“You think there’s something in there?” Gwenn asked, following.
“No idea, but if I were going to hide something, it would be in here,” I replied, examining the wooden shelf over the fireplace.
“Evelyn.” We heard a deep, level voice from behind us.
“Holy—Blake?” Gwenn lifted her hand to her chest and gasped.
The boy standing at the opening of the door had a frown etched across his forehead, his light-blue eyes glistening. I still couldn’t remember him, although, there was something about him, something so familiar.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as I took a step away from the fireplace.
“I—” I stammered, not breaking his gaze. Your eyes, I know those eyes.
“What are you doing here?” Gwenn interjected, straightening up.
Blake kept his eyes on me. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and brushed a loose strand of hair out of my face.
“Oh—” Gwenn gasped, but before she could finish, Blake was standing right in front of her.
How had he moved so fast?
“Gwenn, I want you to go home and forget you ever met Evelyn.”
“What?” I mumbled, confusion overwhelming my thoughts.
“You’ll leave this house and forget everything about her, and you won’t ever speak of her again to anyone. If you see her, she will be a complete stranger, someone who frightens you, someone you do not wish to be around.”
“What are you doing, are you crazy?” I moved forward to grab Gwenn’s arm, but before I could, she moved away.
“Please stay away from me,” she said, turning to face me.
“Gwenn?”
“I don’t know you,” she said, shaking her head and taking another step away. “And I don’t want to know you.” She turned, and I watched helplessly as she darted out of the room.
I turned to Blake. “Who are you? What are you?” I cried, my voice coarse and broken with fear.
“What do you think I am, Evelyn?”
I took a deep breath and met his eyes, but before I could answer he was standing right in front of me, so close I could feel the heat from his body.
“You’re never going to let this go, are you?” he said shaking his head slightly. “Remember everything,” he whispered, his icy-blue eyes piercing mine.
Chapter Eighteen
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.
Images of Blake ripping out Lorenzo’s heart pounded in my mind. Flashes of Ravenna smiling at me after saving me at the church grasped my chest. Tristan carrying me into the manor and holding me protectively pushed on my soul.
I gasped for air as I tried to move as far away from Blake as possible. “What did you do to me?” I cried, my voice laced with anxiety.
“You ripped someone’s heart out,” I stammered unable to stop replaying the moment Blake killed Lorenzo in my mind. “How could you do that? How could you rip out someone’s heart—” My heart pounded. “You didn’t—Kate?” I whispered.
“Of course not,” Blake spat. “And Lorenzo was going to kill you.” His tone was gentler now as he moved toward me. “He would not have stopped. He would have come after you tomorrow and the day after that. He would have tried over and over again until he succeeded.” He reached out his hand to me.
“Please don’t,” I said, stepping back. “You killed him.” My throat constricted, my face flushed, and my eyes brimmed with tears. “He’s gone, and you’re acting like it’s normal.” I looked away from him, trying my best not to cry. “What are you?” My voice was so thin I could barely hear it at all. He seemed to be observing me, watching me break down in front of him. The frustration welling in my entire body was like nothing I had ever felt before. The potent mixture of anger, confusion, and sorrow weighed on me so heavily I couldn’t move my limbs. I couldn’t help it anymore, the tears started to flow, and the entire world in front of me shimmered and lost focus.
“You made Gwenn forget me,” I sobbed, now feeling the raw pain of losing my only friend and ally. Before I knew it, Blake had pulled me toward him and wrapped his arms around me. I sobbed uncontrollably, barely able to breathe.
“Just breathe,” Blake whispered, not letting go. “It’s going to be okay.”
I gasped for air. Blake probably realized I was having a panic attack because a second later he had picked me up and carried me out of the house and into the cold night. I couldn’t really tell what was happening anymore. It felt like my body and mind had finally broken down in perfect unison. Blake put me down on a seat in his car. I still couldn’t catch my breath as he got in and started the engine and bent double between my knees, rasping to get air into my lungs.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said again, prying my shaking hand off my knee and holding it in his as he reversed out of the driveway. Breathe, Evelyn, please breathe.
As soon as he reached the main road, the car sped up.
“Just try to take a deep breath,” he instructed as the car ploughed through the snowfall.
“Where are we going?” My chest heaved.
“To the manor,” he replied gently.
“Blake,” I gasped. “I can’t breathe. I can’t get air into my lungs.” I clutched at my chest.
He stopped the car in the middle of the road and turned to me. “Look at me,” he said, gently cupping my face in his hands and forcing my eyes to meet his.
“Breathe.”
Air coursed through my lungs, and my shoulders relaxed as Blake continued to cup my face. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Evelyn.” A warm feeling moved through me from where Blake was holding my face, through my skin, undoing the knot in my throat and unraveling the tightness in my chest. I nodded. Suddenly, everything seemed better somehow and I felt safer as I stared into his crystal-blue eyes.
I didn’t break my gaze, and neither did he.
“You smell like my dreams,” I said, finally breaking the silence.
