Chapter 26

Chapter 26

It felt like an eternity alone in the darkness. The candle Orrin had left had long melted down. There was no noise, no visitors. Even the scurrying of the rodents had stopped. The only sounds were my growling stomach on occasion. They had only left me with the bare traces of food and water. It didn’t last long. I was truly alone in the darkness.

My ears perked up when I heard steps descending the stairs. Standing up, I patted my dirty clothes down in the darkness, as if whoever wanted to see me would care if there were wrinkles and dirt on a prisoner.

A faint light faded into view from the stairwell. My heart started beating fast with anticipation, the most activity it had done in ages. I had no more tears to cry, no more screams to yell. I had resigned myself to embracing my hollowed state. Altyr was going to let me go through the ritual, but I wasn’t ever going to be rid of these people. He’d probably just throw me back into the damn cell.

The torches in the room illuminated as the steps got louder and I knew exactly who was coming before his silver hair shimmered in the doorway, Altyr.

He was carrying a tray. There was food and a jug of something balancing precariously on it. He was bringing me something so I didn’t starve down here. Slowly he took steps toward me. Placing the tray down next to the cell, close enough for me to pull it through, he turned around without even saying a word.

“That’s it?” I couldn’t hide the anger in my tone.

“Be glad I’m at least feeding you.”

Glaring at him, I said, “so I was right, in the end. I’m just going to be your slave and prisoner. Are you going to force yourself on me like Nathaniel does to Idaal? Like Bazak did to me?”

Whirling around, he kicked the tray, and it slammed into the opposite wall with a crash. “We could have been happy!”

“If happiness means cruelty, then I choose sadness. At least other people don’t suffer from my sadness. Only I would suffer.”

“Don’t talk to me about suffering in sadness. You only know brief sadness, I’ve known it for decades!”

“By your own choice! I didn’t force you to stay alone!”

He turned away from me and said through gritted teeth, “people can’t be replaced like that. You know this.”

“Is that what this was then? Are you clinging to a sliver of happiness? Is this why you led me here? Had me lead you into my bed? You manipulated me into caring for you!”

His eyes cut back to me and he said, “you manipulated me! Your constant teasing, those looks you give me, the way your body flushes every time I’m near!”

My cheeks did exactly what he said they would at that. I couldn’t help but feel the heat of his passion, of his anger. I couldn’t help but react that way toward him. “You could have put more trust in me! You could have helped me save her!”

I could see him flexing his fist, trying to reign in his anger. I didn’t know why I was still pushing him. Anger was the only emotion either of us could muster. I was angry at him for putting me in this situation to begin with. Angry that he let those people do those things right under his nose.

“You have no idea what I was planning. You have no idea what I was allowing. You have no idea because you chose to not ask. Instead you chose to hide things from me when all I’ve done is save you from your fate. You chose to not include me in your plans, not the other way around, Sylvia. Instead, you forced my friends to do your bidding. Forced them to lie to my face. Who here is the manipulator?”

“Like how you forced me to become your hollow?”

Both hands grabbed the bars between us, shaking dust down from the ceiling where they were bolted in. “I tried to kill you.”

“But you failed.”

“I could kill you now.”

“But you’d also suffer.”

Throwing himself back from the bars he turned away from me, unable to look me in the eye. “You are the bane of my existence and my biggest mistake.”

My lips couldn’t help but snarl in disgust. “And I will do everything in my power to continue to be.”

I jumped as he let out a surprised laugh while walking back toward the stairwell.

“It is my luck that the one person I opened myself up to, the one person I put any trust into after decades of being alone with my darkened thoughts would use that to hurt me so.”

“How did you open yourself up to me? You won’t even tell me about this world I’m joining! I have to learn everything from Lenora on how this world works! You told all those vampires that you were using me!” I couldn’t help as the tears welled at the edges of my vision.

“I lied! To protect you! You don’t know these people, Sylvia! You don’t know what they’re capable of. I thought you would understand that after what we shared.” He tossed his hands up and said, “I am sorry. I’m sorry I’m bad at communicating. I assumed you knew my feelings. I’ve gone literal decades without company. What’s your excuse, Sylvia?”

My voice quivered. “You know why I can’t trust people.”

“I am not him! I am not the one who hurt you!”

I swallowed hard, blinking away the tears. “You tried to kill me! You hurt me!”

“I would go back and change that if I could. I am deeply sorry for hurting you like that, but fate bound us together that night and I won’t apologize for being pleased with the results. Our destinies are forever intertwined now and I will not feel shame for embracing that. I tried to fight it, I did. I cannot deny the pull, it ached in my soul. I can’t deny you. Every time I looked at you it gave me a spark of life I didn’t know could exist again.”

I couldn’t manage to squeak out a response.

“I wanted to spend eternity with you, Sylvia. You did that to me. You gave me hope after so many years of despair. And now… now you can’t.” Shaking his head, he said, “We have no other option but to have you go through the ritual to become a lightened hollow instead. Otherwise, Nathaniel will execute you himself. Maybe we can eventually find some peace with one another like Lenora and Orrin have.”

