arm and knee. “Let’s talk about anything else.”
“I’m getting the feeling that this is some sort of entranceway to the Deep, and we’re almost there,” Death said from my other side.
“I hope you’re right,” I said. “I could definitely use a bath right about now.”
Ash chuckled, but it sounded forced. “We all could.”
We fell into a tense silence as the path twisted and turned, seeming endless until it suddenly came to a dead-end at a cave entrance. Just on the other side of the forest, Ash slowed to a stop, and we all sighed a collective breath of relief. The air felt warmer here, though it could have only been in my mind. Ash finally set me on my feet.
It felt like I hadn’t used my body in months, and it wasn’t happy at me for it. Doing my best to steady my legs, I crept forward after the three vampires. The tunnel was smooth and so straight, it had to have been mined rather than formed. We slowed at the end of the tunnel and leaned to peer past.
A cavern lay ahead. On our side there were what looked like two dozen entrances, all lined up and perfectly spaced. An army of vampire warriors stood in a field of open ground, behind them, a thick stone bridge led up to an open doorway. The bridge stood one hundred feet wide and across, and the portal beyond it spanned half of that. Even from here, I could see a green-hued liquid soaking that bridge.
Ash (Fire & Blood Book 2) Page 14
