27. Violet

27

VIOLET

Sleep doesn't come easily when your psychotic sire could pop up at any moment. I toss and turn in my bed, shielded from the midday sun, despite the giant hole in the wall that is fixing itself as I fling myself around my bed. Good thing I don't feel the cold much. I'd be freezing my tits off otherwise. But every time I start to drift off, I see Nathaniel's face, his eyes wild with possessive rage.

What he said about being able to come to me wherever I am chills me but added to that is Thorne's theory on Nathaniel wanting me to be Morgan le Fay. It makes sense on a level so creepy that it makes my soul want to wither up and crawl away into a small, dark space.

Finally giving up on sleep, I sit up and look around my recently trashed room. With a sigh, I get up and start to straighten it as best I can, glaring at the white dress that I couldn't magick away as easily as I magicked it up .

After about ten minutes, having done as much as possible with the small room, I look around.

"Right then," I mutter to myself, "might as well practise the magick."

I focus on a pencil lying on my desk, trying to make it float. According to Amara, this should be simple stuff for Morgan's heir. The pencil twitches, rises about an inch, and then drops.

"Come on," I growl, trying again. This time, the pencil shoots up like a rocket, embedding itself in my ceiling. "Eurgh. Why can't you control this shit?"

"Let's try something bigger," I mutter, eyeing my dressing table. "Just a little lift, nothing fancy."

I raise my hands, feeling the power flow through me. The dresser shudders, rises an inch... then explodes, sending clothes and splinters flying everywhere.

"Fuck!" I duck as my jeans sail past my head. "Okay, maybe that was too big."

As I start gathering my scattered clothes, deciding what to wear while I am at it, a familiar sensation creeps over me. A pulling in my chest, a whisper in my mind. The forest is calling again.

"No," I say firmly to the empty room. "Not happening. Not after last time."

But the pull grows stronger. Images flash through my mind of moonlit clearings, ancient trees, secrets waiting to be discovered. The forest knows things, important things, things about who I am and what I'm meant to become.

"This is how horror movies start," I mutter, pulling on my leggings, top, and boots. "Girl hears creepy calling, goes into dark forest alone, gets murdered by axe-wielding maniac."

The irony is that I am something out of a horror movie now. If humans knew I was a vampire, they would run a mile from me, screaming in fear for their lives.

This feels different from the last time, though. Less urgent, more menacing.

I pause at my door, hand on the handle. This is stupid. Beyond stupid. After everything that's happened, everything I know now, going into the forest alone is practically begging for trouble.

Even more so because it is still daylight outside and will be for another few hours.

But the pull intensifies. It's almost painful now.

"Fine," I mutter. "I'm coming. But I'd better not burst into flames when I set foot outside the door."

I check the hallway for members of staff before slipping out. The walk through the academy is tense as I approach the front doors with the big ball of fire in the sky, hovering like it's ready to strike and smite me down.

Gulping, I open the door and slip out, keeping my body pressed to the wall, as far into the shade as I can get. It might be a weak winter sun, but the sun is the sun, and it kills my kind without a second thought for the seasons.

The sudden brightness momentarily blinds me. It hurts my eyes, but I force myself to focus and keep to the shadows as I move across the campus, further towards the back where the canopy of trees is thick enough to block out all light.

Stepping through the wards with less hesitation this time, the moment I step into the forest, something changes. The air feels different, charged with possibility. The trees lean toward me, whispering their secrets as I pass.

The forest guides me, subtle pushes and pulls leading me deeper into its depths, away from the place I was called to the other night. I should be scared, but instead, I feel complete like this is exactly where I'm supposed to be.

I pick up details carved into the trees that shimmer into view and then disappear again as I pass. They are for my eyes only, which freaks me out but also sends a thrill of excitement rushing through me.

I follow a trail, letting instinct guide me. The pull in my chest grows stronger with each step until, finally, I draw to a stop.

"Oh," I breathe, stepping into a clearing so beautiful it looks like something out of a dream.

It's a perfect circle, ringed by ancient oaks. In the centre stands a single standing stone covered in the same symbols I saw in Morgan's hidden library before they vanished.

As I approach the stone, the symbols shine. Power thrums through the clearing, making my skin tingle and my vampire senses go haywire.

"What are you trying to tell me?" I ask the forest. " What am I supposed to see? Why did you want me here?"

A wind picks up, swirling leaves around me in a dance that seems almost deliberate. The symbols on the stone pulse in rhythm with choreographed leaves.

I reach out to touch the stone.

The moment my fingers touch it, everything changes. The clearing dissolves into pure light, and suddenly, I'm not just seeing the forest; I'm feeling it, all of it, every tree, leaf, and root. The connection slams into me with such force that I stagger.

Images flood my mind of Morgan le Fay walking these same paths, her power weaving through the trees like golden threads. The forest responding to her, growing and changing under her influence. Secrets buried deep beneath ancient roots, waiting to be discovered.