He turned back to me one last time, the silver hair rippling in the firelight. “I won’t let you become one of those creatures. I absolutely will not. You may think I’m cruel, you may think I’m heartless despite having bared mine to you, but I won’t let your fate end like that. The ritual will be this evening. Try to get some rest and at least act like you want to be there.”

His footsteps echoed back up the stairwell, but this time the torches didn’t extinguish themselves. I actually had visible light in the cold dungeon. The remnants of the food he had brought as a peace offering lay strung out across the floor. My stomach gurgled as I could see it so close yet so far away. I should have at least grabbed some of it before I angered him so.

Falling back on my behind, I pouted.

Everything had been going well. Altyr was showing me desire and affection. He helped me try to focus on something I was good at with repairing the garden. I had been stuck with him, but he had given me space and trusted me enough to lead him into the wilderness alone. He had trusted me enough to tell me about his coven, to share my bed in a state of complete vulnerability. Orrin had been right. I should have let him know what was happening with the Night Flower.

Instead, I did what I always do; I retreated into myself and didn’t trust anyone. The flower was so very important to me though, I couldn’t let it get harmed. It gave me my life back; it saved me from death, the death he tried to bring me. I was a nameless girl in a field to him, just a source of magic so he didn’t have to hunt. He saw me as a means to an end. When I showed up and forced him to acknowledge my existence, he took responsibility for his actions.

I let out a dramatic sigh. Vampire politics and behavior were foreign to me. Lords, ladies, castles, taxes, and armies? I didn’t know anything about anything it seemed. Baring his heart for me? Had he done that? Did his actions mean more than I realized? The weight of my arms propping me up ached my joints. I let them relax and fell back onto the ground, staring at the gray stone ceiling that was finally illuminated above me.

He had been alone for decades. I had been alone for years. Of course he was bad at expressing himself. I was just as bad at trusting. We had our issues and we hadn’t been able to work on any of them before being thrust into a situation neither of us could control. He really did want to spend eternity with me and I had to go and cause a spectacle. Maybe he could have helped Idaal. They were right, I never asked. A deep sigh of regret billowed out of me.

I couldn’t just let him off the hook though. He was at fault as well. I shouldn’t be the only one who could have done things better. He could have told me what he was planning on doing, he could have let me know what was happening to me, but he didn’t. We were both so foolish in how we behaved.

Were we bound forever together from the incident? He said he felt the pull, the ache. Maybe the fire in my soul wasn’t something I alone had. He must be feeling the same fiery pull when we got close. Here I thought it was just something to do with me being his hollow. No, it was fate. We were truly fated to be together. I squinted my face up in the foolishness of the situation, angry at myself for not seeing this before, not indulging him when he tried to get closer to me. Instead I had pulled away from him, confused about his affection.

I had been so blinded by what was happening to others that I hadn’t even paid attention to what was happening with us. Talking to him about all of this should have been my first thought, not pulling away. I had a lot to learn about the world but even more to learn about myself.

There was a faint drip of water somewhere in the dungeon that had given me a metronome of music to focus on as I laid there while being swallowed in my thoughts at his words. If the ritual was coming up this evening, I could only assume it was near morning. The possibilities of how the evening would go played out in my mind. I hadn’t bathed in days, I’ve been rolling around in a dirty dungeon, and he expected me to act like I wanted to be there.

Lifting my hands over my head, I examined the dark misting on my arms. My skin wasn’t the deep brown like Orrin’s was. It was no longer my coppery tan either. It was a deep, ink-like black. My skin was as dark and empty as the fog that filled the forests at night.

“Was the darkness that floated in the forest the same dark magic?” No one but the rats would hear my musings. They were not the talkative sort as I didn’t get any response. They were munching and chewing on what should have been my dinner was all I got out of them.

If magic existed as Lenora had described, then that’s what it had to have been. The way it bent around Altyr when we first escaped into it must have been because he straddles the line between while controlling the darkness. It made me wonder what were the Lightbringers doing that allowed them to control the light magic.

There was so much about this world I just took for granted. My mother would go on tangents about the light and how it held power. I only assumed she was losing it as she got more and more fanatical about Bazak and his men. Maybe she wasn’t actually wrong though, maybe there was something unique that Bazak was doing with the magic.

I never asked them either. Sighing and swallowing hard, I was realizing that I really needed to be more open and inquisitive with the people close to me. Some lessons were harder to learn than others. They couldn’t blame me for that, I was young and Bazak was so… himself. I didn’t want to ask too many questions, that would have brought even more attention to me from his band of raucous Lightbringers.

The thought of the man made me recoil. I hated that when I thought of light magic; I thought of him and not the dear Lenora who had done so much for me. If it hadn’t been for her taking the time to educate me then I would be entirely clueless about this world. At least she gave me a foot in the door. I will forever be grateful to that woman.