“Your dreams?”
“Yes, cherry blossoms and pine trees, you smell like my dreams.”
He gently moved his hands away from my face and sat back.
“How long have you been dreaming about me?” he asked, his tone slightly on edge and his eyes fixed to the road. He didn’t let go of my hand though, and the warmth radiating from it seemed to be keeping me grounded and tranquil somehow.
“I don’t know, but when I first met you that day in Latin, I was convinced that I knew you somehow,” I said, shaking my head.
He looked down at the steering wheel and then out of his window, his gaze meeting with my reflection as I tried desperately to see his expression. He turned his head toward me and narrowed his eyes. “Evelyn,” he said so quietly I could barely hear him. Why did he suddenly appear so defeated?
“Have we met before?” I whispered, cocking my head to the side and leaning toward him. “Is there a reason I think I know you?”
“We haven’t met before,” he said, looking into my eyes now. “And we can never, ever know each other.” His voice was laced with certainty.
My chest heaved with the uncertainty at his words. “What do you mean we can never know each other?” Why did it suddenly feel like someone had told me I would never see the sun again?
“Let’s get you to the manor,” he said, fixing his gaze on the road now.
“No,” I said, gripping his hand. “Tell me what you mean.” I couldn’t keep the desperation out of my voice.
“Evelyn,” he replied gently, shaking his head but not moving his gaze from the road. “Look, I’ll tell you everything, but we really do need to get back to the manor before the next snowstorm comes.” The car plowed through the remaining snow on the road.
I wanted to protest, but there was something about Blake’s sudden reluctance that stopped me. He clearly knew someth
ing that I didn’t, and whatever it was, it seemed to be bothering him deeply. We drove in silence as the car continued up the hill and to the manor, which I now remembered.
As we approached the gate, I turned to Blake. “Is Gwenn ever going to remember me again?”
“You’re so desperate to leave Greyhaven and her behind forever, why would you want her to remember you. Isn’t it kinder to let her forget you ever existed?” he asked, not unkindly.
“No,” I said without hesitation. “We can’t just erase memories of people because they’re painful.” My words surprised me. Would I erase the memory of Justin, Grace, and Dad, given the chance? No, you wouldn’t, Evelyn, because then all of the good things go with it. “Gwenn was kind to me, she—she was trying to help me, and she barely knew me. I want her to remember me because she means something to me.” I turned to face him, and our eyes met.
“If it means that much to you,” Blake replied as we drove through the massive iron gate and toward the entrance of the manor, which looked more like a castle.
“How do you do it?” I asked as the car’s engine died. “What you did to Lorenzo yesterday, your eyes turning black, this entire town. What are you?” He let go of my hand, and almost instantly I began to hyperventilate again. I leaned forward and grabbed his hand, and it ceased immediately. “Does this happen every time someone touches you?” I took a deep, calming breath.
“Only when I want it to,” he replied.
“What are you?” I repeated, looking into his icy-blue eyes.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
“Right now, I do. Once I let go of your hand, probably not so much.”
“You need to see what I am, what we are. I can’t simply tell you, you wouldn’t believe it,” he said, getting out of the car. I reached for the handle, but before I could grasp it, the door pulled open. Blake had somehow managed to get to the passenger side in the space of a second. I thought about all the vampire shows I had seen, how they were able to move fast, convince people to do things.
“We’re not vampires, America,” I heard Tristan’s voice say as I stepped out of the car. He was leaning on the front door.
“How did you know what I was thinking?” I exhaled, my eyes darting from him to Blake, who shut the passenger door.
“Tristan, now is not the time for your silly little games,” Ravenna said, now stepping out from behind him. “Come on, love, let’s get you away from these two.” She glared at Tristan and then Blake.
I took a deep breath and walked toward them, Blake following at my heels silently. Ravenna stretched out her hand.
“Are you going to try to make me forget everything again?” I paused, meeting her eyes.
She grinned. “No, dearest, no more tricks.”
I clenched my jaw and took her hand, somehow wishing that it was Blake’s. “Why do all of you have such hot skin?” I asked as she led me into the warm house. The entrance hall was overbearingly enormous, the white marble floor stretching as far as a basketball court and ending with two spiral staircases extending to the first floor. I craned my head toward the crystal chandelier that was the size of a small car and radiating colorful reflections across the white ceiling.
“We don’t actually know why our body temperatures run so warm,” Ravenna replied, walking me toward the hallway to our left. The same hallway Blake had walked me through the previous evening. “We think it has something to do with our immune system or metabolism—it’s hard to test our blood.” Her voice echoed slightly in the emptiness of the passageway.
“Do people in Greyhaven not age?” I asked, remembering what Rebecca said about Victoria and the paintings in Kate’s house.
She stopped and turned to face me. I could feel Tristan and Blake pause behind us and looked back into Blake’s eyes. He seemed so weary, and the pang to reach out to him and hold his hand once again forced its way into my mind.