But there's something else, something darker. Shadows moving between the trees, watching, waiting. The entity from the library, but not just one, many of them, all connected, all part of some greater purpose.

The vision shifts, showing me things, I don't understand. A ritual circle deep underground, a purple book bound in shadows, a key made of starlight. Everything connected, everything leading to...

The connection breaks suddenly, leaving me gasping on my knees in the clearing. My head spins with everything I've seen, everything I've felt.

Pressing my forehead against the cool stone, I catch my breath, wondering what I'm supposed to do with all of this.

The forest laughs, a rustle of leaves that sounds amused.

But I can't deny what I felt. The forest is more than just trees and earth. It's alive in a way I never understood before, conscious and aware and very much interested in what happens at MistHallow and with me.

I push myself to my feet, my legs shaky. The symbols on the stone are still glowing faintly.

"Right," I say, trying to organise my thoughts. "So, you bring me here, show me a movie, and then what? Hmm? What do you want from me?"

The wind picks up again, sending leaves swirling around me in patterns that look like words. I squint, trying to make sense of them, but they disperse before I can read anything.

"Really helpful, thanks," I mutter. "Any other cryptic messages you'd like to share?"

Don't, Vi. You are jinxing the shit out of yourself.

The sunlight penetrates the canopy, and I duck away from it as it creates a path leading deeper into the forest.

I hesitate, looking back toward the academy before I look up. "Is this a leap of faith? If I step into the sun, will you protect me?"

There is only one way to find out.

The pull is stronger now and more focused. Whatever the forest is trying to show me feels important—even crucial.

"If I burst into flames," I tell the trees as I clench my fists and move forward, "I expect you all to feel very guilty about it."

The branches sway in what might be agreement or might just be wind as I place a hesitant booted foot on the sun-dappled ground. Gulping back a mouthful of saliva that suddenly flooded my mouth, the metallic tang of fear coating my tongue, I edge forward by about a millimetre. I don't feel weak, or like I'm about to be set on fire, but that doesn't mean jack shit.

Getting annoyed by this, I take a deep breath and move my entire body onto the path, cringing against the sunlight, expecting the worst.

When nothing happens, I frown but move cautiously forward down the path it is leading me, hyper-aware of my body's temperature in case it suddenly shoots up, and I explode.

The trees grow older the further I walk. Their trunks are wider than the others, and their branches form a cathedral-like canopy overhead, blocking out the worst of the sunlight now. The air is cooler and thick with magick, making my vampire senses tingle.

I stop at another clearing, this one smaller than the first. In the centre of this one is a tree unlike any I've ever seen. Its trunk is silver white, its leaves a deep purple that seems to absorb the light.

"Okay," I breathe, approaching it carefully. "This is new."

As I get closer, I notice more symbols carved into the trunk. They are the same ones from the stone, from Morgan's library. They shift and change as I look at them, forming words I can't read.

I reach out to touch the trunk, but something grabs my wrist.

I spin around, fangs extending automatically. Whatever it was, I felt it, cold fingers wrapping around my arm, but there is nothing there.

The clearing remains empty, but the static in the air is making my hair stand up like one of those cute troll dolls. The symbols on the tree glow brighter, casting purple shadows that move on their own.

"Really not in the mood for games," I growl. "If you want to party, I need to see you first."

The shadows coalesce, forming the familiar shape of the entity from the library. But different somehow, less threatening, more curious.

"Little flower," it whispers, its voice like rustling leaves. "You begin to understand."

What? Why is it calling me that? "Understand what?" I ask, keeping my distance from both it and the tree.

"Why he seeks you. Why he cannot let you go."

"Nathaniel?"

The entity's form ripples. "He sees what you could become. What you are becoming. But he does not understand."

"Understand what?" I demand, frustration breaking through my fear. "Would it kill anyone to give me a straight answer?"

"The answers are here, little flower. In the trees, in the stones, in the very air you breathe. You need only to learn to read them."

"And how exactly am I supposed to do that?"

But it's already fading, dissolving back into shadow. "Trust the forest," its voice echoes. "Trust your blood. The path will reveal itself when you are ready."

"When I'm ready for what?" I shout, but it's gone.

I turn back to the silver tree, studying the shifting symbols. Something about them seems clearer now, like a language I'm slowly learning to read.

But then, just like in the underground library, everything vanishes from sight.

Frustrated, I kick out at the ground with a snarl. At this rate, I'm going to start thinking those muttered words that they thought I didn't hear when I was younger of being delusional might not be far wrong.

Fed up and in a foul mood, I head back towards the academy, But something has changed. The forest feels different now, more familiar somehow. It's not just trying to show me things anymore, but actively helping me understand them.

Sort of.

Whether that's a good thing or not remains to be seen.