They made their way into a clearing on the outer borders of Tyn nad Vltavou. The surrounding trees were denser, and taller there and Valek decided it would be a good place to stop.
“We should rest!” Valek announced to the group, slowing Beta’s walk beneath him. “It’s best if we break here for the night and continue to Prague in the morning. If we want to find Cinder, she’s probably at the palace.
“So, who died and made this guy boss?” He heard Nikolai chide quietly from the back of the group, elbowing Charlotte in the ribs. She only laughed politely before glancing immediately in Valek’s direction, knowing he was privy to the boy’s snarky comment.
“I’ve got it taken care of Valek,” Sarah offered before she turned to start rummaging through Charlotte’s borrowed satchel. “Hold on, it’s not in there.” She turned forward and pulled a small mason jar out of her skirt pocket.
As Sarah waved her sewing needle over the thing, the group watched as the jar swelled into the size of a small hut, becoming enlarged in the snow. Magically, she etched in a door into the glass, wooden floorboards along the bottom. There they had shelter.
“M-magnificent,” Edwin cheered at her.
Mr. Třínožka helped Charlotte to the forest floor, Nikolai confidently leaping off of the Spider’s back by himself. Valek had to suppress rolling his eyes upon seeing Nikolai stumble forward over clumsy legs. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he didn’t like him.
Just then, a stronger thought impacted Valek from somewhere else in the group, and he shifted his focus to see Charlotte gripping the side of her neck, gritting her teeth. Quickly, he approached her, his arms extended, but she only lifted a firm hand to him, stopping him in his tracks.
“I’m okay Valek,” she said, her gaze lingering warily on his face. “I promise, I’ll be okay.”
Valek winced, noticing how palpable the rift was as it grew between them. He looked back to Nikolai who regarded him with a creepy sort of smirk, crossing his arms over his chest. A low growl rumbled in Valek’s throat as he wheeled away from him. It was so frustrating. Why couldn’t he hear this boy’s true intentions? There was something he was hiding. He knew it.
Sarah walked up to him slowly, “I’ll get Charlotte settled inside,” she said with a concerned glance in the ailing girl’s direction. Valek was close to her again, and that meant her scar was going to start its unyielding symptoms. “I think it’s better if you leave for a while. Perhaps if you go find some wood for a fire, it will give her enough time to fall asleep, and she won’t have to be so affected,” Sarah offered.
With another glance toward his little love, he saw Nikolai had once again struck up another lively conversation, provoking a tiny giggle from her before a more resounding laughter at something smart he’d undoubtedly said. Even though she continued to grip the side of her throat, at least he was distracting her from the pain.
Something quaked inside Valek’s chest. “Fine. I think that is a good idea. Just see that she gets her rest,” He snarled before turning to disappear between the pines on his quest for firewood. Ears cawed overhead.
* * *
Upon his return, and with his arms full, he could see Charlotte lay sleeping peacefully in the center of the enchanted glass lantern, like Sarah had promised. He breathed an easing sigh, the muscles in his shoulders unclenching. The freezing night surrounded the glowing beacon, softened by Sarah’s golden orb bewitchments twinkling down the sides of the walls like melting honey. They illuminated the indigo and silver hues of the night.
Valek’s black shoes padded silently through the winter as he slowly neared Sarah’s creation in the center of the clearing –bright, like a candle on black, ocean waves. He wouldn’t wake Charlotte yet. She needed the rest. He’d build the fire, go back out to hunt something for the non-blood-drinkers to eat. Tomorrow, they’d start back out bright and early to confront Cinder once and for all.
But something else stopped him. He clutched the splintered firewood tightly to his chest, gazing through the large windows of the glass house. He could see Nikolai approaching Lottie in her slumbering little nest that Sarah must have constructed for her out of jackets and blankets taken from home. Valek frowned, keeping himself concealed behind the dense thicket of trees. He held his breath, knowing it was impossible, but still swearing he could feel heat fill his face.