“After a fashion. Come on,” she said, forcing me to turn away from Blake and guiding me down the hallway. We came to a halt in front of a massive and ornate wooden door that had the same rebel angels falling motif as Kate’s door. Ravenna placed her hands on the massive handle but then paused and turned to me. I felt Tristan and Blake behind us, silently waiting.
“You’re part of this, your mom, Kate, what I’m about to show you, it’s your legacy too. If you want to go back to your old life and live like you always have, now is the time to turn around and do that because once I open this door and show you everything, there is no going back,” she said, her eyes narrowed.
“I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering what happened here,” I replied forcefully. “I’d rather know.”
She nodded and turned back to the door and pushed it open with ease. A blast of cold wind burst out of the room. How long had it been closed? Ravenna stepped in, and I followed her, still hand in hand. The room was not the same as the rest of the house. Just as Kate’s hidden passage, it was old, very old. I was surrounded by massive dark-gray stone boulders that made up the entire room the size of the entrance hall. The floor was dark wood covered in dirt. I heard the door close behind us. Tristan and Blake hadn’t come in. My stomach lurched as my eyes widened.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered as Ravenna pulled me into the darkness.
Chapter Nineteen
I was surrounded by hundreds of paintings, books, photographs, and antiques. It was as if I had walked into the storage room of an old stately castle. The first painting I recognized made my stomach lurch as a sick feeling made its way into my throat. Serena. My Serena.
“How is that possible?” I asked, walking toward it as Ravenna turned on the dim lights.
“That painting is over five hundred years old,” Ravenna said, now standing next to me.
Serena looked like a porcelain doll trapped within the eternal misery of the painting. She was sitting on a swing in a blue gown in what looked like Tuscany, her eyes wide with desperation and her jaw clenched. Why would the artist portray her like this?
“She’s immortal?” I mumbled.
“No, she isn’t actually,” Ravenna replied, looking at me.
“Ravenna,” I sighed and turned to her. “You’re going to have to actually spell out what is going on here because none of this makes any sense. I have no frame of reference from the rest of my life to start making any logical assumptions here unless you want me to continue with my Anne Rice vampire theories.”
Ravenna raised her eyebrows. “No need to fret, little mortal, I fully intend to tell you absolutely every exquisite detail.”
“Mortal?” My stomach knotted again.
“In 195 BC, three Roman soldiers named Viktor, Aurelius, and Markus found a bronze chest in Sparta. The chest itself was completely ordinary, but they found it being guarded by three men. The soldiers, of course, realized it must have some sort of significance, and while the battle raged outside of the temple, they fought for the chest. Come.” She took my hand again. We walked away from Serena’s painting and toward an old stone tablet. “This is their story, the story of how they won the chest and, unable to contain their curiosity, opened it.”
“What was in it?”
“Life and death,” she replied, turning away from the tablet to meet my eyes.
“Life and death?”
“What they didn’t know when they opened the chest was that they would be granted immortal life. What they also didn’t know was that the price for that life was death.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When Viktor, Aurelius, and Markus opened the chest, the ten thousand soldiers raging battle outside died instantly, the chest taking all the years they had left to them and transferring that life to the three unsuspecting soldiers.”
“That must be close to five hundred thousand years,” I mumbled, trying to do the math in my head.
“They didn’t know
what was happening. The process was so painless and uneventful, the men thought whatever treasure had been in the chest must have already been stolen. Viktor carried it with him anyway, and as they left the temple, they stumbled on ten thousand corpses. Men, women, children, all seemingly asleep—only they weren’t.”
“They were all dead,” I whispered. “So, when the chest produces life, it also produces death.” I looked at the tablet again.
“Everything always adds up to zero, Evelyn, always. Yes, fearing that some curse had come over the battle, the three men escaped back to Rome where Viktor hid the chest. It was only twenty years later that they realized they were most certainly not ageing.”
“How did it take them so long?”
“The same reason it’s so hard for everyone to believe that there are immortals walking the earth, it’s illogical,” Ravenna replied simply.
“So, you and Blake are Viktor’s children?”
“We are.”
“Did he open the chest to keep you from dying?” I asked, thinking about the brutality.
“No, of course not. Viktor’s life is passed down to his children and grandchildren, each generation of immortal feeding on his gift of years.”
“How many of you are there? Is Bastian—?”
“Bastian is part of the immortal line.”
That’s why Bastian always seemed to know what was going on while Gwenn and I were confused. He knew, and he couldn’t tell us, or wouldn’t tell us.
“In two thousand years, we’ve only managed to create three small covens, The Eternal, The Enlightened, and The Divine,” Ravenna continued.
“The what?”
“Viktor, Aurelius, and Markus rule their own people.”
“They didn’t stay together?”
“You’ve met Viktor. Let’s just say he’s the most magnanimous by far of all three. They disagree on many things, so, they separated the covens.”
“So, when an immortal has children with a mortal—”
“Their mortal mother dies, and the children survive.”
The Eternal Page 16
