“My sisters dying over and over, because I fail them. If they feed on me long enough, the only way to get me to realize they aren’t gone is for Derren—I mean Vex to take me to my sisters. He’s let me suffer through that a few times now.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
After a few moments of silence, I grab the blankets and wrap them around my shoulders. The smell of them makes my eyes water for a moment, but then I’m not exactly clean myself. I sink to the floor and rest my back against the bars that divide my cell from Silas’s. I watch her settle in to a similar position from the corner of my eye.
When I feel my eyes start to drift shut I fight the sleep by telling her everything that Vex had said.
“I don’t understand, if your blood activates a spark in the stone, why can’t you?” she asks me from her side of the bars. Shifting slightly so she can look at me.
I keep the knowledge that I can use the stone, and it is in my possession, to myself. I’m not a complete fool. There is still a chance this is another one of Vex’s games, or Silas has been lying all along. I am no longer sure what to believe anymore.
“Not a clue,” I reply, hoping she can’t hear the lie in my voice.
I draw my knees up against my body then shut my eyes for a few seconds. Suddenly, my body’s being jolted awake as its dragged to a standing position and thrust against the bars. If it wasn’t for my head cracking against the metal I’d be wondering if this is all just a dream, and the Wrath are feeding from me.
My eyes are gritty and blurry, but I blink them open to find Vex’s furious face inches from my own. He moves his hand from my shoulders where it is pinning me to the bars and clasps it around my throat. His fingers digging into the delicate scar tissue that hasn’t completely healed yet.
“Where is it?” he demands, his voice a menacing rasp.
“Where’s what?” I ask innocently.
“The stone, you imbecile. Tell me what you did with the stone,” he grates out.
“The last I saw, you threw it across the room.” Please believe me. “For all I know it shattered with the amount of force you threw it with.”
“I. Don’t. Believe. You,” he grinds out through clenched teeth.
He shakes me, and my head bangs against the bars. The sharp pain on the back of my head makes me hiss out a breath. He then pushes me to the floor, hard. I hold my hand out to stop myself as the floor rushes up to meet me. Unfortunately, my hand doesn’t break my fall as my wrist makes a loud crack then the rest of my body lands in a heap on top of the injured arm.
I try to ease the agony in my wrist by rolling to the side and clasping my uninjured hand around it. Tears well in my eyes but I blink them back. I’ve suffered worse than this in the last few months and luckily the skin isn’t broken.
“Silence, my dear, why don’t you use your small gift on Scarlet,” Vex says as he takes a step over to me, then drags me back to the bars using my hair. I scream and release my wrist to anchor my hair to my head.
Silas reaches a hand through the bars, then pulls it back.
“If you do this, Silence, I will reduce the time you will spend here being punished for your disobedience,” Vex says, smiling at her.
She reaches back through the bars and I flinch away.
“What the hell are you doing?” I scream at her.
“I’m a truth seer. If I touch your skin, I’ll be able to tell if you’re lying or telling the truth,” she tells me, clasping her hand on my bare upper arm.
Well hell, I am totally screwed now.
“Where is the stone, Scarlet?” Vex asks again.
The Fae often twist truths to their advantage, I just hope I can too. Avoid the truth while telling the truth, if that’s even possible.
“I haven’t seen it,” I say almost evasively, then smile.
“Since when?” he asks.
“Since you threw it across the room.” Well technically that was true because after I shoved it in my bra, I then used the material from my dress to remove it.
“Truth,” Silas says without hesitation.
“I told you so,” I say, grinning at Vex.
He punches me in the side of the head and my vision begins to swim as he teleports out.
My head spins and I feel myself slumping towards the floor, the last thing I hear before I pass out is Silas’s quiet whisper, “There better be a good reason why you were lying.”
I know I’m dreaming at first because I’m visiting my mother, and a part of me knows I never had one. I walk into her house, a small cabin in the woods that’s tucked against the base of the mountain range.
“Ma, I’m here,” I shout as I walk through the wooden door, dumping my keys on the oak table at the side of the door.
I glance in the mirror and see my blonde hair streaked with green is curling wildly around my shoulders. I walk through to the kitchen to find her at the stove cooking our dinner. I see the steam rising from the pan but can’t smell the delicious scent of the vegetable stew.
It’s only a dream. I say to myself. I ignore the part of me that knows this and sit down at the table to watch her.
Her hair is the same as mine, although the blonde is a lot whiter. She glances over her shoulder and smiles. I see her face, then a visage of a bloodied face appears over it. I blink, and her face is normal again. She hasn’t aged a day, but then she is an immortal.
“Sit down, honey, dinner’s almost ready,” she says over her shoulder.
I sit at the small wooden table and pour myself a glass of thick, blood-red wine.
That can’t be right can it, it looks just like blood.
The thick liquid changes as I swill it in the glass.
Ma walks over and places a bowl in front of me, then takes a place at the table directly opposite.
“Where’s James, I thought you were bringing him. I was hoping he’d bring that girlfriend of his. I do want him to settle down like you have.”
“What do you mean, Aylesbury hasn’t got a girlfriend?” I say to her, confused at what she’s saying.
