Chapter 31

CHAPTER31

Ediye is the one who drives back for us. It’s dark by the time she arrives and climbs the snow-covered path to knock on the cottage door. She looks so relieved and yet so lost when I pull her into an embrace. It burns in my heart to know how they would have found Cassian, lying in the snow like an afterthought near the body of the one that killed him.

“It was my blade,” I whisper as we hold onto one another.

“But it wasn’t your hand,” she says, and grips me tighter. We stand like that for a long moment before I feel Ashen’s palm on my back.

“We should go,” he says. His voice is the perfect balance of firmness with kindness. “Have you seen any other Reapers?” he asks Ediye as she and I separate.

“Yes. We killed two, Valentina captured one more. She managed to get out of the demon that they had followed Semyon to the area and figured we were getting close. They were tipped off with confirmation by a witch in Câmpulung when we rented the vehicles.”

Ashen’s brow furrows as he closes the door behind us and we follow Ediye toward the car. “Did she kill the last Reaper?”

“She did. None of them were everlasting deaths, though. She didn’t have the means. Valentina’s got quite the security set-up, but we definitely shouldn’t linger. Not with Semyon in the area too. Do you think the Reapers we killed will come back with more?”

Ashen is silent for a long moment as we approach the car. He opens the passenger door for me and then slips in behind me to the middle seat. “Maybe not with more,” he says when Ediye is settled behind the wheel. “They were loyal to Ember as she tried to gain more power and influence in the Council. Perhaps with Ember gone, they will be dissuaded from trying again, but there is no guarantee. But you’re right,” he says as he reaches forward to touch my arm, as though I might not be real. “We should not linger there.”

We fall into heavy silence as Ediye starts to drive us into the night. We follow the winding mountain roads and every so often the fear climbs my spine that we’ll be pushed off the path once more. Every time we see another set of headlights I tense, but Ashen’s hand stays at my elbow in a reassuring grip. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Ediye, who catches my eye in the light from the dashboard and smiles. I smile back, a lightness twining with the loss and settling into my chest.

“Davina,” I say to Ediye as we pass into the first significant magical barrier I can feel. We must be getting closer to the stronghold now. “Is she okay? She and Cassian… they seemed to be growing closer.”

Ediye glances at me with a doubtful frown. “I don’t know. She made herself pretty scarce when we got there. She held herself together, but she’s definitely upset.”

I nod with a worried sigh. “We realized just before the crash that Davina knew Aglaope, and she had a vendetta against Bobby Sarno. He was the connection between them,” I say as I turn my gaze to the dark road ahead.

“That and a demigod,” Ashen adds, and I’m relieved he offers the information without putting me in the position of keeping that secret from my best friend. I look back at him and offer a faint and grateful smile, and he squeezes my arm in reply.

Ediye glances over with a furrowed brow. “A demigod? I thought that was just human mythology.”

“Apparently not,” I say. “Aglaope was up to something. And she’s in the Realm of Light now, waiting on resurrection of sorts.”

“What? How the fuck did her soul get there?”

I hook my thumb back toward Ashen as Ediye glances at me. “Aglaope wanted the demigod’s heart and bones harvested by a Scythe and offered to capture Sarno as payment if Davina harvested the body. It’s why Davina was reaped in the first place.”

“Who reaped her?”

It flashes at me like headlights between the trees. In an instant, I see it all. One blink to the next.

I smell the horses, the manure in the stalls and the scent of the hay. I hear the birds outside and I feel the warmth of the sun that filters through the open door and lights the dust motes like tiny stars.

I hear their argument as though I’m right there in the stables with them. The way Davina admitted what she’d done. How Ashen begged her to run but she refused.

“If you let me go, they will know that you were the one who told me. What I did was wrong, I know that,” I hear her say. I see the tears streaming down her face as though she’s standing right before me. “It has to be you.”

“You cannot ask this of me. You must run,” Ashen says. His voice is desperate and angry. His heart pounds at his bones with worry and rage. I can smell it in his scent. “Just go, Davina.”

And then a blinding hit of magic.

Ashen has no control over the blade in his hand. His arm moves under Davina’s control until it faces her heart.

“I wish it could be different,” she whispers. Fat tears roll down her skin as Ashen shakes his head. She plunges forward onto his blade before he can even say a word.

I feel it, the way he does, as though I’m right inside him. I feel what it’s like to reap a soul. How the energy washes through him. The presence of the spirit. Their fear and sorrow. And suddenly I understand.

I snap out of the vision, knowing every detail of what happened. And my heart shatters for this dark and quiet man who casts his gaze out the window, not wanting to meet my eyes.

As Davina’s spirit passed through his palm and into the Shadow Realm, it was cleaved away from another soul.

The one he didn’t know about, not until the moment it slipped through Ashen’s hand like water and dissolved into the world as though it was never more than a dream.

The one growing inside her. The child he almost had.