He watched as Nikolai lowered himself to his knees and grabbed hold of Charlotte’s wrist in both of his hands. Valek dared not stir an inch as he watched Nikolai lift Charlotte’s pallid hand to his face, run her palm softly across his cheek, his gaze remaining on her sleeping eyes. Valek’s unbeating heart wound itself into a tight knot as he grinded his teeth.
“Let her rest!” he cried out, feeling something rupture inside of him.
Instantly, Nikolai dropped Charlotte’s hand, his focus snapping up in Valek’s direction. A late December breeze rustled softly the evergreen branches along the forest canopy. Even from that distance, the boy had clearly heard his warning. The two regarded each other for one long silent moment, something snide quirking up the corner of Nikolai’s lip.
Valek had not ever anticipated this sort of anger as it coursed through him. An instant reaction. He’d never been threatened in this way before –threatened to lose the one he loved –not to death and destruction, but to the heart of someone else. He hadn’t realized until then, that he had dropped the wood in a heap in the snow at his feet. Fire rolled through his stomach. The uncontrollable rage and jealousy forced his talons into stone fists at his sides.
Flashing a grin, Nikolai slowly bent over Charlotte’s delicate, sleeping form again. His mortal-blue eyes did not move from Valek’s face, as though he was daring him –willing him to act on his impulses.
“What makes you think you can take anything you want, Vampire?” He heard Nikolai’s taunting whisper from across the clearing. “What makes you think you can just take my family away from me? I think now it’s my turn to take something of yours.”
“What? No, I—” Valek watched with a new sick feeling in his gut as Nikolai’s lips brushed across Charlotte’s ruddy cheek.
Valek bellowed, racing forward, flurries of snow trailing up in waves around his feet. In a moment, he hurtled through the front wall, smashing it to zillions of sparkling shards that went cascading into the enchanted room. The golden orbs of light released themselves out into the forest, floating about on the night air.
Charlotte’s eyes fluttered open.
Valek raced into Nikolai, fangs bared, the point of his elbow crushing into the Fledgling’s chest, but not enough to actually kill him yet. He was still human…sort of.
The torment of jealousy, the distantly familiar taste of it bitter and burning, like acid holes through his heart.
“HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER?” He roared through clenched fangs, breathing harshly through his nose. He had Nikolai pinned up against one glass wall. The glowing bewitchments floated all around the outside now, snow flurries drifting inward, dusting the dark wooded floors with speckles of white.
“S-sorry….” Nikolai began to stutter. His sarcastic and smug façade instantly disappeared and Valek could smell his human fear surface. He hadn’t anticipated Valek’s impossible strength, he heard in his mind. “I-I was just seeing if she was warm enough.”
“Lies!” Valek snapped. “You are lying! What do you want from us?”
“Valek, please stop.” Charlotte’s pearly little voice seized him, seeming to silence the room.
Valek froze, his claws grasping the collar of Nikolai’s plaid jacket so tightly that the boy was lifted off his feet. Valek’s face dropped as he let Nikolai back down. He turned to look at Charlotte. How could she not have noticed the fiend there, looming over her? Surely she must have. His cool touch should have woken her. How could she defend a stranger? A lump hardened to stone in Valek’s chest as he looked at the concern that had washed over her frail, delicate features. This time, concern for another.
“You love
him,” Valek murmured.
“What?” Charlotte’s eyebrows mashed together, the corners of her pretty mouth contorting into an insulted sort of grimace. “I don’t even know who he is.”
“You do.” Valek’s rage built. “You must have an idea, don’t you, Lottie?” He flew toward her, pulling her up out of the makeshift bed. “Look at him!” he growled near her ear. “Look! Doesn’t he look like me?” Her warm grasp tightened around his wrist. Terror filled her eyes. Valek shook with the influx of so many emotions as he felt his eyes wash with red.
“I don’t know what you m-mean….”
From the corner of his vision, he saw Nikolai race out of the hut through the broken wall and into the dark forest. His wretched bird followed faithfully. Good riddance. He didn’t care where they went.