“Oh, do stop being silly. Of course, he has. Enough about that, now I’ve got you alone you can tell me all about the baby,” she says, her eyes lit with something
“What baby?” I ask, not following the conversation at all.
“You know you could have brought Bastian here, I’m sure he isn’t that busy that he can’t pop in for an hour.”
“Ma, what baby? What are you talking about?” I say, ignoring that she doesn’t seem to be hearing me.
I look back down at my bowl about to dip my spoon in, the food in the bowl is dried to the sides and rotten. I look back up at my Ma and she’s no longer there. I swivel in the chair and see her lying on the floor.
Suddenly, I’m at her side, her skin’s ashen and her eyes have gone milky from death. I reach out to touch her and her skin melts away at my touch.
“This is all your fault, you murdered me,” she says, as I watch her face crumble and her body turn to dust.
I stand and back away, horrified at what I see. She was just here. I hear a noise and turn to the table to see the blood from my glass bubbling up and dripping down the table. I follow the rivulets and see the floor is covered, and in my hand is a knife.
I stare at my bloody hands and the hint of silver under the thick blood coating the blade. I look down and see Aylesbury’s mutilated corpse, his dead eyes staring back at me, his face frozen in shock at what I’d done.
I open my mouth to scream. No sound comes out.
I blink my eyes open to a sound.
“Shh, Scarlet. It’s okay. I’m here now, let’s get you out of here.”
I blink again and see Bastian has me, I’m cradled in his arms and he’s lifting me off the stone floor of the cells. I wince as his arms adjust me, my head and wrist throbbing with pain. I turn my head and see Silas clinging to the bars. Then I turn back and stare into Bastian’s dark blue eyes.
“How did you get in here? How did you find me?”
I say, looking around again and noticing no one else is here.
He smiles at me and I watch as his face changes to Rozen’s.
It’s almost as if my brain can’t register what its seeing. I stare at him, dumbfounded for a moment.
“I’ve been here all along.” His face changes again to Vex’s. “You’ve always been mine, and I’ll always know where you are because you’re my mate.”
I push away from his chest and buck out of his arms, falling to the floor near the bars at Silas’s feet.
“Scarlet,” I hear Silas say, but I ignore her.
“You’ve been Bastian all this time,” I say, feeling more betrayed now than I ever had at any point in my life.
“Scarlet!” Silas shouts again, louder this time.
I stare at Vex as he morphs into Bastian again and I feel a stab of pain right in the center of my chest.
“Scarlet! Wake up now!” Silas shouts.
I blink and open my eyes. I feel her hand pushing me through the bars. I turn and see her stricken face looking at me. I know I must be awake because I can feel the throbbing pain in my head and wrist even more acutely.
I roll up to a sitting position, cradling my wrist against my chest. I glance to Jared’s cell and see its still empty.
“He’s not been back since you passed out,” Silas tells me as she moves to sit opposite me, her hands on the bars between us.
Was that just a dream?
“I no longer know what’s real anymore,” I say quietly.
“The Wrath didn’t feed long, you were lucky,” Silas says, pinning me with a glare.
“How have you survived years of that? I feel like reality has slipped and I’m losing my mind.” A part of me still isn’t sure I’ve actually woken up. Even in my dream state I felt the throbbing in my wrist.
“You don’t survive it, you deal with it and move on. My sisters are all I have left, and I won’t leave them even if it means enduring this madness for longer.” She looks away as a single tear glistens in her eyes then falls slowly down her cheek.
I stay silent because I can no longer say I’m sorry, we were both forced into this life by a master puppeteer. Instead, I will do everything to get both Silas and her sisters away from all this, even if it costs me my life.
“Why did you lie to him?” she asks.
“I took the stone, so he can’t use it anymore. His entire plan is based on him coercing someone to use it to his advantage. Without it, he has nothing.”
“What did you do with it?”
“I won’t tell you. I don’t trust you won’t give it him back for the chance to free your sisters.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “I wouldn’t.”
“Yes, you would. I can’t take that chance. If he wields the power in that stone, we all die.”
She stares at me, her eyes wide. “You can use it, can’t you?”
I roll my eyes at her. “I’ve researched these stones, they were made by Gods. Another stone just like it created the Lycan race, that’s how much power was in it. And this stone was made by a Goddess whose power was death.”
“Oh.” She still eyes me dubiously.
“Yes, oh, he can’t use it. I will not give him any more power than he already has. You have to promise you won’t tell him. You have to know, even if you do, he won’t give up your sisters. They are the one thing keeping you in line, he won’t give them up easily.”
I wince from the pain as I adjust the position I’m sat in.
“I know you’re right. I just want them back no matter the cost. Look, let me rip the bottom of your dress off so you can use it to support your wrist. Every time your fingers brush that snap in the bone it goes through me.”
I ungracefully roll to the side then stand using my good arm to push up. I stand as close to the bars as possible as Silas grabs the hem of the dress and starts tugging. She forces my legs to knock against the bars a few times.
“What’s this dress made out of?” she asks, pulling at the bottom again.