Becoming a lightened hollow couldn’t be that bad. Lenora was a ray of light herself and enjoyed her life with Orrin, or at least that’s how they acted. Who was I to say that wasn’t a valued way to live? Maybe I could learn to live with Altyr, maybe I could try to mend what we had been growing. Maybe I could at least endure a bit longer in this strange magical world I now had to live in. He said he had bared his heart to me, maybe, just maybe, I could get him to open up again.

My eyes fell heavy and the thoughts of life as a hollow in the keep playing over in my head. Dreams of being a maid to Altyr repeated in my mind. Occasionally his hands would run across my hips, teasing me as I went about my work. That’s what I would be to him now, right? Just a maid after causing such an issue with the vampire community. I lost all possible respect with them doing what I had. They wouldn’t accept me even if he did turn me into one of them. So I’d just be one of his household servants, right? Nothing more. Thoughts of roaming the keep alone with him caused me to drift back off into a more relaxed slumber.

A banging sound woke me up, and I sat up with a jump. The lights had gone out and someone was in the room with a small lit candle. I could hardly make them out as my eyes adjusted to being awake.

Lenora stood there, holding the candle out as she looked down at the tray she had accidentally kicked. “Who just leaves trays in the middle of where people walk? Seriously, Sylvia!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at it. The ridiculousness of the situation was obvious to both of us as she chuckled to herself. She took the few steps forward and met me at the bars. Sliding a key into the lock, a distinct click echoed. Her hands wrapped around the metal with a delicate touch as she pulled it open to my freedom.

“We don’t have too long to get ready,” she said as she offered her hand for me to grab. “I’ve got some food ready for you to munch on while we get dressed. I promise it’s better than floor food.”

I took her hand lightly and let her pull me out of my cage. We didn’t go far, the room we had passed on our way down was entirely different, set with dresses, food, and even candlelight. I didn’t hesitate for her to instruct me to eat when I saw the simple cooked chicken and bread.

She let out an airy laugh. “I didn’t realize he didn’t let you eat, I would have had Orrin bring you something before this.”

After a few moments of devouring the meal, I gulped down the water and sheepishly looked back to Lenora. I didn’t want to look her in the eye considering everything that happened. She tilted her head and nodded to me.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that to you,” I said while bowing my head to her.

Feeling her soft finger on my chin, she pulled my head to look back up at her. Taking my hand in hers, she said, “You are forgiven.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Standing up abruptly, she whipped off a sparkling wispy dress from a rack. “We have two options tonight. I can either ignore what my husband said and help you escape these people right now, tonight, or we can get ready for the ritual.”

“Escape?”

“Yes! Run, get away from them!”

I squinted my eyes in disbelief. “You would just let me walk out of here?”

“Well,” she smirked, “after our little magical encounter, I now don’t need to obey my husband’s little compelling will. If I want to let you go, damn it, I’m letting you go. There’s nothing he can do to stop me anymore.”

“He just wants you to be safe.” The tension in my body had faded. Lenora being mad at me for compelling her to do something was the last thing I wanted. “He’s not doing it out of any malicious intent.”

“I know that,” she said in a softer tone. “He always does what he thinks will protect me. Sometimes I don’t need protection. Don’t tell him his tricks don’t work anymore though, it’s more fun this way.”

Her laugh echoed down the stairs, singing its way into the dungeon below. Standing up to join her, I grabbed her hands and pulled her toward me. “Lenora, I am truly sorry for putting you into this position where you even have to question you and Orrin. That was unfair of me. I appreciate you even offering to help me escape, but we both know that will just doom me to a horrible ending.”

We both looked down at the black inky mist on my arms, watching as it swam across my skin, “I have to go through with the ritual.”

She let out a breath she was holding, gave a curt nod, and held up the wispy, shimmering dress. “When Orrin told me Altyr had a hollow that was made from the moon, I hunted this dress down for your ritual. I’m a glutton for a good aesthetic and this would fit it so incredibly well.”

I couldn’t help but let out a deep rumbling laugh at her. Lenora’s ability to bring out the positive side of anything was remarkable. I didn’t know if it was because she was a lightened hollow or if that was just her. Orrin was madly in love with everything that she embodied so it was likely that it was just her personality.

A light caught my eye, a faint spark in the corner. The Night Flower sat in a pot off to the side. Lenora followed my gaze and saw where it lay. “I have been keeping it safe despite how much Orrin protested. He thinks it’s bad luck at this point. I thought you may want to use some blooms for your outfit. Is that a thing we can do? It blooms in the moonlight, right?”

The warmth I felt from her, her kindness to have the forethought of incorporating the Night Flower into my outfit. She was too good for all of us. Looking like glowing moonlight would really set the mood for the ritual and it would really anger the other vampires. They already hated me so why not lean into it? There was also the fact that the power I might be able to pull from the flower may allow me to survive the ritual properly without having to worry was a plus.

“Yeah, we can do that.”