He placed Charlotte back on the floor, but remained over her with his arms on either side, caging her there. “Did I damage you too much, Lottie?” The tops of his arms and chest began to quake with rage. “Is that why you turn from me? Is that why you withdraw from me now? Tell me!” He screamed into her face and watched her close her eyes against the sight of him. “I try and give you everything, but you don’t take it! You don’t want anything from me anymore. It’s because you truly are afraid of me, now?”
Charlotte couldn’t speak. He could smell her fear as she shook her head from side to side, trapped beneath him.
“You still don’t believe how much I love you.” Harshly, he grabbed hold of the back of her head and crushed his lips against hers.
Charlotte’s fist slammed against his shoulder, fighting him off, though he barely felt it against him. It might as well have been a feather. He continued to kiss her, yanking her up off the floor into his lap, wrapping his arms around her, pressing her to him.
When he relinquished his mouth for a moment to let her breathe, she said, “I do know, Valek. I do know. Please!” Tears streamed down her face.
It didn’t matter what she said. He’d never release her again—
“STOP!” Sarah cried from the edge of the destroyed wall.
Valek froze, realizing he had an audience. Immediately, he released Charlotte, who hurriedly backed away from him, hugging her arms tightly around herself. He stood before her, eyes locked on her broken face, breathing heavy, hardly believing what he’d just done. With each passing day, it seemed like he was becoming more of what he never wanted to be. Making one more mistake with every clock tick. Constantly losing control. Constantly hurting the only one he was ever meant to love. He watched as Charlotte began to break down, unable to hold it in anymore. Finally sobbing into her hands.
“What are you doing, Valek?” Sarah dropped the firewood around her. Mr. Třínožka and Edwin stood behind her with the same grimace on both of their faces. Sarah’s mouth was open, her brow furrowed as she stared at him incredulously. Nikolai stood just behind the three of them, smiling malevolently at him. He wanted this to happen, Valek realized. “How could you do such a thing, after knowing what happened to her?” Sarah whispered, tears beginning down her own face.
Valek hated himself. With every move he made, he hated every single fiber of himself. He gazed down at Charlotte, who continued to stare at the floor with a look on her face he’d never seen, nor ever wanted to see again. Hurt. Confusion. Hate filling her eyes, for what she stared at was so abhorrent.
“Valek,” Charlotte began quietly. Shimmering tears swept listlessly down her face as her wide gaze burned into him. His limbs began to quake as he waited for what she would say next. He could barely make out a single thought as he tuned into the chaotic traffic of her mind. “I think you should leave me alone now.”
His mouth fell open, but nothing came out. The muscles in his throat clenched. Swallowing came hard. His own blood tears ensued. Instead, he silently mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’.
Charlotte’s pretty mouth mashed into a hard defining line as she got to her feet rather shakily, apparently still stunned by what he’d just done. Quickly she batted the tears away from her velvet cheeks. His claws twitched as he fought back the urge to wipe them away himself, just as he always had. He watched silently as she stormed out into the night, through the wall of broken glass and into the snow, her boots making lonesome, distant trudging noises.
“You’re going to freeze to death, Charlotte!” Sarah called after her.
“So be it! No one follow me!” she snapped, hugging her arms around herself.
Valek stayed frozen as he watched her frail figure drift farther and farther away into the deep shadows of the winter forest, the blood tears blinding him. He was such a brute. After all she’d just been through, he’d nearly done the same thing. Not that he would have ever followed through. He couldn’t imagine himself committing such brutality against her—it had been merely an act of desperation. It was as if he could feel her slipping through his fingers.
Lottie, I am so sorry.
Untitled
Chapter Twenty-TwoDouble-Edged Blade
* * *
“Valek Ruzik, I will vanquish you like I destroyed Sigismund…on my own and in the blink of an eye,” Cinder huffed to herself as she ran through Bohemia’s thickest forests, kicking up waves of frost as she went. Both of her hands were fixed on the hilt of her prized sword. She’d been successful in unearthing the location of the Vampire’s abode, torturing one of his accomplices until she cracked, telling her where he’d run off. Shame. She had such pretty hair. And all those tattoos. Clearly, she’d thought herself a work of art. Seemed a waste to set her on fire, but oh well.