“How would I know, I borrowed it,” I say, pulling my legs back away from the bars.
She pulls the dress up to my knees and starts to pick at the seam with her nails. After a few minutes she brings the fabric to her mouth and starts biting it, within seconds I hear the fabric start to tear and she manages to tear off the whole section. After tying it in a knot she passes it me.
“Put your wrist in the loop then hook it over your head.”
I do what she says and throw the material over my head then gently ease my injured wrist through the loop. I am starting to wonder what has happened to me to make me heal this slowly. The deep lacerations all over my body are barely scabbed over. Could this really be a side effect from prolonging the mating?
I pace over to Jared’s cell and back.
“What do you think Vex is doing with Jared?” I ask Silas.
“No idea. Usually, when I’m down here I’m alone with the Wrath.”
“Have you ever tried to escape from here?” I ask, pacing back over to her cell.
“No, but I have tried to find it a few times in the hope my sisters are in the area. I tried hiring a witch to scry for the location, but that didn’t work. I also left location charms. I even tried wearing a tracking device, unfortunately, he found it before I even got here. I do know we are underground somewhere and definitely not in Faerie.”
“How do you know that?” I ask, curious. Any information I can get could help us get out of here.
“The walls over there are damp which puts them below water, or water-soaked ground. When damp rises in buildings above ground it doesn’t drip like that, just shows a darker patch where the wall has soaked the water from below. If its dripping, it means there is a constant feed of water behind the wall. Also, it’s impossible to teleport through the Vale, you have to pass through it physically,” she explains, I am actually impressed. She seems like she’s done her research, but then she has every motivation to.
“I assume then, you were awake on your other visits here and that’s why you are ruling out passing through the Vale?” I move over to the bars and grip one of them with my good hand.
“Yes, this is the only time I’ve been knocked out before arriving.”
“Planning an escape won’t work, Scarlet.” I hear that familiar Irish accent that’s just slightly different to Jared’s.
I suck in a breath, not realizing Vex had even arrived, then turn my head to the side and see he’s standing just outside the cells with Jared. He’s also using my dad’s form again.
Silas and I both break away from the bars at the same time. I take a step closer to the front of the cell, so I can see Jared more clearly. He doesn’t look injured and he’s changed out of the dirty clothes he’d been in before.
“I see I injured you yesterday,” Vex says, looking pleased with himself.
I just shrug my shoulders, I’d rather he doesn’t realize just how injured I am. I’m not sure how much more my body can take now it is healing at the speed of a Human.
My eyes flick to Jared’s, he doesn’t meet my gaze, just stares straight forward. A frown creases my brow and I glance at Silas, she’s looking at Jared too. What had he done to Jared?
“Silence, if I think for one second you are plotting against me with Scarlet, you will find your punishment far worse than anything you have ever endured before,” Vex threatens.
I look over at Silas and I can practically see her weighing up her options. If she tells him I took the stone, he’ll find a way to use it. I don’t think it would take much for her to convince Vex I can wield the stone for him. She didn’t look that convinced with my explanation earlier.
“Why are we here, Da?” Jared asks, finally looking at me.
“I told you, Son, I’m working with the council. I’ve been undercover all these years stopping our kind from overthrowing the council. That’s why I asked for your transfer to help me. A Hunter such as yourself will be able to help me stop all the threats. You’
ll be my biggest asset,” Vex tells Jared.
I can’t seem to assimilate this new information. I just stare in shock as Jared nods his agreement, then replies, “What about these two? What are they being detained for? And why does that one look like us?” He points his finger directly at me.
“Please don’t let that one fool you. Scarlet is a shifter and has changed her form to try to convince me I’m her father. Everything she says is a lie. She’s only still alive because I need to know the whereabouts of a very powerful relic,” Vex replies.
“You have got to be joking!” I shout. “What do you think you’ll gain from this?” I ask, stepping up to the bars separating us, gripping the metal tightly with one hand.
“It’s your job, Son, to torture that information out of her,” Vex says, ignoring me, acting like the story he is feeding Jared is actually real.
I turn my attention to Jared. “Don’t believe him, Jared. Your father is dead, that maniac there is impersonating him. You know I’m your sister,” I plead to him through the bars. I then shift from Human to Fae and back again.
“See what I mean, Son. Just ignore her please, we only need to know what happened to the relic. I’ve already had the cell searched and she doesn’t have it on her body.”
I turn my attention back to Vex. “What have you done to him, you bastard?”
Ignoring me, they both move to stand in front of Silas’s cell. “Now, this one is just here for punishment, she is being held for a slight infraction, and once she’s served her time she’ll be back amongst us. You may find yourselves working together from time to time.”
“What did she do?” Jared asks.
“That’s been classified by the council, she only has to serve some time down here.”
“I never realized the council still adhered to the old ways. If you cause problems for The Guild you get three warnings verbal, written, disciplinary, then you’re out.”
“We at the council like to think of it as a time-out, where they can think about what they’ve done wrong. Usually, a few days in a cell and they’re back on duty and less likely to violate their orders.”
Sacrifice Page 20