I hit the button for the seatbelt and climb into the back seat, right onto Ashen’s lap. I wrap my arms around his neck and I hold on tight. And after a moment, he lets go of his regret and guilt enough to feel the comfort of being held. He embraces me like a lifeboat in a storm. I run my fingers through his hair as I hold his head to my neck and I keep him there. I know there aren’t words that will take away the pain he still feels, but if his grief refuses to let go, so can I. So I hold on. I hold on until we make it there.

When we arrive close to Valentina’s sprawling stone estate, I can feel the magic pulsing around us. Ediye was right, there are layers of spells so thick that we’d never get close with a portal. The energy hums and builds as we get to a thick stone wall. The gate opens, the magic visible as it lifts from the roadway to let us pass.

We follow a cobblestone driveway that circles around the stone fountain of an angel, weathered by time and harsh seasons. The house isn’t so much a house as a small castle, with round towers flanking an arched oak door that opens as the vehicle stops.

A woman steps out of the house with a tight smile, her long black hair fluttering down to her waist in loose curls. She wears an ornate, embroidered jacket over black leather pants and ankle boots. Her delicate hand rests on the arm of a beautiful man with wavy blond hair and an equally pristine and dramatic maroon suit. They stay on the top step of the landing as we approach, their smiles growing a bit more welcoming, if not a little amused at my stupid dress.

“Greetings, friends. I am Valentina, and this is my mate, Florin,” she says, gesturing toward the human who bows his head. My eyebrows twitch in interest. I’ve not heard of a human staying a human once mated to a vampire. Usually they’re turned first, since they’re so much more fragile than we are. But who knows what kind of ‘toying with mated death’ kink they’re into. Or maybe Valentina’s just bored of immortality, who knows? It’s odd, but then with all her ultra-reclusive secrecy, so is she, even among our kind.

“Pleased to finally meet you,” I say, ascending the steps to shake her extended hand. “I’m Leucosia, and this is Ashen of House Urbigu.”

Valentina’s smile broadens. “I’m excited to meet the last of the original sirens. It’s an honor to host you at our house. Please, come in.”

The couple turns and we follow them inside the foyer. The high walls are lined with ancient armor and tapestries, the floor with worn Persian rugs. Valentina brims with pride as she explains the layout of the house. We progress down a corridor past a formal sitting room and library toward a warmer, more welcoming living room where Cole and Eryx sit next to a fire, drinking red wine over a game of chess. They both look relieved to see us as they rise to greet us warmly, but I can feel the weight of the day resting in all of us. So we don’t linger. Florin and Ediye remain in the living room as Ashen and I continue on with Valentina toward the bedrooms.

“I’m sure you probably know already that we can’t stay here long,” I say to Valentina as we follow her up the spiraling stairs of a tower. “I’m sorry to bring more trouble to your door, but I can assure you, it was already on its way. They need the oldest of us to make hybrids.”

Valentina looks over her shoulder at me and smiles. She looks like the kind of vampire you’d imagine from a movie. She’s graceful yet severe. Beautiful and mysterious and unsettling. “Don’t apologize. My home has weathered attacks before. We are well protected.”

“Not if a contingent of Reapers descends at the same time as a pack of werewolves,” I say. I see her smile falter a fraction before she turns her attention ahead. “We need to discuss our next moves and be ready to leave as soon as possible. If Semyon is already in the area, we don’t have the upper hand. We’re going to have to find a way to get out and regroup with something he won’t expect.”

We arrive at a landing and stop next to a door. Valentina turns and looks at us both with that tight smile. I feel the dismay of needing to wrench her away from a place she’s obviously fond of, but no amount of security will really be enough. I wonder for a moment if I can pull some kind of vampire seniority over her, but then I’m dressed like a parachute and I smell like sex and blood, so… probably not.

“Let’s discuss it more in the morning. For now, I’m sure you need to rest,” she says as she pushes the door open to a large bedroom suite. And honestly, she’s right. I’m fucking exhausted. Valentina takes in my expression of longing when I look at that plush bed with its one thousand pillows and her smile warms. “There are clothes in the wardrobe, please help yourselves to whatever you need. We will talk more tomorrow.”

Ashen and I slip into the room and the weariness hits me even harder when the door is closed behind us. We stand in silence for a moment before setting down our limited possessions, our weapons next to the bed and my pouch of elixir on one of the side tables. My headache is starting to spike with the exhaustion, so I take a vial with me as I search the wardrobe and pull out a black satin and lace nightgown with thin spaghetti straps. I throw my angel’s dress into the fire and watch it roar into flame before climbing onto the massive bed. Ashen is showering in the ensuite as I lay down, and he hums an unfamiliar tune in his deep, rich voice. Something haunting in a dark melody of minor notes. Maybe something he heard once in Bit Akalum. Maybe a Reaper lullaby.

I close my eyes and fall asleep.