Finding Valek now would be no problem. In fact, she could almost smell his gravely stench as she ran. “Ready or not, here comes Cinder.”
Approaching a forest clearing, something shimmered between the sea of trees. Something golden. She stopped running, squinting through the shadows as she crept closer to what looked like a camp. But it was one most peculiar. Rather than a tent, the structure erected before her was made of…glass. Bewitchments hovered over the snow. She gasped. Figures moved within, and as she scoured the scene, she could not find the likes of the Vampire, nor his girl among any of them.
“Wh-who’s th-there?” spluttered a little voice from nearby.
Cinder shrieked, her gaze snapping to a figure looming in the milky light that glinted off his spectacles. He made his way through the dim quiet, his arms filled with crude wood. “Wh-who are y-y-you?” he stuttered again weakly as he approached one more step and then hesitated.
Cinder drew the sword, holding the point up at him. She’d never seen a being like him before –all burlap and stitches. He could have been dangerous. “My name is Cinder Price, first in command of the Western European Magic Court! You will address me as Lady Price.”
The figure stilled. The look on his face was absolute horror.
Cinder grinned. “Come here before I drive this thing right through your heart.”
The rag boy did as she asked, approaching, letting the wood drop at his shoes. “I d-d-don’t have a h-heart,” he admitted.
Cinder held the blade to his throat. “Tell me what you are! If you don’t, I’ll slice off your head!”
The boy lifted both of his peculiar hands. “I…I am…E-Edwin….”
“What the hell is an Edwin?” Cinder sniffed, angling her face up and leering at him.
He shrugged. “It’s wh-what I am.”
“Very well, Edwin. Who else is here with you?”
All of the sudden he started to convulse, his arms and legs shaking first, his head twitching and rolling from side to side. Cinder took a step back out of fear he might explode. “N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-nooooo no one…M-m-m-m-Mr. Třínožka! RUN!”
Cinder heard an abrupt bang from the clearing before a loud rasping holler: “HERE I COME, BOYO!”
Something shot to the tree behind her. Glancing quickly, she had enough time to see it was some sort of webby substance, the other side of it stretching up into one of the birches. She screamed, falling back as a g
iant round shadow swung across the forest on the web, an insect-like pincer pointed at her breastplate.
“YAAA!” Called the rusty voice as he nearly impaled her but she rolled free, swinging her blade in time to sever one of his legs. A man that looked half-spider, half-human tumbled over the ground, groaning in his horrible pain. “SARAH! NIKOLAI! YOU HAVE TO RUN!”
Cinder scrambled to her feet, her focus darting back and fourth from the seizing ragdoll to the half-spider. “What sort of nightmares are you?” She cried, backing toward the clearing.
“You’ll never find Valek! Never!” moaned the spider.
“You think so?” Cinder quirked an eyebrow, hooking her arm around the ragdoll’s neck and yanking him against her, holding him secure. With her free hand, she held the blade right under his chin. “You know what I think?” she asked as she considered the horrified expression on the spider’s face. “I think you will lead me to him or I will separate this Edwin’s head from his body and take it with me for a trophy.”
Chapter 29
Her boots packed the wet snow beneath her, her teeth snapping annoyingly against each other in shivering chattering fits of nerves and frost.
She walked until the tall evergreens began to grow up densely around her. Hugging her light shawl tighter around her shoulders, she pushed on, her breath forming in blue clouds of mist in front of her face. She no longer recognized Valek. It seemed he was changing before her eyes—becoming more and more violent and guarded. Then again, she barely recognized the monster forming under her own skin. Things were beginning to seem a lot like that nightmare she’d had only a few long weeks ago.
“I’m so sorry.” A voice murmured sadly from somewhere behind her. The lovely velvet voice attempted to slay her right where she stood.
Of Blood and Magic Page 39
